I g 



288 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XV. 



they were of the greatest importance is abundantly 

 proved by the frequent mention of them in the 

 sculptures. And that the post of president of the 

 assembUes was the highest possible honour may 

 be inferred, as well from its being enjoyed by the 

 sovereign alone of all men, as from its being 

 assigned to the Deity himself in these legends : 

 *' Phrah (Pharaoh), lord of the panegyrics, like 

 ,,^^ Re," or " like his father Pthah," 

 which so frequently occur on 

 the monuments of Thebes and 

 Memphis. 



From these assemblies being 

 connected with the palm branch, 

 the emblem of a year, and fre- 

 1 ^^"^ quently attached to it when in 



■ I the hands of the God Thoth*, 

 ^ we may conclude that their ce- 

 lebration was fixed to certain periods of the year ; 

 and the title " Lord of Triacontaeterides, like the 

 great Pthah," applied to Ptolemy Epiphanes in 

 the Rosetta Stone, is doubtless related to these 

 meetings, which, from the Greek wordt, some 

 suppose to have taken place every thirty years. 

 But this period is evidently too long, since few 

 sovereigns could have enjoyed the honour, t It 

 more probably refers to the festivals of the new 

 Moons §, or to those recorded in the great calendar, 

 sculptured on the exterior of the S. W. wall of 



* Vide Plate 30. b., of the King in the Persea tree. 



-|- TpiaKovra eT7ipi(Hoi: % Vide siijjrd, p. 52. 



^ Conf. Isaiah, i. 13, 14. " The ve7i> moona and .sahbaths, the calling of 

 mscvihlics 1 cimnot away with : it is inicjiiit}-, even the solemn meeting." 

 " Yonr new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth." 



