We next turn to Abydos, possibly one of the oldest temple-fields in Egypt. There is an inscription relating to the rebuilding of one of them in the time of Seti I. (about 1380 B.C.). In this the goddess Sesheta addresses the king as follows:--"The hammer in my hand was of gold, as I struck the peg with it, and thou wast with me in thy capacity of Harpedonapt. Thy hand held the spade during the fixing of its [the temple's] four corners with accuracy by the four supports of heaven." On the pictures the king appears with the Osiris crown, opposite the goddess. Both hold in their right hand a club, and with it they each hammer a long peg into the ground. Round the two pegs runs a rope, which is stretched tight, the ends being tied together. In two cases the star used for the alignment is actually named. Of these I will take, first, the record of the ceremony used in the building of the temple of Hathor at Denderah. THE ALIGNMENT OF THE TEMPLE OF HATHOR AT DENDERAH. The inscriptions state that the king while stretching the cord had his glance directed to the _āk_ of the constellation of the _Thigh_--the old name of the constellation which we now recognise as the Great Bear--and on this line was built the new temple, "as had been done there before." The actual inscription has been translated as follows:--"The living God, the magnificent son of Asti [a name of Thoth], nourished by the sublime goddess in the temple, the sovereign of the country, stretches the rope in joy. With his glance towards the _āk_ [the middle?] of the Bull's Thigh constellation, he establishes the temple-house of the mistress of Denderah, as took place there before." At another place the king says: "Looking to the sky at the course of the rising stars [and] recognising the _āk_ of the Bull's Thigh constellation, I establish the corners of the temple of Her Majesty." Here, then, we have more than evidence of the stretching of a cord towards a star; an actual constellation is named, and it may be easily imagined that in connection with this many interesting questions arise of the utmost importance to the subject we are considering. Dümichen, in his references to this passage, discusses the meaning of the word _āk_ in relation to some Theban grave-inscriptions, in which it is suggested that _āk_ is used to represent the middle course of a star, or, astronomically speaking, its culminating point as it passes the meridian. But such a meaning as this will never do in this connection; for if a cord was stretched towards a star on the meridian it would lie north and south, and therefore the temple would be built north and south. But this is by no means the orientation of the temple--a point to which I shall return presently.