Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/77

Construction. 55 modern Arab house, of the imnicharabichs of Cairo. The principle is the same in both cases, although the decorative lines are some- what different ; similar necessities have suggested the employ- ment of similar processes. § 3. Consti'uction. In spite of the bad quality of Egyptian timber the earliest efforts at construction made by the ancestors of the people were made in wood. Their dwellings cannot have been ven,- unlike those which the traveller even yet encounters in Nubia. These are cabins with walls formed of palm branches interlaced and plastered over with clay and straw. Their roofs are branches or planks from the same tree laid horizontally across. In Lower Eg}"pt, upon the borders of Lake Menzaleh, the huts of the people are formed of long and thick faggots of reeds. Wherever wood was abundant and the rain less to be feared than the heat of the sun, the first dwelling was a hut of branches. The manufacture of bricks required a good deal more patience, calcula- tion, and effort, than to plant a few boughs in the soil and weave them together. We do not mean to pretend that earth, either in the form of bricks or pise, did not very soon come into use when men began to form shelters for themselves, but it seems certain that wooden construction was developed before any other. It was the first to aim at ornament, and to show anvthina which could be called a style. This is proved by the fact that the most ancient works in stone have no appropriate character of their own ; they owe such decorative qualities as they possess to their docile imitation of works in the less durable material. We may take the sarcophagus of Mycerinus as an example of this. That sarcophagus had a short but adventurous career after its discovery by Colonel Howard Vyse in 1837. It was then empty, but in a state of perfect preservation, with the exception of the lid, which was broken, but could be easily restored. The precious relic was removed from the pyramid and embarked, together with the wooden coffin of the king, on board a merchant ship at Alexandria. On her voyage to England the ship was ' Ed. Mariette, Traite Pratique, etc., p. 95.