Part 9

EGYPTIAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS,

which occupy the second division of the case. It is well known that music was generally cultivated by the ancient Egyptians, even before Terpander had devised a system of musical notation: and that in their religious ceremonies music was much used. The sistrum, of which the visitor will notice one or two samples in the division, was the instrument most generally used. It consisted of wires suspended through the sides of an arch, to which a handle, generally highly ornamented with the head of Athor, as in the one in the case, is fixed:--the wires terminating with heads of sacred animals, upon which rings were suspended that produced sounds by being shaken backwards and forwards.

There are also some Egyptian harps; portions of flutes found in the northern brick pyramids at Dashour; a pipe with seven burnt holes in it; and a pair of bronze cymbals tied together by a band of linen. The division next to that in which the musical instruments are arranged, is filled with

EGYPTIAN TOYS.

Perhaps, no portion of this interesting Egyptian room so forcibly impresses the spectator with the truth and reality of its revelations, as these rude toys, that must have been handled by prattling Egyptian children, when all was dark throughout Europe, save on the shore of the southern sea, where glimmered fitful lights of awakening civilisation, and Homer was enshrining the poor knowledge of his period in the splendid fancies of his poet soul. Not vastly different from the rude dolls of the present century must these of Egypt have been when fresh from the workman's hand. They are in a very disabled state now, however; one being a rude representation of an Egyptian Miss Biffen, altogether guiltless of legs; and others, the flat variety, having hair made of clay beads. In the case with these relics are porcelain models of eggs, balls, fruit; wooden fish; leather and palm-leaf balls, stuffed; dice, and various draughtsmen, with the heads of cats; and one with the figure of a jackal. The last two divisions of the case under notice are entirely filled with a variety of specimens of

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN FABRICS.

This division is always interesting to visitors who have any knowledge of the essential excellences of textile fabrics. There can be no doubt of the high repute in which the linens of ancient Egypt were held of old; but the samples which have remained in a state of preservation up to the present day, being mostly bandages of the coarse cloths from mummies, it is hardly possible to estimate fairly the excellence of the fabrics with which, the great men of ancient Egypt adorned their persons and those of their wives. However, one or two samples of linen, as fine as the celebrated muslins of India, remain, and the visitor should notice particularly those clothes in the case with fine blue selvage. In the case also are part of the bandages of an Egyptian mummy of the Greek period, and a sample of ancient Egyptian linen bleached by the modern process. With these specimens are skeins of thread, spindles, and knitting-needles; bronze sewing needles; and a hackle for flax-dressing. With this case the visitor closes his examination of the wall cases of the Egyptian room. On taking a general survey of the room, the objects that will first attract his attention are the casts of the remarkable sculptures from the entrance to the temple at Beit-onally near Kalabshe, placed over the wall-cases against the eastern and western walls. These are faithful representations of the painted sculpture for which the ancient Egyptians were famous, about thirteen centuries before our era. The specimens in the room represent the triumphs of the second Rameses. The cast against the eastern wall is in two distinct compartments. In the first, Rameses, accompanied by his sons, is driving his vanquished Ethiopian enemies into a wood: in the second part the conqueror is investing the vanquished Ethiopian prince with a gold chain, and behind are the spoils of war, and Ethiopians leading strange oxen to the victor; while, in the lower division, the vanquished prince is presenting a load of tributary treasure to the king, followed by a crowd of Ethiopians, leading all kinds of animals. These paintings, as the visitor will observe, are painted without regard to light and shade, the figures are huddled together, and the drawing is of the most rigid description. The casts against the western wall are in five compartments, and celebrate the victories of Rameses over the Asiatic nations. In the first compartment Rameses is receiving his Asiatic captives; in the second he is about to decapitate a prisoner; in the third, in his kingly cap, he is defeating an Asiatic army, who are represented in active flight; in the fourth he is attacking an Asiatic fortress; and in the fifth the king is again receiving Asiatic prisoners. Having noticed these remarkable antiquities, the visitor should examine the plaster models, placed upon the central table of the room, of the obelisks of Karnak and Heliopolis. Above the door is a leather cross, from the dress of a Copt priest, supposed to be about twelve hundred years old. Above various cases are placed mummy coffins, and figures of deities too large for the cases; but the mummy-case deposited over case 31 is worth special attention. It is scooped out of the trunk of a tree, has the face painted black, a vulture on the chest, and other ornaments and symbols. Near it, over cases 30-32, are deposited four sepulchral vases of a military officer, containing the parts removed from the body in the process of embalming. Each vase was sacred to a deity; the first, containing the stomach and appendages, was sacred to Amset the first genius of the dead; the second, containing the lesser intestines, was presided over by the second genius of the dead, Hapi; the lungs and heart, deposited in the third vase, were sacred to Siumutf, the third genius; and to the fourth genius the vase containing the liver and gall-bladder was dedicated.

