, symbolized by a shield transfixed with arrows, and the god Min
, the nature of whose fetish is obscure. In course of time the tribes became localized in particular districts, under the influence of a growing central authority, and their gods then passed from tribal into local deities. Hence it came about that the provincial districts or nomes, as they were called, often derived their names from the gods of tribes that settled in them, these names being hieroglyphically written with the sign for “district” surmounted by standards of the type above described, e.g.
, “the nome of the dog Anubis,” the 17th or Cynopolite nome of Upper Egypt. In this way a large number of deities came to enjoy special reverence in restricted territories, e.g. the ram
Khnum in Elephantine, the jerboa or okapi (?)
Seth in Ombos, the ibis
