[Sec. XXXVI. The Nile and all kinds of moisture are called the "efflux of Osiris." Therefore a water-pitcher[FN#336] is always carried first in his processions, and the leaf of a fir-tree represents both Osiris and Egypt.[FN#337] Osiris is the great principle of fecundity, which is proved by the Pamylia festivals, in which a statue of the god with a triple phallus is carried about.[FN#338] The three-fold phallus merely signifies any great and indefinite number.] [FN#336] Plutarch refers to the vessel of water, with which the priest sprinkles the ground to purify it. [FN#337] He seems to refer here to the olive-tree: Beqet, "olive land," was one of the names of Egypt. [FN#338] Plutarch seems to be confounding Osiris with Menu, the god of generation, who is generally represented in an ithyphallic form. The festival of the phallus survived in Egypt until quite recently. [Sec. XXXVIII. The Sun is consecrated to Osiris, and the lion is worshipped, and temples are ornamented with figures of this animal, because the Nile rises when the sun is in the constellation of the Lion. Horus, the offspring of Osiris, the Nile, and Isis, the Earth, was born in the marshes of Buto, because the vapour of damp land destroys drought. Nephthys, or Teleute, represents the extreme limits of the country and the sea-shore, that is, barren land. Osiris (i.e., the Nile) overflowed this barren land, and Anubis[FN#339] was the result.[FN#340]] [FN#339] The Egyptian Anpu. The texts make one form of him to be the son of Set and Nephthys. [FN#340] Plutarch's explanations in this chapter are unsupported by the texts. [Sec. XXXIX. In the first part of this chapter Plutarch continues his identification of Typhon with drought, and his ally Aso, Queen of Ethiopia, he considers to be the Etesian or north winds, which blow for a long period when the Nile is falling. He goes on to say:--]