Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/265

Sculpture under the First Thebax Empire. ^2>1 It cannot be denied that there are many striking points of resemblance between the different works which we have here brought together, Mariette laid great stress upon what he regarded as one of his most important discoveries. This is his definition of the type which the Egyptian artist set himself to reproduce with his habitual exactness : " The eyes are small, the nose vigorous, arched, and flat at the end, the cheeks are large and bony, and the mouth is remarkable for the way in which its extremities are drawn down. The face as a whole is in harmony with the harshness of its separate features, and the matted hair in which the head seems to be sunk adds to the singularity of its appearance." ^ Both Mariette and Ebers de- clare that this type has been preserved to our day with aston- ishing persistence. In the very district in which the power of the shepherds was greatest, in the neighbourhood of that Lake Menzaleh which almost bathes the ruins of Tanis, the poor and half savage fishermen who form the population of the district possess the strongly marked features which are so easily dis- tinguished from the rounder and softer physiognomies of the true Egyptian fellah. Ahmes must have been content with the expulsion of the chiefs only of those Semitic tribes who had occupied this region for so many centuries. The mass of the people must have been too strongly attached to the fertile lands where they dwelt to refuse obedience to the conqueror, and more than one immigration. 213. —Fragmentary ,-tatuette of a kiiig ; heij^ht seven inches. Drawn by Saint- Lime Gautier. museums another monument belonging to the same period and to the same artistic group. ' Lettres a M. de Rouge siir les FoiiiUes de Tanis, p. 105. {Revue Archeo/ogique.)