are wine, oil, beer, milk, cakes, grain, ointment, flowers, fruit, vegetables, and various productions of the soil, which answered in some degree to the Mincha of the Jews. They are not only introduced upon the altars themselves, but are enumerated in lists or catalogues sculptured in the temples and tombs, some of which specify the day and month, on which they were dedicated to the Deity.

The ordinary subjects in the interior of the temples represent the king presenting offerings to the Deities worshipped there; the most remarkable of which are the sacrifices already mentioned, incense, libation, and several emblematic figures or devices connected with religion. He sometimes made an appropriate offering to the presiding Deity of the sanctuary, and to each of the contemplar Gods, as Diodorus says Osymandyas was represented to have done; the memorial of which act of piety was preserved in the sculptures of his tomb. The historian's words are, "Contiguous to the library stand the images of all the Gods of Egypt, to each of whom the king presents a suitable offering, in order to show to Osiris and the Assessors seated below him that his life had been spent in piety, and justice towards gods and men." We are not, however, to suppose that every Deity of the country was there introduced; but those only who held a place among the contemplar Gods worshipped in the city, as was the

custom in all the temples and sacred monuments of Egypt. And though the statues he mentions no longer remain, there is reason to believe that the list of offerings is still preserved in the innermost remaining chamber of the Remeseum or Memnonium, which, as I have had occasion to observe, has every appearance of being the monument alluded to by Diodorus.

In offering incense, the king held in one hand the censer, and with the other threw balls or pastiles of incense into the flame.t Then, addressing the God, before whose statue he stood, with a suitable prayer, to invoke his aid and favour, he begged him to accept the incense he presented : in return for which the Deity granted him "a long, pure, and happy life," with other favours accorded by the Gods to men.

The censer has been already noticed. A libation of wine was frequently offered together with incense; flowers were often presented

of incense and a libation.

with them; and many sacrifices consisted of oxen or other animals, birds, cakes, fruit, vegetables, ointments, and other things, with incense and No. 477. a. Offering libation. On some occasions two censers of incense were offered, and several oxen, birds, and other consecrated gifts were placed on the altar. And that it was customary to present several of the same kind is shown by the ordinary formula of presentation, which says, "I

* Vide Vol. I. p. 114, 115.

Vide suprà, p. 340.

+ Plate 76. 84. &c.

give you a thousand (i. e. many) cakes, a thousand vases of wine, a thousand head of oxen, a thousand geese, a thousand vestments, a thousand censers of incense, a thousand libations, a thousand boxes of ointment." The cakes were of various kinds. Many were round, oval, or triangular; and others had the edges folded over, like the fateereh of the present day. They also assumed the shape of leaves, or the form of an animal, a crocodile's head, or some capricious figure; and it was frequently customary to sprinkle them (particularly the round and oval cakes) with seeds.t

Wine was frequently presented in two cups.‡

It was not then a libation, but merely an offering of wine; and since the pouring out of wine upon the altar was a preliminary ceremony, as Herodotus observes, common to all their sacrifices, we find that the king is often represented making a libation upon an altar No. 477. b. Wine covered with offerings of cakes, flowers, and the joints of a victim killed for

offered in two

cups.

the occasion.

The Egyptian artists did not bind themselves to one instant of time in their representations of these subjects. The libation, therefore, appears to be poured over the mass of offerings collected upon the altar; but the knowledge of their mode of drawing, and the authority of Herodotus, explain

* Of ointments, vide Vol. II. p. 214. and III. p. 378.; and Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 58. note ‡.

+ Vide suprà, Vol. II. p. 386.

Vide Pl. 70. part 4., and Pl. 82.

of vases were principally used for libation, and the various kinds of wine were indicated by the names affixed to them.

White and red wines, those of the Upper and Lower Country, grape juice or wine of the vineyard (one of the most delicious beverages of a hot climate, and one which is commonly used in Spain and other countries at the present day), were the most noted denominations introduced into the lists of offerings on the monuments.

No. 477. d.

Offering of milk, Єpwt. epwt.

Beer and milk were also admitted amongst them; and oils of various kinds t, for which Egypt was famous, were presented as welcome offerings at the shrines of the Gods.

I have already had occasion to notice some of the gifts presented to Isis for preserving an individual from the danger of the sea; and it is evident from this, and the prayer that accompanied it, that the size of the offering depended on the gratitude of the donor for the favour he received, and on the extent of the demand made by him for future blessings.

* Vide infrà, Woodcut, No. 484.

+ Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 55., on the Oils of Egypt. Suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series), p. 386.

No. 478.

Various flowers from the Sculptures. Thebes.

In fig. 8. is an attempt at perspective. The upper part (a) appears to be the papyrus; bis a lotus; and e probably the melilotus. From fig. 1. a, it would seem that one bell-formed flower is a convolvulus; though 1.6, 4. 6, 7. and 9. a, may be the papyrus; and the shafts of columns with that kind of capital have an indication of the triangular form of its stalk. 3. the lotus. 2. 11, 12, 13. different bouquets. 10. the flower of fig. 5. of Woodcut No. 427. 5. perhaps the same as 4.