The visitor having noticed these objects has done with the Egyptian room. It is well, however, to pause upon the threshold, and before dismissing these interesting glimpses into the life, long since scattered as dust, upon the soil of Egypt, to call to mind the prominent points of the impressive story that may be read in the room he is about to quit. He may wander back through the histories of ages upon ages; pause before the revelations of Herodotus; and recall the mighty romances of Homer; and, pausing even there, where all is so dim, and little understood, turn once more to these fragmentary monuments of a civilisation that existed even centuries before the great Greek poet. So silently, for us of the present hour, time rolled by in those days, that we fail to grasp the measure of the distance which separates our fret and toil of the nineteenth century, from that busy valley of the Nile; when the second Rameses reigned in all his glory; when precise artists were ruling geometrical lines upon stones to make their careful drawings; and painters, with their palm-fibre brushes, all unconscious of the critics that lay yet silently in the womb of time, who would shovel the dust and dirt of centuries from before their works, and tell the story of Rameses from these rude revelations. Curious thoughts crowd in every busy brain, before these strange relics. Lost in the depths of the past, the mind, with a leap, often grasps at the future; and men will be found seriously saying to themselves, as they notice how we depend for our knowledge of ancient Egyptian fabrics upon the shrouds of ancient Egyptians,--what, if we looked forward, and in the remote centuries that are rolling toward us, see all our vast and busy Lancashire some layers underground, and archaeologists busy with our winding sheet! Well, at the least, these thoughts are not idle. It does all of us good to think often of what has been, and to dream of the future to which we are driving "down the ringing grooves of time"--to think sometimes of the fine people who had their glorious days, when London was distributed, untouched by human hands, in clayey strata, and remote stone quarries; and hereabouts, to the minds of the Greeks, lay the islands of the blessed.

The visitor should now proceed southward into the room called The Bronze Room. Here are collected the ancient bronzes of which the Museum trustees are in possession; including specimens of the fine castings of ancient Greece, which, with all our modern contrivances, we cannot surpass in the present day. The cases to the left are filled with a supplementary collection of the remains of ancient Egyptian art, for which space could not be found in the Egyptian room. These occupy no less than twenty-six cases. The first eleven cases (1-11) are filled with various sepulchral fragments in various substances, and porcelain and terra-cotta figures, which the visitor who has just emerged from the Egyptian room will again recognise. Here the strange figures of the Egyptian deities occur again and again; but the visitor should pause before the case 10, 11, in which are deposited models of the Egyptian funeral boats, in stone and wood, from Thebes, and on the fourth shelf a Roman caricature on papyrus, representing lions and goats playing at dice, and foxes driving geese. In the Egyptian cases are more specimens of cynocephali, jackal, and hawks' heads, models of the four sepulchral vases, in pottery and wood; more mummy coffins, fragments of inscribed pottery, large Egyptian terra-cotta vases, and in cases 24, 25, are deposited some fragments in terra-cotta, and bronze excavated by Mr. Layard, in ancient Assyria. Having glanced at these Egyptian cases the visitor should turn at once to the collection of

