is new.

We do not, therefore, at all events, import a modern philosophical idea into Egyptian mythology by considering him as the hidden, not yet revealed god. He stands incontestably, in the Egyptian system, at the head of a great cosmogonic development. Amn, Ammon, without any addition, is his original name; therefore he is so written in the Rings of the 12th Dynasty. Thebes is called after him the seat of Ammon: his hieroglyphic sign, lastly, is read Amn, not Amn-ra.

But the destination of the obelisks was, according to Pliny's authorities, connected with the worship of the sun, and the word probably contains in it (as he says it does) ra (la), the sun.232 The obelisk at Heliopolis, a work of the 12th Dynasty, is also sacred to Ra. It is no matter of surprise, therefore, if almost all the extant monuments, at least from and after the 18th Dynasty, give the name of Ammon with the addition of Ra, although we find the name Amn alone in those old names of Kings, as well as in the old papyri.* The mystical names of Amn given in the "Book of the Dead" (164, 165.) are said to belong to the language of the Negroes.

But Wilkinson has made an observation which is perhaps of importance to history generally, and at all events points out the oldest change which can be authentically proved in the mythological system of the Egyptians, in regard to most of the representations

232 Uben-ra-uben-la, sunbeam. Birch has found tyn, moreover, as the name of the obelisk, on those of Amyrtæus (523, 524.) and in the Anastasi Papyrus. The one in the British Museum is given under this figure in the ideographical signs. The former, therefore, was either the older sacred name or an epithet.

*Birch observes that on a tablet in the British Museum (No. 332.), where worshippers of the sun's disk are represented, probably of the time of Amenophis IV., these words occur:-uben en ra em ap.t amen, the light of the sun is the Amen of Thebes. On a basin (No. 108. Brit. M.) of the Ramesside epoch Amun is designated as "existing (typified) at the commencement."

which give the name Amn-ra. He remarks 233 that whenever the name of Amun-ra occurs in monuments previous to and during the reign of Amenōphis III. (Memnon), and even in the Royal Rings of Amenōphis III. (Amenhep.t), the name of Ammon is new. This is particularly obvious in the beautiful monuments of the British Museum. We there see in the celebrated statue of that King, on the spot where the name Amn now stands, that the surface of the granite has been chiseled off, in order to obliterate the signs which had been engraven on it, and to place in their stead the three well-known hieroglyphics of the name Ammon. In another passage of the inscription, where Amn-ra is mentioned, the same alteration has taken place in those three signs, but (which Wilkinson does not remark) ra stands upon the old surface. The same is observed in all the monuments in the Museum which are older than that Amenōphis; for instance, in the beautiful sculptures of the time of Tuthmosis III. On the contrary, Amn-ra is recognisable as the original writing on a representation of this deity (as the Phallic God) in the time of King Horus, the immediate successor of Amenōphis III.

No one will pretend to explain this by asserting that the mode of writing the god " Amn" has been changed since that time. For, as we have already remarked, Ammon is written with the well-known phonetic hieroglyphics on the monuments of the 12th Dynasty. Another god must formerly have stood in his place, therefore, in those names of Amenōphis of the 18th Dynasty, as well as in the newly engraven signs of the obelisk. Wilkinson has thrown out the conjecture that this god was Khem, the Phallic God, the Pan of Herodotus. If so, we certainly must assume that the three Kings Amenōphis of the 18th Dynasty were called in their lifetime Khem-hep. t, instead of Amn-hep. t. 233 Manners and Customs, iv. 244. Comp. 63. and the Materia Hieroglyphica (1828), Pantheon, p 4.

It also follows that the sculptures of Amn-ra, in which the name Amn-ra has supplanted a previous one, were all Phallic, as the only representations of Khem are Phallic. Any other view of the case involves us in inextricable contradictions.

In transferring the functions and identity of Khem to Amun, we have also the oldest authentic evidence of that system of amalgamation, which creates the great difficulty in the historical representation of the Egyptian deities—namely, the transference of the characteristics and titles of other deities to such as, in their original signification, had no connexion with them. Ammon, for instance, in those Phallic figures, has always the title of Chemmis (Pan), "the husband of his mother." But we must first notice this god himself.

