god," the following extracts from Mr. Goodyear's
work will be found to confirm this and throw further light on the subject.
"The hawk represented Ra, Horus and all solar gods...." A text at Denderah
says: "The sun which was from the beginning rises (_i. e._ comes forth,
appears, see Brugsch for meaning of Egyptian equivalent) like a hawk from
the midst of its lotus bud...." At Denderah the king makes offering of the
lotus to the sun-god Horus with the words: "I offer thee the flower which
was in the beginning the glorious lily of the great water...." In the boat
of the dead the soul says, "I am a pure lotus (_i. e._ life) issue of the
field of the sun."

The circumstance that, in 4, the flower is surmounted by a goose, one name
for which being aq=ak, shows that, like the hawk, bak, it may well have
served as a rebus for ak=the middle. An instance of the direct association
of the sacred goose with the four quarters is given in the bas-relief at
Medinet-Abu, described by Brugsch (_op. cit._ II, p. 297). This represents
"Ramses III ... offering sacrifice to the god 'Khimti,' _i. e._ Pan of
Panopolis, the Theban form of which was Amon Generator.... A white bull
(the symbol of Pan) and four geese, which are represented as flying
towards the cardinal points, constitute the sacrifice."

The striking association of the goose with the bull=Apis, the astronomical
symbolism of which has been shown, gains in significance when it is
realized that another name for goose is apt and that this also constitutes
an anagram of pta=ptah, one form of Amen-Ra. It is a curious fact that the
third name for goose, se or sa, combined with ankh=flower, as in pl. VII,
4, furnishes the word ankh-sa, which recalls the word An-sah obtained by
the mummy and serpent rebus and the name of the god of Assyria, Anshar.

In connection with the above Egyptian rebus, expressing the syllables ankh
and sa, it surprised me, to find that the Sanscrit name for goose is
hangsa, while in ancient Hindu it is hamsa and in modern Hindu hanassa. It
is well known that in Hindu mythology the goose was "the bird of Brahma,"
the "supreme one who alone exists really and absolutely," that the birth
of Brahma from the lotus is frequently represented in Hindu religious art,
and that the lotus is the attribute of the "sun-god" Surya, termed the
"lord of the lotus, father, friend and king." What is more, the goose,
associated with "solar" symbolism, _i. e._ with the circle and cen