Thoth, Teḥuti, 'the measurer,' was the scribe of the gods, and the measurer of time and inventor of numbers. In the judgment hall of Osiris he stands by the side of the balance holding a palette and reed ready to record the result of the weighing as announced by the dog-headed ape which sits on the middle of the beam of the scales. In one aspect he is the god of the moon, and is represented with the head of an ibis.

Khonsu,

TEḤUTI.

CHONSU.

was associated with Amen-Rā

and Mut in the Theban triad. He was the god of the moon, and is represented as hawk-headed and wearing the lunar disk and crescent. His second name was Nefer-hetep, and he was worshipped with great honour at Thebes.

Sebek, the crocodile-headed god, was worshipped at Kom-Ombos and in the Fayyûm.

I-em-hetep (Imouthis),

Ptah.

was the son of

Shu, e, and Tefnut,

୪

were the children

of Seb and Nut, and represented sunlight and moisture

respectively.

Athor, or Hathor,

,

Het-Heru, 'the house of Horus,' is identified with Nut, the sky, or place in which she brought forth and suckled Horus. She was the wife of Àtmu, a form of Rā. She is represented as a woman wearing a headdress in the shape of a vulture, and above it a disk and horns. She is called 'mistress of the gods,' 'lady of the sycamore,' 'lady of the west,' and 'Hathor of Thebes.' She is the female power of nature, and has some of the attributes of Isis, Nut, and Mut. She is often represented under the form of a cow coming out of the Theban hills.

HATHOR.

MAAT.

Maāt,

the goddess of 'Law,' was the

daughter of the Sun-god Rā; she is represented as wearing

the feather Д, emblematic of law श्री.

and green, probably to represent the colours of the water of

the Nile immediately before and just after the beginning of the inundation.

Serapis, i.e., Osiris-Apis,

was a god intro

duced into Egypt during the reign of the Ptolemies; * he is represented with the head of a bull wearing a disk and uræus. He is said to be the second son of Ptah. The worship of Apis at Memphis goes back to the earliest times; the Serapeum, discovered there by M. Mariette, contained. the tombs of Apis bulls from the time of Amenophis III. (about B.C. 1550) down to the time of the Roman Empire. See page 306.

the Lagids, as well as the Seleucids, were careful of disturbing the foundations of the old religion of the country; . . . . . they introduced. . . . . the Greek god of the lower world, Pluto, into the native worship, under the hitherto little mentioned name of the Egyptian god Serapis, and then gradually transferred to this the old Osiris worship." (Mommsen, Provinces of the Roman Empire, Vol. II., p. 265.)

THE MODERN EGYPTIANS.

The total population of Egypt proper was on June 1, 1897, 9,734,405, of whom 112,526 were foreigners.

In a country where an increase in population always means an increase in taxation, it is quite impossible to obtain an accurate census. As far back as the time of David * the idea of "numbering the people" has been unpopular in the East.

It is exceedingly difficult to obtain an exact idea of what the population of Egypt actually was in Pharaonic times, for the inscriptions tell us nothing. Herodotus gives us no information on this matter, but Diodorus tells us that it amounted to 7,000,000 in ancient times. The priests at Thebes informed Germanicus, A.D. 19, that in the times of Rameses II. the country contained 700,000 + fighting men; it will also be remembered that the Bible states that the "children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them." Exodus xii. 37, 38. In the time of Vespasian 7,500,000 persons paid poll-tax; we may assume that about 500,000 were exempt, and therefore there must have been at least 8,000,000 of people in Egypt, without reckoning slaves. (Mommsen, Provinces of Rome, Vol. II., p. 258.) It is probable, however, that the population of Egypt under the rule of the Pharaohs has been greatly exaggerated, chiefly because no accurate data were at hand whereby errors might be corrected. During the occupation of the country by the French in 1798-1801 it was said to be 2,460, 200; Sir

* "And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel." I Chronicles xxi. I.

"Septigenta milia aetate militari." Tacitus, Annals, Bk. ii., 60.

Gardner Wilkinson, however, set it down at as low a figure as 1,500,000. In 1821 the population numbered 2,536,400, and in 1846 it had risen to 4,476,440. Another census was ordered by Khedivial decree on December 2, 1881, and it was completed on May 3, 1882. According to the official statement published in the Recensement Général de l'Égypte, at Cairo, in 1884, it amounted in 1882 to 6,806,381 persons, of whom 3,216,847 were men, and 3,252,869 were women. Of the 6,806,381 persons, 6,708, 185 were inhabitants of the country, and 98,196 were nomads. It showed that there were in the total 245,779 Bedâwin and 90,886 foreigners.

According to the census of 1897 the population in Lower Egypt was 5,676,109, and in Upper Egypt, 4,058,296. The distribution of the population in the cities having governors and in the provinces is as follows:

Cairo, 570,062; Alexandria, 319,766; Port Said and Canal, 50,179; Suez, 24,970; Damietta, 43,751; El-'Arîsh, 16,991; Beḥêreh, 631,225; Sherkîyeh, 749,130; Dakhaliyeh, 736,708; Gharbîyeh, 1,297,656; Ķalyûb, 371,465; Menûf, 864,206; Asyût, 782,720; Beni-Suwêf, 314,454; Fayyum, 371,006; Gîzeh, 401,634; Minyeh, 548,632; Girgeh, 688,011; Keneh, 711,457; Nubia, 240,382. In the Oasis of Sîwa, 5,000; Oasis of Bahrîyah, 6,082; Oasis of Farâfra, 542; Oasis of Dâkhleh, 17,090; Oasis of Khargah, 7,200; Donkola, 56,426; Sawwâkîn, 15,713. The males numbered 4,947,850, and the females, 4,786,555The number of houses occupied was 1,422,302. crease in the population since 1882 is 43 per cent. The Muslims number 8,978,775; Jews, 25,200; Christians (of all sects), 730,162. Males and females able to read and write were 467,886; and 9,266,519 were illiterate.

The in

The population of Egypt to-day comprises the Fellâhin, Copts, Bedâwin, Jews, Turks, Negroes, Nubians and people from Abyssinia, Armenians and Europeans.

The Fellahin amount to about four-fifths of the entire