GREEK AND ROMAN BRONZES,

which fill the cases numbered from 29 to 112. The visitor particularly interested in Greek and Roman art, might here spend an entire day. Bronze, a mixture of copper and tin, was used by the ancients for the manufacture of all kinds of edge-tools, long before iron was smelted from the earth in which it is invariably found; and mineralogists of the present day are surprised to see the works which the ancients executed with a material, that no modern workmen could use as a cutting medium. Stone masons' chisels, and fine edged weapons of war, were made of bronze in those days. The collection of bronzes which the visitor is now about to examine, cannot be said to be a perfect collection; yet it contains some beautiful specimens, and one that is said to be the finest bronze in Europe. The antiquarian pauses with delight before these marvellous specimens of ancient skill; and reflecting upon the difficulties which beset the caster in bronze, it is astonishing to see the precision and the exquisite finish with which the artists of ancient Greece and Rome performed their labours. Some of their bronze manufacture were hammered, but most of those works from which we derive a knowledge of their greatness as artists were cast. Of those colossal bronzes which were studded about Rome, Athens, and Delphos, few remain at the present day. The material of which they were composed was too valuable to escape the clutch of barbaric conquerors; therefore the bronzes which remain are chiefly of a small size, but still sufficiently perfect to assure us of the great works that filled every open place in the towns of ancient Greece and Rome. In these cases the visitor will find a great number of bronze utensils and personal ornaments: metal mirrors; lamps; incense vessels, or thuribula; the saucers for pouring libations, called paterae; tripods of all kinds and variously ornamented; candelabra; and the clasps of the Romans called fibulae.

