After a brief silence he proclaimed:
“Let us weep for Osiris, the god of Atum, the Great On-Nefer-Hophra, the god Ona!”
Two castrates in female garments,—Isis and Nephthys,—at once commenced the lamentation, in harmonious, high-pitched voices:
“Return to thy dwelling, O beauteous youth! To behold thee is bliss.
“Isis charges thee,—Isis, that was conceived in the one womb with thee,—Isis, thy spouse and thy sister.
“Show us thy countenance anew, radiant god. Here is Nephthys, thy sister. She is deluged in her tears and plucks out her hair in her grief.
“In a yearning like unto death do we seek after thy beauteous body. Return to thy dwelling, Osiris!”
Two other priests joined their voices to those of the first two. These were Horus and Anubis lamenting for Osiris, and each time they concluded a stanza, the chorus, disposed upon the steps of the staircase, repeated it to a solemn and sad motif.
Then with the same chant the elder priests brought out of the sanctuary the statue of the goddess, no longer covered with the naos. A black mantle, strewn over with golden stars, now enveloped the goddess from head to foot, leaving visible only her silvern feet, entwined by a serpent, as well as, over her head, a silvern disc, confined within the horns of a cow. And slowly, to the tinkling of the censers and sistra, with mournful weeping, the procession of the goddess Isis set out from the steps of the altar, down into the temple, along its walls, and in and out between the columns.
Thus did the goddess gather up the scattered members of her spouse, that she might resuscitate him with the aid of Thoth and Anubis.