distinctly tells us that they are mere idle tales, directly at variance with the nature of the Gods. The festival of Minerva at Saïs was performed on a particular night, when every one who intended to be present at the sacrifice was required to light a number of lamps in the open air around his house. They were small vases filled with salt and oil*, on which a wick floated, and being lighted continued to burn all night. They called it the Festival of Burning Lamps. It was not observed at Saïs alone: every Egyptian who could not attend in person was required to observe the ceremony of lighting lamps, in whatever part of the country he happened to be; and it was considered of the greatest consequence to do honour to the Deity by the proper performance of this rite. On the sacred lake of Saïs they represented, probably on the same occasion †, the allegorical history of Osiris, which the Egyptians deemed the most solemn mystery of their religion. Herodotus always mentions it with great caution. It was the record of the misfortunes which had happened to one whose name he never ventures to utter; and his cautious behaviour, with regard to every thing connected with Osiris, shows that he had been initiated into the mysteries, and was fearful of divulging any of the secrets he had solemnly bound himself to keep. It is also obvious that the fêtes he describes with the greatest reverence were * Perhaps water, salt, and oil. The offering mentioned towards the end of this chapter is probably of a lamp. † Herodot. ii. 171. connected with that Deity, as those of Isis and of the burning lamps at Saïs; which may be accounted for by the same reason,- his admission to the mysteries of Osiris. And though it is not probable that a Greek, who had remained so short a time in the country, had advanced beyond the lowest grades in the scale of the initiated, and that too of the lesser mysteries alone, he was probably permitted to attend during the celebration of the rites in honour of that Deity, like the natives of the country. The lake of Saïs still exists, near the modern town of Sa el Hagar. The walls and ruins of the town stand high above the level of the plain; and the site of the temple of Neith might be ascertained, and the interesting remains of that splendid city might, with careful investigation, and the labour of some weeks' excavation, be yet restored to view. There is some resemblance between the fête of Lamps at Saïs, and one kept in China, which has been known in that country from the earliest times; and some might even be disposed to trace an analogy between it and the custom still prevalent in Switzerland, Ireland, and other countries, of lighting fires on the summits of the hills, upon the fête of St. John. But such accidental similarities in customs are too often considered of importance, when we ought, on the contrary, to be surprised at so few being similar in different parts of the world. Those who went to Heliopolis and to Buto * Or "Sa of the Stone," from the ruins there. merely offered sacrifices. At Papremis the rites were much the same as in other places; but when the Sun went down, a body of priests made certain gestures about the statue of Mars, while others in greater numbers, armed with sticks, took up a position at the entrance of the temple. A numerous crowd of persons, amounting to upwards of 1000 men, each armed with a stick, then presented themselves with a view of performing their vows; but no sooner did the priests proceed to draw forward the statue, which had been placed in a small wooden gilded shrine, upon a fourwheeled car*, than they were opposed by those in the vestibule, who endeavoured to prevent their entrance into the temple. Each party attacked its opponents with sticks; when an affray ensued, which, as Herodotus observes, must, in spite of all the assertions of the Egyptians to the contrary, have been frequently attended with serious consequences, and even the loss of life. Another festival, mentioned by Herodotus †, is said to have been founded on a mysterious story of King Rhampsinitus, of which he witnessed the celebration. On that occasion the priests chose one of their number, whom they dressed in a peculiar robe, made for the purpose on the very day of the ceremony, and then conducted, with his eyes bound, to a road leading to the temple of Ceres. * Vide Vol. I. p. 350. Four-wheeled cars in Egypt appear to have been uncommon; but one is represented in the woodcut at the head of Chap. 7. Vol. II. + Herodot. ii. 122. Having left him there, they all retired; and two wolves were said to direct his steps to the temple, a distance of twenty stades, and afterwards to reconduct him to the same spot. On the 19th of the first month was celebrated the fête of Thoth, from whom that month took its name. It was usual for those who attended "to eat honey and eggs, saying to each other "How sweet a thing is truth!"'"+ And a similar allegorical custom was observed in Mesoré, the last month of the Egyptian year ‡; when, on "offering the first-fruits of their lentils, they exclaimed The tongue is fortune, the tongue is God!"" Most of their fêtes appear to have been celebrated at the new or the full Moon, as we learn from Plutarch and Herodotus, the former being also chosen by the Israelites for the same purpose; and this may, perhaps, be used as an argument in favour of the opinion §, that the months of the Egyptians were originally lunar, as in many countries, even to the present day. The historian of Halicarnassus speaks of an annual ceremony, which the Egyptians informed him was performed in memorial of the daughter of Mycerinus. The body of that princess had been deposited within the wooden figure of a heifer, * Vide suprà, p. 146. Plut. de Is. s. 68. This answered to the 16th September, O. S. Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 13. Herodotus very properly doubts the story of the love of Mycerinus, and of his concubines having their hands cut off. Vide his Euterpe, s. 131.; and infrà, p. 312. and was still preserved, in the time of Herodotus, in a richly ornamented chamber of the royal palace at Saïs. Every kind of perfume was burnt before it during the day, and at night a lamp was kept constantly lighted. In an adjoining apartment were about twenty colossal statues of wood, representing naked women, in a standing position, said by the priests of Saïs to be the concubines of Mycerinus. "But of this," adds the historian, "I can only repeat what was told me; and I believe all they relate of the love of the king, and the hands of the statues, to be a fable.* The heifer is covered with a crimson housing, except the head and neck, which are laid over with a thick coat of gold; and between the horns is a golden disk of the Sun. It is not standing on its feet, but kneeling; and in size it is equal to a large cow. Every year they take it out of this chamber, at the time when the Egyptians beat themselves and lament a certain God (Osiris), whom I must not mention on which occasion they expose the heifer to the light, the daughter of Mycerinus having made this dying request to her father, that he would permit her to see the Sun once a year." The ceremony was evidently connected with the rites of Osiris; and if Herodotus is correct in stating that it was a heifer (and not an ox), it may have been the emblem of Athor, in the capacity she held in the regions of the dead. The honours *Herodot, ii. 132. |