e
of these animals naturally point them out as fitting images of the
life-giving Nile and the overflowing of its waters? It is easy to
understand how the neighbourhood of a marsh or of a rock-encumbered
rapid should have suggested the crocodile as supreme deity to the
inhabitants of the Fayum or of Ombos. The crocodiles there multiplied so
rapidly as to constitute a serious danger; there they had the mastery,
and could be appeased only by means of prayers and sacrifices.
When instinctive terror had been superseded by reflection, and some
explanation was offered of the origin of the various cults, the very
nature of the animal seemed to justify the veneration with which it was
regarded. The crocodile is amphibious; and Sobku was supposed to be
a crocodile, because before the creation the sovereign god plunged
recklessly into the dark waters and came forth to form the world, as the
crocodile emerges from the river to lay its eggs upon the bank.

Most of the feudal divinities began their lives in solitary grandeur,
apart from, and often hostile to, their neighbours. Families were
assigned to them later.[*]

* The existence of the Egyptian triads was discovered and
defined by Champollion. These triads have long served as the
basis upon which modern writers have sought to establish
their systems of the Egyptian religion. Brugsch was the
first who rightly attempted to replace the triad by the
Ennead, in his book Religion und Mythologie der alten
AEgypter. The process of forming local triads, as here set
forth, was first pointed out by Maspero (_Etudes de
Mythologie et d'Archeologie Egyptiennes_, vol. ii. p. 269,
et seq.).

Each appropriated two companions and formed a trinity, or as it is
generally called, a triad. But there were several kinds of triads. In
nomes subject to a god, the local deity was frequently content with one
wife and one son; but often he was united to two goddesses, who were at
once his sisters and his wives according to the national custom.

[Illustration: 141.jpg NIT OF SAIS.]

Thus, Thot of Hermopolis possessed himself of a harem consisting of
Seshait-Safk-hitabui and Hahmauit. Tumu divided the homage of the
inhabitants of Helio-polis with Nebthotpit and with Iusasit. Khnumu
seduced and married the two fairies of the neighbouring cataract--Anukit
the constrainer, who compresses the Nile between its rocks at Philse and
at Syene, and Satit the arch