"For furniture, various woods were employed, ebony, acacia, or sont, cedar, sycamore, and others of species not determined. Ivory, both of the hippopotamus and elephant, were used for inlaying, as also were glass pastes; and specimens of marquetry are not uncommon. In the paintings in the tombs, gorgeous pictures and gilded furniture are depicted. For cushions and mattresses, linen cloth and colored stuffs, filled with feathers of the waterfowl, appear to have been used, while seats have plaited bottoms of linen cord or tanned and dyed leather thrown over them, and sometimes the skins of panthers served this purpose. For carpets they used mats of palm fibre, on which they often sat. On the whole an Egyptian house was lightly furnished, and not encumbered with so many articles as are in use at the present day." The above paragraph forms part of the notice with which the late Dr. Birch, the eminent antiquarian, formerly at the head of this department of the British Museum, has prefaced a catalogue of the antiquities alluded to. The visitor to the Museum should be careful to procure one of these useful and inexpensive guides to this portion of its contents. Some illustrations taken from ancient statues and bas-reliefs in the British Museum, from copies of wall paintings at Thebes and other sources, give us a good idea of the furniture of this ancient people. Amongst the group of illustrations on p. 6 will be seen a representation of a wooden head-rest, which prevented the disarrangement of the coiffure of an Egyptian lady of rank. A very similar head-rest, with a cushion attached for comfort to the neck, is still in common use by the Japanese of the present day. [Illustration: CHAIR WITH CAPTIVES AS SUPPORTS. (_From Papyrus in British Museum._)] [Illustration: BACCHUS AND ATTENDANTS VISITING ICARUS. (_Reproduced from a Bas-relief in the British Museum._) PERIOD: ABOUT A.D. 100.] GREEK FURNITURE. An early reference to Greek furniture is made by Homer, who describes coverlids of dyed wool, tapestries, carpets, and other accessories, which must therefore have formed part of the contents of a great man's residence centuries before the period which we recognise as the "meridian" of Greek Art. [Illustration: GREEK BEDSTEAD WITH A TABLE. (_From an old Wall Painting._)]