H.—ANTHROPOLOGY. 185 
Crete, a fact which is significant in view of Sir Arthur Evans’ remark, 
quoted at the beginning of my address, to the effect that he considers the 
possibility of some actual immigration into the Island of the older 
Egyptian element due to the first Pharaohs. The * Harpoon,’ it should 
be noted, is the prototype of the bident, and later, of the trident of the 
Libyan god Poseidon. 
Upon the mace-head of Menes the king is represented assuming the 
Crown of Neith of Sais. This is the earliest representation of the 
famous Sed Festival which is generally held to be a survival, in a 
much weakened form, of the ceremonial killing of the king, its essential 
feature being regarded as the identification of the king with the god 
Osiris. The festival was, I believe, of Libyan origin, and, at all 
events in its origin, it was not connected in any way with Osiris. On 
this mace-head the Upper Egyptian conqueror is shown seated under a 
canopy upon a dais raised high above the ground. He is clad in a long, 
close-fitting garment; upon his head is the Red Crown of Sais, and in 
one of his hands is the so-called flail. Behind him is a group of 
officials, and upon either side of the dais are two fan-bearers. In front 
of the king is a princess seated in a palanquin, and behind her are 
three men figured in the act of running. This is the earliest of a long 
series of representations of the festival, and we cannot doubt that the 
particular ceremony here depicted was the central one around which, 
in later times, the other ceremonies that we know were connected with 
it were grouped. There is no indication here of any ceremonial killing 
of the king, and the Red Crown which Menes wears is not charac- 
teristic of Osiris but of the goddess Neith of Sais. In the Mortuary 
Temple of Neuserre at Abusir, in the Temple of Amenhotep III. at 
Soleb in Nubia, and in the Temple of Osorkon III. at Bubastis, the 
Sed Festival is represented in far greater detail, but still there is no 
indication of the ceremonial killing of the king, or of his identification 
with Osiris. These later scenes show that the festival was a great 
national one that was attended by all the great dignitaries of State, and 
_ by the priests of the gods from all the principal cities of Egypt. In 
these later representations the king’s daughters and the running men 
play an important part. Inscriptions accompanying the scenes at 
Soleb** and Bubastis state that the king at this festival assumed the 
protection of Egypt and of the sacred women of the Temple of Amon. 
The Queen at these periods of Egyptian history was the High Priestess 
of Amon and the Head of the Harim of the god. An important refer- 
ence to the festival is found in the inscription of Piankhy. This 
Ethiopian king, in his triumphant march from Thebes towards the 
Delta, had captured Hermopolis, the capital of a petty king named 
Namlot (a Libyan Dynast), and when Piankhy made his entry into the 
city he was acclaimed by the people, who prayed that he would cele- 
brate there a Sed festival. ‘ His Majesty proceeded to the palace of 
Namlot, and entered every chamber. He caused that there be brought 
to him the king’s wives and the king’s daughters. They saluted His 
Majesty in the fashion of women,” but the Ethiopian says that he would 
not turn his face tc them, and he did not celebrate a Sed festival. The 
most important point in connection with the festival is that at it the 
