64 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



when he tells us they were the same as Serapis 

 and Isis in Egypt, he betrays great ignorance of 

 the religion of that country. It is probable that 

 the Greeks paid them much greater honours than 

 they received in Egypt, where there is reason to 

 beheve the Earth was only revered as the abstract 

 idea of a combination with the divine power for 

 the exercise of the creative agency. 



Ranno?. 



This Goddess, represented with the head of an 

 asp, is common in the oldest temples. She is fre- 

 quently employed as the nurse of the young 

 princes, whose early education was supposed to be 

 entrusted to her care ; and she presided over 

 gardens as well as the God Khem. Athor and 

 Maut are also represented suckling the young 

 princes in temples of the oldest times ; and in- 

 stances occur of the former under the form of a 

 cow, her emblem, performing the same office to 

 the young Remeses. But this was more particu- 

 larly the part of the asp-headed Ranno. This 

 Goddess was also represented under the form of 

 an asp, crowned with long feathers and a disk 

 and horns ; or as a female figure bearing an asp 

 upon her head, which, as I have already observed, 

 was sacred to her, as to the God Nepli *, and 

 which was probably the Agathodasmon of Euse- 

 bius. 



* Vide siq)rd, Vol. U. p. 184.; and Vol. I. (2d Serifs) p. 239. and 

 41.3. 



