or Mut, the "mother," who never
adopted any more distinctive name: the divine son who completed
this triad was, in early times, Montu; but in later times a being of
secondary rank, chosen from among the genii appointed to watch over the
days of the month or the stars, was added, under the name of Khonsu.
Amenemhait laid the foundations of the temple, in which the cultus of
Amon was carried on down to the latest times of paganism. The building
was supported by polygonal columns of sixteen sides, some fragments of
which are still existing.

[Illustration: 381.jpg THE OBELISK OF USIRTASEN I., STILL STANDING IN
THE PLAIN OF HELIOPOLIS]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger.

The temple was at first of only moderate dimensions, but it was built
of the choicest sandstone and limestone, and decorated with exquisite
bas-reliefs. Usirtasen I. enlarged it, and built a beautiful house for
the high priest on the west side of the sacred lake. Luxor, Zorit, Edfu,
Hierakonpolis, El-Kab, Elephantine, and Dendera,* shared between them
the favour of the Pharaohs; the venerable town of Abydos became the
object of their special predilection.

* Duemichen pointed out, in the masonry of the great eastern
staircase of the present temple of Hathor, a stone obtained
from the earlier temple, which bears the name of Amenemhait;
another fragment, discovered and published by Mariette,
shows that Amenemhait I. is here again referred to. The
buildings erected by this monarch at Dondera must have been
on a somewhat large scale, if we may judge from the size of
this last fragment, which is the lintel of a door.

Its reputation for sanctity had been steadily growing from the time of
the Papis: its god, Khontamentit, who was identified with Osiris, had
obtained in the south a rank as high as that of the Mendesian Osiris in
the north of Egypt. He was worshipped as the sovereign of the sovereigns
of the dead--he who gathered around him and welcomed in his domains
the majority of the faithful of other cults. His sepulchre, or, more
correctly speaking, the chapel representing his sepulchre, in which
one of his relics was preserved, was here, as elsewhere, built upon the
roof. Access to it was gained by a staircase leading up on the left side
of the sanctuary: on the days of the passion and resurrection of Osiris
solemn processions of priests and devotees slowly mounted its steps, to
the chanting o