20i THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. 



though we are unable to ascertain the exact duties 

 they performed, it is evident that they assisted in 

 the most important ceremonies of the temple, in 

 company with the monarch himself, holding the 

 sacred emblems which were the badge of their 

 office ; and the importance of the post is suffi- 

 ciently evinced by the fact that the wives and 

 daughters of the noblest families of the country, 

 of the high-priests, and of the Kings themselves, 

 were proud to enjoy the honour it conferred. 

 Such being the case, shall we not reject with 

 contempt so ridiculous a story, and learn from it 

 how little reliance is to be placed on the Greek 

 and Roman accounts of the rites of Egypt? And, 

 indeed, if this absurd tale were not refuted by the 

 sculptures of Thebes, mere reason would tell the 

 most credulous that a custom so revolting to human 

 nature, and so directly at variance with the habits 

 of a civilised nation, could not possibly have ex- 

 isted in any country where morality was protected 

 by severe laws, or have been tolerated by the 

 Egyptians, who were unquestionably the most pious 

 of all the Heathen nations of antiquity. 



To depend upon the Greek theogony for the 

 nature and character of tlie Egyptian Deities, is 

 equally useless ; and though in some we may trace 

 the same origin, and perceive the same primitive 

 idea which suggested their attributes, so little re- 

 liance can be placed upon the resemblance, and so 

 little certainty is there of their not having been al- 

 tered by the Greeks, that the information obtained 

 from this source can seldom be admitted, unless 



