Lecture V. Animal Worship. 97
first two standards are the jackals of Anubis, on the next the ibis
of Thoth, then the hawk of Horus, and, finally, the curious object
which is the emblem of Min. On a still older plaque from the
same locality the names of the cities ruled (or conquered) by the
Pharaoh are inscribed, each within its battlemented wall, while
above is the animal god by which it is said to be“beloved”or
perhaps“destroyed.”The last of the cities is“the royal”capital,
above which stand the two hawks of Horus, who are perched on
the standards of the king; behind it are the names of the other
towns under the protection of the scorpion of Selk, the lion of
Sekhet, and the hawk of Horus.^70
But we can trace the standards and the symbols upon them [105]
still farther back. M. de Morgan has pointed out that the rude and
primitive boats painted on the pottery of the prehistoric graves
have their prows ornamented with standards which are precisely
the same in shape as the standards that were borne before the
Pharaoh. On the top of one is perched a hippopotamus, on
another a fish; on another is a flowering branch, on another the
sail of a ship.^71 We may conclude, therefore, that both standards
and symbols were characteristic of the older population of the
country whom the Pharaonic Egyptians found when they entered
it. But the symbols had no connection with any kind of writing;
we look in vain, either on the pottery or on any other object of
prehistoric art, for hieroglyphic signs. The standard may have
been adopted by the invading race from their conquered subjects,
and so introduced into their system of writing; originally it was
nothing but a primeval flagstaff at the prow of a boat. And, like
the flagstaff, the symbol that served as a flag must have been of
aboriginal invention.
Such, then, is the conclusion to which we are led by the newly-
(^70) De Morgan,Recherches sur les Origines de l'Égypte, ii. pls. ii. and iii.;
Sayce in theProceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, Feb. 1898. It
will be noticed that Thoth is represented by the ibis and not by the ape.
(^71) De Morgan,Recherches sur les Origines de l'Égypte, p. 93.