of
the value of the object stolen, received his property again. The
original burglar and the chief of robbers divided the profits. This
traffic was countenanced in Egypt until the country passed into British
hands.
[2] The ape was sacred to and an emblem of Toth, the male deity of
Wisdom and Law.
CHAPTER IV
THE PROCESSION OF AMEN
Thebes Diospolis, the hundred-gated, was in holiday attire. The great
suburb to the west of the Nile had emptied her multitudes into the
solemn community of the gods. Besides her own inhabitants there were
thousands from the entire extent of the Thebaid and visitors even from
far-away Syene and Philae. It was an occasion for more than ordinary
pomp. The great god Amen was to be taken for an outing in his ark.
Every possible manifestation of festivity had been sought after and
displayed. The air was a-flutter with party-colored streamers.
Garlands rioted over colossus, peristyle, obelisk and sphinx without
conserving pattern or moderation. The dromos, or avenue of sphinxes,
was carpeted with palm and nelumbo leaves, and copper censers as large
as caldrons had been set at equidistance from one another, and an
unceasing reek of aromatics drifted up from them throughout the day.
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