there is some reason for supposing that at Thebes and elsewhere, on the occasion of the annual festival of Ḥatḥor, that goddess’s priestesses, when the temple service and the subsequent procession were ended, paraded the streets, and, in company with the _Iḥwy_-priests, stopped at one house after another in order to bestow Ḥatḥor’s blessing upon the inmates. This they did by dancing and singing and holding out to their audience—perhaps that they might touch them—the emblems of their goddess, the sistra and _mnit_-necklaces[66]. Again, according to Apuleius, there was a sacred dance in connexion with the worship of Isis. On stated days there was a great procession held in honour of this goddess which went through the streets of the city; the column was headed by a band of dancing masqueraders. He describes this procession of the _Isidis Navigium_ minutely; among other details he mentions that in one part of it there were musicians, playing on pipes and flutes, followed by a chorus of chosen youths, clad in snowy white garments; behind them came more musicians playing on pipes, and many other men jingling on bronze, silver, and even golden sistra[67]. Another kind of procession, namely of barges, in which dancing also took place, is described by Herodotus in speaking of the religious festivals of the Egyptians. He says: Now, when they are being conveyed to the city of Bubastis, they act as follows,—men and women embark together, great numbers of both sexes in every barge; some of the women have castanets which they play, and the men play on the flute during the whole journey; the rest of the men and women sing and clap their hands together at the same time. When in the course of their passage they come to any town, they lay their barge near to the land and do as follows, some of the women do as I have described ... some dance, and others stand up and pull up their clothes. This they do at every town by the river-side[68]. Mention may be here appropriately made of a kind of ritual dance, though not processional in the strict sense, which seems to be represented by a scene very often portrayed on the doors of Egyptian temples. Here the king is seen hastening towards the deity while performing a curious dance-like running step in which only the fore-part of the foot touches the ground. Kees has shown that this frequently occurring representation on Egyptian temple-doors does in fact record a ritual dance in honour of the god which was performed by the king when making his offerings[69].