Beginning with the first case, 29, 30, the visitor will first remark three ancient vases or amphorae, and five jugs, from Corfu, aged about five centuries before our era; and in the same cases, on the third and fourth shelves, Athenian vases, variously ornamented with geometrical designs, animals, and birds, in the most ancient style. The next case also contains vases of the most ancient style, from Athens, including a fine specimen surmounted by two horses. In cases 33, 34, are further specimens of the vases of ancient Greece, on some of which red figures are traced upon a black ground, and on others a red ground is adopted, with the ornamental figures in black: among the ornaments on those vases the visitor should notice the cupids represented in blue and white on one of these vases, and on another the figure of a crawling boy, with a low stool and an apple before him. The vases in the next cases (35, 36) contain some fine specimens of Athenian art about the time of Pericles, with figures traced red and black, representing Orestes and Electra at the tomb of Agamemnon. In these cases also are some Athenian glass vases, and opaque glass vessels from Melos; terra-cotta bas-reliefs, representing Bellerophon destroying the Chimera; Perseus destroying the gorgon Medusa, and other classical subjects; and upon the third shelf, amid unguent boxes, terra-cotta lamps, and a terra-cotta doll, is a curious vase containing bones, with a silver Athenian coin, attached to the jar by careful relatives, to pay for the deceased's transit across the Styx. A collection of terra-cotta figures are arranged upon the four shelves of case 37. These include an ancient comic actor as Hercules; Athenian ladies bearing water jugs, called Hydriophorae; Ceres; a dancing group from Athens; animals; stools; and dancing figures from the south of Italy. No less than three hundred and thirty-three handles from the wine vessels or amphorae of ancient Rhodes are deposited in cases 38, 39. Some are inscribed with the names of the chief magistrate. Varieties of vessels in terra-cotta fill the two first shelves of the cases 40, 41, from Etruria; upon the third shelf are fragments of large bronzes, including the staff of AEsculapius with the serpent; and the bronze groups distributed upon the fourth shelf include three figures of Hercules; and two figures supposed to be a Ptolemy and his queen arrayed as Fortune. The cases 42-45 are filled with bronze weapons, including spear-heads from the sepulchres of Etruria; arrow-heads and bronze swords of the Roman time; standards with the famous Roman eagles; helmets, including a famous one dedicated to Jupiter Olympius, by Hiero I. on the occasion of gaining a victory over the Tuscans at Cumae, upwards of four centuries before our era; and one found at Olympia, dedicated by the Argives; bronze plates, and military belts, from Vulci. The next six cases (46-51) are filled with various Grecian and Roman antiquities, of which the visitor should particularly notice amid bronze amphorae, tripods, glass beads, weights in the shape of busts, sacrificial knives, and bronze hatchet heads, three cistae or boxes, with classical groups in relief upon them, the subject of one being Hercules grasping serpents. These cistae were the toilette boxes of the ancients. Here too the visitor should remark the hearth (a tripod) with charcoal still upon it, with fire-irons and cooking utensils; and a variety of tripods variously ornamented with sphinxes, Boreas carrying away Orithyia; and leaden vases from Delos, holding the ashes of the dead. An interesting collection of candelabra, from the Etruscan sepulchres, is arranged in the next cases (52, 53). These candelabra were highly esteemed throughout ancient Greece. They are decorated chiefly with mythological subjects, and have, attached to them, vessels for dipping into larger vessels. Those in the next case (54) are of the Roman period. Having glanced at the censers and bronze lamps in the next cases (56-57) the visitor may pass on to the case numbered 58-64, in which is a large collection of bronze vessels, including unguent vases, which are the most highly decorated, braziers, cauldrons, and jugs. The two next cases contain a great number of bronze figures of various heathen deities, representations of mythological events. Here are, a winged Victory holding an egg; figures of Juno Sospita; figures for mirrors; Apollos; a giant hurling a rock; one of the Gorgons; figures of Mars, in the old grotesque style; a reclining Dionysus, drinking; satyrs; Aphrodite; Aurora bearing off Tithonus or Cephalus; Hercules; Ariadne playing on the lyre; Hercules killing the Maenalian stag; Minerva; and other figures, all drawn from Grecian mythology. These cases present, at a glance, more than any other in the collection, the various excellences of ancient bronzes. The ancient mirrors are arranged in the next two cases (68, 69)--one polished to show their old effect; and in the 70th case are Etruscan and Roman fibulae or clasps in general use in the olden time, in lieu of buttons or hooks. The drainings of the lake of Monte Falterona brought to light the most attractive objects of the next three cases (71-73), including the fine Etruscan statue of Mars, the large statue of a youth; and here also are a group of Aurora bearing off Memnon; and a satyr and a bacchante for the top of a candelabrum. Finely ornamented mirrors, with figures chased, bas-relief, representing, among other subjects, Minerva before Paris; Achilles arming before Thetis; a winged Hercules killing the Lernean Hydra; Juno and her rivals preparing for the judgment of Paris; Hercules bearing off a female figure; Venus holding a dove, as a mirror handle; the Dioscuri, Clytemnestra and Helen; Aphrodite nursing Eros; and Dolon, Ulysses, and Diomed. Bronze figures of Greek and Roman divinities fill the next case, including a silver group of Saturn devouring his children; no less than nineteen Jupiters, one in silver with a goat at his side. These are continued in the following case (78), including Isis; Ganymede and the eagle; Terpsichore; Apollos; Junos; a fine Apollo from Paramythia; a Triton, with crab's claws, and a face turning into sea weed; Dianas, one, in silver, holding a crescent; and Neptune, distinguishable by his trident. Three cases, next in order of number (80-82), are devoted to ancient Roman horse-trappings. Busts of Minerva occupy the most prominent positions in the 83rd case; and in the next case (84) are no less than twenty-one figures of Mercury, one of which, distinguishable by the gold collar about the neck, is reputed the most beautiful bronze in Europe. These figures of Mercury are in various attitudes. Here the cocks, emblematic of the athletic games, are before him--there he is flying on Jupiter's eagle; and near these figures are arranged twenty-eight figures of Venus; in one place the goddess is rising from the sea, in another she is arranging her sandal, or riding her swan. Playful Cupids, thirty-five in number, and gambolling variously, occupy the position next in order to the figures of Venus. Here the little god is running, there he bears the anointing-box of Venus--there he is laughing, in another corner his laughter is turned to tears, and in another he is ingloriously intoxicated. In another direction he is exhibited in his amiable moods, feeding a hare with grapes, or toying with a swan. The next case (86) contains an assortment of ancient glazed articles including glass studs, buttons, &c., from the sepulchres of Etruria; bronze sandals from Armentum; and glazed ware of various shapes. In the 87th case are deposited four curious fragments from Perugia, of chariot chasings, representing various warlike emblems and doings; and an ancient scabbard engraved with an outline of Briseis led by Achilles. Deities fill the next case (89), including fourteen figures of Harpocrates; a Pan; and figures of Bacchus. Silenus, with silver eyes and a crown set with garnets, will be found in the next case (90) where Hercules is strangling the Nemean lion; and another Silenus kneeling on a wine-skin. Cupid is seizing the weapons of the strong Hercules while the latter sleeps; in the next case (91), here also he is grappling with the Maenalian stag, and Pan shows his goat's legs. The 92nd, 93rd and 94th cases are filled with various mirrors from Athens; the anciently prized knuckle bones of a small animal; bronze earrings from a tomb in Cephalonia; sling bullets found at Saguntum; part of a lyre, and wooden flutes discovered near Athens; a gilt myrtle crown; glass mosaics from the Parthenon; iron knives and fetters from Athens; a jar that once held the famed Lycian eye ointment; one of the bronze tickets of a judge; and leaden weights. Hercules is vigorously at work in the groups of the next case (95), and herein are figures of Victory and Fortune; two sphinxes, and other groups. The head of Polyphemus appears prominently in the 96th case; and in the remaining cases miscellaneously grouped, are ancient dice, some of which have been loaded, suggesting the antiquity of roguery; ivory hair pins; bronze needles; glass beads; fragments of cornelian and other cups, and glass; bronze figures of animals; inlaid and enamel work; styli for writing upon wax; ancient medical instruments; and old Roman finger-rings.

