yptians were as yet but half civilized; they were cannibals, and
though occasionally they lived upon the fruits of the earth, they did
not know how to cultivate them. Osiris taught them the art of making
agricultural implements--the plough and the hoe,--field labour, the
rotation of crops, the harvesting of wheat and barley,[*] and vine
culture.

* Diodoeus even ascribes to him the discovery of barley and
of wheat; this is consequent upon the identification of Isis
with Demeter by the Greeks. According to the historian, Leo
of Pella, the goddess twined herself a crown of ripe ears
and placed it upon her head one day when she was sacrificing
to her parents.

Isis weaned them from cannibalism, healed their diseases by means of
medicine or of magic, united women to men in legitimate marriage, and
showed them how to grind grain between two flat stones and to prepare
bread for the household. She invented the loom with the help of her
sister Nephthys, and was the first to weave and bleach linen. There
was no worship of the gods before Osiris established it, appointed the
offerings, regulated the order of ceremonies, and composed the texts and
melodies of the liturgies. He built cities, among them Thebes itself,
according to some; though others declared that he was born there. As he
had been the model of a just and pacific king, so did he desire to be
that of a victorious conqueror of nations; and, placing the regency in
the hands of Isis, he went forth to war against Asia, accompanied by
Thot the ibis and the jackal Anubis. He made little or no use of force
and arms, but he attacked men by gentleness and persuasion, softened
them with songs in which voices were accompanied by instruments, and
taught them also the arts which he had made known to the Egyptians.
No country escaped his beneficent action, and he did not return to the
banks of the Nile until he had traversed and civilized the world from
one horizon to the other.

Sit-Typhon was red-haired and white-skinned, of violent, gloomy, and
jealous temper.[*] Secretly he aspired to the crown, and nothing but the
vigilance of Isis had kept him from rebellion during the absence of his
brother. The rejoicings which celebrated the king's return to Memphis
provided Sit with his opportunity for seizing the throne.

* The colour of his hair was compared with that of a red-
haired ass, and on that account the ass was sacred to him.