175 



circle, expressive of the providence of God. Another method was 

 by pitchers or measures of unequal size, called canopi, decorated 

 with the crosses referred to, and surmounted bv birds' heads 

 typical, as I have explained, of the prevailing winds. Sometimes 

 the head of a dog, and at others a female head, marked the state 

 of the river under the sign of the Virgin, when the water begins to 

 subside. 



As the Egyptians had their warnings and friendly symbols, so 

 they had their symbols of hatred and fear. They conveyed their 

 horror of the ruin wrought by the stormy winds which drove on 

 the floods, by depicting some terrible form — a dragon, or other 

 composite animal ; a sea monster, a crocodile, or a hippopotamus; 

 and sometimes a nondescript which they called Ob — a swelling, 

 an overflowing ; or Python, the enemy. 



It is evident that in so elaborate a system as this, in which 

 the constellations play so conspicuous a part, the Sun and Moon 

 must occupy a prominent position. Accordingly we find the Sun 

 typifying the Source of all good, as the symbol of the Almighty, — 

 the King, the Ruler, — expressed in the figure of a man, bearing the 

 sceptre, or a whip ; and frequently by another Masonic symbol, the 

 eye. The type of the Moon was a woman bearing on her head a 

 crescent ; and it is remarkable that this figure was also intended to 

 typify not only the Moon, but the prolific Earth. Indeed, in the 

 process of time all these symbols assumed other meanings, and 

 from their simple outlines grew that mighty superstition, the Pagan 

 Mythology. The Egyptians came to regard the male figure — 

 emblem of the sun, or solar year, as a real personage, and paid 

 him divine honours under the name of Osiris. The female they 

 called Isis, his wife, and they had a circumstantial narrative of 

 their supposed history. This narrative gives the clue to the origin 

 of most of the heathen deities. For just as the Egyptians them- 

 selves had various symbols to denote the same being under varying 

 circumstances (for instance, another of their gods, Horus, indicated 

 the sun, as well as Osiris), so the Greeks and Romans adapted the 

 Egyptian deities to their own requirements. Thus Osiris Amnion 

 found his parallel both in Jupiter Amnion and in Apollo j and 



