354 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XV. 



rally trussed, but wading birds were frequently 

 offered with their feathers, unplucked ; a peculiarity 

 occasionally extended also to geese. Even oxen 

 and other animals were sometimes offered entire, 

 though generally after the head had been taken off; 

 but it does not appear if this depended on any 

 particular ceremony, or was confined to the rites 

 of certain Deities. 



According to Porphyry, as quoted by Eusebius *, 

 " there were gods of the earth in the Greek my- 

 thology, and gods of the lower regions, to whom 

 four-footed victims were offered ; with this differ- 

 ence, that to the former they were presented on 

 altars, but to the infernal gods in a hole made in 

 the earth. To the gods of air birds were offered, 

 the bodies being burnt whole, and the blood sprin- 

 kled around the altar ; as to the sea gods like- 

 wise : but for these last the libation was thrown 

 into the waves, and the birds were of a black 

 colour." t Sometimes fruit or flowers alone were 

 presented to certain Deities, as to Pomona and 

 others ; and sometimes a hecatomb was offered 

 on great occasions, as in a public calamity or re- 

 joicing, and other events of importance: though not 

 always confined to a hundred oxen, as the word 

 implies, since the nurnber might be made up with 

 other animals, t Credulity has even tried to in- 

 sist upon the story of Pytliagoras offering a heca- 

 tomb on his demonstrating the 47th proposition of 

 Euclid, — a custom which, if still in vogue on that 



* Fiis. Prep. Ev. i. 3. f ITom. Oil. iii. 6 



X Horn. Ocl. i. 2-5 



