CHAP. 38, 39. MANNER OF SACRIFICE. 69 is forbidden, under the penalty of death, to sacrifice an animal which has not been marked in this way. 39. The following is their manner of sacrifice :-They lead the victim, marked with their signet, to the altar where they are about to offer it, and setting the wood alight, pour a libation of wine upon the altar in front of the victim, and at the same time invoke the god. Then they slay the animal,3 and cutting off his head, proceed him, and a sword pointed to his throat, which was probably this (of woodcut), though it has not been found on a seal. The clay used in closing and sealing papyri is of very fine quality. A similar kind was employed for official seals by the Greeks and Assyrians. On signet-rings see my note on B. iii. ch. 41.-[G. W.] 3 We learn from the sculptures that the victim, having its feet tied together, was thrown on the ground; and the priest having placed his hand on its head (as in Levit. i. 4; iii. 8), or holding it by the horn, cut its 2 throat, apparently from ear to ear, as is the custom of the Moslems at the present day. The skin was then removed, and after the head had been taken away, the foreleg or shoulder, generally the right (as in Levit. viii. 26), was the first joint cut off. This was considered, and called, the chosen part (Sapt), and was the first offered on the altar. (Cp. 1 Sam. ix. 24; Levit. vii. 33; viii. 25.) The other parts were afterwards cut up; and the shoulder, the thigh, the head, the ribs, the rump, the heart, and the kidneys, were the principal ones placed on the 3 70 IMPRECATIONS. BOOK II. to flay the body. Next they take the head, and heaping imprecations on it, if there is a market-place as any other joint, and an instance | Egyptian would eat the head. It may not have been a favourite joint, since we find it given to a poor man for holding the walking-sticks of the guests at a party; but he was an Egyptian, not a foreigner, and this is in the paintings of a tomb at Thebes, of the early time of the 18th dynasty (woodcut No. IV.).-[G. W.] 4 Homer's description of the mode of CHAP. 40. DISEMBOWELLING AND BURNING. 71 and a body of Greek traders in the city, they carry it there and sell it instantly; if, however, there are no Greeks among them, they throw the head into the river. The imprecation is to this effect:-They pray that if any evil is impending either over those who sacrifice, or over universal Egypt, it may be made to fall upon that head. These practices, the imprecations. upon the heads, and the libations of wine, prevail all over Egypt, and extend to victims of all sorts; and hence the Egyptians will never eat the head of any animal. 40. The disembowelling and burning are however different in different sacrifices. I will mention the mode in use with respect to the goddess whom they regard as the greatest,5 and honour with the chiefest festival. When they have flayed their steer they pray, and when slaughtering an animal (Il. i. 459-466) is very similar: "They drew back the head and killed it, and after skinning it they cut off the legs (unpovs), which being wrapped up in the fat (caul) folded double, they placed portions of raw meat thereon; an old man then burnt it on split wood, and poured black wine on it, while the young men beside him held five-pronged spits. When the legs (thighs and shoulders) were burnt, and they had tasted the inward parts,' they cut the rest into small pieces, and put them on skewers (spits), roasting them cleverly, and took all off again.' -G. W.] Herodotus here evidently alludes to Isis, as he shows in chs. 59, 61, where he speaks of her fête at Busiris; but he afterwards confounds her with Athor (ch. 41). This is very excusable in the historian, since the attributes of those two Goddesses are often so closely connected that it is difficult to distinguish them in the sculptures, unless their names are directly specified. It was however more so in late than in early times, and at Dendera Athor has very nearly the same appearance as Isis, though still a distinct Goddess, as is shown by each of them having a temple at that place. Herodotus (in ch. 41) says that cows were sacred to Isis, whose statues had the head of that animal; but it was to Athor, the Venus of Egypt, that they were sacred; and it is only when one adopts the attributes of the other, that Isis has the head of the spotted cow of Athor, or that this Goddess takes the name of Isis. Plutarch says Isis was called Muth, Athyri, and Methuer (de Is. s. 56). That Herodotus was really describing Athor and not Isis is shown by the city where the cattle were sent being Atarbechis. (See below note on ch.41.) The Roman poets made a double error in confounding Isis with Athor, and even with Juno, whence "niveâ Saturnia vaccâ." Great honours were also paid to the Cow of Athor at Momemphis, where Venus was particularly worshipped ; and wherever she had a temple a sacred Cow was kept, as Strabo says was the case at Momemphis as well as other places in the Delta; and at Chusæ, a small village in the Hermopolite nome where Venus was worshipped under the title of Urania.