[808] From the Trans. of S. Squire.
[809] Mnaseas, as quoted by Athenæus, VIII. 37.
[810] W. Robertson-Smith, The Religion of the Semites (Edinburgh, 1889), p. 276.
[811] J. H. Breasted, Records of Ancient Egypt (Chicago, 1906-7), vol. IV., par. 882.
[812] See Hastings’ Ency. of Religion and Ethics, vol. X. pp. 796 and 482, and Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache, vol. 49, p. 51 (Leipzig, 1911).
[813] Their brawling in boats and carousing in drink are depicted. Cf. N. de G. Davies, Tombs of El Gebrawi, Pt. II. (London, 1902), Pl. V., and Newberry, Beni Hasan, Pt. II., Pl. IV., and Davies, Ptahhetep, Pt. II., Pl. XIV., and Pt. I., Pl. XXI. In the XXth Dynasty the chastity of their wives was not a striking characteristic.
[814] Op. cit., XXXII.
[815] Fish hieroglyphs are regarded by some as general determinatives for words meaning “shame,” “evil,” etc. (cf. Plutarch, op. cit., 32), and by others as merely phonetic determinatives (cf. Montet, op. cit., p. 48). That fish were regarded as either enemies or emblems of enemies of the gods and of the kings would seem to be borne out by the ceremony annually performed at Edfu, where the festival calendar contains the following: “Fish are thrown on the ground, and all the priests hack and hew them with knives, saying ‘Cut ye wounds on your bodies, kill ye one another: Ra triumphs over his enemies, Horus of Edfu over all evil ones.’” The text assures us that “the meaning of the ceremony is to achieve the destruction of the enemies of the gods and king.” Cf. Erman, Handbook of Egyptian Religion, trs. by Griffith (London, 1907), p. 216.
[816] Erman, Egyptian Life, Eng. Trs. (London, 1894), p. 239, basing himself on Mariette’s statement in Monuments divers recueillis en Égypte, pp. 151, 152.
[817] Op. cit., p. 284.