east.
The sacred emblem of the Heliopolitan Sun-god reminds us forcibly of the
Semitic _bethels_ or _baetyli_, the sacred stones of Palestine, and may
give yet another hint of the Semitic origin of the Heliopolitan cult.
In the court of the temple is a huge circular altar of fine alabaster,
several feet across, on which slain oxen were offered to the Sun, and
behind this, at the eastern end of the court, are six great basins of
the same stone, over which the beasts were slain, with drains running
out of them by which their blood was carried away. This temple is a most
interesting monument of the civilization of the "Old Kingdom" at the time
of the Vth Dynasty.

At Sakkara itself, which lies a short distance south of Abusir, no new
royal tombs have, as has been said, been discovered of late years. But a
great deal of work has been done among the private mastaba-tombs by the
officers of the _Service des Antiquites_, which reserves to itself the
right of excavation here and at Dashur. The mastaba of the sage and
writer Kagernna (or rather Gemnika, "I-have-found-a-ghost," which
sounds very like an American Indian appellation) is very fine.
"I-have-found-a-ghost" lived in the reign of the king Tatkara Assa, the
"Tancheres" of Manetho, and he wrote maxims like his great contemporary
Phtahhetep ("Offered to Phtah"), who was also buried at Sakkara. The
officials of the _Service des Antiquites_ who cleaned the tomb unluckily
misread his name Ka-bi-n (an impossible form which could only mean,
literally translated, "Ghost-soul-of" or "Ghost-soul-to-me"), and they
have placed it in this form over the entrance to his tomb. This mastaba,
like those, already known, of Mereruka (sometimes misnamed "Mera")
and the famous Ti, both also at Sakkara, contains a large number of
chambers, ornamented with reliefs. In the vicinity M. Grebaut, then
Director of the Service of Antiquities, discovered a very interesting
Street of Tombs, a regular Via Sacra, with rows of tombs of the
dignitaries of the VIth Dynasty on either side of it. They are generally
very much like one another; the workmanship of the reliefs is fine, and
the portrait of the owner of the tomb is always in evidence.

Several of the smaller mastabas have lately been disposed of to the
various museums, as they are liable to damage if they remain where they
stand; moreover, they are not of great value to the Museum of Cairo,
but are of considerable value to various museums which d