CHAP. XIII. NAME OF KHEM. 259 



their name, it might be inferred that tliey were pe- 

 cuhar to the God Mercury; but this depended on 

 the head they bore ; those with the face of Apollo 

 being styled Hermapollos ; of Minerva, Herma- 

 thenas ; and others, according to their respective 

 combinations. The Hermes fissure was therefore 

 the exclusiv'C name given to statues of a peculiar 

 form, and not to those of Mercury alone. For, 

 besides the fact of the latter being represented in 

 a perfect form like the other Gods, we find from 

 Cicero, that these Hermes statues were forbidden 

 to be erected upon a tomb, which would seem to 

 be the most appropriate situation for a figure of 

 Mercury, the Deity to whom the care of the dead 

 was particularly confided. 



In one of several groups of hieroglyphics signi- 

 fying " Egypt,'' a tree is introduced as the symbol 

 of that country; but whether any peculiar tree was 

 sacred to the God Khem, or its name resembled 

 the word " Chemi" (Egypt), I will not pretend 

 to decide ; trees of the same form, as that occur- 

 ring in the name of Egypt*, accompany the shrine 

 of the God t, and they may be emblems both of 

 the country, and of the Deity whose name it bore. 

 For Egypt was denominated '* Chemi (Khemi), or 

 the land of Ham," as we find in the hieroglyphic 

 legends ; and the city of Khem, or Panopolis, was 

 called in Egyptian Chemmo, of which evident 

 traces are preserved in that of the modern town 



* See the Rosetta stone. Vide Vol. II. p. 186.; also, Chap, xiii., 

 Name of the Goddess 'S.tini, or Egypt, and the Woodcut. 

 \ Vide Plate 20. behind the figure of the God. 



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