would think the country had been inhabited for the most part by gods, with just enough men and animals to satisfy the requirements of their worship. Each of these deities represented a function, a moment in the life of man or of the universe. Thus, Naprit was identified with the ripe ear of wheat; Maskhonit appeared by the child's cradle at the very moment of its birth; and Raninit presided over the naming and nurture of the newly born.

In penetrating this mysterious world we are confronted by an actual jumble of gods, many being of foreign origin; and these, with the indigenous deities, made up nations of gods. This mixed pantheon had its grades of noble princes and kings, each of its members representing one of the forces constituting the world. Some appeared in human form; others as animals; others as combinations of human and animal forms.

The sky-gods, like the earth-gods, were separated into groups, the one composed of women: Hathor of Denderah, or Nit of Sais; the other composed of men identical with Horus, or derived from him: Anhuri-Shu of Sebennytos and Thinis; Harmerati, or Horus, of the two eyes, at Pharbæthos; Har-Sapedi, or Horus, of the zodiacal light, in the Wady Tumilat; and, finally, Harhuditi at Edfu. Ra, the solar disc, was enthroned at Heliopolis; and sun-gods were numerous among the home deities. Horus the sun, and Ra the sun-god of Heliopolis, so permeated each other that none could say where the one began and the other ended.

Each of the feudal gods representing the sun cherished pretensions to universal dominion. The goddesses shared in supreme power. Isis was entitled lady and mistress of Buto, as Hathor was at Denderah, and as Nit was at Sais. The animal-gods shared omnipotence with those in human form. Each of the feudal divinities appropriated two companions and formed a trinity; or, as it is generally called, a triad. Often the local deity was content with one wife and one son, but often he was united to two goddesses. The system of triads enhanced, rather than lowered, the prestige of the feudal gods. The son in a divine triad had of himself but limited authority. When Isis and Osiris were his parents, he was generally an infant Horus, whose mother nursed him, offering him her breast. The gods had body and soul, like men; they had bones, muscles, flesh and blood; they hungered and thirsted, ate and drank; they had our passions, griefs, joys and infirmities; and they were subject to age, decrepitude and death, though they lived very far beyond the term of life of men.

The sa, a mysterious fluid, circulated through their members, and carried with it divine vigour; and this they could impart to men, who thus might become gods. Many of the Pharaohs became deities. The king who wished to become impregnated with the divine sa sat before the statue of the god in order that this principle might be infused into him. The gods were spared none of the anguish and none of the perils which death so plentifully bestows on men. The gods died; each nome possessed the mummy and the tomb of its dead deity. At Thinis there was the mummy of Anhuri in its tomb, at Mendes the mummy of Osiris, at Heliopolis that of Tumu. Usually, by dying, the god became another deity. Ptah of Memphis became Sokaris; Uapuaitu, the jackal of Siut, was changed into Anubis. Osiris first represented the wild and fickle Nile of primitive times; but was soon transformed into a benefactor to humanity, the supremely good being, Unnofriu, Onnophris. He was supposed to assume the shapes not only of man, but of rams and bulls, or even of water-birds, such as lapwings, herons, and cranes. His companion goddess was Isis, the cow, or woman with cow's horns, who personified the earth, and was mother of Horus.

There were countless gods of the people: trees, serpents and family fetishes. Fine single sycamores, flourishing as if by miracle amid the sand, were counted divine, and worshipped by Egyptians of all ranks, who made them offerings of figs, grapes, cucumbers, vegetables and water. The most famous of them all, the Sycamore of the South, used to be regarded as the living body of Hathor on earth. Each family possessed gods and fetishes, which had been pointed out by some fortuitous meeting with an animal or an object; perhaps by a dream and often by sudden intuition.

III.--Legendary History of Egypt

The legendary history of Egypt begins with the Heliopolitan Enneads, or traditions of the divine dynasties of Ra, Shu, Osiris, Sit and Horus. Great space is taken up with the fabulous history of Ra, the first king of Egypt, who allows himself to be duped and robbed by Isis, destroys rebellious men, and ascends to heaven. He dwelt in Heliopolis, where his court was mainly composed of gods and goddesses. In the morning he went forth in his barque, amid the acclamations of the crowd, made his accustomed circuit of the world, and returned to his home at the end of twelve hours after the journey. In his old age he became the subject of the wiles of Isis, who poisoned him, and so secured his departure from earth. He was succeeded by Shu and Sibu, between whom the empire of the universe was divided.

The fantastic legends concocted by the priests go on to relate how at length Egypt was civilised by Osiris and Isis. By Osiris the people were taught agriculture; Isis weaned them from cannibalism. Osiris was slain by the red-haired and jealous demon, Sit-Typhon, and then Egypt was divided between Horus and Sit as rivals; and so it consisted henceforth of two kingdoms, of which one, that of the north, duly recognised Horus, son of Isis, as its patron deity; the other, that of the south, placed itself under the supreme protection of Sit-Nubiti, the god of Ombos.

Elaborate and intricate and hopelessly confused are the fables relating to the Osirian embalmment, and to the opening of the kingdom of Osiris to the followers of Horus. Souls did not enter it without examination and trial, as it is the aim of the famous Book of the Dead to show. Before gaining access to this paradise each of them had to prove that it had during earthly life belonged to a friend or to a vassal of Osiris, and had served Horus in his exile, and had rallied to his banner from the very beginning of the Typhonian wars.

To Menes of Thinis tradition ascribes the honour of fusing the two Egypts into one empire, and of inaugurating the reign of the human dynasties. But all we know of this first of the Pharaohs, beyond his existence, is practically nothing, and the stories related of him are mere legends. The real history of the early centuries eludes our researches. The history as we have it is divided into three periods: 1. The Memphite period, which is usually called the "Ancient Empire," from the First to the Tenth dynasty: kings of Memphite origin were rulers over the whole of Egypt during the greater part of this epoch. 2. The Theban period, from the Eleventh to the Twentieth dynasty. It is divided into two parts by the invasion of the Shepherds (Sixteenth dynasty). 3. Saite period, from the Twenty-first to the Thirtieth dynasty, divided again into two parts by the Persian Conquest, the first Saite period, from the Twenty-first to the Twenty-sixth dynasty; the second Saite Period, from the Twenty-eighth to the Thirtieth dynasty.

IV.--Political Constitution of Egypt

Between the Fayum and the apex of the Delta, the Libyan range expands and forms a vast and slightly undulating table-land, which runs parallel to the Nile for nearly thirty leagues. The great Sphinx Harmakhis has mounted guard over its northern extremity ever since the time of the followers of Horus. In later times, a chapel of alabaster and rose granite was erected alongside the god; temples were built here and there in the more accessible places, and round these were grouped the tombs of the whole country. The bodies of the common people, usually naked and uncoffined, were thrust into the sand at a depth of barely three feet from the surface. Those of the better class rested in mean