DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3720#0125
108 DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE EGYPTIANS.
pieces of timber, the axe or hatchet, or sometimes the adze ;
which last was employed even for fashioning very small kinds
of wood-work (woodcut 78, fig. 1) ; and we may readily judge,
from the expertness of their unskilful descendants, how suc-
cessfully that tool must have been managed, when in the hands
of the ancient Egyptians. This, indeed, is fully shown by the
remains of their cabinet-work ; and the minuteness of finish in
their chairs and other furniture is very remarkable. The other
tools they chiefly used were chisels of various kinds struck with
the mallet, the awl, drill, or centre-bit (woodcut 77, fig. 6), the
hand-saw, and light hatchet; and these, with the oil-horn (wood-
cut 77, fig. 11), and a few other implements have been found in
the tombs. The age of the fourth dynasty is sufficient to rescue
the invention of the saw from the mythical Dasdalus, to whom it
is ascribed by Pliny ; and a similar inaccuracy may be found in
most of the other inventions claimed by him for the Greeks.
Eare woods were imported into Egypt, in great quantities,
from Central Africa, and from Asia; among which ebony, and
woods of dark red and variegated colours, cedar, cypress,
cherry, and walnut, were the most common. The last five
were from Syria; and those of the country were chiefly con-
fined to sycamore, several acacias (which gave a hard and
useful wood) the persea or balanites, the date and Thebau palms,
and the two tamarisks.
Ivory was often combined with ebony, and even with other
hard woods, in ornamental furniture ; it was sometimes stained
red, or bright blue, as occasion required; and gold, or gilding,
was frequently added to increase the richness of some fancy
wooden trinket. Walking-sticks of cherry, or of acacia, about
five or six feet long, were very fashionable ; the natural colour
of the former being often set off by the addition of bright red,
yellow, and other colours, sometimes with fillets or lines of
pieces of timber, the axe or hatchet, or sometimes the adze ;
which last was employed even for fashioning very small kinds
of wood-work (woodcut 78, fig. 1) ; and we may readily judge,
from the expertness of their unskilful descendants, how suc-
cessfully that tool must have been managed, when in the hands
of the ancient Egyptians. This, indeed, is fully shown by the
remains of their cabinet-work ; and the minuteness of finish in
their chairs and other furniture is very remarkable. The other
tools they chiefly used were chisels of various kinds struck with
the mallet, the awl, drill, or centre-bit (woodcut 77, fig. 6), the
hand-saw, and light hatchet; and these, with the oil-horn (wood-
cut 77, fig. 11), and a few other implements have been found in
the tombs. The age of the fourth dynasty is sufficient to rescue
the invention of the saw from the mythical Dasdalus, to whom it
is ascribed by Pliny ; and a similar inaccuracy may be found in
most of the other inventions claimed by him for the Greeks.
Eare woods were imported into Egypt, in great quantities,
from Central Africa, and from Asia; among which ebony, and
woods of dark red and variegated colours, cedar, cypress,
cherry, and walnut, were the most common. The last five
were from Syria; and those of the country were chiefly con-
fined to sycamore, several acacias (which gave a hard and
useful wood) the persea or balanites, the date and Thebau palms,
and the two tamarisks.
Ivory was often combined with ebony, and even with other
hard woods, in ornamental furniture ; it was sometimes stained
red, or bright blue, as occasion required; and gold, or gilding,
was frequently added to increase the richness of some fancy
wooden trinket. Walking-sticks of cherry, or of acacia, about
five or six feet long, were very fashionable ; the natural colour
of the former being often set off by the addition of bright red,
yellow, and other colours, sometimes with fillets or lines of