[Illustration: 123.jpg EGYPTIAN CONCEPTION OF THE PRINCIPAL CONSTELLATIONS OF THE NORTHERN SKY.4] 4 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the ceiling of the Ramesseum. On the right, the _female hippopotamus_ bearing the _crocodile_, and leaning on the _Monait_; in the middle, the _Haunch_, here represented by the whole bull; to the left, _Selkit_ and the _Sparrow-hawk_, with the _Lion_, and the _Giant fighting the Crocodile_. The sow fell upon it, tore it out of the face of heaven, and cast it, streaming with blood and tears, into the celestial Nile, where it was gradually extinguished, and lost for days; but its twin, the sun, or its guardian, the cyno-cephalus, immediately set forth to find it and to restore it to Horus. No sooner was it replaced, than it slowly recovered, and renewed its radiance; when it was well--_uzait_--the sow again attacked and mutilated it, and the gods rescued and again revived it. [Illustration: 124.jpg THE LUNAR BARK, SELF-PROPELLED, UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE TWO EYES.] Each month there was a fortnight of youth and of growing splendour, followed by a fortnight's agony and ever-increasing pallor. It was born to die, and died to be born again twelve times in the year, and each of these cycles measured a month for the inhabitants of the world. One invariable accident from time to time disturbed the routine of its existence. Profiting by some distraction of the guardians, the sow greedily swallowed it, and then its light went out suddenly, instead of fading gradually. These eclipses, which alarmed mankind at least as much as did those of the sun, were scarcely more than momentary, the gods compelling the monster to cast up the eye before it had been destroyed. [Illustration: 125.jpg THE HAUNCH, AND THE FEMALE HIPPOPOTAMUS.1] 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the rectangular zodiac carved upon the ceiling of the great temple of Denderah (Dumichen, _Resultate_, vol. ii. pl. xxxix.). Every evening the lunar bark issued out of Hades by the door which Ra had passed through in the morning, and as it rose on the horizon, the star-lamps scattered over the firmament appeared one by one, giving light here and there like the camp-fires of a distant army. However many of them there might be, there were as many Indestructibles--_Akhimu Soku_--or Unchanging Ones--_Akhimu Urdu_--whose charge it was to attend upon them and watch over their maintenance.[**]