CHAP. XIII. THE PAAMYLIA. 343 



Osiris, and so called from Paamyles, to whom the 

 education of Osiris had been intrusted by his father 

 Saturn. " From the manner of celebrating it," he 

 adds*, "it is evident that Osiris is, in reality, the 

 great principle of fecundity. They therefore carry 

 about in procession and expose to public view a 

 statue of this God with the triple phallus, signifying 

 that he is the first principle, and that every such 

 principle, by means of its generative faculty, mul- 

 tiplies what proceeds from, or is produced by, it. 

 The phallus being threefold merely implies a great 

 or indefinite number;'* or it probably refers to the 

 action of that principle upon matter, which was 

 represented by the number three. 



It is probably the same to which Herodotus al- 

 ludes t, as a fete of Bacchus. t " On that occasion, 

 every one killed a pig before his door, at the hour 

 of dinner ; and then restored it to the person of 

 whom it had been purchased. The Egyptians," 

 he adds, " celebrate the rest of this festival nearly 

 in the same manner as the Greeks, excepting 

 the sacrifice of pigs ; but, in lieu of phalli, they 

 make little puppets about a cubit high, which 

 women carry about the towns and villages, and set 

 in motion by means of a string. They are accom- 

 panied by a chorus, with a flute-player § at their 

 head, singing the praises of the Deity." The histo- 

 rian then describes the appearance of these })l)allic 

 figures, which he ascribes to a sacred reason; and it 



* Plut. de Is. s. 36, t Herodot. ii. 48. 



I Vide also, Pint, de Is. s. 8. 



J Vide Chap, xv., on the Ceremonies. 



z 4 



