[162] This was the weight of the statue of ‘Sesostris,’ Ramses II., and his father Pharaoh Seti I.; see Chap. IX. The overseer standing upon its knee appears about two-thirds the length of the lower leg (Wilkinson, Frontisp. vol. ii.). Pliny treats of colossal statues, xxxiv. 18.
[163] Les Métaux dans l’Antiquité, par J. P. Rossignol. Paris: Durand, 1863.
[164] So Professor F. Max Müller, Lectures on the Science of Language, asserted, with a carelessness rare in so learned a writer (vol. ii. p. 255. London: Longmans, 1873), that ‘the ancients knew a process of hardening that pliant metal (copper), most likely by repeated smelting (heating?) and immersion in water.’ This latter is the common process for softening the metal.
[165] Cieza de Leon (Introd. p. xxviii.): ‘Humboldt mentions a cutting instrument found near Cuzco (‘the City’) which was composed of 0·94 parts of copper and 0·06 of tin. The latter metal is scarcely ever found in South America, but I believe there are traces of it in parts of Bolivia. In some of the instruments silica was substituted for tin.’ The South American tin is mostly impure; still it was and can be used.
[166] Apparently there are two forms of ‘Núb’ (gold), the necklace and the washing-bowl. See Chapter VIII.
[167] Pliny, xxxvi. 65.
[168] Here Elton, like others of his age, mistranslates Chalcos by ‘brass’:
Their mansions, implements, and armour shine
In brass,—dark iron slept within the mine.
[169] Engraving on copper-plates is popularly attributed to Maso Finiguerra, of Florence, in 1460; but the Romans engraved maps and plans, and the ancient Hindus grants, deeds, &c. on copper-plates.