1 Reproduced from a bas-relief in the small temple of
Philae, built by Rajan and his successors. The window or
door of this temple opened upon gen, and by comparing the
drawing of the Egyptian artist with the view i the end of
the chamber, it is easy to recognize the original of this
cliff bouette in the piled-up rocks of the island. By a
mistake of the modern copyist's, his drawing faces the wrong
way.

Several towns were dedicated to him: Hathapi, Nuit-Hapi, Nilo-polis.
It was told in the Thebaid how the god dwelt within a grotto, or shrine
(tophit), in the island of Biggeh, whence he issued at the inundation.
This tradition dates from a time when the cataract was believed to be at
the end of the world, and to bring down the heavenly river upon earth.
Two yawning gulfs (_qoriti_), at the foot of the two granite cliffs
(_moniti_) between which it ran, gave access to this mysterious retreat.
A bas-relief from Philae represents blocks of stone piled one above
another, the vulture of the south and the hawk of the north, each
perched on a summit, wearing a panther skin, with both arms upheld in
adoration. The statue is mutilated: the end of the nose, the beard, and
part of the tray have disappeared, but are restored in the illustration.
The two little birds hanging alongside the geese, together with a bunch
of ears of corn, are fat quails, and the circular chamber wherein Hapi
crouches concealed, clasping a libation vase in either hand. A single
coil of a serpent outlines the contour of this chamber, and leaves a
narrow passage between its overlapping head and tail through which the
rising waters may overflow at the time appointed, bringing to Egypt "all
things good, and sweet, and pure," whereby gods and men are fed. Towards
the summer solstice, at the very moment when the sacred water from the
gulfs of Syene reached Silsileh, the priests of the place, sometimes the
reigning sovereign, or one of his sons, sacrificed a bull and geese, and
then cast into the waters a sealed roll of papyrus. This was a written
order to do all that might insure to Egypt the benefits of a normal
inundation. When Pharaoh himself deigned to officiate, the memory of
the event was preserved by a stela engraved upon the rocks. Even in his
absence, the festivals of the Nile were among the most solemn and joyous
of the land. According to a tradition transmitted from age to age, the
prosperity or adversity of