CHAT. XIII. POPULAR TALES. ^^15 



companion of chaos, or " night the genesis of all 

 things," another Goddess claimed the post of night, 

 wlio, under the name of Athor, received the Sun 

 into her arms, as he retired behind the Western 

 mountain, of which she was the presiding Deity. 

 Porphyry and otliers seem to confound the two, 

 and suj)pose I^atona to be the atmosphere, which 

 ap])ears light and dark beneath the Moon ; de- 

 riving the name of Leto from the fovgetfulne.ss 

 caused by sleep during the night, over which they 

 suppose her to preside. 



This, like many other mysteries, being clothed 

 by the Egyptian priests in the guise of a po- 

 pular tale, suited to the comprehension of the 

 people, was placed beyond the reach of the unin- 

 structed or the profane ; and the sanctity of the 

 mygale was attributed to the protection it afforded 

 to Latona, who, under its form, eluded the pursuit 

 of Typho. 



It is this custom of explaining the nature of the 

 Gods in two different ways, — the one intended for 

 the instruction of the initiated, the other to satisfy 

 the profanum vulgus, who were excluded from 

 all participation in metaphysical truths, which has 

 been the cause of so much apparent contradiction 

 in the character of the Egyptian Deities ; and we 

 may readily conceive the labyrinth into which the 

 human mind was led by similar explanations. But 

 the object of the priests was obtained by these 

 means. For, since they presented no difficulties to 

 the comprehension of a su})erstitious people, they 

 had tile appearance of truth, and effectually ])re- 



T 2 



