RIGHTHANDEDNESS. 223 



looks to the left, he holds his weapon again in the near, but now the 

 left hand, as he smites a kneeling negro. On the same temple soldiera 

 are represented holding spears in the near hand, right or left, according 

 to the direction they are looking (pi. 22) ; and swords and shields are 

 transposed in like manner (pi. 28). The same is seen in the siege 

 scenes and military reviews of Rameses the Great, on the walls of 

 Thebes and elsewhere. 



In the example from Karnac, — appealed to in proof that the Egyp- 

 tians were a left-handed people, — where Thotmes III. holds his offer- 

 ing in the extended left hand, his right side is stated to be towards the 

 observer. Nor are similar examples rare. Thoth and other deities, 

 sculptured in colossal proportions, on the Grand Temple of Isis, at 

 Philae, as shown by Du Gamp, in like manner have their right sides 

 towards the observer, and hold each the mace or sceptre in the extended 

 left hand. But on turning to the photographs of the Great Temple of 

 Denderah, where another colossal series of deities is represented in 

 precisely the same attitude, but looking in the opposite direction, the 

 official symbols are reversed, and each holds the sceptre in the extended 

 right hand. Numerous similar, instances are given by Wilkinson; as 

 in the dedication of the pylon of a temple to Amun by Rameses III. 

 Thebes (No. 470); the Goddesses of the West and East, looking in 

 corresponding directions (No. 461), &c. 



Examples, however, occur where the conventional formulse of Egyp- 

 tian sculpture have been abandoned, and the artist has overcome the 

 difficulties of perspective ; as in a remarkable scene in the Memnonium, 

 at Thebes, where Atmoo, Thoth, and a female (styled by Wilkinson the 

 Goddess of Letters), are all engaged in writing on the fruit of the 

 Persea tree the name of Rameses. Though looking in opposite direc- 

 tions, each holds the pen in the right hand (Wilkinson, pi. 54 a). So 

 also at Beni Hassan, two artists kneeling in front of a board, face each 

 other, and each paint an animal, holding the brush in the right hand. 

 At Medinet Habou, Thebes, more than one scene of draught-players 

 occurs, where the players, facing each other, each hold the piece in the 

 right hand. Similar illustrations might be greatly multiplied; but while 

 definite evidence of this kind clearly indicates right-handedness, it is 

 obvious that the Egyptian monumental evidence, as a whole, must be 

 employed with cautious discrimination, before its true bearing can be 

 determined. 



Among another people, of kindred artistic skill, whose monumental 

 records have been brought anew to light in very recent years, similar 



