a fortnight of youth and of growing splendour,
followed by a fortnight's agony and ever-increasing pallor. It was born
to die, and died to be born again twelve times in the year, and each
of these cycles measured a month for the inhabitants of the world.
One invariable accident from time to time disturbed the routine of
its existence. Profiting by some distraction of the guardians, the sow
greedily swallowed it, and then its light went out suddenly, instead of
fading gradually. These eclipses, which alarmed mankind at least as much
as did those of the sun, were scarcely more than momentary, the gods
compelling the monster to cast up the eye before it had been destroyed.

[Illustration: 125.jpg THE HAUNCH, AND THE FEMALE HIPPOPOTAMUS.1]

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the rectangular zodiac
carved upon the ceiling of the great temple of Denderah
(Dumichen, _Resultate_, vol. ii. pl. xxxix.).

Every evening the lunar bark issued out of Hades by the door which Ra
had passed through in the morning, and as it rose on the horizon, the
star-lamps scattered over the firmament appeared one by one, giving
light here and there like the camp-fires of a distant army. However
many of them there might be, there were as many Indestructibles--_Akhimu
Soku_--or Unchanging Ones--_Akhimu Urdu_--whose charge it was to attend
upon them and watch over their maintenance.[**]

** The _Akhimu Soku_ and the _Akhimu Urdu_ have been very
variously defined by different Egyptologists who have
studied them. Chabas considered them to be gods or genii of
the constellations of the ecliptic, which mark the apparent
course of the sun through the sky. Following the indications
given by Deveria, he also thought them to be the sailors of
the solar bark, and perhaps the gods of the twelve hours,
divided into two classes: the _Akhimu Soku_ being those who
are rowing, and the _Akhimu Urdu_ those who are resting. But
texts found and cited by Brugsch show that the _Akhimu Soku_
are the planets accompanying Ra in the northern sky, while
the _Akhimu Urdu_ are his escort in the south. The
nomenclature of the stars included in these two classes is
furnished by monuments of widely different epochs. The two
names should be translated according to the meaning of their
component words: _Akhimu Soku_, those who know not
destruction, the Indestructibles; and _Akhimu Urdu