120 



with that of Cambyses his son on a similar occasion in Egypt. 

 It is recorded by Herodotus that Cambyses, after his Ethiopian 

 expedition, returned to Memphis, where he found the people 

 rejoicing over the festival of an Apis bull. He commanded 

 the sacred bull to be brought before him, and then manifested 

 his scorn for the superstition of the Egyptians by thrusting 

 his sword into the beast's thigh. The thigh-bone was much 

 injured, but the priests took away their wounded idol, and 

 nursed him so skilfully that eventually he recovered and lived 

 to a good old age. 



Notwithstanding the statement of Herodotus, which seems 

 to have monumental confirmation, the fact that the Apis bull, 

 born in the reign of Cambyses, received divine honours from 

 the Persian king, is proved by the Apis tablets of that period. 

 His conforming to the religio-political necessities of the situa- 

 tion, after his conquest of Egypt, is brought very clearly 

 before us in the inscription on the statue of the official named 

 Uza-bor-em-pi-ri-is in the Vatican (Brugsch. Hut. Egijpt., 

 2nd edit., vol. ii., p. 305). We there read the words of the 



official, who says — ''When King Kanbut f 



(Cambyses) came to Sais he entered the temple of the goddess 

 Neith in person. He testified in every good way his reverence 

 for the great exalted, goddess. He did this because I made 

 him acquainted with the high importance of the holy goddess." 

 We may, therefore, conclude that Cambyses was following in 

 the footsteps of his equally politic father, and was guided in 

 these acts by the precedent his fiither had set him in Babylonia. 

 Even Dai'ius, who prided himself on his pious veneration for 

 the great god Ahuramazda, was so far influenced by the cir- 

 cumstance of his rule in Egypt as to build a great temple to 

 Ammon in the oasis of El Kargeh, and to adopt a pronomen 

 embodying the name of the sun-god, Ra, ^- — ^ •• — v 

 namely, Ra-mer-i Ntariush. It matters '- ""^ "^ 



but little what were the motives which 

 induced Cyrus to restore the Jews and 

 honour Jehovah by rebuilding the Temple, in 



that in doing so he was fulfilling the decree 



of the Most High; and, though his motives i ' 'y v^~~y 



may have been selfish and political, yet he 



was unconsciously acting as the servant of Jehovah. 



The statement in the Chronicle inscription that Goybras, 

 the prefect of Gutium, was the general who captured Babylon, 

 is in accordance with the statements of classical writers. 

 Pliny states that ''the large city of Agranis (Agadhc, or 



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