Over the Egyptian cases are deposited fac-similes of paintings of a tomb at Vulci, discovered in the year 1832. These represent various ancient games of racing and leaping. Over the cases 38-58 are other fac-similes from a tomb, also at Vulci, in a mutilated condition; and against the southern wall are the ceilings of the tomb. Having examined these things the visitor should proceed on his southward course, and, passing through the southern entrance of the bronze room, enter the fine apartment, known as the Etruscan room, in which the

ETRUSCAN VASES

are arranged. These are a series of earthen vases discovered in Italy. These painted vases are the spoil from the tombs of the ancient Etruscans. The Etruscans inhabited the northern parts of Italy, and flourished there in a state of comparative civilisation, when the rest of the Peninsula, save where the Greeks were busy on its southern shore, was in a barbarous state. The Etruscan tombs present various degrees of ornament according to the wealth of their occupant, but in all of them painted vases of some description are found. It is maintained by many learned men that these beautiful vases were not a native manufacture, but were bought by the Etruscans of the Greeks of Southern Italy, who imported them from the famous potteries of Athens. The Greek inscriptions on some of these vases, and the Greek subjects from which the decorations are taken, tend strongly to confirm this hypothesis. It is, however, altogether a mystery why the Etruscans surrounded their dead with these vases. They were not used to hold human bones, nor to contain food for the deceased; but that the Etruscans held them in high estimation as sepulchral ornaments is certain from the fact that they are found universally in their tombs, the finer and more elaborate in the sepulchres of the rich, and the coarser and plainer kinds in the graves of the poor. The visitor will do well to walk carefully round this room in which the Etruscan vases belonging to the Museum are deposited. They are arranged in the supposed chronological order in which they were manufactured; the clumsy and coarse ware being placed in the first case, as exhibiting the dawn of the potter's art, and the more elaborate and highly-wrought specimens being arranged in regular order of improvement in the succeeding cases.

