312 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XV. 



and was still preserved, in the time of Herodotus, in 

 a richly ornamented chamber of the royal palace 

 at Sais. Every kind of perfume was burnt before 

 it during the day, and at night a lamp was kept 

 constantly lighted. In an adjoining apartment 

 were about twenty colossal statues of wood, repre- 

 senting naked women, in a standing position, said 

 by the priests of Sais to be the concubines of 

 Mycerinus. " But of this," adds the historian, 

 *' I can only repeat what was told me; and I 

 believe all they relate of the love of the king, 

 and the hands of the statues, to be a fable.* 

 The heifer is covered with a crimson housing, 

 except the head and neck, which are laid over 

 with a thick coat of gold ; and between the horns 

 is a golden disk of the Sun. It is not standing 

 on its feet, but kneeling; and in size it is equal 

 to a large cow. Every year they take it out of 

 this chamber, at the time when the Egyptians beat 

 themselves and lament a certain God (Osiris), 

 whom 1 must not mention : on which occasion they 

 expose the heifer to the light, the daughter of 

 Mycerinus having made this dying request to her 

 father, that he would permit her to see the Sun 

 once a year." 



The ceremony was evidently connected with 

 the rites of Osiris ; and if Herodotus is correct in 

 stating that it was a heifer (and not an ox), it may 

 have been the emblem of Athor, in the capacity 

 she held in the regions of the dead. The honours 



* Ilerodot. ii. 132. 



