headed portraiture of him, as being the most distinctive; that with the human head also occurs304: he is likewise delineated as an ape (Cynocephalus), which may be compared with the designations of the genii of Amente. His connexion with the third Order is indicated by another title, "Begetter of Osiris," the date of which, however, we cannot guarantee. It is of the highest importance to know that the designation, "Lord of Hermopolis," which is a very frequent one, particularly upon the mummies, occurs at least as early as the 18th Dynasty. Champollion305 assumes that the zone between the earth and the moon, where the souls tarried after death before they passed into new bodies, had eight regions, as the earth has four. We are unable, however, at present to submit the "Book of the Dead" to critical examination, or to distinguish the oldest from the more modern elements. The connexion between Tet and the moon may allude, according to Wilkinson, to the primitive use of a lunar year. The ancients had already remarked that the moon in Egyptian was masculine, not feminine, as the Greeks and Romans generally made it. Still we have no right to suppose a particular moon-god, separate from Thoth. We meet with a deity called after the moon (Aah, Copt. Ooh, Ioh), either as a mere personification, or as Thoth, in whom the agency of the moon and nature became a living principle. We find him so represented in the tombs of the Ramesseum, opposite to Phre; a similar representation in Dendyra is probably symbolical. According to Champollion he is often seen in the train of Ammon, and then he is Thoth. He makes him green, with the four sceptres and cap of Ptah, by the side of which, however, is a sort of Horus curl, the infantine lock, as child or son. In the inscriptions there is usually only the crescent, but on

304 The former from Wilk. Pl. 45. Comp. other representations, Champ. 30. Wilk. Mat. Hier. xxvi. seqq. xxx.

305 P. 30. B. in the Pantheon. Comp. Stob. Ecl. i. 52.

one occasion the sign nuter (god) is added. In the tombs a moon-god is represented sitting on a bark, and holding the sceptre of benign power, to whom two Cynocephali are doing homage (see Horap. i. 15), followed by the crescent and Nuter god. Lastly, the same god is found in a standing posture, worshipped by two souls and two Cynocephali.

For the consort of Thoth, a deity who appears as the scribe of the gods, and designated as "Mistress of the Writings," we are likewise unable to assign any precise position. 306 We agree with Birch in reading her name Sfx, i.e. seven, seven horns, by which sign the word is always followed. She carries on her head a pole with five rays and two horns over them, or with seven rays and the two horns. Lenormant and Lepsius read the name Saf, Saf-re, "yesterday."

C. The Children of Ptah.

III. ATMU. IV. PECHT (Bubastis).-IMHEP. T. (Imuth). As the cosmogonic principles gain ground, the number of their children or attendants increases, they being the organs by which they are revealed. We have three children of Ptah-Vulcan, two of whom we can show to be primeval.

III. ATMU, Atumu.

This god is only known to us from the monuments. When simply Atumu, his personal distinction is the full crown; as Nefru-Atumu (the good, the Atumu, a designation probably of no great antiquity, as god of the Lower World) he carries on his head a pole with the lotus flower, or two feathers (Wilk. 47, 48.). He is represented in this work in the latter form, because he is particularised by the feathers in the hieroglyphics. His connexion with Pecht is obvious, partly because he

306 Wilk. Pl. 54.

very often follows this daughter of Vulcan, partly because the same name is given him in the tablet of the Ramesseum, where "an offering to Ptah with all the names" is represented.307 In the Book of the Dead, ix. c. 17. y. 55, 56., he is called Nefer-Atum, the son of Bast or Pecht, the other name of the lioness-headed goddess.

In the temple of Gournah (dedicated to Ammon by Seti I.), Atum and Munt are leading King Ramesses into the presence of Amun, to whom he is about to dedicate the temple.

