The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1889-02-14
ANCIENT TOYS.

plavthlngs With Which Children Amused
Themselves More Than Fifteen Hundred
Years Ago.
Which Of you Is not interested In
toysp What boy is there who does not
possess his tops, his marbles, or his
cricket or tennis bat? And what girl is
there who does not own a doll, a per-
ambulator, q skipping-rope. or some-
thing OF tho sort? But have you ever
thought how the little children who
lived more than a thousand years ago
Jared in this respect? Perhaps not.
Then let me tell you OF something
which has just been brought to light
with regard to the toys OF Egyptian
children at time when England was
inhabited by rude barbarians, compar-
atively unacquainted with the arts and
manufactures OF civilized life
In vast cemetery. now buried se-
meath the sand, discovered by MIR.
flinders Petrie, many curious things
have been found. amongst them the
toys which ] am going to speak about,
First, let me tell you that this ceme-
terry, the existence Of which was pre-
viously unknown, Is pronounced to
have been the metropolis, or burying-
place, OF q town built at the time OF
the Roman occupation OF Egypt. near
what is now for the first time proved
TO be the celebrated structure men,
toned by the old Greek historians.
Herodotus and Strabo, called the La
byrinth. This burial-place Is not far
from the Havana Pyramid.
Here Mr.. Petrie has discovered
mummies differing greatly from any
found before, some of them most beau
tifully made and decorated, with life
size colored portraits in wax, looking
much like oil-paintings. 1t is possible
that these mummies were In their life
time well-to-do Greeks or Romans,
who were about that time masters in
Egypt. The Roman coins found. and
tho Greek manuscripts and ilscrip-
lions, as well as the portraits. which
are distinctly Of the Gr:eco-Roman
epoch, all 60 TO prove this. Yet it Is
singular that the Greeks and Romans
were never known to have been made
into mummics, but, although. as q
rule. strongly opposed to the practice,
they must in this case have adopted
the customs Of the people with whom
they lived.
One Of the Egyptian customs was to
bury with the mummies slave images.
evidently to wait upon their masters
and mistresses in a future state. And
SO following the same notion it comes
about that with some Of the mummics
of children were buried their toys,
with the idea, no doubt, that they
would at future time be OF service to
them, and thus we are now able to see
tho very toys which the children Of
that town in Egypt played with more
than fifteen hundred years ago. Quite
a collection of toys was found with tho
mummy of one child, and as list of
them will be interesting, give them
all. There was, to begin with, a broken
terra-cotta doll, q dolls stool and bed
stead of wood. together with several
bottles made OF Opaque and colored
glass. alabaster, and wood, apparently
for toilet purposes; turned wooden
box, two boxes with sliding lids, some-
thing like boys paint boxes Of to-day;
little basket with cover, comb, part
of a net for the hair, a bead necklace,
n small terra-cotta jug. and little
Sphinx of the same material, and q
colored image, called Cynocepalus,
which belonged to q much earlier
period (thc Ptolemaic). and which
was evidently old and Clipped when
buried.
The collection affords q wonderful
insight into the child-life Of those far
away times. and shows how much one
age resembles another in these mat
tiers.
In another child's tomb there were
found wooden dolls chair, some little
baskets, small metal mirror with its
iacs timed bright, and some small
glass bottles, both colored and plain.
In other places were found tops.
almost exactly like the whip-top used
by boys Of the present day; . rag doll,
q terra-cotta chair like . sedan chair,
with lady inside; necklaces, brace
lets, hair-pins, needles for leather
work, pieces Of colorcd embroidery,
the remains OF floral wreaths, which
still preserved their form, although Of
course the color had gone. All these
and other curious things hadbbeen pre-
served by the sand for hundreds ol
years, in some cases apparently with
out suffering in the least. Little Folks,