ion
on p. 167.

And if the statues had not the same outward appearance of actual life as
the animals, they none the less concealed beneath their rigid exteriors
an intense energy of life which betrayed itself on occasion by gestures
or by words. They thus indicated, in language which their servants could
understand, the will of the gods, or their opinion on the events of the
day; they answered questions put to them in accordance with prescribed
forms, and sometimes they even foretold the future.

[Illustration: 169.jpg OPEN-AIR OFFERINGS TO THE SERPENT. 1]

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken in the
tomb of Khopirkerisonbu. The inscription behind the urseus
states that it represents _Banuit the August, lady of the
double granary_.

Each temple held a fairly large number of statues representing so many
embodiments of the local divinity and of the members of his triad. These
latter shared, albeit in a lesser degree, all the honours and all the
prerogatives of the master; they accepted sacrifices, answered prayers,
and, if needful, they prophesied. They occupied either the sanctuary
itself, or one of the halls built about the principal sanctuary, or
one of the isolated chapels which belonged to them, subject to the
suzerainty of the feudal god. The god has his divine court to help him
in the administration of his dominions, just as a prince is aided by his
ministers in the government of his realm.

This State religion, so complex both in principle and in its outward
manifestations, was nevertheless inadequate to express the exuberant
piety of the populace. There were casual divinities in every nome
whom the people did not love any the less because of their inofficial
character; such as an exceptionally high palm tree in the midst of the
desert, a rock of curious outline, a spring trickling drop by drop from
the mountain to which hunters came to slake their thirst in the hottest
hours of the day, or a great serpent believed to be immortal, which
haunted a field, a grove of trees, a grotto, or a mountain ravine.[*]

* It was a serpent of this kind which gave its name to the
hill of Sheikh Haridi, and the adjacent nome of the Serpent
Mountain; and though the serpent has now turned Mussulman,
he still haunts the mountain and preserves his faculty of
coming to life again every time that he is killed.

The peasants of the district brought it bread, cakes, fr