forefathers the rites enjoined; consisting of ablutions, prayers, and the hanging of garlands of flowers, and funereal leaves, on their monuments.*

CCCCXLVII. From the words of the prophet, who mentions Baal-peort in connection with these funereal banquets, we may, to a certain extent, conjecture the nature of the rites; for this was the deity adored by the Moabites and Ammonites, whose women enticed the Israelites to licentiousness in their passage through the wilderness; and this worship consisted in the adoration of the Phallus, the image of which was borne about in their sacred processions. According to Selden, Baal-peor was the king of Hell, to whom funeral sacrifices were offered up; and his orgies, celebrated during the night, consisted of obscene and licentious rites, in which the passions, inflamed by wine, and all those sights and sounds that contribute to produce the intoxication of voluptuousness, were permitted to reign with unbridled sway. The women of Judah, in the days of the prophet Ezekiel, had relapsed into this idolatry, and wept for Tammuz; and Milton, deeply versed in the practices of the ancient world, distinctly alludes

* Colonel Tod, Annals of Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 582.

"Neque alium sane fuisse antiquissimum illum Moabitarum Deum, Baal-Peor, seu Beelphegor, ac Romanorum Priapum, ab eruditorum plerisque existimatur.” — Antiquitates Middletoniana, p. 67. — St. Jerome, likewise, gives his testimony in favour of this opinion. "Istiusmodi idololatria erat in Israel, colentibus maxime fœminis Beelphegor, idolum tentiginis, quem nos Priapum possumus appellare.”—Hieron. in Hoseam, c. vi.; ib. in c, ix. Opera, t. iii. p. 1261.

FESTIVAL OF ADONIS.

63

to the nature of the rites performed in honour of Adon by his female worshippers,

"Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch, Ezekiel saw, when, by the Vision led,

His eye survey'd the dark idolatries
Of alienated Judah."

This festival of Adonis, whom learned men, with some appearance of probability, identify with Osiris, the lord of Amenti, may serve to instruct us respecting the forms which the worship of the Manes, connected, no doubt, with that of the monarch of the dead, assumed in Egypt. It was divided into two parts; the former devoted, at Byblus*, to mourning and lamentation, the latter to joy. At Alexandria this order was reversed. During the melancholy portion of the festival, all the funeral ceremonies established in honour of the dead were performed, and the women abandoned themselves to the most violent transports of grief. In Syria they cut off their hair in the temple, or, according to some authors, sacrificed their chastity to the god. Different ceremonies took place in Egypt, where they appeared with dishevelled tresses, in loose mourning garments without a girdle, with all the external marks of the severest woe. Hymns of grief were sung, accompanied by the flute. The image of the god, placed upon a funeral couch, or scaffold, was surrounded by every circumstance of pomp and magnificence.t Numbers of emblematic representations

* In Syria, where a temple was erected to Adonis. + Creuzer, Rel. de l'Antiq. t. ii. p. 23-57

64

ENTRANCE TO THE TOMB.

were placed around the bed, and among others, those famous gardens of Adonis, consisting of vases of clay, or baskets of silver, in which, by a concentration of heat, various seeds had been artificially caused to germinate, and spring forth in short-lived verdure. The effeminate and luxurious sorrow exhibited during this festival, naturally terminated in licentious excesses, an overstrained sensibility being the mother of both; and the Orientals intimate their knowledge of this fact, by employing the Almé to weep at funerals.

CCCCXLVIII. But, whether dedicated to mourning, or to pleasure and festivity, few, I believe, ever paced these silent halls without experiencing some degree of melancholy. Who and what were they that covered those walls with the figures of the strange things they worshipped? For whose in. struction were those mysterious symbols traced? what persons were permitted to enter there, to learn the secrets of life and death? What kings and counsellors were they, who built those desolate places for themselves? All these questions All these questions might perhaps be answered, could we interpret the characters which now mock us upon the walls. And, in this case, should we despise or admire? As it is, the mind is profoundly irritated by uncertainty. Naturally leaning to the more favourable interpretation, we persuade ourselves that the monstrous combinations before us

Παρ' δ ̓ ἁπαλοὶ κάποι, πεφυλαγμένοι ἐν ταλαρίσκοις
Αργυρίοις.

THEOC. Idyll. xv. 113.

FIRST CORRIDOR.

65

were not the creations of a crazed brain, but symbols possessing a dignified recondite meaning, to which the old colleges of priests could once have furnished a key. And we contemplate them with an earnest curiosity, arising probably from the persuasion, that, by a careful scrutiny, we might yet lift the veil, which for more than two thousand years has concealed their signification from the world.

CCCCXLIX. Reverting to the actual appearance of the tomb; a flight of thirty steps descends to the entrance, where the doorway, wide and lofty, is altogether void of sculpture. On entering the corridor, leading with a steep slope to the sepulchral chambers below, we observe the wall on the right hand covered with hieroglyphics, descending perpendicularly, in narrow bands, from the ceiling to the floor; and, on the opposite wall, the figure of a mortal, standing with his face towards the interior, apparently demanding admittance of Osiris Hierax, whose head is surmounted by the globe and serpent, emblematic of the world, and the wisdom with which he governs it. Near this mortal, both above and below, is the delta, the emblem of life, and the passive principle of generation. A tablet next occurs, with the figure of Ammon, standing beside a black colossal scarabæus, within the disk of a large globe above which is the head of a gazelle, with a curious ornament erect between the arms; and below, the figure of a crocodile, appearing, from its attitude, about to plunge into the water. The head of the

66

GODDESS OF NIGHT AND DARKNESS.

gazelle is again seen beneath the crocodile. Along the centre of the ceiling extends a series of vultures with outspread wings, mitred, like the gods, each holding in his claws a sceptre or rich plume mounted on a handle. The symbol of eternal life, the delta, and the goose, with a globe upon its back, accompany each vulture; and the whole is painted in sombre funereal colours, chiefly blue and black, with a small proportion of yellow, and dark red intermingled.

CCCCL. At the termination of this corridor we arrive at a second doorway, over which is the usual ornament of the winged globe. Another flight of steps succeeds; and here the walls are charged with a different kind of paintings, figures of mummies, black, white, and red, standing upright, with their faces towards the interior, as if marching forwards, in solemn procession, to the regions of the dead. The walls beneath their feet are covered with hieroglyphics, recording, perhaps, the history of their crimes or virtues. This flight of steps conducts us to a third doorway, over which is a seated figure of Bouto, the goddess of night and darkness, with a pair of outspread wings beneath her extended arms. The colours and ornaments are characteristic; the base of the wings being dark blue, the remainder green. Upon her arms are bracelets and armlets sparkling with gems. Her bosom is concealed by a rich tippet, her tresses by a black head-dress, and, instead of a mitre, she wears a funereal round-topped plume, bound upon the head with a red fillet.