[Page 35].—“Among beds of lotus flowers.”—v. Strabo.
[Page 36].—“Isle of the golden Venus.”—“On trouve une île appelée Venus-Dorée, ou le champ d’or, avant de remonter jusqu’à Memphis.” Voyages de Pythagore.
[Page 39].—For an account of the Table of Emerald, v. Lettres sur l’Origine des Dieux d’Egypte. De Pauw supposes it to be a modern fiction of the Arabs. Many writers have fancied that the art of making gold was the great secret that lay hid under the forms of Egyptian theology. “La science Hermétique,” says the Benedictine, Pernetz, “l’art sacerdotal étoit la source de toutes les richesses des Rois d’Egypte, et l’objet de ces mystères si cachés sous le voile du leur pretendu Religion.” Fables Egyptiennes. The hieroglyphs, that formerly covered the Pyramids, are supposed by some of these writers to relate to the same art. See Mutus liber, Rupellæ.
[Page 40].—“By reflecting the sun’s rays,” says Clarke, speaking of the Pyramids, “they appeared white as snow.”
[Page 41].—For Bubastis, the Diana of the Egyptians, v. Jablonski, lib. 3. c. 4.
[Page 43].—“The light coracle,” &c.—v. Amuilhon, “Histoire de la Navigation et du Commerce des Egyptiens sous les Ptolemées.” See also, for a description of the various kinds of boats used on the Nile, Maillet, tom. i. p. 98.
[Page 44].—v. Maurice, Appendix to “Ruins of Ba[pg 312]bylon.” Another reason, he says, for their worship of the Ibis, “founded on their love of geometry, was (according to Plutarch) that the space between its legs, when parted asunder, as it walks, together with its beak, forms a complete equilateral triangle.” From the examination of the embalmed birds, found in the Catacombs of Saccara, there seems to be no doubt that the Ibis was the same kind of bird as that described by Bruce, under the Arabian name of Abou Hannes.
[Ib.]—“The sistrum,” &c.—“Isis est genius,” says Servius, “Ægypti, qui per sistri motum, quod gerit in dextra, Nili accessus recessusque significat.”
[Page 48].—“The ivy encircled it,” &c.—The ivy was consecrated to Osiris. v. Diodor. Sic. 1. 10.
[Ib.]—“The small mirror.”—“Quelques unes,” says Dupuis, describing the processions of Isis, “portoient des miroirs attachés à leurs épaules, afin de multiplier et de porter dans tous les sens les images de la Déesse.” Origine des Cultes, tom. 8. p. 847. A mirror, it appears, was also one of the emblems in the mysteries of Bacchus.