292 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XV. 



the country in the towns of their respective nomes, 

 grand festivities were proclaimed, and all the en- 

 joyments of the table were united with the so- 

 lemnity of a holy festival. Music, the dance, and 

 appropriate hymns, marked the respect they felt 

 for the Deity ; and a wooden statue of the River 

 God was carried by the priests through the vil- 

 lages in solemn procession, that all might appear 

 to be honoured by his presence and aid, while in- 

 vokino; the blessings he was about to confer. 



Another festival, particularly welcomed by the 

 Egyptian peasants, and looked upon as a day of 

 great rejoicing, was (if it may so be called) the 

 harvest home, or the close of the labours of the 

 year, and the preparation of the land for its future 

 crops by the inundation ; when, as Diodorus tells 

 us, the husbandmen indulged in recreation of every 

 kind, and showed their gratitude for the benefits 

 the Deity had conferred upon them by the bless- 

 ings of the inundation. This, and other festivals 

 of the peasantry, I have already noticed in treating 

 of the agriculture of Egypt. * 



Games were celebrated in honour of certain 

 Gods, in which wrestling and other gymnastic ex- 

 ercises were practised. " But of all their games,'* 

 says Herodotus t, *' the most distinguished are 

 those held at Chemmis in honoiu- of Perseus ; in 

 which the rewards for the conquerors are cattle, 

 cloaks, and skins. "t The form and attributes of 



* Supra, Vol. I. (2tl Series) p. 122. f Ilerodot. ii. 91. 



X Cunf. Horn. II. xxii. 159. : — 



Apvv(rOijv,a ti noaaiv aiOXia yii'trdt avt>()0)r" 



