The subject of spirals fall into two groups. The older group by far are the scarabs, which contain spirals on a limited and small field; the other group are those continuous patterns on ceilings, furniture, &c., which are capable of indefinite extension by repetition. As the scarabs are far the older examples, there is a presumption that spirals may have even originated on scarab designs; and the hesitating and simple manner of the oldest instances on scarabs indeed seems as if the engravers were merely filling a space, and not copying any well-known pattern. The earliest that can be certainly dated is one of Assa, of the Vth dynasty, on which a bordering line is interrupted at the ends and turned in to fill the space on either side of the name. From the cramped way in which this is done, and the want of uniformity in the spirals, it seems as if no regular pattern were in view, but only the need of avoiding an unsightly gap in the design. We next see spirals used in the same way to fill up at the sides of the inscription on the scarabs of Pepy, without any attempt to connect them into a continuous pattern; and on the scarabs of Ma·abra, probably soon after, the same loose spirals are seen thrown in to fill up. In none of these cases is the ornament anything but the means of supplementing the required inscription; nothing is arranged for the sake of it, and it is treated as a mere afterthought. Nor is it until the XIIth dynasty that any continuous spiral design can be dated. For over a thousand years, then, the spiral is only to be found as an accessory on scarabs, a fact which strongly suggests that it originated in this manner. Before describing spirals further, it is needful to settle some definite names for their varieties. Where the lines are coiled closely in a circular curve, as in Assa’s scarab, they may be termed _coils_; where lengthened out, as in Pepy’s, we may term them _hooks_; where lengthy in the body between the turns, as in Ma·abra’s, they are rather _links_. Where the line is broken at each spiral, as in all the above, it is a _chain_ of spirals; but where the same line is maintained unbroken throughout it is a _continuous_ spiral, and these are found in all varieties of coils, hooks, or links. Sometimes the continuous line has separate ends, but more usually it is _endless_, returning into itself. These terms will suffice to distinguish the varieties, and enable us to speak of a spiral with definiteness. [Illustration: 14.—Louvre.] [Illustration: 15.—Ghizeh.] These detached spirals continued in use in the XIIth dynasty, generally as loose links, often not hooking together, as in this of Usertesen II. In the XVIIIth dynasty this is still found as a general surface ornament on the boat covers of Hatshepsut at Deir al Bahri and on the base of a Kohl vase in the Ghizeh Museum. [Illustration: Fig. 16. F.P. coll. Fig. 17.]