from which the river welled up, are depicted in the illustrations here given. In the first the cavern is guarded by a hippopotamus-headed goddess, who is armed with a large knife and wears a feather on her head.

Above are seated two

The two Nile-gods and their Cavern, and the hippopotamus goddess, who is armed with a huge knife, their protectress.

The Nile-god in his cavern, under the rocks at Philae, pouring out the waters which formed the two Niles.

gods, one wearing a cluster of papyrus plants on his head, and the other a cluster of lotus flowers; the former represents the Nile of the South, and the other the Nile of the North. Each god holds water-plants in one hand. In the second illustration the god is depicted kneeling in his cavern, which

is enclosed by the body of a serpent; he wears a cluster of water-plants on his head, and is pouring out from two vases the streams of water which became the South and North Niles.

The Egyptians called both their river and the river-god

"Hap" or "Hāpi "

Ḥāpi " &

&

a name of which the meaning is unknown; in very early dynastic times the

god was called " Hep-ur", ie, the "great Ḥep." The name "Nile," by which the "River of Egypt" is generally known, is not of Egyptian origin, but is probably derived from the Semitic word nakhal "river"; this the Greeks turned into "Neilos," and the Latins into "Nilus,"

The Nile-god bearing offerings of bread, wine, fruit, flowers, etc.

The Nile-gods of the South and North tying the stems of a lily and a papyrus plant round the symbol of " union," symbolizing the union of Upper and Lower Egypt.

whence comes the common form "Nile." The river appears in the form of a man wearing a cluster of water-plants on his head, and his fertility is indicated by a large pendent breast. In the accompanying illustration the gods of the South and North Niles are seen tying stems of the lotus and papyrus plants round the symbol of "union"; the scene 'represents the union of Upper and Lower Egypt.

The ideas held by the Egyptians concerning the power of the Nile-god are well illustrated by a lengthy Hymn to the Nile preserved on papyrus in the British Museum (Sallier II, No. 10,182). "Homage to thee, O Hapi, thou appearest in this "land, and thou comest in peace to make Egypt to live. Thou "waterest the fields which Ra hath created, thou givest life

"unto all animals, and as thou descendest on thy way from "heaven thou makest the land to drink without ceasing. Thou "art the friend of bread and drink, thou givest strength to the "grain and makest it to increase, and thou fillest every place "of work with work ... Thou art the lord of fish . . . thou art "the creator of barley, and thou makest the temples to endure "for millions of years... Thou art the lord of the poor and needy. If thou wert overthrown in the heavens, the gods would fall upon their faces, and men would perish. When "thou appearest upon the earth, shouts of joy rise up and all "people are glad; every man of might receiveth food, and 'every tooth is provided with meat... Thou fillest the store"houses, thou makest the granaries to overflow, and thou "hast regard to the condition of the poor and needy. Thou "makest herbs and grain to grow that the desires of all "may be satisfied, and thou art not impoverished thereby. "Thou makest thy strength to be a shield for man." Elsewhere he is called the "father of the gods of the company of "the gods who dwell in the celestial ocean," and he was declared to be self-begotten, and "One," and in nature inscrutable.

In another passage of the same hymn it is said that the god is not sculptured in stone, that images of him are not seen, "he is not to be seen in inscribed shrines, there is no "habitation large enough to contain him, and thou canst not "make images of him in thy heart." These statements suggest that statues or figures of the Nile-god were not commonly made, and it is a fact that figures of the god, large or small, are rare. In the fine collection of figures of Egyptian gods exhibited in the Third Egyptian Room, which is certainly one of the largest in the world, there is only one figure of Ḥāpi (No. 108, Wall-case 125). In this the god wears on his

head a cluster of papyrus plants

Utchat, or Eye of Horus,

before which is the

and he holds an altar from

which he pours out water. The only other figure of the god in the British Museum collection is the fine quartzite sandstone statue (Southern Egyptian Gallery, No. 766) which was dedicated to Amen-Ra by Shashanq, the son of Uasarken and his queen Maat-ka-Ra. Here the god bears on his out-stretched hands an altar, from which hang down bunches of grain, green herbs, flowers, waterfowl, etc. The statue was dedicated to Amen-Ra, who included the attributes of Ḥāpi among his own.

The true source of the Nile is Victoria Nyanza, or Lake Victoria, which lies between the parallels of latitude o° 20' N. and 3 S., and the meridians of 31° 40′ and 35° E. of Greenwich; the lake is 250 miles in length and 200 in breadth, and was discovered in modern times by Speke, on August 3rd, 1858. Other contributory sources are Albert Nyanza, or Lake Albert, discovered by Sir Samuel Baker on March 16th, 1864, and Lake Albert Edward, discovered by Sir H. M. Stanley in 1875; the connecting channel between these lakes is the Semliki River. The portion of the Nile between Lake Victoria and Lake Albert is called the "Victoria Nile" (or the "Somerset River"); that between Lake Albert and Lake Nô is called the "Bahr al-Gebel" or "Upper Nile "; and that between Lake No and Khartâm is called "Bahr al-Abyad," or "White Nile." The total length of these three portions of the Nile is about 1,560 miles. At Khartûm the White Nile is joined by the "Blue Nile" (or Abâî, the Astapos of Strabo, which rises in Lake Sânâ and is about 1,000 miles long), and their united streams form that portion of the river which is commonly known as the " Nile." The distance from Khartûm to the Mediterranean Sea is about 1,913 miles, and thus the total length of the Niles is about 3,473 miles. Between Khartûm and the sea the Nile receives one tributary, viz., the

but