ment and black
and green eye paint, and scattering clean sand before him. The priest
then walked four times round the shrine. 7th. _Purifying_--with
incense, natron of the south and north, and two other kinds of incense.
Probably such a ritual was a gradual growth of successive ages. Where
a living animal was maintained as sacred, the feeding of it was a
considerable service. A court was built at Memphis for the sacred Apis
bull to take his exercise, and special bundles of fodder were provided.
A large tank was made for the sacred crocodile in the Fayum, and the
priests used to follow the reptile around the tank with the offerings
brought by devotees. Similarly at Epidauros is a deep circular trench
cut in the rock, with a central niche; in this a sacred serpent could
be visited and fed without its being able to escape.

The priesthood was elaborated in many different kinds, and varied
grades in each. There were the 'servants of the god,' who had charge
of the worship and ritual; the 'pure men,' who were {73} occupied with
the acts of offerings and service; the 'divine fathers,' who had charge
of the property of a god and the providing for the services; the
'reciters'; the 'female singers'; and others; and there were four
grades of most of the classes.

A special divine gift was the _sa_, an essence which was imparted to
the king when he knelt with his back to the god and the divine hand was
placed on him. This was also imparted to a class of priests or
initiated who were described as 'impregnated with the sa' of four
different grades. This seems to have been a kind of ordination
imparting special powers.

A fundamental idea was that the king was the priest of the land, and
that all offerings (especially those for the dead) were made by him.
Even though the king could not physically perform all the offerings,
yet when others did so they were only acting on behalf of the priestly
king of the nation. So strongly was this held that the regular formula
for all offerings for the dead was 'A royal giving of offerings of such
and such things for the _ka_ of such an one,' or it may be rendered
'May the king give an offering.' The act itself is shown on some
funeral tablets, where the king appears as making the offering, {74}
while the person for whom he acts stands behind him.

Much light on the sources of the rise of the priesthood is given by the
titles borne by the priests of the various capitals of the provinc