Egyptian sculpture

38 EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE

tail is also lined in the same way. The method of representing the paws should be compared with the paws of the lion of the Battlefield. The obverse of the palette is interesting as showing a giraffe, the fabulous serpo-pard, and the fabulous gryphon; these fabulous beasts appear as late as the XIIth dynasty amongst the fauna of the desert. The lions should be compared with the lions of the earlier palettes; the tails are held differently and the thick hair of the mane is represented as descending along the under side of the body; this should be compared with the lions on the Gebel Araq knife. On the obverse is also a masked man, his human feet and hands clearly visible, his head and body covered with the head and skin of a jackal, held in place round the waist by a girdle from which the jackal’s tail depends; he plays on the flute, and is perhaps the earliest known representation of the Orpheus legend. On the reverse of the palette the dogsupporters are represented in the same way as on the obverse, and the paint-saucer is enclosed by the decorative design of two serpo-pards, whose snaky necks form a wavy enclosure to the circle. The necks are incised with innumerable diagonal lines, perhaps to express the scaliness of a snake or the thick mane of a predatory animal. The legs of these creatures in their heavy shapeless form should be compared with the lion of the Battlefield. The lion in the lower part of this palette should also be compared with the lions elsewhere. This palette appears to be midway between the earlier and later styles, for the eyes are sometimes represented like those in the Bull and Battlefield palettes, and sometimes hollowed for inlay as in the later.

The motif of the tree in the centre with animal supporters occurs in another palette now in the Louvre. The tree is of the same type as in the earlier example, i.e. the palm, but while the stem is elongated beyond nature, the fronds at the