CHAPTER III.

GOD-KINGS PRIOR TO MENES.

In former time, the priests of Jupiter did to Hecatæus the historian, when he was tracing his own genealogy, and connecting his family with a god in the sixteenth degree, the same as they did to me, though I did not endeavor to trace my genealogy. Conducting me into the interior of a spacious edifice, and showing me four hundred and forty-five wooden colossuses, they counted them over; for every high-priest places an image of himself there during his lifetime; the priests pointed out that the succession from father to son was unbroken. But when Hecatæus traced his own genealogy, and connected himself with a god in the sixteenth degree, they controverted his genealogy by computation, not admitting that a man could be born from a god; and said that each of the colossuses was a Piromis, sprung from a Piromis; until they pointed out the three hundred and forty-five colossuses, each a Piromis, sprung from a Piromis, and they did not connect them with any god or hero. Piromis means, in the Grecian language, "a noble and good man." They said that these were very far from being gods; but before the time of these men, gods had been the rulers of Egypt, and had dwelt amongst men; and that one of them always had the supreme power, and that Orus, the son of Osiris, was the last who reigned over it. Now, Osiris in the Greek language means Bacchus, and Orus is the equivalent of Apollo.

All the revenue from the city of Anthylla, which is of much importance, is assigned to purchase shoes for the wife of the reigning king of Egypt.