298 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XV. 



In the same ceremony at Medeenet Haboo, it 

 appears that the king, when holding the rope, has 

 the cubit in his hand, and, when following the ark, 

 the cup of libation ; which calls to mind the office 

 of the Stolistes mentioned by Clemens*, " having 

 in his hand the cubit of justice, and the cup of liba- 

 tion j" and he, in like manner, was preceded by the 

 sacred scribe. 



The mode of carrying the sacred arks on poles 

 borne by priests, or by the nobles of the land, was 

 extended to the statues of the Gods, and other 

 sacred objects belonging to the temples. The 

 former, as Macrobius states t, were frequently 

 placed in a case or canopy ; and the same writer is 

 correct in stating that the chief people of the nome 

 assisted in this service, even the sons of the king 

 being proud of so honourable an employment. 

 What he afterwards says of their " being carried 

 forward according to divine inspiration, whither- 

 soever the Deity urges them, and not by their own 

 will," cannot fail to call to mind the supposed dic- 

 tation of a secret influence, by which the bearers 

 of the dead, in the funeral processions of modern 

 Egypt, pretend to be actuated. To such an extent 

 do they carry this superstitious belief of their an- 

 cestors, that I have seen them in tlieir solemn 

 march suddenly stop, and then run violently 



* Vide supra, p. 27+. 



-|- Macrol). .Siitiini. i. 30. " Veliitnr siiimlacnini Dei Ilcliopolitani 

 ferciilo, vcliiti vcliuntiir in j)oinpa liulonini (Jircciisium ck'oruni simu- 

 lacra, ct sul)euiit plcniinqiic provincia,- proccrcs, raso capitc, loiii^i tem- 

 poris caHtinioiiia piiri, fcniiiturquc divino spiritu, iioii suo arbitrio, scd 

 quo Dcus pi-Dpcllit vclicntcp." Vide infra, on tlic funeral ceremonies, 

 c. xvi. 



