l or cylindrical. Some of these last are
in form not unlike a small cannon, which is the name given to them by the
Arabs. The most ancient are those of the Fifth Dynasty; the most beautiful
is one dedicated by Seti I., now in the Gizeh Museum. The only perfect
specimen of an altar known to me was discovered at Menshiyeh in 1884 (fig.
111). It is of white limestone, hard and polished like marble. It stands
upon a pedestal in the form of a long cone, having no other ornament than a
torus about half an inch below the top. Upon this pedestal, in a hollow
specially prepared for its reception, stands a large hemispherical basin.
The shrines are little chapels of wood or stone (fig. 112), in which the
spirit of the deity was supposed at all times to dwell, and which, on
ceremonial occasions, contained his image. The sacred barks were built
after the model of the Bari, or boat, in which the sun performed his daily
course. The shrine was placed amidship of the boat, and covered with a
veil, or curtain, to conceal its contents from all spectators. The crew
were also represented, each god being at his post of duty, the pilot at the
helm, the look-out at the prow, the king upon his knees before the door of
the shrine. We have not as yet discovered any of the statues employed in
the ceremonial, but we know what they were like, what part they played,
and of what materials they were made. They were animated, and in addition
to their bodies of stone, metal, or wood, they had each a soul magically
derived from the soul of the divinity which they represented. They spoke,
moved, acted--not metaphorically, but actually. The later Ramessides
ventured upon no enterprises without consulting them. They stated their
difficulties, and the god replied to each question by a movement of the
head. According to the Stela of Bakhtan,[24] a statue of Khonsu places its
hands four times on the nape of the neck of another statue, so transmitting
the power of expelling demons. It was after a conversation with the statue
of Amen in the dusk of the sanctuary, that Queen Hatshepsut despatched her
squadron to the shores of the Land of Incense.[25] Theoretically, the
divine soul of the image was understood to be the only miracle worker;
practically, its speech and motion were the results of a pious fraud.
Interminable avenues of sphinxes, gigantic obelisks, massive pylons, halls
of a hundred columns, mysterious chambers of perpetual night--in a word,
the whole Egy