OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 361 



There is one example of this order, generally so consistent, whose 

 proportions are so peculiar that they deserve special mention.* The 

 peculiarities are confined to the shaft and to the relations of other 

 members to the shaft. The anomalous proportions are, shaft, .59 of 

 column, 2.16 diameters; astragal, .132 of shaft; capital, .47 of 

 shaft, .28 of column, but .71 of its own diameter; abacus, .095 of 

 column. All these indicate that the shaft is considerably too short. 

 Can the remains be wrongly reconstructed or measured? 



There can be no question-, I suppose, about the general type of this 

 order. It is only necessary to note that this is the only Egyptian 

 column incontrovertibly based on the tree type ; that it borrows sev- 

 eral incongruous features from other columns ; that its figure is much 

 stouter than that of its type, and indeed that the decided tendency to 

 escape from strict subservience to natural types is evident in it 

 throughout. Why the singular number nine should have been selected 

 for the faces of the capital is not plain. Possibly it is to prevent the 

 deeply incised elevation which an octagonal capital thus joined to a 

 round shaft would present when regarded from certain points of view. 



This order was principally employed in Ptolemaic times, but seems 

 to have been invented somewhat earlier. 



§ 8. Order V. — Isis-head Columns. 



Order V. comprises all columns with Isis-heads in place of capitals. 

 This is an entirely unique form. Instead of a swelling top which 

 appears to have some organic connection with the shaft, we have a 

 group of four heads placed upon a round pillar. 



As these columns are neither numerous nor important, I shall con- 

 tent myself with the description of a single example. I select for this 

 purpose the most highly developed specimen of the order, — one of the 

 twenty-four columns supporting the portico or front court of the great 

 temple at Denderah.f (Fig. 16.) 



Plinth. — It is evident that here the symbolic origin of the plinth is 

 entirely forgotten. That member is employed and modified entirely 

 without regard to any significance that it may once have had. It is 

 circular and included within vertical sides, as often in Qrders II., III., 

 and IV. ; but, unlike anything heretofore, is divided into three steps or 

 layers, of which the third is the principal one. 



*Lepsius, i. 119. 



t A most magnificent engraving of one of these columns is given in Descrip- 

 tion, iv. 12. 



