294 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XV. 



appointment to that post, or to some high com- 

 mand in the army.* On receiving this honourable 

 distinction, he held forth his hands in token of re- 

 spect; and raising the emblems of his newly-acquired 

 office above his head, he expressed his fidelity to his 

 king, and his desire to prove himself worthy of the 

 favour he had received. 



A similar mode of investiture appears to have 

 been adopted in all appointments to the high offices 

 of state, both of a civil and military kind. In 

 this, as in many customs detailed in the sculptures, 

 we find an interesting illustration of a ceremony 

 mentioned in the Bible, which describes Pharaoh 

 taking a ring from his hand and putting it on 

 Joseph's hand, arraying him in vestures of fine 

 linen, and putting a gold chain about his neck.t 



In a tomb, opened at Thebes by Mr. Hoskins, 

 another instance occurs of this investiture to the 

 post of fan-bearer ; in which the two attendants or 

 inferior priests are engaged in clothing him with the 

 robes of his new office. One puts on the necklace, 

 the other arranges his dress, a fillet being already 

 bound round his head ; and he appears to wear 

 glovesX upon his uplifted hands. In the next part 

 of the same picture (for, as is often the case, it 

 presents two actions and two periods of time) the 

 individual holding the insignia of fan-bearer, and 

 followed by the two priests, presents himself before 

 the king, who holds forth his liand to him to 



* Vide Plate 80. f Gen, xli. 42. 



I Vidr Vol. I. |). 377. 



