Two smaller Canopuses which with the larger one come from Sakara.

These Plates marked I. II. III. IV. were designed by the Author to have been omitted; but as they will be esteemed of importance by many, and an ornament by all, it has been thought proper to insert them here, with the explanation of the three first, in the words of the author; as they followed at Sect. II. supra, p. 213. The fourth, which is Peutinger's Table, will be of use to the learned who shall compare it with the Itinerary, as Gerhard Vossius, de Scient. Mathem. advises, & Fabricius Biblioth. Lat. voce Tabula, and as this author has sometimes done. See vol. i. p. 198. vol. ii. p. 26. et alibi.

THE greatest part of the little images that are sold in Egypt, are commonly reported to have been lodged in the breasts of mummies. What may favour this opinion is, that the people of Sakara are the chief venders of these antiquities at present; of whom likewise I purchased the vase, which was probably an Egyptian censer, being of a beautiful slate-like stone, with the handle very artfully contrived to imitate the leg of a camel, tied up in the same fashion the Arabs use to this day to prevent those creatures from straying away. ff are two pendants of the like materials, and from the same place. Of this kind perhaps were the (Ava xula) stones, which they suspended upon the ears of their sacred crocodiles*. The Canopus, with two others †, in the possession of Dr Mead, (now of Mr Walpole) were likewise from Sakara. This of mine, which is of an almost transparent alabaster, is seventeen inches long, and six in diameter; having a scroll of sacred characters painted upon the breast, and the head of Isis, veiled, for the Operculum. The vessels ‡, that were carried about in their processions, either to denote the great blessing of water, or that water, the humid principle, was the beginning of all things, may be supposed to have been of this fashion, or rather, as the Canopuses usually are, somewhat more turgid. In the famous contest also (Plate I.) betwixt the Chaldeans and Egyptians, concerning the strength and power of their respective deities, Fire and Water, the latter was personated by a Canopus; the story whereof is humorously told by Suidas ||.

*

The

Αρτήματα τε λίθινα χυτα (forsitani) και χρύσεα ες τα ωτα (τα κρο κοδειλε ενθέντες, &c. Herod. Eut. 69

†These are figured by Mr Gordon, Tab. xviii. whereof the first is of baked earth, the other of alabaster.

Quintus auream vannum aureis congestam ramulis; et alius ferebat Amphoram. Apul. Met. 1. ii.

Suid. in voce Kavos.

262.