II. KHEM, PAN, the God of Chemmis (Panopolis).

Khem, read Uta by Lepsius, is called in the hieroglyphic inscriptions, that have not been altered, a Phallic God, enveloped in swathes; out of which one arm is protruded and upraised, brandishing the flagellum, the sign of lordship: the other hand holds the Priapus.234 This word is never written phonetically, but only hieroglyphically, that is, with the sign, which probably signifies "bolt," from the root, khem, "to lock up." His title is Kamut.ef," the husband (Bull) of his mother."

We instantly recognise here the God of Panopolis, which city is called in Egyptian, Chemmo 235 (ElKhemin). Stephanus of Byzantium gives the following description of this Deity of Panopolis:-" A great statue with the Priapus exposed, holding in the right hand the

234 An emblem of continence, according to Horapollo, ii. 7.

235 Diodorus, i. 18. Khebti on the tablets of the Kossayr road, (Burton) E. H. pl. 357.: on which tablets Birch observes that after the name of Khem the word Khebti, the common name of the town of Koptos, is frequently found.

flagellum directed towards the moon: they call it the figure of Pan."

By means of this description we may easily correct Herodotus's mistake in calling the Mendesian God after the name of the province of Mendes, and in considering the goat, who was the living, deified, animalsymbol of the god, as a representation of him. In his account of the God of Papremis, likewise," who did violence to his mother," the truth is now become apparent.

There is a representation which differs entirely from the ordinary type, not Phallic 236, in which a god appears with the principal badge of Osiris, holding the ploughshare (mer), the sign of sowing, with the inscription, Kah-mut (sign of the Phallic God) utet-ra, that is, "husband of the mother, begotten by Helios." We introduce this representation merely as a proof of later amalgamation.

The votive figures, some of which belong to the primeval time, are dedicated to that old Khem on the road to Kossayr. Greek inscriptions on the more modern of these representations call the god, the Pan of Thebes.

He is often found in Panopolis, as well as in Sehag (Athribis or Crocodilopolis), in company with a lionessheaded goddess.

The statement, preserved in the epitome of Manetho, that the worship of the Mendesian goat, consequently of the symbol of Khem, was introduced under the 2nd (the Thinite) Dynasty, is of the highest impor

tance.

III. NUM, NU, Kneph, Chnubis.

The ram-headed god of the Thebaid is called on the monuments Num, Nu; the former therefore is to be considered as the complete way of writing it. says 237, the original, immortal god, is called

236 In Wilk. Pl. 26. (M. vi. 2.).

Plutarch by the in

237 De Is. et Os. c. 21.

habitants of the Thebaid, Kneph. Here k is the prefix of n, as in Canopus from Nubi, and in many other words. The ph, however, seems to be the Greek mode of expressing the Egyptian m, which probably was aspirated. The word Chnubis differs from Kneph only in the accidental admission of the inherent vowel u instead of e, and of b instead of p. As spelled on the Gnostic monuments of the Basilidians, it would sound like Chnumis. According to Plutarch 238 and Diodorus 239, the name of the Egyptian Zeus signified spirit (wvsuua), which of course can only apply to Kneph. At Esneh (Champ. Grammar, p. 302.) he is said to be "the breath of those who are in the firmament." His derivation from the Egyptian root nf (Copt. nef, nibe) = to blow, to breathe, is therefore very tempting. Birch 240, on the contrary, maintains that the hieroglyphic literally signifies "water" (Copt. nun), with which etymology may be connected one of the titles of Kneph, under which he was worshipped in Elephantina, that of the Lord of the "Libations," or the "inundations." He conceives the animal figure which very often precedes or follows the name, and sometimes indicates it by itself 241, not to be the ram, but the (bearded) he-goat=bai, the phonetic of bai=soul, spirit. It is in this image that he recognises the expression of the idea "spirit," which the ancients found in the name of this god. How then could those writers say that it is the name of Kneph which signifies "spirit?" We must there

fore hold that the ram or buck is the figurative meaning, as it occurs likewise in the name of a king of the 4th Dynasty, and assume that the roots nef and num were originally connected. The Arabic nef=breath, com

238 De Is. et Os. c. 26. to be the hidden god, he by the Egyptian Zeus.

239 I. 12.

249 Gallery, i. p. 9., seqq.

As he had previously explained Ammon clearly cannot have meant the same here

241 Ros. M. del Culto, li.