[ 35 ] 



human fliape ; but, as the fame deities have alfo been repre- 

 fented under the figure of animals, I fliould be apt to give 

 thefe the priority, as well for the reafons already mentioned, as 

 becaufe, in efFed, the idols of this kind ufually bear evident 

 marks of fuperior antiquity. Thus Ofiris and Ifis are fome- 

 times reprefented as a man and woman, but they are mo 

 reprefented as two fnakes intertwifted *, which latter I fliould 



[ E 2 ] be 



* Such at lead is the interpretation I give to a very ancient and curious bafib relievo in my 

 poffeffion. It is of green porphyry, and was brought by me from Egypt. There are on the 

 heads of the fnakes, ornaments which differ from each other, and are proper to the divinities 

 they reprefent. That in times early indeed the fupreme God among the Egyptians was repre- 

 fented by a ferpent we learn from Sanchoniatho, who tells us, page 14 of Cumberland's tranfla- 

 tion, " that the God called by the Phcenicians the good Djemon, ' Aya^oixijiii,, is named by 

 " the Egyptians Kneph, and they draw him as a dragon or ferpent, but put on him a hawk's 

 " head." Ofiris is alfo often found in a human figure with the head of a hawk, whofe (harp- 

 fightednefs and rapid flight were meant to indicate the fun, which was undoubtedly reprefented 

 by this god, as the moon was by his wife and fifter ffis. Probably alfo the hawk's head 

 might have been given to him as fupreme among the Gods, in imitation of the Kneph above 

 mentioned, and for the fame reafon he might have been figured by the ferpent. Thefe two 

 principal deities among the Egyptians may poflibly ferve in fome degree to illuftrate that gra- 

 duation of idolatry which I have fuppofed. Ofiris and Ifis, though in procefs of time they 

 came to be taken for aVmoft all the divinities, were originally no other than the fun and the 

 moon, which luminaries were probably firft worfiiipped in their real fubftances, until by degrees 

 they began to be reprefented by animals Cgnificant of their qualities. Half-human monfters 

 next took place ; and lad of all human figures, decorated, or rather explained, by various 

 emblems. 



Apis, which was probably meant for the fymbol of cultivation, ffill retained his animal 

 fhape, though he alfo was, in more modern times, modelled according to the novel fafliicn, 

 being in fome inftances figured with a human head. 



Anubis alfo, who was probably at firft reprefented by a dog, in allufion to the dog-ftar, the 

 propitious precurfor of the Nile's increafe, gradually grew into the form of a man, with the 

 head of that animal. 



The baflb relievo, mentioned in the beginning of this note, will, I think, ferve to explain a 



very 



