CHAP. XIV. IBEX. — SHEEP. 191 



gular that the horns of the goat were not given to 

 Khem, who answered to that attribute of the divine 

 power. Plutarch* pretends that the Mendesian 

 goat was called Apis, like the Sacred Bull of Osiris j 

 but this is very questionable, as I have already 

 observed t; and, unfortunately, little remains of 

 the monuments in the Mendesian nome to guide 

 us respecting the true character of the presiding 

 Deity of that province. 



The Ibex, or wild goatt of the desert, was not 

 sacred. It occurs sometimes in astronomical sub- 

 jects ; and is frequently represented among the 

 animals slaughtered for the table and the altar, 

 both in the Thebaid and in Lower Egypt. 



The Sheep, and Kebsh. 



The Sheep was sacred in Upper Egypt, par- 

 ticularly in the vicinity of Thebes and Ele- 

 phantine. TheLycopolites, however, sacrificed and 

 ate this animal, " because the wolf did so, whom 

 they revered as a God§;" and the same was 

 done by the people of the Mendesian nome ; 

 though Straboll would seem to confine the sacrifice 

 of sheep to the nome of Nitriotis. In the The- 

 baid it was considered not merely as an emblem, 

 but ranked among the most sacred of all animals. 

 It was dedicated to Neph, one of the greatest 

 Deities of the Thebaid, who was represented 

 with the head of a ram (for, as I have already 



* Vide supra, p. 36. f Supra, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 72. 



X MVxan, xiv. 16. § Plut. de Is. s. 72. 



II Strabo, xvii. p. 552. 



