gUARTERLY BULLETIN 79 700 B.C., they were used also as reliquaries and have been found containing various small mummied creatures. It is only one manifestation of that strange respect in which all animals associated with the Egyptian gods were held that it was thought desirable in the late period for the deceased to have buried with him a sacred animal. Probably the wooden statuette of Figs. 4 and 5 is such a reliquary, since the form of the cavity in the base is better adapted to a small bundle than to a papyrus, but whatever it once harbored has long since disappeared. The figure stands 26.2 cm. high, and the cavity in the pedestal is 6.5 cm. long, about the same width, and 2 to 2/^ cm. deep. The mummiform god Osiris is represented with his usual head-dress, carrying, as king of the world of the dead, the ceremonial fly-flap and shepherd's crook, which were the insignia of Egyptian kings. The uraeus on the brow is of bronze and is held by a tang inserted into the wood. The inset eyes have been lost and most of the gold-leaf which once enriched the statuette, giving it the appearance of solid gold, has dropped off. But even in its altered state one must marvel at the homely, strong features so successfully suggested (Fig. 5). The statuette of Bast or Sekhmet (ht. 14^ cm.) with lioness head, of which a photographic view from the back is given (Fig. 6) to show the cavity in the seat, and the figure of Osiris (ht. 13 cm.) seated against an obelisk which is hollow (Fig. 7) are also both probably reliquaries taken from the burials of Egyptian men or women. In Dr. Abbott's day the Osiris figure still contained a small mummy (see Catalogue, No. 340). Its original surface of gold-leaf has mostly dropped off in the lapse of time but the inset eyes are in this instance fortunately preserved and are marvels of delicate technic. Each eye consists of three pieces of vitreous paste embedded one in the other, the smallest piece is black representing the pupil and is held in a depression in the white corona and this in turn fills a blue cup of which only the edges, indicating the eyelids with their lashes, are visible. However desirous the individual Egyptian may have been to secure an irreproachable burial equipment he was often frustrated by the cupidity of the makers and vendors of funeral supplies. One is constantly coming on evidence of the casual manner in which these supplies were prepared. Important charms, necessary to the safety of the dead in the next life, break off before the