le and the others enjoying respect and
protection throughout that nome, this is the normal state of affairs.
Sometimes an individual animal acquires sacredness for Egypt
generally, as the bull Apis of Memphis, the bull Mnevis of
Heliopolis, or the goat of Mendes. These, though originally local
deities, might obtain a wider reverence if the nome they belonged to
rose to greater power. Animals of every size and kind were worshipped
in Egypt. Besides the large animals we have mentioned, the ape, the
dog, the little shrew-mouse, each had its local sacredness; also
snakes, frogs, and various kinds of fishes. The beetle (_scarab_) can
by no means be left without mention; and a number of trees and shrubs
were also sacred,[1] but, very curiously, not the palm.

[Footnote 1: A very complete list of the sacred animals and trees
will be found in Wilkinson's _Ancient Egyptians_, vol. iii. p. 258,
_sqq._]

It will be observed that our account of Egyptian animal worship is
drawn from very late sources and applies to a late period of the
religion. The religion of the earlier ages of Egypt is of quite a
different kind; the kings and priests who wrote the inscriptions of
the monuments tell us nothing about animal worship. Is that because
such worship did not flourish in their day? Not necessarily. Perhaps
they knew it well, but were not interested in it, or did not wish to
encourage it. The Egyptians certainly did not believe the worship of
animals to have been a late innovation. Manetho, an Egyptian priest
who wrote in the third century B.C., says that the worship of animals
was introduced under the second king of the second dynasty. That is
as if we should say that an old custom of which we did not know the
origin was introduced into Britain in the days of King Arthur. The
priests of Manetho's day wished animal worship to be considered a
corruption of the original religion of their country, but they could
not specify the time at which it had come in, and placed its origin
in the mythical period of history. The story of Manetho therefore
goes to prove that the origin of animal worship is anterior to
written records.

But we have other evidence to the same effect. The earliest
representations of the deities of Egypt on the monuments testify in a
way which can scarcely be mistaken that these great beings had
originally some connection with members of the animal kingdom. The
great gods of Egypt are designated on the monuments in three