240 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



the same emblem ; and " the asp-formed crowns," 

 mentioned in the Rosetta stone, were exclusively 

 appropriated to the Kings or Queens of Egypt. 



The Asp also signified, in hieroglyphics, a ** God- 

 dess ;** and when opposed to the Vulture, ^Hhe 

 Lower Country* ;*' and it was given to Re, the 

 physical Sun, probably as an emblem of that domi- 

 nion which he held over the Universe, and from his 

 character of prototype of the Pharaohs. 



M. Champollion has satisfactorily accounted for 

 the nameUraeus given to the snake, by suggesting 

 that the word derives its origin and signification 

 from ourOy in Coptic "a King," answering, as Hora- 

 pollo tells us t, to the Greek (^amXia-xos, "royal ;" and 

 it is from this last word that the name basilisk has 

 been applied to the asp. But I do not know on what 

 authority that ingenious savant supposes the royal 

 Asp to be different from the Asp " of Cnouphis."1: 



The description given by Porphyry § of" Kneph 

 with a human head, azure black colour, bearing 

 a feather on his head," agrees exactly with the God 

 Ao, but not with Neph ; and these two Deities can 

 in no way be related, — the latter being one of the 

 great Gods, and the former always having the title 

 " Son of the Sun," and being of an inferior order 

 of Divinities. Nor does any representation occur 

 of " the egg proceeding from his mouth, which 

 Porphyry conjectures to signify the world ; and from 

 which proceeded another God called Phta, the 



* Vide infra, on the God Omhte, and the Genius of Lower Egypt. 

 •]- Horapollo, Hierog. i. 1. " The Egyptians call it Ouraius, which, in 

 the Greek language, signifies /SaTiXio-^-ot-." 



J Champollion, Pantheon, Nef. ^ Jlde siqna, p. 214^. 



