QQO THE ANCIENT EGVrTIANS. CHAP. XV. 



The birthdays of the kings were celebrated * 

 with great pomp. They were looked upon as holy ; 

 no business was done upon them ; and all classes 

 indulged in the festivities t suitable to the occasion. 

 Every Egyptian attached much importance to the 

 day, and even to the hour of his birth ; and it is pro- 

 bable that, as in Persiat, each individual kept his 

 birthday with great rejoicings, welcoming his friends 

 with all the amusements of society, and a more than 

 usual profusion of the delicacies of the table. 



They had many other public holydays, when the 

 court of the king and all public offices were closed. 

 This was sometimes owing to a superstitious 

 belief of their being unlucky ; and such was the 

 prejudice against the *' third day of the Epact§, 

 the birthday of Typho, that the sovereign neither 

 transacted any business upon it, nor even suffered 

 himself to take any refreshment till the evening. "|| 

 Other fasts were also observed by the king and the 

 priesthood, out of respect to certain solemn puri- 

 fications they deemed it their duty to undergo for 

 the service of religion. 



Among the ordinary rites the most noted, because 

 the most frequent, were the daily sacrifices offered 

 in the temple by the sovereign pontiff. It was 

 customary for him to attend there early every 

 morning, after he had examined and settled his 

 epistolary correspondence relative to the affairs of 



* Rosetta Stone. f Gen. xl. 20. 



J Vide Ilerodot. i. 1.33. 



^ The five (lays added at the end of Mesore. Vide svjrrd. Vol. I. 

 (2d Series) ]). .310 and .373. 

 11 Plut. de Is. s. 1 1 . 