— [G. W.] 72 COWS SACRED TO ISIS. BOOK II. their prayer is ended they take the paunch of the animal out entire, leaving the intestines and the fat inside the body; they then cut off the legs, the end of the loins, the shoulders, and the neck; and having so done, they fill the body of the steer with clean bread, honey, raisins, figs, frankincense, myrrh, and other aromatics. Thus filled, they burn the body, pouring over it great quantities of oil. Before offering the sacrifice they fast, and while the bodies of the victims are being consumed they beat themselves. Afterwards, when they have concluded this part of the ceremony, they have the other parts of the victim served up to them for a repast. 41. The male kine, therefore, if clean, and the male calves, are used for sacrifice by the Egyptians universally; but the female they are not allowed to sacrifice," since they are sacred to Isis. The statue of this goddess has the form of a woman but with horns like a cow, resembling thus the Greek representations of Io;8 The custom of filling the body with cakes and various things, and then burning it all, calls to mind the Jewish burnt offering (Levit. viii. 25, 26).-[G. W.] labour." Some years ago no one was allowed to kill a calf in Egypt, and a permission from the government was required for the slaughter of a bull; but this soon degenerated into a mere tax, and cows and calves were permitted to be killed on the payment of a duty. In India and Thibet the veneration for the cow is as remarkable as in Egypt. Jerome also remarks, "In Egypto et Palæstinâ propter boum raritatem nemo vaccam comedit" (ii. adv. Jovin. 7). Por sacrificed did not offer animals, but herbs and flowers; and (de Sacrif. ii.) flour, honey, and fruits.-[G. W.] In order to prevent the breed of cattle from being diminished; but some mysterious reason being assigned for it, the people were led to respect an ordonnance which might not otherwise have been attended to. This was the general system, and the reason of many things being held sacred may be attributed to a necessary pre-phyry (de Abstin.) says the first who caution. It is indeed distinctly stated by Porphyry (de Abstin. ii. s. 11), who says "the Egyptians and Phonicians would rather eat human flesh than that of cows, on account of the value of the animal, though they both sacrifice and eat bulls ;" and the same was doubtless the origin of a similar superstition in India. In another place Porphyry (iv. 7) says the same thing, and adds "that certain bulls were held in the same veneration, while others were preserved for This name is evidently connected with Ehe, "the Cow," of the Egyptians, which was given to one of their goddesses; but the remark of Eustathius that "Io, in the language of the Argives, is the moon," is explained by its being the Egyptian name loh, the moon," which, though quite distinct from Ehe, agrees well with Io being looked upon by the Greeks as CHAP. 41. SEPULTURE OF KINE. 73 and the Egyptians, one and all, venerate cows much more highly than any other animal. This is the reason why no native of Egypt, whether man or woman, will give a Greek a kiss, or use the knife of a Greek, or his spit, or his cauldron, or taste the flesh of an ox, known to be pure, if it has been cut with a Greek knife. When kine die, the following is the manner of their sepulture :— The females are thrown into the river; the males are buried in the suburbs of the towns, with one or both of their horns appearing above the surface of the ground to mark the place. When the bodies are decayed, a boat comes, at an appointed time, from the island called Prosôpitis,'-which is a portion of the Delta, the moon, and with the supposed relationship of the Egyptians and the Argives, who were said to have been a colony taken by Danaus from the Nile. Io is reported to have visited Egypt in her wanderings, and to have been changed into Isis, in the city of Coptos, where she was worshipped under that name. (See Diod. i. 24; and comp. Ovid Met. i. 588, 747; Propert. ii. Elog. 28. 17; and At. Eg. W. vol. iv. p. 382, 388, 390; vol. v. p. 195.) The story of her having given birth to Epaphus (the Apis of Egypt) was probably a later addition: but her wandering to the Nile, like the fable related by Herodotus (Book i. ch. 5), points to the connexion between Egypt and Argos. The name Ioh, or Aah, written Iho, or Aha, is an instance of the medial vowel at the end of a word in hieroglyphics. (See below, n., and App. CH. v. § 16.)-[G. W.] The Egyptians considered all foreigners unclean, with whom they would not eat, and particularly the Greeks. "The Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians " (Gen. xliii. 32); and the same prejudice is continued by the Hindoos, and by many of the Moslems, to the present day. But the last have gradations, like the ancient Egyptians, who looked with greater horror on those who did not cut the throat from ear to ear of all animals used for food.-[G. W.] Some suppose the town of Prosôpitis to have been also called Nicium. The island was between the Canopic and Sebennytic branches, at the fork, and on the west side of the |