3.54. THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



tlioiigh previously forbidden during the whole of 

 the festival. 



From whatever cause the death of Apis took 

 place, the people performed a publiclamentation *, 

 as if Osiris himself had died : and this mourning 

 lasted until the other Apis, his successor, had been 

 found. They then commenced their rejoicings, 

 which were celebrated with an enthusiasm equal 

 to the grief exhibited during the late mourning. 



The notion entertained by the Egyptians re- 

 specting the reappearance of the Deity under the 

 same form, and his entering the body of another 

 bull as soon as the Apis died, confirms the ophiion 

 of Diodorus, that they believed in the transmigration 

 of the Soul of Osiris into the body of this animal : 

 and the choice of it as the representative of Osiris 

 was probably owing to the doctrine of emanation 

 already mentioned- 



Of the discovery of a new Apis, Pliant gives 

 the follow^ing account. " As soon as a report is 

 circulated that the P^gyptian God has manifested 

 liimself, certain of the sacred scribes, well versed 

 in the mystical marks, known to them by tradi- 

 tion, approach the sj)ot where the Divine Cow 

 has deposited her calf, and there following the 

 ancient ordonnance of Hermes, feed it with milk 

 during four months, in a house facing the rising- 

 Sun. When this period has passed, the sacred 

 scribes and prophets resort to the dwelling of 



* Conf. Tibull. lib. i. Eleg. vii. 28. 



" Barbara INIcmphitem plangere docta bovem." 

 -f iElian, xviii. 10. 



