350 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XV. 



some of the gods, and perhaps only when wor- 

 shipped in a particular character. This is the more 

 probable, as we find they did not scruple to offer a 

 coloured victim before the altar of Osiris, to whom 

 the red ox was said to be an offering peculiarly ac- 

 ceptable. Certain marks may have excluded an 

 animal, and have rendered it unfit for the altar or 

 the table, particularly if they bore any resemblance 

 to those which characterised Apis ; and some oxen 

 may have been forbidden, in consequence of their 

 being thought to appertain to Mnevis, the sacred 

 bull of Heliopolis. 



It was, perhaps, on the occasion of sacrificing 

 the red ox, that the imprecations mentioned in 

 Herodotus and Plutarch were uttered by the priest 

 upon the head of the victim, which, as I have al- 

 ready observed*, strongly reminds us of the scape- 

 goat of the Jewst ; and if so, this may serve to con- 

 firm my conjecture of that *' important ceremony 

 being confined to certain occasions, and to chosen 

 animals, without extending to every victim which 

 was slain," 



According to Herodotus, " they took the ox 

 destined for sacrifice to the altar, and having 

 lighted a fire, they poured a libation of wine upon 

 the table and about the prostrate animal, and, 

 invoking the Deity, slew it. They then cut off 

 the head, and removed the skin from the body, 

 and solemnly loading the former with imprecations, 

 they prayed the gods to avert all the evils that 

 might have haj)pencd to their country or them- 



* Vide supra. Vol. II. p. .'378. f Levit. xiv. 21. 



