194 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



altar. But no man, on pain of death, could sa- 

 crifice one that had not this mark.* "All the 

 clean oxen were thought to belong to Epaphust," 

 who was the same as the God Apis. Herodotus 

 says that a single black hair rendered them unsuit- 

 able for this purpose; and Plutarch t affirms that 

 red oxen were alone lawful for sacrifice. But the 

 authority of the sculptures contradicts these asser- 

 tions, and shows that oxen with black and red 

 spots were lawful both for the altar and the table, 

 in every part of Egyot. This I shall have occasion 

 to notice more fully, in treating of the religious 

 ceremonies. It will suffice for the present to ob- 

 serve, that certain marks were required to ascertain 

 the sacred bulls, as the Apis, Mnevis, and Basis ; 

 and that the Cow of Athor was recognised by pe- 

 culiar signs known to the priests, and doubtless 

 most minutely described in the sacred books. 



The origin of the worship of the bull was said 

 to be its utility in agriculture §, of which Clemens 

 considers II it the type, as well as of the earth itself; 

 and this was the si.pposed reason of the bull being 

 chosen as the emblem of Osiris, who was the ab- 

 stract idea of all that was good or beneficial to man. 



Though oxen and calves were lawful food, and 

 adapted for sacrifice on the altars of all the Gods, 

 cows and heifers were forbidden to be killed, 

 being consecrated, according to Herodotus, to 

 Isis^; or rather, as he afterwards shows, and as 



* Ilerodot. ii. .S8. Vide infm, on the Sacrifices. 

 f Ilerodot. ii. 38. and iii. 21. Vide sii2)rd, Vol. I. (2d Scries) p. 348. 

 350. 



t Plut. dc Is. s. 31. 



§ Pint, de Is. s. 74 Diodor. i. 88. 



II Clcni. Strom, v. 1 Ilerodot. ii. 41. 