The first five cases are filled with clumsy black ware, ornamented in some cases with figures in relief, and extracted from tombs discovered on the site of the oldest Etruscan towns, which circumstance has led antiquaries to allow the Etruscans the honour of having fashioned these rude specimens of pottery; but as the samples display a higher degree of skill they refuse to allow the Etruscans the merit of having improved the clumsiness of their early handiwork. In the sixth and seventh cases are pale vases with deep red figures, chiefly of animals upon them, chiefly from Canino and Vulci. The exertions of the Prince of Canino in excavating on his estate in search of Etruscan tombs and their treasures are well known; and the enthusiasm with which Sir William Hamilton, while on his embassy at Naples, bought the curiosities of Etruscan tombs, should be remembered. Few Englishmen, however, can think pleasantly of those times when the Hamiltons were at Naples, when Lady Hamilton did her country great services; then recall the picture of the poor woman fed by a charitable neighbour at Calais, think of Horatio's last words, and then of the country that forgets the woman's service, and the hero's dying words. Well, the visitor may pass on his way amidst these spoils from Etruscan tombs, and forgetting the family to whom we owe many of them, serenely watch the gradual improvement in the manufacture. The best have black figures upon a dark ground. The glass cases in the centre of the room contain those vases which are painted on both sides. On the walls of the room above the cases are fac-similes of paintings from some of the Etruscan tombs. Some of them represent dances and games; but one represents a female in the act of covering the head of a man who has just expired, while a male figure is drawing a covering over the feet, and two spectators are in attitudes of grief in the neighbourhood. Having roamed amid the spoils of Etruscan tombs, the search after which is now a settled business in parts of Italy, the visitor may take a southerly direction through two empty rooms into that at the southern extremity of the western wing. Here a few miscellaneous objects are deposited, amongst which in the eastern cases he should notice some curious old enamels, and the frescoes from St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, and on the floor, a model of the Victory. He should then turn in an easternly direction into the Ethnographical room, which, to the visitor without a guide has very much the appearance of a confined curiosity shop; but on inspection proves to be an interesting compartment of the Museum, in which curiosities illustrative of the civilisation of various countries and continents are arranged. Before applying himself to the wall cases, however, the visitor would do well to advance to the eastern extremity of the room, noticing the objects deposited in the central space by the way. These consist of Flaxman's cast of the shield of Achilles; a model of the Thugs fashioned at Madras by a native artist; a model of a moveable temple; her Majesty's present to the museum of a great Chinese bell, surmounted by the Chinese national dragon, and decorated with figures of Buddh, from a temple near Ningpo; and various cromlechs or sepulchres of the ancient Britons, ruder in their construction than those with which the visitor has lately busied himself. Having arrived at the eastern end of the room, the visitor should advance to the northern wall cases, and begin his inspection. He will at once remark that the first five cases (1-5) are devoted to

CHINESE CURIOSITIES.

