uffer the tread of human generations upon his
back, the devout took no more thought of them than they themselves
took thought of the devout. The life of Osiris, on the other hand, was
intimately mingled with that of the Egyptians, and his most trivial
actions immediately reacted upon their fortunes. They followed the
movements of his waters; they noted the turning-points in his struggles
against drought; they registered his yearly decline, yearly compensated
by his aggressive returns and his intermittent victories over Typhon;
his proceedings and his character were the subject of their minute
study. If his waters almost invariably rose upon the appointed day and
extended over the black earth of the valley, this was no mechanical
function of a being to whom the consequences of his conduct are
indifferent; he acted upon reflection, and in full consciousness of the
service that he rendered. He knew that by spreading the inundation
he prevented the triumph of the desert; he was life, he was
goodness--_Onnofriu_--and Isis, as the partner of his labours, became
like him the type of perfect goodness. But while Osiris developed
for the better, Sit was transformed for the worse, and increased in
wickedness as his brother gained in purity and moral elevation. In
proportion as the person of Sit grew more defined, and stood out more
clearly, the evil within him contrasted more markedly with the innate
goodness of Osiris, and what had been at first an instinctive struggle
between two beings somewhat vaguely defined--the desert and the Nile,
water and drought--was changed into conscious and deadly enmity. No
longer the conflict of two elements, it was war between two gods; one
labouring to produce abundance, while the other strove to do away with
it; one being all goodness and life, while the other was evil and death
incarnate.

A very ancient legend narrates that the birth of Osiris and his brothers
took place during the five additional days at the end of the year; a
subsequent legend explained how Nuit and Sibu had contracted marriage
against the express wish of Ra, and without his knowledge. When he
became aware of it he fell into a violent rage, and cast a spell over
the goddess to prevent her giving birth to her children in any month of
any year whatever. But Thot took pity upon her, and playing at draughts
with the moon won from it in several games one seventy-second part of
its fires, out of which he made five whole days; and