The =houses of nobles= were built on the same lines as the palace, but with less magnificence, and they seldom consisted of more than two storeys. There was a courtyard, with sets of small rooms built on three sides of it, and a portico on the fourth. On the flat roof were wind shafts by which the north wind was brought into the rooms, and a small amount of light was also admitted into them through openings in the upper parts of the walls, close to the ceiling. Then as now, at certain seasons of the year, some of the members of the family slept on the roof or in the courtyard, the remainder on the upper floor. Near the house were the wine-press, beer-house, stable, byres for cattle, bins for various kinds of grain, etc., and chambers for storing the fruit and vegetables from the estate. The garden contained a small lake, and in the ground round about, which was divided into oblong beds, were fruit trees and flowering shrubs with scented blossoms, vines, etc. The whole was enclosed within a thick mud wall built probably of crude brick. The =farmhouse= of one storey usually contained one living-room, one bed-room, and a number of small chambers in which grain was stored. On the roof was a small chamber to which the master retired in the cool of the evening; this was approached by means of a flight of solid mud steps. The corn was ground and the bread baked in the courtyard, where also were kept the large porous earthenware jars, like the modern _zîr_, containing the =supply of water= which was brought to the house from the Nile each morning and evening. The house and yard were enclosed by a strong mud wall, with one door in it; in times of danger the cattle of the farm were driven from the fields into the yard. A good model of this kind of house is exhibited in Standard-case C, in the Fourth Egyptian Room. Here are seen the master sitting in the chamber on the wall, or roof, with a plate of food before him, and the wife rolling the dough for the bread-cakes of the evening meal. The =house of the peasant= labourer was a mere hut made of mud, the roof of which was formed of layers of palm branches or straw. Small huts were made of reeds or palm trees bound together with twigs, and perhaps daubed with mud in the cold weather, and in the northern districts of mud; in the summer a shelter of reed mats probably sufficed. [Illustration: Egyptian hut. About B.C. 4000. [No. 293, Wall-case 108, Third Egyptian Room.]]