There is another form of pillar used at Beni-Hasan at that early age[52] which is still further removed from stone than even the Proto-Doric. It imitates a bundle of four reeds or lotus-stalks bound together near the top, and bulging above the ligature so as to form a capital. Such a pier must evidently have been originally employed in wooden architecture only, and the roof which it supports is in this instance of light wooden construction, having the slight slope requisite in the dry climate of Egypt. In after ages this form of pillar became a great favourite with the Egyptian architects, and was employed in all their great monuments, but with a far more substantial lithic form than we find here, and in conjunction with the hollow—or, as we should call it, Corinthian—formed capital, of which no example is found earlier than the 18th dynasty. These are meagre records, it must be confessed, of so great a kingdom; but when we come to consider the remoteness of the period, and that the dynasty was overthrown by the Shepherds, whose rule was of considerable duration, it is perhaps in vain to expect that much can remain to be disinterred which would enable us to realise more fully the architectural art of this age. SHEPHERDS. Till very recently our knowledge of the Shepherd kings was almost entirely derived from what was said of them by Manetho, in the extracts from his writings so fortunately preserved by Josephus, in his answer to Apion. Recent explorations have however raised a hope that even their monuments may be so far recovered as to enable us to realise to some extent at least who they were and what their aspirations. Manetho tells us they came from the East, but fearing the then rising power of the Assyrians, they fortified Avaris as a bulwark against them, and used it during their sojourn in Egypt to keep up their communications with their original seat. Recent explorations have enabled M. Mariette to identify San, Zoan, or Tanis, a well-known site on the Bubastite branch of the Nile, with this Avaris. And already he has disinterred a sphinx and two seated statues which certainly belong to the reign of the Shepherd king Apophis.[53] The character of these differs widely from anything hitherto found in Egypt. They present a physiognomy strongly marked with an Asiatic type— an arched nose, rude bushy hair, and great muscular development; altogether something wholly different from everything else found in Egypt either before or afterwards. This is not much, but it is an earnest that more remains to be discovered, and adds another to the proofs that are daily accumulating, how implicitly Manetho may be relied upon when we only read him correctly, and how satisfactory it is to find that every discovery that is made confirms the conclusions we had hesitatingly been adopting.