130 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



HorapoUo* states some curious reasons for Cy- 

 nocepliali being chosen as emblems of the Moon, 

 lambhchus also speaks of certain physical analo- 

 gies common to them and to that luminary ; and 

 the former supposes that they were brought up 

 in the temples, in order to enable the priests to 

 ascertain from their habits the exact instant of the 

 conjunction of the Sun and Moon. Several equally 

 ridiculous reasons are given for their relation to 

 Thoth, and to other hieroglyphic symbols. 



The place where this animal was particularly 

 sacred was Hermopolis, the city of Thoth. Thebes 

 and other towns also treated it with the respect 

 due to the representative of the Egyptian Hermes ; 

 and in the Necropolis of the capital of Upper Egypt, 

 a particular spot was set apart as the cemetery of 

 the sacred Apes. 



Mummies of the Cynocephalus are put up in 

 a sitting posture, which is that usually given to 

 the animal in the sculptures, when representing 

 the God Thoth ; and its head forms one of the 

 covers of the four sepulchral vases deposited in 

 the tombs of the dead, t It was then the type of 

 the God Hapi, one of the four Genii of Amenti, 

 who was always figured witli the liead of a Cyno- 

 cephalus. Many of tliis species of ape were tamed 

 and kept by the Egyptians, and the paintings show 

 that they were even trained for useful purposes, as 

 I have already liad occasion to observe. t 



* II<)ni|K)llo, i. II.; iiiul I'lin. viii. 54. 



t rirU- .svprd, p. 5. and lii. % ^''"'<' Vol. II. p. 150. 



