CHAP. XV. OTHER FETES. 311 



Having left him there, they all retired ; and two 

 wolves * were said to direct his steps to the temple, 

 a distance of twenty stades, and afterwards to re- 

 conduct him to the same spot. 



On the 19th of tlie first month was celebrated 

 the fete of Thoth, from wJiom that month took 

 its name. It was usual for those who attended 

 *' to eat honey and eggs, saying to each other 

 * How sweet a thmg is truth / ' " t And a similar al- 

 legorical custom was observed in Mesore, the last 

 month of the Egyptian year t ; when, on " offering 

 the first-fruits of their lentils, they exclaimed ' The 

 tongue is fortune, the tongue is God!'" Most of 

 their fetes appear to have been celebrated at the 

 new or the full Moon, as we learn from Plutarch 

 and Herodotus, — the former being also chosen by 

 the Israelites for the same purpose ; and this may, 

 perhaps, be used as an argument in favour of the 

 opinion §, that the months of the Egyptians were 

 originally lunar, as in many countries, even to the 

 present day. 



The historian of Halicarnassus speaks of an 

 annual ceremony, which the Egyptians informed 

 him was performed in memorial of the daughter of 

 Mycerinus.il The body of that princess had been 

 deposited within the wooden figure of a heifer, 



* Vide supra, p. 146. 



f Plut. de Is. s. 68. This answered to the 16th September, O. S. 



J Plut. s. 68. Mesore began on the 29th August, O. S. 



§ Vide supra, Vol. I. (^d Series) p. \'6. , 



II Herodotus very projicrly doubts the story of the love of Mycerinus, 

 and of his concubines having their hands cut off. Vide his Euterpe, 

 s. 131. ; and infra, p. 312. 



X 4 



