[815] Fish hieroglyphs are regarded by some as general determinatives for words meaning “shame,” “evil,” etc. (cf. Plutarch, _op. cit._, 32), and by others as merely phonetic determinatives (cf. Montet, _op. cit._, p. 48). That fish were regarded as either enemies or emblems of enemies of the gods and of the kings would seem to be borne out by the ceremony annually performed at Edfu, where the festival calendar contains the following: “Fish are thrown on the ground, and all the priests hack and hew them with knives, saying ‘Cut ye wounds on your bodies, kill ye one another: Ra triumphs over his enemies, Horus of Edfu over all evil ones.’” The text assures us that “the meaning of the ceremony is to achieve the destruction of the enemies of the gods and king.” Cf. Erman, _Handbook of Egyptian Religion_, trs. by Griffith (London, 1907), p. 216. [816] Erman, _Egyptian Life_, Eng. Trs. (London, 1894), p. 239, basing himself on Mariette’s statement in _Monuments divers recueillis en Égypte_, pp. 151, 152. [817] _Op. cit._, p. 284. [818] _El Bersheh_, Pt. I. (London, n. d.), Pl. XXIII. [819] _Tombeau de Nakhti_ (Mém. de la Mission française au Caire, vol. V. fasc. 3., Paris, 1893), Fig. 4, p. 480. [820] _Les Monuments des Hycsos_, Bruxelles, 1914. Connected with these and somewhat confirming Capart appear to be two life-size figures of Amenemhat III., in one of which the king is seated between two goddesses holding fish. [821] These offerings (15,500 dressed, 2,200 white fish, etc.) are named under the heading, “Oblations of the festivals which the King founded for his Father Amon-Re.” But in the summary of the good deeds wrought for the gods by Rameses III.—“I founded for them divine offerings of barley, wheat, wine, incense, fruit, cattle and fowl”—observe the complete silence as to _fish_, because these offerings were to the gods, not to the temples. Cf. Breasted, _Ancient Records_, IV., paragraphs 237, 243, and 363. [822] _Antea_, p. 123. [823] Mutilation was not invariable, even in the XIIth Dynasty, as Beni Hasan discloses. [824] In the _Book of the Dead_, Chapter 154. [825] P. Lacau, _Suppressions et modifications des signes dans les textes funebraires_, Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache, vol. 51 (1913), 42 ff. [826] Petrie, _Six Temples at Thebes_ (London, 1897), Pl. XVI., f. 15, fish from foundation deposit of Taussert, and Pl. XVIII., from Siptah. [827] XVII. 1, 47. Latopolis is now Esneh. [828] Wilkinson, _op. cit._, III. 343, f. 586. [829] See _Proc. Soc. Biblical Archæology_, XXI. p. 82, for a picture of a bronze mummy-case containing remains of a small Lates. [830] L. Loat, _Saqqara Mastabas_, I. Gurob. Plates 7, 8, 9, and Petrie and Currelly, _Ehnasya_, 1905, p. 35. [831] _Op. cit._, p. 346. [832] See Bates, p. 234, ff. CHAPTER XXVI SACRED FISH