These are distributed with particular regard to the economy of space, and accordingly the visitor may see at a glance objects huddled together, the uses of which are of the most opposite nature. On the first shelf of cases 1, 2, are distributed the tally of a Chinese soldier describing his age and place of residence; ladies' gloves; military boots; bows and arrows; and the mock spears shown above the walls of Woosang in 1842 to intimidate the British forces. The second shelf exhibits the grotesque varieties of Chinese deities and leaders of sects; and in other parts of the cases are endless Chinese curiosities, including Chinese scales and weights; padlocks; mirrors; a pair of Chinese spectacles in a leather case; shoe brushes from Shanghai; chopsticks; a brass pipe; Chinese mariners' compasses; a Chinese bank-note, value one dollar; Chinese needles; agricultural implements; joss sticks; the sea-weed eaten by the Chinese; ancient bronze bell; vase in shape of a lotus leaf; and an advertisement for quack pills. The visitor should remark the great royal wicker shield that is on the top of the case, ornamented with the head of a tiger; and the model of a junk. The third case contains Chinese divinities, of which the goddess of Mercy, Kwan-yin, on the first shelf, is the most noticeable figure. The two last cases 4 and 5 given up to Chinese, are filled chiefly with Chinese musical instruments, including the pair of sticks used by Chinese beggars as castanets to attract attention to their petitions; Chinese shuttlecocks, made of feathers and lead, the Chinese battledores being the soles of their feet, suggestive of vigorous exercise; fly-flaps; surgical instruments; paints; boxes; and Japanese shoes. Over these cases is a circular stand, in twenty-two parts, representing, in relief, the chief deities of the Hindoo mythology. The four next cases (6-9) are given up to

INDIAN CURIOSITIES.

Among the miscellaneous collection of objects crowded into these four cases are many figures of Buddha in earthenware, wood, alabaster and ivory; bronze divinities of the Hindoo Pantheon; Hindoo playing cards; copper-plates containing grants of land; a Hindoo mathematical instrument; a powder-horn from Burtpoor; Affghan cloak and pistol; bows and arrows; baggage and accommodation boats; and early Arabian bronze water ewers inlaid with silver. Over the Indian cases are figures of Hindoo deities, including a bronze figure of Siva with four arms, and Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu. The four following cases (10-13) are chiefly filled with

AFRICAN CURIOSITIES

of a miscellaneous description, and from various parts of the continent. These include, in cases 10, 11, Nubian and Abyssinian baskets; Arabic quadrants; Egyptian water-bottles; sandals, and a variety of other manufactures from Ashantee, including a shuttle, and specimens of native cotton cloth; an iron bar used as a medium of exchange, and worth about one shilling on the African coast; gourd boxes and calabashes; cloths and other curiosities collected on the Niger Expedition; specimens of native silk from Egga; a skin bottle for holding galena to colour the eyelids; opaque glass beads from Abyssinia; all kinds of arms from French Guiana, Fernando Po, Abyssinia, and Nubia, including a Nubian spear, enveloped with a snake's skin from Thebes. Over the cases an Ashantee loom for weaving narrow cloth, and Abyssinian baskets, and at the side an Indian inlaid cabinet. Passing from these cases, the visitor at once reaches those devoted to

AMERICAN CURIOSITIES.

