OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 333 



8. Osiride columns, — square pillars with a figure of Osiris or of 

 Typhon on one face. 



This classification, besides being entirely unaccompanied by explan- 

 atory references and containing several assertions that are very diffi- 

 cult to verify, seems to betray considerable uncertainty in the author's 

 mind about the primitive types of his several groups. At first he 

 appears to derive Nos. 2, 3, 6, and 8 from 1 ; 4, in turn, from 3, and 

 7 from 4 ; so that all, with the exception of No. 5 (palm-tree columns), 

 are traced back in the ultimate analysis to the quarry-pillar. Yet no 

 sooner has he affirmed that the clay and reed hut borrowed the pillar 

 from the quarry, than he adds, " But here the obligation ceased ; and 

 the built temple soon amply repaid the obligation by giving back to 

 excavated monuments the water-plant, palm-tree, and other columns, 

 with the architrave, plinth, abacus, and other members that could only 

 originate in constructed work," — which is quite a different statement 

 of the case. The former of these conflicting opinions seems, on the 

 whole, to be the one to which Sir Gardiner really inclines. It has 

 some features to which I cannot agree, and against which I shall 

 present a few arguments further on. For the present it will suffice to 

 suggest what I conceive to be a preferable scheme. 



§ 3. A New Classification proposed. 



For the sake of convenience and clearness, the form of the capital 

 (see accompanying cut) is made the basis of classification, although 



Fix. 4* 



other members would in many cases prove equally decisive and ser- 

 viceable. On that basis I should throw all the genuine columnar 

 forms of Egyptian architecture into five groups, as follows : — 



Fig. 4. Characteristic outlines of capitals of the first four Orders, in vertical 

 section: — a. Order I. Bundle Columns; b. Order II. Papyrus Columns; 

 c. Order III. Lotus Columns ; d. Order IV. Palm Columns. (From vari- 

 ous well-authenticated engravings.) 



