394 
GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS. 
most appropriate offerings to tlieir deities*, and the 
priests alone were permitted to immolate them. The 
objects of animal worship were multifarious, and each 
held in respect according to its supposed importance ; 
and not only did the Egyptians reyerence them as 
symbols of their gods, but they also believed in evil 
genii, who presided over sublunary matters and the 
elements, — these, according to lamblicus (De Mys- 
teriis,) were the demons or Bai/noves, from which 
arrangement, we suspect, must have been deduced the 
division of good and evil spirits, confided in so im- 
plicitly by all the West Africans. 
Of the various deities among the Ethiopians f, 
Neph was an especial object of adoration. He was 
represented by a ram’s head J, his emblem ; and this 
was worn as a common charm or amulet by the 
devout of all classes; it is therefore a strange ana- 
logy, that not only in the worship of the Great 
Spirit, but even among thepenates of the West Africans, 
particularly the Krus, Ibus, Edeeyahs, and Bimbians, 
* Vide vol. i., pages 117, 249. Vol. ii., pages 199. 
According to tlie testimony of Herodotus and Plutarch, the reli- 
gious festivals and observances of the Egyptians, were principally 
held about the time of new, and full moon; the periods still observed 
by the tribes of Western Africa. (Vide vol. ii. p. 224.) 
t Vide Wilkinson, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 241. 
t In the Egyptian saloon of the British Museum, there is a statue 
of Pioeri, prince of Ethiopia, in the reign of Raineses II., kneeling, 
and holding an altar, on which is a ram’s head. It is from Belzoni’s 
collection. 
