450 ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



young shoots of shrubs and trees. The domesticated goat is gen- 

 erally recognized as descended from the wild goat {Capra hircus 

 cegagrus) of Syria, Asia Minor, Persia, and the Mediterranean 

 Isles. Two breeds of domesticated sheep were Imown to the 

 Egyptians. The sheep of the earliest historical period down to the 

 Middle Kingdom was a long-legged variety (Ovis longipes), with 

 horns projecting transversely and twisted. This breed was the only 

 one known in the earlier periods of Egyptian history; it was the 

 predominant breed in the Middle Kingdom, but soon after the be- 

 ginning of the Empire it appears to have become rare or extinct in 

 Egypt, and was superseded by a variety with horns curving for- 

 wards in a subcircular coil. Both varieties of domesticated sheep, 

 according to Lydekker, were introduced into Egypt through Syria. 

 Among the cult-objects of the cities over which the god Anzety 

 presided were two, which, I believe, can definitely be referred to 

 trees that were not indigenous to the soil of Egypt but to Syria. 

 One of these cult objects is the so-called "Ded column." This was 

 one of the holiest symbols of the Egyptian religion. It has four 

 crossbars at the top like superposed capitals. Sometimes a pair of 

 human eyes are shown upon it, and the pillar is draped ; sometimes 

 a human form is given to it by carving a grotesque face on it, rob- 

 ing the lower part, crowning the top with ram's horns, and adding 

 two arms, the hands holding the crook and ladanisterion. Frazer 

 has suggested that this object might very v/ell be a conventional 

 representation of a tree stripped of its leaves. That it was, in 

 fact, a lopped tree is, I believe, certain. In the Pyramid texts it 

 is said of Osiris, "Thou receivest thy two oars, the one of juniper 

 (uan), the other of sd-\\ood, and thou ferriest over the Great Green 

 Sea." The determinative sign of the word sd is a tree of precisely 

 the same form as the Ded column that is figured on early Egyptian 

 monuments, i. e., it has a long, thin stem. This tree-name only 

 occurs in inscriptions of the Pyramid Age, and it is mentioned as 

 a wood that was used for making chairs, tables, boxes, and various 

 other articles of furniture. In the passage quoted from the Pyramid 

 texts it is mentioned together with juniper, and the latter was em- 

 ployed in cabinet-making, etc., at all periods of Egyptian history. 

 There is no evidence that juniper ever grew in Egypt, but we have 

 numerous records of the wood being imported from the Lebanon 

 region. The s<^-tree, as we see from the determinative sign of the 

 name, had horizontally spreading branches, and was evidently 

 some species of conifer. No conifers, however, are known from 

 Egypt; the sd-Mvood must, therefore, have been of foreign importa- 

 tion. As it is mentioned with juniper, which we know came to 

 Egypt from Syria, it is possible that it came from the same region. 

 Among the trees of the Lebanon there are four that have hori- 



I 



