17th of Thot, the priests kindled before the statues in the sanctuaries and sepulchral chapels, the fire for the use of the gods and doubles during the twelve ensuing months.  Almost at the same moment the whole country was lit up from one end to the other:  there was scarcely a family, however poor, who did not place in front of their door a new lamp in which burned an oil saturated with salt, and who did not spend the whole night in feasting and gossiping.*

* The night of the 17th Thot—­which, according to our computation, would be the night of the 16th to the 17th —­was, as may be seen from the Great Inscription of Siut, appointed for the ceremony of “lighting the fire” before the statues of the dead and of the gods.  As at the “Feast of Lamps”

The festivals of the living gods attracted considerable crowds, who came not only from the nearest nomes, but also from great distances in caravans and in boats laden with merchandise, for religious sentiment did not exclude commercial interests, and the pilgrimage ended in a fair.

[Illustration:  114.jpg TWO WOMEN WEAVING LINEN AT A HORIZANTAL LOOM]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a picture on the tomb of Khnum- hotpu at Beni-Hasan.  This is the loom which was reconstructed in 1889 for the Paris Exhibition, and which is now to be seen in the galleries of the Trocadero.

For several days the people occupied mentioned by Herodotus, the religious ceremony was accompanied by a general illumination which lasted all the night; the object of this, probably, was to facilitate the visit which the souls of the dead were supposed to pay at this time to the family residence themselves solely in prayers, sacrifices, and processions, in which the faithful, clad in white, with palms in their hands, chanted hymns as they escorted the priests on their way.  “The gods of heaven exclaim ’Ah! ah! ’in satisfaction, the inhabitants of the earth are full of gladness, the Hathors beat their tabors, the great ladies wave their mystic whips, all those who are gathered together in the town are drunk with wine and crowned with flowers; the tradespeople of the place walk joyously about, their heads scented with perfumed oils, all the children rejoice in honour of the goddess, from the rising to the setting of the sun."*

* The people of Dendera crudely enough called this the “Feast of Drunkenness.”  From what we know of the earlier epochs, we are justified in making this description a general one, and in applying it, as I have done here, to the festivals of other towns besides Dendera.

The nights were as noisy as the days:  for a few hours, they made up energetically for long months of torpor and monotonous existence.  The god having re-entered the temple and the pilgrims taken their departure, the regular routine was resumed and dragged on its tedious course, interrupted only by the weekly market.  At an early hour on that day, the peasant