this Perseus I have been unable to discover; and unfortunately the imperfect remains at Chemmis afford no accurate information respecting the Deities of the place. It is, however, probable that he was not the only God in whose honour gymnastic exercises were performed; and the fondness of the Egyptians for such amusements is fully proved by the monuments they have left us, on which wrestling, and other games, are portrayed with great minuteness. Wrestling, indeed, was a very favourite amusement in Egypt. Hercules was there reported to have overcome Antæus by wrestling; and it is highly probable that games similar to those mentioned by Herodotus were celebrated in the nome of Heracleopolis, as well as in honour of other Egyptian Gods.

The investiture of a chief was a ceremony of considerable importance, when the post conferred was connected with any high dignity about the person of the monarch, in the army, or the priesthood. It took place in the presence of the sovereign seated on his throne; and two priests, having arrayed the candidate in a long loose vesture, placed necklaces round the neck of the person thus honoured by the royal favour. One of these ceremonies frequently occurs in the monuments, which was sometimes performed immediately after a victory; in which case we may conclude that the honour was granted in return for distinguished services in the field: and as the individual, on all occasions, holds the flabella, crcok, and other insignia of the office of fan-bearer, it appears to have been either the

appointment to that post, or to some high command in the army. On receiving this honourable distinction, he held forth his hands in token of respect; and raising the emblems of his newly-acquired office above his head, he expressed his fidelity to his king, and his desire to prove himself worthy of the favour he had received.

A similar mode of investiture appears to have been adopted in all appointments to the high offices of state, both of a civil and military kind. In this, as in many customs detailed in the sculptures, we find an interesting illustration of a ceremony mentioned in the Bible, which describes Pharaoh taking a ring from his hand and putting it on Joseph's hand, arraying him in vestures of fine linen, and putting a gold chain about his neck.†

In a tomb, opened at Thebes by Mr. Hoskins, another instance occurs of this investiture to the post of fan-bearer; in which the two attendants or inferior priests are engaged in clothing him with the robes of his new office. One puts on the necklace, the other arranges his dress, a fillet being already bound round his head; and he appears to wear gloves upon his uplifted hands. In the next part of the same picture (for, as is often the case, it presents two actions and two periods of time) the individual holding the insignia of fan-bearer, and followed by the two priests, presents himself before the king, who holds forth his hand to him to

* Vide Plate 80.

Vide Vol. I. p. 377.

+ Gen, xli. 42.

touch, or perhaps to kiss. A stand, bearing necklaces, is placed before him, and by his side a table, upon which is a bag, probably the treasure for paying the troops; and behind are the officers of his household bearing the emblems of their office. The office of fan-bearer to the king was a highly honourable post, which none but the royal princes, or the sons of the first nobility, were permitted to hold. These constituted a principal part of his staff; and in the field they either attended on the monarch to receive his orders, or were despatched to take the command of a division; some having the rank of generals of cavalry, others of heavy infantry or archers, according to the service to which they belonged. They had the privilege of presenting the prisoners to the king, after the victory had been gained, announcing at the same time the amount of the enemy's slain, and the booty that had been taken; and those whose turn it was to attend upon the king's person as soon as the enemy had been vanquished resigned their command to the next in rank, and returned to their post of fanbearers. The office was divided into two grades,those who served on the right, and left, hand of the king; the most honourable post being given to those of the highest rank, or to those most esteemed for their services. A certain number were always on duty; and they were required to attend during the grand solemnities of the temple, and on every

* In the East an inferior merely touches the hand of one to whom he would show great respect, and then kisses his own.

+ Vide Vol. I. p. 66. 72. 297.

sion vier de mamara wert oct in state, or tunuri muille busness i bome.

A: Kelemet Huber » 1 remarkable instance of the rememory of caring the sacred boat of Przodz-Sonam-lema vores Iecture to represent the fizer, 10 (sms. It s frequently introBuced in the sex, prizes; and in cee of the tombs of Theres this stem ty certs, which, though OC & HELLER Scale than on the walls of Medeenet Hicoc, ofers some interesting peculiarities. First comes the boat, carried as usual by several priests, superintended by the porti clad in a leopard Ain : after which two verpå ri, each bearing a kong suf, summounted by a lawk; then a man beating the tumbourine, behind whom is a flower with the stalk bound round with ivy (or the periplocat, which so much resembles it). These are followed by two hierophori, carrying each a staff with a jackal on the top, and another bearing a flower, behind whom is a priest turning round to offer incense to the emblem of Nofre-Atmoo. The latter is placed horizontally upon six columns, between each of which stands a human figure, with uplifted arms, either in the act of adoration, or aiding to support the sacred emblem; and behind it is an image of the king kneeling; the whole borne on the usual staves by several priests, attended by a pontiff in his leopard-skin dress. In this ceremony, as in some of the tales related of Osiris, we may trace those analogies which led the

* Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 255.; and Plate 24. fig. 4. + Vide supra, on the Sacred Plants, p. 265.; and Vol. III. p. 157.

Greeks to suggest the resemblance between that Deity and their Bacchus; as the tambourine, the ivy-bound flower or thyrsus, and the leopard skin, recall the leopards which drew his car.* The spotted skin of the nebris or fawn may also be traced in the leopard skin suspended near Osiris in the region of Amenti.

At Medeenet Haboo the procession is on a more splendid scale: the ark of Sokari is borne by sixteen priests, accompanied by two pontiffs, one clad in the usual leopard skin; and Remeses himself officiates on the occasion. The king also performs the singular ceremony of holding a rope at its centre, the two ends being supported by four priests, eight of his sons, and four other chiefs before whom two priests turn round to offer incense, while a hierogrammat reads the contents of a papyrus he holds in his hands. These are preceded by one of the hieraphori bearing the hawk on a staff decked with banners (the standard of the king, or of Horus), and by the emblem of Nofre-Atmoo, borne by eighteen priests, the figures standing between the columns, over which it is laid, being of kings, and the columns themselves being surmounted by the heads of hawks. Another peculiarity is observable in this procession, that the ark of Sokari follows, instead of preceding, the emblem of Nofre-Atmoo, and the hawks are crowned with the pshent or double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, usually worn by the Pharaohs and by the God Horus, the prototype of royalty.

* Vide Vol. I. p. 327. The head of the Greek thyrsus was a pine

cone.