having placed the body
in a coffin, he threw it into the Nile, whence it floated down to the
sea. Isis, the sister and widow of Osiris, together with her sister
Nephthys, vainly sought for a long time her lord's remains, but at last
found them on the Syrian shore at Byblus, where they had been cast up by
the waves. She was conveying the corpse for embalmment and interment to
Memphis, when Set stole it from her, and cut it up into fourteen pieces,
which he concealed in various places. The unhappy queen set forth in a
light boat made of the papyrus plant, and searched Egypt from end to
end, until she had found all the fragments, and buried them with due
honours. She then called on her son, Horus, to avenge his father, and
Horus engaged him in a long war, wherein he was at last victorious and
took Set prisoner. Isis now relented, and released Set, who be it
remembered, was her brother; which so enraged Horus that he tore off her
crown, or (according to some) struck off her head, which injury Thoth
repaired by giving her a cow's head in place of her own. Horus then
renewed the war with his uncle, and finally slew him with a long spear,
which he drove into his head." The gods and goddesses of the Osirid
legend, Seb, Nut or Netpe, Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, Set, and Horus or
Harmachis, were those which most drew towards them the thoughts of the
Egyptians, the greater number being favourite objects of worship, while
Set was held in general detestation.

It was a peculiar feature of the Egyptian religion, that it contained
distinctively evil and malignant gods. Set was not, originally, such a
deity; but he became such in course of time, and was to the later
Egyptians the very principle of evil--Evil personified. Another evil
deity was Taour or Taourt, who is represented as a hippopotamus standing
on its hind-legs, with the skin and tail of a crocodile dependent down
its back, and a knife or a pair of shears in one hand. Bes seems also to
have been a divinity of the same class. He was represented as a hideous
dwarf, with large outstanding ears, bald, or with a plume of feathers on
his head, and with a lion-skin down his back, often carrying in his two
hands two knives. Even more terrible than Bes was Apep, the great
serpent, with its huge and many folds, who helped Set against Osiris,
and was the adversary and accuser of souls. Savak, a god with the head
of a crocodile, seems also to have belonged to the class of malignant
beings,