The Ark of Sokari generally accompanies his sign in the great processions of the gods (for example, at Medinet-Haboo, Wilk. Mat. Hier. 65.). In the same writer we find four representations given of him, each time standing, generally with life and power, and the full crown or bare-headed. On two occasions his attire is the lotus flower; and once a black doll, the hieroglyphic which seems to be a variation of the knot, or symbol of life, is standing by his side: once he has a remarkable plume, and a counterpoise of a collar suspended from it. In these last forms he is always called nefru, the good. His other titles in those four representations are, Lord of the Worlds, of the Country Peten308, King (Hyk), Pupil (iri) of the Gods. Champollion gives a copy of a mummylid on which he is represented sitting, green, hawkheaded, with the sceptres of Osiris, and large head-gear. Behind him is Ma, winged, green, with a red disk of the sun on her head; the wings encircle the throne. In a similar representation (26. A.), the same god is exhibited with life and power, the flagellum of Osiris

scarce.

307 In the last part of Burton's Excerpta Hierog. Pl. lvi., now very [Nefru-Atum and Atum or Tum, the Tomos of the Greek inscriptions, are not identical: the first is the son of Ptah and Pecht; the other, a self-existent self-produced god, whose name Tum means the Creator.-S. B.]

308 [Now read An or Heliopolis.-S. B.]

upon his knee, and the full crown, with the name of Atum.

In a third representation (on wood, 26. B.), we find him likewise sitting swathed like Ptah, but partycoloured, holding the two sceptres of Osiris in his hands, which are folded across his breast, and on his head the red disk of the sun. Champollion gives a fourth representation of him, also painted on wood (26. C.). There Thoth is conducting in a boat the sun's disk, which is divided into an upper and lower hemisphere. In each five deities are sitting; in the upper one, Ra, Atum, Mau, Tefnu, and an unknown god; in the lower (as deities of the Lower World), Nutpe, Osiris, Isis, Horus, Nepthys. In the "Book of the Dead," also, Mau and Tefnu his sister, Set and Nutpe, Osiris, Isis, and Nepthys, are following him in the bark of Phrē.

Upon the obelisks he occurs very frequently. Sesostris is called the beloved of Atum-doubly dear as Atmu-enjoying a long life of years like Atmu. His father is called the son of Atmu. This led Champollion to conjecture that Hermapion, when calling Sesostris the son of Heron, understands Atum by the latter; which, however, is inadmissible, according to the usual mode in which the Greeks transcribed the Egyptian names.

As regards the power of Atum in the Lower World, his office there is clearly that of a judge. The souls in the Ritual style him father, and he addresses them as children.309 Wilkinson's representation of him (Mat. Hier.) is remarkable-a bark, in the centre of which Atum is sitting in his shrine. The King is kneeling

309 In the "Book of the Dead" he is addressed as the demiurgos. Lepsius, Todt. Pl. xxx. c. 79. l. 1. "I am Atum, making the heaven, creating beings, going in the world, creating all generations which produced the gods (?), self-created, lord of life, renewing [?] the other gods."

before him, and offering a figure of Truth. Behind the shrine stand two Gods, Lords of Ament and Abydos (Osiris), and behind them Horus, as steersman. Before

the shrine stand Thoth and Ma.

If we suppose the representations on public monuments to be an index of the prevalent ideas entertained about him, Atumu would seem to be a sun-god, following immediately after Phre. Champollion considers him the God of the setting Sun, the west, and remarks, that when Phre and Atum are found standing together, the latter is always on the left side, which signifies the

west.

His office in the Lower World, however, points to a higher position. He may, therefore, have been originally a Dispater.

In the old inscriptions on the canal of Sesostris, leading to the Red Sea, Atum has the name of Ter.310 This, however, was a representation of Phthah, as before mentioned. The fact of the mystic prayers of the dead distinguishing the two and placing Ter by the side of Atum, is no proof to the contrary.

Atum, then, was originally the name and representation of a cosmogonic deity, probably, indeed, of one who belonged to the second Order-and he has retained this character in the Lower World, just as, according to some representations, power was given there to Hermes.

IV. PCHT, Pecht (the Goddess of Bubastis).

She is called Mer-Ptah, the beloved by Ptah: the Mistress of Memphis. Wilkinson's drawing (Pl. 27. comp. 51.) exhibits her with the cat's head and sun's disk, about which the Uræus is entwined. Her titles are, Mut (the mother), Menhi (sense unknown), and

310 Cheper.-B. [This word means ' producer' or 'self-produced;' also 'existence,'' transformation.'-S. B.]