254 THE ANCJENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



Herodotus* describes him as a pigmy figure, re- 

 sembling the Pataikos, placed by the Phoenicians 

 at the prows of their vessels ; and says that Cam- 

 byses, on entering the temple at Memphis, ridi- 

 culed the contemptible appearance of the Egyptian 

 Hephaestus. Kepresentations of this dwarf Deity 

 are frequently met with at Memphis and the 

 vicinity ; and it appears that dwarfs and deformed 

 persons were held in consideration in this part 

 of Egypt, out of respect to the Deity of the 

 place. He usually has a Scarabasus, his emblem, 

 on his head ; he sometimes holds the crook and 

 flagellum of Osiris ; and he frequently appears 

 with a hawk's head, both when worship])ed in the 

 temples, and when placed on the sarcophagi of 

 the dead. I have even seen the lids of coffins 

 at Memphis formed in the shape of this God t ; the 

 necklace, whose two extremities are surmounted by 

 a hawk's head, peculiarly belonged to Pthah-Sokari ; 

 and it is not impossible, that his name Sokar t 

 maybe derived from the hawk. But this is merely 

 a conjecture. Besides the Scaraba^us and hawk, the 

 Capricorn also belonged to him, and the prow of his 

 boat or ark was ornamented with the head of that 

 animal. 



The ceremony of bearing this boat in solemn 

 procession was one of the most important of all 

 the rites practised by the Egyptians ; and the 



* Herodot. iii. 37. 



f Vide Chap. xvi. ; and PI. 24. a. figs. 2. and 5. ; and PI. 43. figs. I. 

 and 2. 



X The Egyptian God ^oxapis, mentioned in a verse of Cratinus, is, as 

 M. ChanipoUion supposes, the same Deity. Vide Hesych. voc. Paamyles. 



