UPPER FLOOR.] EGYPTIAN ANTEROOM. 
97 
3. The Demotic, or Enchorial, a still more cursive form, in 
which the language of the common people was written ; it 
was principally employed in civil transactions during the Ptole- 
maic period, and continued in use to the 3rd or 4th century 
of our sera. 
The papyri exhibited present chiefly portions and extracts from the 
Ritual of the Dead, the small pictures in them referring to the subjects 
of the various chapters. 
At the top of the staircase is the 
EGYPTIAN ANTEROOM. 
On the walls are placed casts from sculptured and coloured 
bas-reliefs in Egypt, painted in imitation of the originals. 
The principal are as follows : — 
Bas-relief from the North wall of the great edifice at Karnak, 
representing the victories of King Seti Menephtah I. over the Tahennu, 
a people who dwelt to the North of Egypt. — Bas-reliefs taken from 
the tombs of Seti I., Menephtah, Seti II., and other kings of the 
19th dynasty, in the Biban-el-Molook, or valley of the tombs of the 
kings, at Thebes. — Bas-reliefs from several portions of a fallen obelisk 
of red granite at Karnak. 
To the right, or South side, is the 
FIRST EGYPTIAN ROOM. 
' w In this, and in part of the next room, are placed the 
smaller antiquities of Egypt. Most of these have been disco- 
vered in tombs, and owe their remarkable preservation to the 
peculiar dryness of the climate of the country. They have 
been acquired mainly by purchases from the collections of 
M. Anastasi, Mr. Salt, Mr. Sams, and Mr. Lane, and by dona- 
tions from the Duke of Northumberland, Sir Gardner Wil- 
kinson, and other travellers in Egypt. The objects may be 
divided into three principal sections : — 
1. Those relating to the religion of the Egyptians, such 
as representations of divinities and sacred animals. 
2. Those relating to their civil and domestic life. 
3. Those relating to their death and burial. 
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