** The _Akhimu Soku_ and the _Akhimu Urdu_ have been very variously defined by different Egyptologists who have studied them. Chabas considered them to be gods or genii of the constellations of the ecliptic, which mark the apparent course of the sun through the sky. Following the indications given by Deveria, he also thought them to be the sailors of the solar bark, and perhaps the gods of the twelve hours, divided into two classes: the _Akhimu Soku_ being those who are rowing, and the _Akhimu Urdu_ those who are resting. But texts found and cited by Brugsch show that the _Akhimu Soku_ are the planets accompanying Ra in the northern sky, while the _Akhimu Urdu_ are his escort in the south. The nomenclature of the stars included in these two classes is furnished by monuments of widely different epochs. The two names should be translated according to the meaning of their component words: _Akhimu Soku_, those who know not destruction, the Indestructibles; and _Akhimu Urdu_ ( _Urzii_), those who know not the immobility of death, the _Imperishables_. They were not scattered at random by the hand which had suspended them, but their distribution had been ordered in accordance with a certain plan, and they were arranged in fixed groups like so many star republics, each being independent of its neighbours. They represented the outlines of bodies of men and animals dimly traced out upon the depths of night, but shining with greater brilliancy in certain important places. The seven stars which we liken to a chariot (Charles's Wain) suggested to the Egyptians the haunch of an ox placed on the northern edge of the horizon.[*] * The forms of the constellations, and the number of stars composing them in the astronomy of different periods, are known from the astronomical scenes of tombs and temples. The identity of the _Haunch_ with the _Chariot_, or _Great Bear_ of modern astronomy, was discovered by Lepsius and confirmed by Biot. Mariette pointed out that the Pyramid Arabs applied the name of the _Haunch (er-Rigl)_ to the same group of stars as that thus designated by the ancient Egyptians. Champollion had noted the position of the _Haunch_ in the northern sky, but had not suggested any identification. The _Haunch_ appertained to Sit-Typhon. Two lesser stars connected the haunch--_Maskhait_--with thirteen others, which recalled the silhouette of a female hippopotamus--_Ririt_--erect upon her hind legs,[*] and jauntily carrying upon her shoulders a monstrous crocodile whose jaws opened threateningly above her head. Eighteen luminaries of varying size and splendour, forming a group hard by the hippopotamus, indicated the outline of a gigantic lion couchant, with stiffened tail, its head turned to the right, and facing the Haunch.[***]