jects.*

*I do not agree with Prof. Ed. Meyer, or with Prof. Erman,
who imagine that this was the first instance of the
practice, and that it had been introduced into Nubia before
its adoption on Egyptian soil. Under the Ancient Empire we
meet with more than one functionary who styles himself, in
some cases during his master's lifetime, in others shortly
after his death, "Prophet of Horus who lives in the palace,"
or "Prophet of Kheops," "Prophet of Sondi," "Prophet of
Kheops, of Mykerinos, of Usirkaf," or "of other sovereigns."

He thus maintained daily intercourse with the gods, and they, on their
part, did not neglect any occasion of communicating with him. They
appeared to him in dreams to foretell his future, to command him to
restore a monument which was threatened with ruin, to advise him to set
out to war, to forbid him risking his life in the thick of the fight.*

* Among other examples, the texts mention the dream in which
Thutmosis IV., while still a royal prince, received from
Phra-Harmakhis orders to unearth the Great Sphinx, the dream
in which Phtah forbids Minephtah to take part in the battle
against the peoples of the sea, that by which Tonuatamon,
King of Napata, is persuaded to undertake the conquest of
Egypt. Herodotus had already made us familiar with the
dreams of Sabaco and of the high priest Sethos.

Communication by prophetic dreams was not, however, the method usually
selected by the gods: they employed as interpreters of their wishes
the priests and the statues in the temples. The king entered the chapel
where the statue was kept, and performed in its presence the invocatory
rites, and questioned it upon the subject which occupied his mind. The
priest replied under direct inspiration from on high, and the dialogue
thus entered upon might last a long time. Interminable discourses,
whose records cover the walls of the Theban temples, inform us what
the Pharaoh said on such occasions, and in what emphatic tones the
gods replied. Sometimes the animated statues raised their voices in
the darkness of the sanctuary and themselves announced their will; more
frequently they were content to indicate it by a gesture. When they were
consulted on some particular subject and returned no sign, it was their
way of signifying their disapprobation. If, on the other hand, they
significantly bowed their head, once or twice, th