passed on to the temple of Seti; Ameni had met it with his chorus of
singers, and had received the God on the shore of the Nile; the prophets
of the Necropolis had with their own hands placed him in the sacred Sam-
bark of the House of Seti, which was artistically constructed of cedar
wood and electrum set with jewels; thirty pastophori took the precious
burden on their shoulders, and bore it up the avenue of Sphinxes--which
led from the river to the temple--into the sanctuary of Seti, where Amon
remained while the emissaries from the different provinces deposited
their offerings in the forecourt. On his road from the shore kolchytes
had run before him, in accordance with ancient custom, strewing sand in
his path.

In the course of an hour the procession once more emerged into the open
air, and turning to the south, rested first in the enormous temple of
Anienophis III., in front of which the two giant statues stood as
sentinels--they still remain, the colossi of the Nile valley. Farther to
the south it reached the temple of Thotmes the Great, then, turning
round, it clung to the eastern face of the Libyan hills--pierced with
tombs and catacombs; it mounted the terraces of the temple of Hatasu, and
paused by the tombs of the oldest kings which are in the immediate
neighborhood; thus by sunset it had reached the scene of the festival
itself, at the entrance of the valley in which the tomb of Setitt had
been made, and in whose westernmost recesses were some of the graves of
the Pharaohs of the deposed race.

This part of the Necropolis was usually visited by lamp-light, and under
the flare of torches, before the return of the God to his own temple and
the mystery-play on the sacred lake, which did not begin till midnight.

Behind the God, in a vase of transparent crystal, and borne high on a