the spread of the worship of Amun-Ra. In Nubia, and at Elephantine, to the south of Thebes, the chief god was Kneph, the Spirit, with a ram's head (see Fig. 113), who in imitation of the worship in the capital became Kneph-Ra. So Sebek, the crocodile, called also Seb (see Fig. 114), the father of the gods, became in due time Sebek-Ra. Chem, the god of generation, had his name from Chemi, Egypt. He is in form a mummy, with his right arm raised, and a whip in his hand (see Fig. 115). He also was sometimes joined to the gods

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Fig. 114.-Seb.

Fig. 115.-Chem.

Fig. 116. Bubast.

of Thebes and formed a trinity in unity, under the name of Amun-Ra-Chem. At Heliopolis and the neighbourhood this name of the god of the sun was pronounced Athom, and he gave his name to the city of Thoum. At Mendes in the Delta, and at Hermonthis near Thebes, the sun was called Mando, and became Mando-Ra. Bubast, goddess of chastity, was worshipped chiefly at Bubastis, and has a cat's head (see Fig. 116). Athor was the goddess of love and beauty (see Fig. 117); at Momemphis near Sais she was worshipped under the form of a cow. At Sais was worshipped Neith, the queen of heaven, the mother of the gods (see

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Fig. 118). She wears sometimes the crown of Lower Egypt. Thoth, the god of letters, has the head of an ibis, and holds a pen in his hand (see Fig. 119). He was one of the gods of the moon and lord of Hermopolis. Hapimou, the god of the Nile, has water plants on his head, and carries fruits and harvests in his arms, the river's gifts to his worshippers (see Fig. 120). Pthah, the god of fire, was worshipped in Memphis and little known in Upper Egypt. He is bandaged like a mummy (see Fig. 121), and was the chief god of the Lower country as Amun-Ra of the Upper.

(54) The only group of gods that was worshipped in every

Fig. 117.-Athor.

Fig. 118.-Neith.

Fig. 119.-Thoth.

city alike was Isis, Osiris, and their family. They had once reigned on earth. They were feared less and loved more than the great gods, as being between them and the human race. Osiris had been put to death by his wicked brother Typhon, but raised again to life and to be the judge of the dead. He stands like a mummy, wearing the crown of Upper Egypt, and holding the whip in one hand and the crook in the other (see Fig. 122). Every good man, when dead, in some manner took upon himself the character of Osiris. Many cities claimed the honour of being his burial

place, particularly Philæ, Sais, Busiris, and Taposiris. At Memphis he became united to Pthah, and was called Pthah-sokar-Osiris ; and also to the bull Apis, and then became Osiris-Apis or Serapis, whom we shall hereafter see the chief god of Egypt. Isis, his queen and sister (see Fig. 123), was the favourite divinity of the country. She had the characters of all goddesses in turn; she was sometimes the mother, sometimes the queen of heaven, sometimes Hecate, the goddess of enchantments. Horus, their son, has a hawk's head, and wears the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt (see Fig. 124). He was the avenger of his father's

Fig. 120.-Hapimou.

Fig. 121.-Pthah.

Fig. 122.-Osiris.

death. But he sometimes appears with the sun on his head, as Horus-Ra, or Aroeris, the elder Horus; and he is not then the son of Isis. They had another son, Anubis, with a jackal's head (see Fig. 125), whose office was to lay out the dead body and to make it into a mummy. He was worshipped particularly at Ombos. The wicked god Typhon is in form a hippopotamus, walking on its hind legs (see Fig. 126). He was the author of evil, and he killed his brother Osiris. Nephthys was the sister and companion of Isis (see Fig. 127). Of this family the trinity is some

times Isis, Osiris, and Nephthys, sometimes Isis, Nephthys, and Horus; and the love of mysticism soon declared Egyptian Inscrip. that in each case the three characters formed only pl. 36, 4, 5. one god. The very names of their kings prove the nation's seriousness and religious earnestness. The name Amunmai Rameses, meaning, Beloved by the god Amun and tried by the god Ra, shows that the priests taught the gods' love towards man; and as he was also sometimes called Miamun Rameses, it reminds us they had already discovered the duty of man's love towards the gods. They spared no pains in lengthening the remembrance of the past by their monuments and inscriptions. Memory in a nation makes

Guided

the difference between age and childhood. The fabric of society, like the form of government, is built on its recollections, and these they wisely cherished to the utmost. by these feelings, every family worshipped its own forefathers, and on the monuments which record the piety of the deceased we usually see, that when one altar or table of food is set out for the immortal gods, a second is set out for his father and mother and their ancestors on both sides.

(55) Besides the gods in the shape of animals, and the

sacred animals themselves, the Egyptians had a sacred tree, though naturalists have not been able to determine which

it was. It was probably one grown with difficulty, and not a native of the country. In some of the modern superstitions it seems to be a valuable fruit-tree, which it was criminal to injure; in others it is a sensitive acacia, which bows its leaves when they are touched, and

thus greets the traveller who seeks its shade. We are told more of its supernatural doings than of its natural qualities. It showers down life and other blessings on the heads of the Theban kings; it pours learning into the mouths of philosophers (see Fig. 128), and speaks with a woman's voice, which was

Fig. 128.

understood to be that of the goddess Neith. Fifteen centuries later, we find this tree mixed up with Christian superstitions;