394 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



another and a more forcible reason subsisted for 

 the honours paid to the former, which is explained 

 by Porphyry.* "The utiUty of cattle, and the 

 smallness of their herds, induced the Egyptians to 

 prohibit the slaughter of cows ; therefore, though 

 they killed oxen for the altar and the table, they 

 abstained from the females, with a view to the 

 preservation of the race, and the law deemed it 

 a sacrilege to eat their meat." "The Egyptians 

 and Phoenicians," he adds, "would rather feed on 

 human flesh than the flesh of a heifer," in conse- 

 quence, as St. Jerome observes, of the small stock 

 of cattle in Palestine and the valley of the Nile ; 

 and a similar motive may originally have induced 

 the Hindoos to venerate the Cow. 



Instances sometimes occur of the Cow with a 

 human head, wearing the Asp and horns of Athor.t 

 The Goddess is also represented as a bird with a 

 human head, wearing her disk and horns. She 

 is then in a character connected with the virtuous 

 souls who have been admitted to the regions of 

 Amenti. To Athor also appears to have been 

 dedicated one of the sacred fish of Egypt, which 

 even bears her name in the hieroglyphic legend 

 that accompanies it. t 



* Porph. de Abst. ii. 11. 



f Vide infra, the Offerings, at end of Chap. xv. ; and Plate 82. 



:{: Vide infra, Chap, xiv., on the Fish. 



