244 .-- Wooden statuette of priest, Eighteenth Dynasty.] [Illustration: Fig.

245 .-- Wooden statuette of the Lady Nai.] Egypt produces few trees, and of these few the greater number are useless to the sculptor.

The two which most abound--namely, the date palm and the dom palm--are of too coarse a fibre for carving, and are too unequal in texture.

Some varieties of the sycamore and acacia are the only trees of which the grain is sufficiently fine and manageable to be wrought with the chisel.

Wood was, nevertheless, a favourite material for cheap and rapid work.