musicians. The majority of the female corporations
were distinguished by the infamous character of their manners, and
prostitution among them had come to be associated with the service of
the god.*

* The heroine of the erotic papyrus of Turin bears the title
of "Singing-woman of Amon," and the illustrations indicate
her profession so clearly and so expressively, that no
details of her sayings and doings are wanting.

[Illustration: 049.jpg THE GODDESS MABITSAKBO]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Lanzone.

There was no education for all this mass of people, and their religion
was of a meagre character. They worshipped the official deities, Amon,
Mut, Isis, and Hathor, and such deceased Pharaohs as Amenothes I.
and Nofritari, but they had also their own Pantheon, in which animals
predominated--such as the goose of Amon, and his ram Pa-rahaninofir,
the good player on the horn, the hippopotamus, the cat, the chicken,
the swallow, and especially reptiles. Death was personified by a great
viper, the queen of the West, known by the name Maritsakro, the friend
of silence. Three heads, or the single head of a woman, attached to the
one body, were assigned to it. It was supposed to dwell in the mountain
opposite Karnak, which fact gave to it, as well as to the necropolis
itself, the two epithets of Khafitnibus and Ta-tahnit, that is, The
Summit.*

* The abundance of the monuments of Maritsakro found at
Sheikh Abd el-Gurneh, inclines me to believe that her
sanctuary was situated in the neighbourhood of the temple of
Uazmosu, but there was also on the top of the hill another
sanctuary which would equally satisfy the name Ta-tahnit.

Its chapel was situated at the foot of the hill of Sheikh Abd el-Qurneh,
but its sacred serpents crawled and wriggled through the necropolis,
working miracles and effecting the cure of the most dangerous maladies.
The faithful were accustomed to dedicate to them, in payment of their
vows, stelas, or slabs of roughly hewn stone, with inscriptions
which witnessed to a deep gratitude. "Hearken! I, from the time of my
appearance on earth, I was a 'Servant of the True Place,' Nofirabu, a
stupid ignorant person, who knew not good from evil, and I committed
sin against The Summit. She punished me, and I was in her hand day and
night. I lay groaning on my couch like a woman in childbed, and I made
supplication to the air, but it did not com