A Statue Six Thousand Years Old

Probably the oldest and most remarkable statue in the world is one now in the Museum of Antiquities at Boolak, Egypt. It is a wooden statue of a man, and is supposed to be six thousand years old.

It was discovered by Mariette Bey, the great French Egyptologist, at Memphis, and placed by him in its present situation. Nothing is known of its history, and it stands as a solitary monument of the handicraft of a people who lived and died thousands of years ago.

Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, in the narrative of his travels in the East, thus describes this statue: "This image is one metre and ten centimetres high,--a little over three feet. It stands erect, holding a staff. The figure is full of life; the pose expresses vigor, action, pride; the head, round in form, indicates intellect. The eyes are crystal, in a setting of bronze, giving a startling look of life to the glance. It is, no doubt, a portrait.

" 'There is nothing more striking,' says its discoverer, 'than this image--in a manner living--of a person who has been dead six thousand years.' He must have been a man of mark and a citizen of a state well civilized: this is not the portrait of a barbarian, nor was it carved by a rude artist. Few artists, I think, have lived since, who could impart more vitality to wood."

It may be added that it has a suggestion, if not more, of the Farnese Hercules.