TOYS OF ANCIENT EGYPT

Hokitika Guardian, 15 November 1923, Page 1

TOYS OF ANCIENT EGYPT

dolls STCFFJiD WITH I'ApniGS J here is no important event in tho world’s history which ha* not left its mark on the toys of_io-day. The bodies of tho dolls of early Egypt are flat and carefully painted with symbols,. The bright colours probably pleased the owners a. good deal more than the religious significance of the signs: on one is the careful delineation of the pig—even 3000 years ago they had'"their "lucky pig,” w rites Airs F. Nevill Jackson in tho London “Daily Alnih”

Elaborate headresing is a marked feature of early Egyptian dolls, tho ceremonial wigs and intricate conventional coiffure of the Pharaohs being, carefully imitated on the heads of most of the doll relies. Great bunt-lies of thread arc attacked and heads of baked clay and Nile mud are threaded, and still show a curious resemblance to the ringlets of the Pharaohs. Such dolls wore eminently suited to the hard, knockabout wear of the nursery ; the hotly ends in a spoon-slmped handle instead of legs, and must have been solid and easy to hold; the specimens known measure from -Jin to feir, in height—the ideal size for a doll. The earliest soft-bodied doll is Egyp-io-Roman, of the third century before l hrist. It was found at Behnesch, during excavations in 189(1. The face is embroidered on linen, hair is indicated in an elementary way with threads, one arm is misisng. and a red woollen hand may ho taken as ;he earliest known example of dolldressing. Of the same period is a fragment of /linen doll stuffed with papyrus: only the arms and trunk remain—a pathetic example of mother-care lest the ha hv should hurt himself with a wooden doll. Bright-coloured clay balls of small - ize have been taken from tombs, as shining as when they were first used b,v the boys of ancient Egypt—doubtless some game equivalent to the ancient marble or knuckle-bone games wreplayed. A fresco shows men playing a hoard game somewhat resembling “Pigs in ( lover.” where seven small halls uro being moved round maze-like circles. Blue and grey glazed balls, varying in size from a marble to a tennis ball, have been found in quantities, and a leather hid! stuffed with papyrus is si itched iu sect ions, exactly as our lawn tennis halls of the present, day are stitched. Quite an elaborate mechanical toy can he seen in the Leyden Aluseum. A man with ailiculatcd arms and legs kneads bread on a hoard in front ot him. The movement is achieved by means of strings; in the same way mi Biu linn is made to snap hi* jaws in a most realistic manner.