388 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XVI. 



represented in the paintings of the tombs. At 

 one side projects a small spout, to which a chan- 

 nel, carried round the inside, is intended to con- 

 vey the liquid of the libations ; and some with 

 two spouts are of a larger size, and intended for 

 a greater number of offerings. Being very low, 

 each was placed on a small pedestal or stool, 

 which has been found, together with the flat altar 

 stone it once supported, as figured on the monu- 

 ments. The channel around the altar stone calls 

 to mind the "trench" made by Elijah "round 

 about the altar" at Mount Carmel * ; though the 

 object was not the same, the water with which this 

 was filled being intended to prove the miraculous 

 interference of the Deity, when the fire that "con- 

 sumed the burnt sacrifice licked up the water in 

 the trench," and that of the Egyptian altar being 

 merely intended to carry off the libation poured 

 upon it. 



It is probable that when any of the sacerdotal 

 caste died, whose families could not afford the ex- 



* Kings, xviii. 3'i. et seq. "And he made a trench about the altar, as 

 creat as would contain two measures of seed ; and he put the wood in 

 order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and 

 said, fill fbin- barrels (pails) with water, and pour it on the burnt sacri- 

 fice, and on the wood And the water ran round about the altar; 



and he filled the trend) also with water And the fire of the Lord 



fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, 

 and the dust, and licked up the water that was in tiie trench." The 

 word barrels is in the Hebrew Q^lD, Kadim, properly ;;r///* or pit i hers, 

 asin Gcn.xxiv. 14.; from "H^, answering to tiie Cadus of the Latins. 

 I cannot in this place refrain from adtliiig my huml)le testimony to the 

 accuracy of our translation of the Bible ; which is the more sur|)rising, 

 as it was done without all the aid which an insight into eastern customs 

 has in later times afforded. 



