attended by crowds of people. The holy water used in the libations and
for sprinkling the people was Nile water, specially imported from
Egypt, and to the votaries of the goddess it symbolized the seed of the
god Osiris, which germinated and brought forth fruit through the spells
of the goddess Isis. The festivals and processions of Isis were
everywhere most popular, and were enjoyed by learned and unlearned
alike. In fact, the Isis-play which was acted annually in November,
and the festival of the blessing of the ship, which took place in the
spring, were the most important festivals of the year. Curiously
enough, all the oldest gods and goddesses of Egypt passed into absolute
oblivion, with the exception of Osiris (Sarapis), Isis, Anubis the
physician, and Harpokrates, the child of Osiris and Isis, and these,
from being the ancestral spirits of a comparatively obscure African
tribe in early dynastic times, became for several hundreds of years the
principal objects of worship of some of the most cultured and
intellectual nations. The treatise of Plutarch De Iside helps to
explain how this came about, and for those who study the Egyptian
Legend of Isis and Osiris the work has considerable importance.





THE HISTORY OF CREATION--A.




THE BOOK OF KNOWING THE EVOLUTIONS[FN#49] OF RA, AND OF OVERTHROWING
APEP.