TOYS OF ANCIENT EGYPT

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11649, 13 October 1923, Page 9

TOYS OF ANCIENT EGYPT

DOLLS STUFFED WITH PAPYRUS FIT FOR HARD WEAR. There *e no important event in the world's history which has not, left its mark on the toys of to-day. The bodies of the 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,” writes Mrs F. Nevill Jaokson in the London “Daily Mail.” Elaborate heardressing is a marked feature of early Egyptian dolls, the ceremonial wigs and intricate conventional coiffure of the Pharaohs being carefully imitated on the heads of most of the doll relics. Great bunches of thread are attached and beads of baked clay and Nile mud are threaded, and still show a curious resmbluncc to the ringlets of the Pharaohs. USEFUL FOR NURSERY. Such dolls were eminently suited to the hard, knockabout wear of the nursery- the body ends in a spoon-shaped handle instead, of legs, and must have been solid and easy to hold; the specimens known measure from 4in to Sin in height—the ideal size for a doll. The earliest aolt-bodied doll is Egypto-Roman, of the third oentury before Christ. It was found at Behne6ch, during excavations in 1896. The face is embroidered on linen, hair is indicated in an elementary way with threads, one arm is missing,- and a red woollen band may be taken as the earlist 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 Lhe baby should hurt himself witk a wooden doll. CLAY BALLS. Bright-coloured clay halls of small size have' been taken from tombs, as shining as when they were first used by the boys of ancient Egypt—doubtless some game equivalent to the ancient marble or knuckle-bone games was played. A fresco shows men playing a board game somewhat resembling “Pigs in Clover,” where seven small balls are 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 ball stuffed' with papyrus is stitched in sections, exactly as our lawn tennis balls of the present day are 6titched. Quite an elaborate mechanical toy can be seen in the Leyden Museum. A man with articulated arms and legs kneads bread on a board in front of him. The movement is achieved by means of strings; in the same way an Bin lion is made to snap hie jaws in a most realistic manner.