50 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



frequently wears her usual emblems placed on 

 another signifymg " cultivated land." To Athor 

 are sometimes given the same hawk seated on a 

 perch, in her character of President of the Western 

 Mountain.* 



Her office is evidently connected with the dead, 

 as is that of Athor, when she assumes these at- 

 tributes ; probably in consequence of the Western 

 District or Mountain, particularly at Thebes and 

 Memphis, being looked upon as the abode of the 

 dead. She may also be a type of Hades or Amenti, 

 the resemblance between which name and the 

 West, Ementy is consistent with its supposed con- 

 nection with the lower regions, as I have already 

 had occasion to observe. 



The funereal rituals of the Papyri frequently 

 represent four rudders, each of which is applied to 

 one of the four cardinal points, designated as rud- 

 ders of the S., N., W., and E. This division was of 

 the earliest date in Egypt, being mentioned in the 

 oldest monuments that exist. The expression 

 " S. N. W. and E." signified the whole world ; as in 

 the coronation ceremonyt, where the carrier pigeons 

 are ordered to fly to those four points, to proclaim 

 that the king has assumed the crown. They in like 

 manner divided the world into four quarters ; one 

 being Egypt ; another the South, or region of the 

 Blacks ; a third the East, or the Asiatic country ; 

 and the fourth the North, comprising Syria, Asia 

 Minor, and ])robably Europe. 



* Vide xvpm. Vol. I. (2d Scries) p. 391. iiiicl Plate 3(J. r/. fig. 2. 

 t Vide Plate 7G. 



