There were countless gods of the people:  trees, serpents and family fetishes.  Fine single sycamores, flourishing as if by miracle amid the sand, were counted divine, and worshipped by Egyptians of all ranks, who made them offerings of figs, grapes, cucumbers, vegetables and water.  The most famous of them all, the Sycamore of the South, used to be regarded as the living body of Hathor on earth.  Each family possessed gods and fetishes, which had been pointed out by some fortuitous meeting with an animal or an object; perhaps by a dream and often by sudden intuition.

III.—­Legendary History of Egypt

The legendary history of Egypt begins with the Heliopolitan Enneads, or traditions of the divine dynasties of Ra, Shu, Osiris, Sit and Horus.  Great space is taken up with the fabulous history of Ra, the first king of Egypt, who allows himself to be duped and robbed by Isis, destroys rebellious men, and ascends to heaven.  He dwelt in Heliopolis, where his court was mainly composed of gods and goddesses.  In the morning he went forth in his barque, amid the acclamations of the crowd, made his accustomed circuit of the world, and returned to his home at the end of twelve hours after the journey.  In his old age he became the subject of the wiles of Isis, who poisoned him, and so secured his departure from earth.  He was succeeded by Shu and Sibu, between whom the empire of the universe was divided.

The fantastic legends concocted by the priests go on to relate how at length Egypt was civilised by Osiris and Isis.  By Osiris the people were taught agriculture; Isis weaned them from cannibalism.  Osiris was slain by the red-haired and jealous demon, Sit-Typhon, and then Egypt was divided between Horus and Sit as rivals; and so it consisted henceforth of two kingdoms, of which one, that of the north, duly recognised Horus, son of Isis, as its patron deity; the other, that of the south, placed itself under the supreme protection of Sit-Nubiti, the god of Ombos.

Elaborate and intricate and hopelessly confused are the fables relating to the Osirian embalmment, and to the opening of the kingdom of Osiris to the followers of Horus.  Souls did not enter it without examination and trial, as it is the aim of the famous Book of the Dead to show.  Before gaining access to this paradise each of them had to prove that it had during earthly life belonged to a friend or to a vassal of Osiris, and had served Horus in his exile, and had rallied to his banner from the very beginning of the Typhonian wars.

To Menes of Thinis tradition ascribes the honour of fusing the two Egypts into one empire, and of inaugurating the reign of the human dynasties.  But all we know of this first of the Pharaohs, beyond his existence, is practically nothing, and the stories related of him are mere legends.  The real history of the early centuries eludes our researches.  The history as we have it is divided into three periods:  1.