o him, and here
he reigned without rival, at Busiris as at Mendes. His most famous
idol-form was the Didu, whether naked or clothed, the fetish, formed
of four superimposed columns, which had given its name to the
principality.[**]

* It has long been a dogma with Egyptologists that Osiris
came from Abydos. Maspero has shown that from his very
titles he is obviously a native of the Delta, and more
especially of Busiris and Mendes.

** The Didu has been very variously interpreted. It has
been taken for a kind of nilometer, for a sculptor's or
modeller's stand, or a painter's easel for an altar with
four superimposed tables, or a sort of pedestal bearing four
door-lintels, for a series of four columns placed one behind
another, of which the capitals only are visible, one above
the other, etc. The explanation given in the text is that of
Reuvens, who recognized the Didu as a symbolic
representation of the four regions of the world; and of
Maspero, _Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archeologie
Egyptiennes_, vol. ii. p. 359, note 3. According to Egyptian
theologians, it represented the spine of Osiris, preserved
as a relic in the town bearing the name of _Didu, Bidit_.

[Illustration: 185.jpg OSIRIS-ONNOPHRIS, WHIP AND CROOK IN HAND. 1]

1 Drawn by Boudier from a statue in green basalt found at
Sakkarah, and now in the Gizeh Museum.

They ascribed life to this Didu, and represented it with a somewhat
grotesque face, big cheeks, thick lips, a necklace round its throat, a
long flowing dress which hid the base of the columns beneath its folds,
and two arms bent across the breast, the hands grasping one a whip and
the other a crook, symbols of sovereign authority. This, perhaps, was
the most ancient form of Osiris; but they also represented him as a
man, and supposed him to assume the shapes of rams and bulls,[*] or
even those of water-birds, such as lapwings, herons, and cranes, which
disported themselves about the lakes of that district.[**]

* The ram of Mendes is sometimes Osiris, and sometimes the
soul of Osiris. The ancients took it for a he-goat, and to
them we are indebted for the record of its exploits.
According to Manetho, the worship of the sacred ram is not
older than the time of King Kaiekhos of the second dynasty.
A Ptolemaic necropolis of sacred rams was discovered by
Mariette at