d worship, prophesied, and fulfilled all the
functions of a Divine Being, both during his life, and after he had
rejoined in the tomb his ancestors the gods, who existed before him and
who now reposed impassively within the depths of their pyramids.**

* This identification, suggested by Champollion, is, from
force of custom, still adhered to, in nearly all works on
Egyptology. But we know from ancient evidence that the
cucupha was a bird, perhaps a hoopoe; the sceptre of the
gods, moreover, is really surmounted by the head of a
quadruped having a pointed snout and long retreating ears,
and belonging to the greyhound, jackal, or jerboa species.

** This method of distinguishing deceased kings is met with
as far back as the "Song of the Harpist," which the
Egyptians of the Ramesside period attributed to the founder
of the XIth dynasty. The first known instance of a temple
raised by an Egyptian king to his double is that of
Amenothes III.

Man, as far as his body was concerned, and god in virtue of his soul and
its attributes, the Pharaoh, in right of this double nature, acted as a
constant mediator between heaven and earth. He alone was fit to transmit
the prayers of men to his fathers and his brethren the gods. Just as the
head of a family was in his household the priest _par excellence_ of the
gods of that family,--just as the chief of a nome was in his nome the
priest _par excellence_ in regard to the gods of the nome,--so was
Pharaoh the priest _par excellence_ of the gods of all Egypt, who were
his special deities. He accompanied their images in solemn processions;
he poured out before them the wine and mystic milk, recited the formulas
in their hearing, seized the bull who was the victim with a lasso and
slaughtered it according to the rite consecrated by ancient tradition.
Private individuals had recourse to his intercession, when they asked
some favour from on high; as, however, it was impossible for every
sacrifice to pass actually through his hands, the celebrating priest
proclaimed at the beginning of each ceremony that it was the king who
made the offering--_Sutni di hotpu_--he and none other, to Osiris,
Phtah, and Ka-Harmakhis, so that they might grant to the faithful
who implored the object of their desires, and, the declaration being
accepted in lieu of the act, the king was thus regarded as really
officiating on every occasion for his sub