44 
TANIS. 
lion’s heads, bearing a loose ring in the mouth. 
Also two wreathed faces of cupid (?), probably from 
a box or stand. One foot of a circular stand is in 
the shape of a lion’s paw, finely worked, with thetop 
ending in a conventional spread ornament; a larger 
foot of the same work was found in the N.W. 
mounds, which are Ptolemaic. Several pieces of 
bone inlaying from boxes were found, all with the 
usual guilloche pattern so general in Eoman work; 
and also several tubular pieces of bone with holes 
in the sides ; these when found had charcoal in 
them, showing that they were legs or bars of 
stands, made up of short pieces of bone fastened 
on to a wooden rod. A bronze leaf ornament, a 
Boman copy of the Greek pattern, had been 
attached to some iron object, as there was rust 
around the stem : it was lying in the cupboard 
under the stairs, among the baskets of papyri. 
Two bronze vase handles, 6 in. high, are orna¬ 
mented with faces on the lower ends ; there are 
also two bronze swinging handles from small 
buckets; part of a large bronze handle, 16 in. 
long; a small bronze cup, or hollow boss, 2^ in. 
diameter; a bronze wall-hook ; and about thirty 
fragments of bronze handles, nails, &c. A bronze 
vase, 6^ in. high, with a wide neck, out-turned 
rim, and no handle, has suffered by being crushed 
on the lower part in the fire. M. Maspero informed 
me that such vessels were used for boiling : how 
they would be laid hold of when hot, having no 
handle, is not easy to see. Broken pieces of tw'o 
other bronze vessels were also found. A bronze 
lamp, 15 in. high, with a long handle ending in 
a goose’s head (Frontispiece, 1), was found lying 
in the corner of the landing, half-way down the 
cellar stairs; probably kept there for lighting the 
way down to the cellar. The body of it is of a 
curious form, the spout was wide, as in some 
terra-cotta lamps, the top is a lid fitting on tight 
to the body, with a ring on the top, and it has 
three legs to stand on the ground when not 
required to be carried or hung up. A small 
bronze bell, f in. high, was also found; a crenel¬ 
lated bell, 2 in. across; and a tubular bronze case. 
with a sliding cap, 3J in. long and ^ in. diam., for 
needles or for some small roll of writing; it has 
not yet been opened. Also a bronze stylus and 
various fragments of ornaments and vessels. 
Of iron, several things were found; two keys, a 
couple of cramps, a pickhead, some knives, some 
hooks, and a large quantity of nails from the 
woodwork of the house and the furniture. 
62. Some of the small objects show the per¬ 
sonal taste of the owner. Besides the artistic work 
of many of the things mentioned above, such as 
the ornaments of the furniture, the bronze lamp, 
the tablet of the sphinx, &c., Bakakhuiu seems to 
have been an amateur in such work himself. 
Two fine burnishers, one of rock crystal (pi. xii. 
39) two inches long, and set in a bronze socket 
fitting on a wooden handle, and the other of white 
flint (pi. xii. 40), similarly mounted, are both of 
far too expensive a make for a common workman’s 
tools, they remind one rather of the fancy tools of 
modern dabblers in the fine arts. That they 
were not used merely for smoothing papyri is 
shown by the extent to which the rock crystal 
burnisher has been worn and roughened. Another 
very characteristic sign of an amateur is on a small 
cup of polished grey syenite, 2-1 in. across : this 
has been used for mixing paint in, just as a fine 
piece of old china is used to grind water-colours 
in by some amateur of the present day; besides, 
the colour has been wastefully slopped over the out¬ 
side in a very unworkmanlike manner. The paint 
used looks like red lead by the tint, and there are 
also marks of yellow paint and apparently of oil 
on the outside of the cup. A basalt mnller used for 
grinding red paint is of foreign type, with a bent 
top by which to hold it more firmly; this form 
ending in a thum, seems to have been introduced 
from Asia Minor, as such grinders are found at 
Smyrna. A large limestone palette was also 
found, having eleven recesses in it; these tablets 
are usually found as funereal models in tombs, 
but as this was discovered in a house it is doubt¬ 
less an article for actual use. It is so much 
