CHAP. XII. RITES IN DIFFERENT TOWNS. 159 



thougli liis protection and assistance were particu- 

 larly invoked by the inhabitants, other Deities shared 

 with him the honours of the sanctuary, under the 

 name of Contemplar Gods, whose united favours 

 they did not fail to implore. With this feeling, the 

 dedication and votive prayers put up in the temples 

 were addressed to the presiding Deityandthe Con- 

 templar Gods* ; and if the former held the most 

 conspicuous post in the adytum and other parts of 

 the temple, the latter received all the respect due 

 to them as equally sacred, though not enjoying the 

 same external honours in that building. And thus, 

 again, we find that separate temples were raised to 

 various Deities in the same city. 



In the worship of sacred animals the case was 

 different; and it frequently happened, that those 

 which were adored in some parts of Egypt, were 

 abhorred and treated as the enemies of mankind in 

 other provinces : deadly conflicts occasionally re- 

 sulting from this worship or detestation of the same 

 animal. 



The arbitrary choice of peculiar emblems, and 

 the adoration paid to animals and inanimate ob- 

 jects, frequently depended upon accident, or some 

 peculiar local reason ; and though great respect was 

 shown to the ichneumon, from its destroying the 

 eggs of the crocodile, in places where that animal 

 was considered an enemy of man, it obtained no 

 honours in those where the crocodile was a sacred 



* For instance, at Onihos, where the presiding Deity was Aroeris, the 

 dcdicaticn says that the " Infantry and cavalry and others stationed in 

 tlieOinbitenome, dedicated the adytum to Aroeris, tlic great Cnxj Apollo, 

 anil to the contcni[)lar deities, for their benevolence towards them." 