The cases numbered from 14-21 are filled with articles illustrative of the life and climate of the Esquimaux, and the extreme northern regions of America, including the native fishing-hooks and lines; models of canoes; skin dresses, men's boots from Kotzebue's Sound; Lapland trousers; utensils made of the horn of the musk ox; Esquimaux woman's hair ornaments; over the cases hereabouts the sledge which Sir E. Parry brought from Baffin's Bay, and a canoe from Behring's Straits; waterproof fishing jackets, made from the intestines of the whale; harpoons of bone tipped with meteoric iron; specimens of rude sculpture from these northern regions; clubs; hatchets; the magic dome of an Iceland witch; baskets and mats; calumets of peace; scalps; a model of a cradle, showing the method adopted by the Indians of the Columbia River to flatten their children's heads. The cases 23, 24, are filled with curiosities from more southernly parts of the North American continent; and chiefly with various objects from the most interesting of the old inhabitants of America--the Mexicans. The collection from Mexico, including their divinities, specimens of their arts, &c., are arranged in seven cases (24-30). The objects from Guiana occupy the greater part of cases 31-34; and the remarkable objects in the 35th case are the dried body of a female, from New Granada; a mummy from New Granada wrapped in cotton cloths; a curious Peruvian mummy of a child, the legs curiously bound up; and silver and gold Peruvian sepulchral ornaments. The cases marked 36, 37, are devoted to objects from South America, including black earthern vessels from cemeteries in Peru; bows and poisoned arrows; and a sacrificial bason, ornamented with serpents, supposed to be one from the temple of the Sun at Cuzco. The rest of the cases contain miscellaneous objects from groups of islands. The contributions from the Marquesas and Sandwich Islands are in cases 53-56; the war dresses, of feathers, &c., from Tahiti, in case 57; and the nets and baskets, clubs and tatooing instruments from the Friendly Islands will be found arranged in cases 65, 66. On the second shelf of cases 66, 67, is deposited a tortoise-shell bonnet, made in imitation of an European bonnet from Navigator's Island. Cases 68, 69, are devoted to objects from New Zealand; and those marked 70, 71, were collected during an exploring expedition into Central Australia. The last cases are devoted to miscellaneous objects from the Fiji Islands, Borneo, and other localities; and with these the visitor should close his second visit to the Museum; regaining the ante-room to the Southern Zoological gallery, by passing out of the Ethnographical room through its eastern opening. He has now completed the examination of the galleries of the Museum with the exception of the print and medal rooms, which are not open to the public generally, but are reserved for the use of artists and antiquarians. He has dipped into many sciences on his two journeys; made some acquaintance with the history of the animals that frequent the different parts of the world; dwelt amid the fossil fragments of long ages past; examined the elementary substances of which the earth's crust is composed; been with the dust of men that lived before Jerusalem was made for ever memorable; surveyed the spoils of Etruscan tombs; and lingered amid the varieties of household things from the barbarous nations of the present hour; and not wholly profitless have the journeys been, even if the scientific mysticism be not mastered, so that there remains in the mind a general impression of the time that has gone by, the great laws that govern the universe, and the humility that becomes man, when he sees his individuality, in relation with the mighty past, and the great progresses of Nature.

END OF THE SECOND VISIT.

VISIT THE THIRD.

The visitor, on entering the British Museum for the third time, will commence his examination of the massive Antiquities, which are scattered throughout the noble galleries that stretch along the western basement of the building. His spirit must again wander to the remote past. Again must he recur to the ancient civilisation of southern Europe, and the busy people that covered the valley of the Nile before Alexander breathed. He has already examined the household utensils, the bodies, the ornaments, and the food of the ancient Egyptians, and has had more than a glimpse of the artistic excellence to which they attained long before our Christian era. Of the sepulchral caves of Thebes, of the massive pyramids sacred to the ancient Pharaohs, of the strange images of beasts and men, of the sacred beetles, and the universal Ibis, he has already examined minute specimens arranged in the cases of the Egyptian Room; but he has yet to witness those evidences of power, and scorn of difficulties, exhibited in the colossal works of the Egyptian people.

On entering the Museum for the third time, the visitor should turn to the left, and passing under the staircase, enter the galleries devoted to Ancient Sculpture. He will at once be struck with the strange allegorical figures clustered on all sides, the broken bodies, the fragments of arms and legs, the corners of slabs, and other dilapidations. Here a fine figure is without a nose, there Theseus holds aloft two handless arms, and legs without feet. The visitor who has not the least insight into the heart of all these collections of fragments from tombs, and temples, and neglected ruins, is perhaps inclined to laugh at the enthusiasm with which they are generally examined, and the rapturous strains in which the greatest critics have written of them. Not to all people is the enthusiasm of Lord Elgin comprehensible. Why not allow the fragments of the Parthenon to be ground into fine white mortar, and the busts of ancient heroes to be targets for the weapons of Turkish youths? are questions which a few utilitarians may be inclined to ask; and it would certainly be difficult to show, for instance in figures, the gain the country has made by expending 35,000£. on the Elgin marbles: in the same way that it is difficult to appraise the beneficial influence of beauty, or to test the developments of the universe by double entry.