APOTHEOSIS OF OSIRIS.

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favours the system of Euhemerus, which teaches that the pagan heaven was peopled from earth. Priests and pretended philosophers, ashamed, in more enlightened ages, of the literal explanation of their religious fables, cast over them the pompous veil of symbol, unknown to their rude and ignorant ancestors, the inventors of the mythi. Osiris was then transformed into the sun, the vivifying principle, the Nile; Isis into the moon, the dog-star, nature, the land of Egypt; and a thousand interpretations, astronomical, astrological, physical, symbolical, mystical, were given of their history and adventures.

CCCXCVIII. But to proceed with the bas-reliefs. In the first compartment Osiris, extended on a couch, with uplifted hands, is yielding up the ghost. He has doffed his pompous mitre, but the serpent, the emblem of kingly power, ever ready to inflict injury, still sits upon his brow. At his head is Athor, whose mitre is surmounted by a small pillar, while Isis, attended by a female on her knees, bends over the foot of the couch; and all raise their hands towards heaven, in the attitude of lamentation. In the next compartment we find him dead, and the embalmers, -the more horrid part of their operations performed, engaged in swathing and bandaging the corpse. The form of the propylon of a temple then occurs, with the figure of a lion over the central opening, his hind-feet on one wing, his fore-feet on the other. Beneath this the god would seem to have been carried in the first step of his apotheosis. Osiris

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FUNERAL PROCESSION.

now appears, his face covered with a hawk-headed mask, stretched upon a bier, and borne into a temple by priests. Here the body is removed from the bier, and while the priests are preparing to convey him into the secret chambers, the hawk-headed mask is removed, and the mysterious figure of Anubis approaching, touches his lips with the symbol of divinity, while Isis and Athor kneel, weeping at his head and feet. The mummy is next represented, lying in state, in a large dark chamber, with twenty-seven tapers or torches burning beside it, while a priest approaches, the new-made god with an offering. So far the events commemorated may be supposed to have taken place in Egypt, where the funereal judges, deluding the multitude with a mockery of justice, as in the case of their subsequent kings, may have sat in judgment on the mummy, and tried its pretensions to the honours of burial. The trial concluded, the body is again laid on the bier, overshadowed by a rich canopy, and placed in a boat, to be conveyed to its everlasting abode in Phila. Ten paddles, curiously wrought, and adorned with the figures of birds, in the hands of an equal number of priests, impel along the funereal barge; four serving as a rudder; while Isis stands on the shore, beholding its departure. Three of the pillars of the canopy are adorned with the figures of hawks, bearing globes on their heads; the fourth is surmounted by a human figure. Arrived at Phila, the mummy, now adorned with the mitre, or crown of the god, is laid on the tomb, on four sepulchral jars, on which are represented the heads of

SMALL PERIPTERAL TEMPLE.

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the hawk, the wolf, the dog, and the monkey; while Aroëris Hierax and Ammon Criocephalus stand, the former at the head, the latter at the feet of the mummy. The sacred tomb, excavated, perhaps, in the rock below, and approached by mysterious passages, now closed, may be discovered by some future traveller.

CCCXCIX. The small peripteral temple, on the left of the dromos, is approached by a separate doorway in the western wing of the propylon; and this, like the ancient chapel at Dakke, seems originally to have been a beautiful simple structure, adorned, in the best style of the Egyptians, with frieze, moulding, and projecting cornice, and richly sculptured both within and without with the figures of gods. The colonnades and the portico, containing four pillars, -those in front built up half way, -appear to have been added in a later age, when architecture was on the decline. Though executed in a superior style, the bas reliefs exhibit little variety ; - Osiris, Horus, Priapus, in the usual attitudes, and with their characteristic costume and ornaments. Among the most remarkable is a goddess crowned with lotus flowers, playing on a harp with nine strings, before Isis and Harpocrates seated on thrones. The harp, formed like the lunar crescent, is adorned above with a head of Isis; and this group occurs on both sides of the temple. In the adytum, the interior of which is divided into three chambers, we find Isis sitting

on a platform, with her legs under her in the modern oriental fashion, suckling Horus; while the sacred hawk, crowned with a mitre, and surrounded by lotus stems branching outward like rays, hovers over her head. On the left of the goddess, an immense serpent rises in spiry volumes; while on the opposite side, a group, representing another serpent twisted about a tree, with a worshipper on either side of him, resembles Adam and Eve beside the tree of knowledge. Various inferior divinities are depicted approaching the great goddess in procession.

CCCC. Of the several ruins in front of the temple it is difficult to convey a correct idea, the whole being much too imperfect to allow of our deciding what they were. At the southern extremity of the island is a small sandstone obelisk, containing on one of its faces a Greek inscription, but no hieroglyphics; and the pedestal of a similar obelisk stands at the distance of a few yards towards the east. Close to the one now remaining, is a row of six columns, covered with hieroglyphics and sculpture. Here commences a long colonnade, which may have served the priests as a promenade, extending northward along the shores, with a narrow staircase leading down to the water, and numerous windows commanding a view of the river and the opposite mountains. Thirty of the columns, and ten windows, still remain; but the work was never completed, some of the shafts being sculptured, others

not. Exactly opposite this colonnade, towards the east, is the façads, of a large edifice, adorned with sixteen columns, surmounted by square plinths, the capitals of which were also left unfinished. These pillars had no reference to the Great Temple, but mark the front of one wing of a spacious building, the walls of which may be traced for sixty-four feet towards the east. Several of the chambers are still standing; and the foundations are visible thirty-four feet south of the colonnade; but without clearing away the rubbish, nothing like a ground plan can be made out.

CCCCI. The building on the eastern side of the island, known by the name of Pharaoh's Bed, and for this reason supposed by some writers to be the tomb of Osiris, seems to be the most modern structure in Phila. It has fourteen lofty columns, arranged round the sekos of the temple, with the intercolumniations built up half way; and, on account of its great height, forms a very striking object; but seems to have been never completed; in fact, to cover it above, blocks of stone forty-eight feet six inches in length would be required. The only inhabitant of the island, at the time of our visit, was Selyma, an old woman, jocularly denominated by the Arabs, "the Queen of Philæ," who, upon the strength of this title, demands from travellers a small present; and as she possesses a cow, her right to furnish them with milk at her own price is seldom disputed.