"Some thirty yards further, and a little more to the east is another mound, also of sand and flints, covering a core of crude brick. It contains two double tombs, both faced with masonry.

"The first is that of Chent and Mara his wife. Chent, like Nefermat, was a functionary under Seneferoo, and a 'trusty cousin and councillor.' It is much defaced, and contains little of interest.

"The second tomb is almost altogether gone. It was about twenty yards further north, and apparently consisted, like the rest, of an entrance porch of carved stone, and a passage leading to interior chambers, ornamented with frescoed stucco and basreliefs of stone. Though so entirely dilapidated, this tomb is of the highest interest. It contained the statues of Ra-hotep and Nefert, which now form the greatest treasures of the museum of Boulak.

"Ra-hotep appears to have been the son of Seneferoo, and to have died before his father, while still young. His wife, the beautiful Nefert, seems to have died about the same time, and both were buried in same tomb. It is possible that their deaths may have left Seneferoo childless, and so led to the extinction of the third dynasty."

"Take care," said the Scot; "conjecture is not history; and you told us just now that Seneferoo may not have been the last king of the third dynasty."

"Yes," replied the Antiquary, secretly pleased to find his remarks so carefully listened to; "but for a

long time Seneferoo was identified with Soris, the first king of the fourth dynasty in Manetho's list; but the transliteration--"

"Look here," said the Collector, "if you are going not only into transliteration, but also into Manetho, I must retire to my own corner."

"Yes," said the Scot, "and you have not yet got to your sufferings at Wasta."

"True," said the Antiquary, humbly, "but first I must remind you of the statue of Nefert, which you saw beside that of Ra-hotep at Boulak. It is carved in the same proportions as his, being slightly smaller than life. She is seated like her husband, and wears a white tight-fitting and exceedingly graceful garment, slightly open in front at the throat; it only rises to the points of her shoulders, and leaves space for the display of an inner garment of which only the sleeves or suspenders are visible. She has no shoes, but her dress reaches to her ankles. Round her neck she wears a necklace of six circles of green and red enamel from which a row of emeralds and rubies depended. On her head is an elaborately plaited 'wig,' but possibly her own hair is intended to be represented, and round her forehead a ribbon or 'snood,' ornamented with roses and leaves, perhaps meant for embroidery."

"I remember," said the Scot.

You are giving us too much millinery," criticised

P 2

the Collector.

"What do you think of her face?

Some people admire it immensely."

"So do I; judged even by a modern or a classical standard, it is remarkably lovely. Her mouth is full, but not too full, an incipient pout being changed almost into a smile. Its sweetness of expression baffles description. Her eyebrows and eyelashes are black and rather heavy, but they are lighted up by a clear grey eye, in which a merry twinkle seems to contend with depth of feeling almost amounting to sadness. In short, it is impossible not to feel that, in spite of rude workmanship in places, in spite of a somewhat coarse system of colour, in spite of the disguises which the tyranny of fashion, even in that remote age as now, loves to impose on natural beauty, you stand in the presence of a great original work, by the hand of a master devoted to his art. Although this is the earliest effort of portrait sculpture known to exist, it yields to no other statue of the kind which I have ever seen in either of the two great qualities of portraiture, life-likeness and expression. The artist who made the figure of Queen Elinor in Westminster Abbey could not have surpassed it in beauty, while for expression it is worthy of the school of Michael Angelo."1

1 Some further details as to Maydoom were contributed to the thirty-fifth volume of the Archæological Journal, from which these notes are condensed.

"The Antiquary is quite sentimental about the lovely Nefert. Seeing she died about a thousand years before the Creation-according to Archbishop Ussher, at least-it seems a little absurd."

"Well," apologised the Antiquary, "I did feel sentimental, when I stood before the earliest specimen of high art, or any art, that the world has seen; and indeed, on that occasion, at her tomb, I rather overdid the thing. There were many fragments of white bone scattered about the mouth of the desecrated tomb. I took one of them up: 'Can this,' I asked myself, 'be a rib of the beautiful lady?' At this moment my American friend who had been sketching the pyramid, came up, and kicking some of the bones, stooped and picked up-what do you think?—the jaw-bone of an ass!"

"I must say it was rather hard on you. Some hyena had probably dragged a dead donkey there to eat at his leisure."

Exactly. And I cannot help hoping that Nefert and her husband, if he was her husband, for it seems there is some doubt about it, still lie undisturbed in the inmost recesses of the tomb, and that one may apostrophise them as Miss Ingelow apostrophises her 'Dead Year'

"Stop a minute!" said the Collector; "is the quotation long?"

"No."

"Then go on."