74 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



and I have once found an instance of Smautf with 

 a human head. 



The name of Amenti, " that subterraneous region 

 whither they imagined the souls of the dead to go 

 after their decease*," signified, according to Plu- 

 tarch, " the receiver and giver ;" in which we may 

 perhaps trace a proof of its being considered a 

 temporary abode. The burial of arms and different 

 objects of use or value with the body may also in- 

 dicate their belief of a future return to earth, after 

 a certain time, which is said by Herodotus to have 

 been fixed at 3000 years ; though Plato gives this 

 period to a philosopher, and 10,000 to an ordinary 

 individual. 



The resemblance of the names Amenti, *' Hades," 

 and Ement, " the West," is remarkable.t This last 

 was looked upon as the end, as the East was the 

 beginning, of the world. There the Sun was buried 

 in the darkness of night, and there he was sup- 

 posed, allegorically, to die and pass through 

 another state, previous to his regeneration and re- 

 appearance upon earth, after each diurnal revolu- 

 tion. This analogy between them cannot fail to 

 call to mind the similarity of the Hebrew word 

 Ereb, or Gharb l^y t, signifying " sunset," or 

 " the West," and the Erebus of Greece. 



Clemens § says that ancient temples were turned 

 towards the West ; but this was not the case in 

 Egypt, where the points of the compass do not 



* Pint, de Is. S.29. 



f Vk/c iiiftfi, on the Hippopotamus, in Ch. xiv. 



X Tlic Gliuib, "West," of the Arabs. § Clem. Strom. 7. 



