Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/532

 436 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. the temple and the great wall which incloses the whole. They perambulated the terraced roofs, they launched upon the lake the sacred barque with its many-coloured streamers. Upon a few rare occasions the priests, with the sacred images, sallied from the inclosure which ordinarily shielded their rites from profane eyes, and, at the head of a brilliant flotilla, directed their course to some other city, either by the Nile or by the waterway which they called ' the sacred canal.' " ^ " The ensigns of the gods, the coffers in which their effigies or symbolic representations were inclosed, their shrines and sacred barques were carried in these processions, of which the kings were the reputed conductors. At other times all these objects were r ^ Sc ^^.2k ± ^.A ^ ^ I ->^ -k ^ ^- f^ ^r -i^ -^ -^i -A -^ 4c i< -k -K ^ ~k -A^~| k -^ ic -k -k ie -k A >c -^ y -Jj i < Fig. 253. — The battle against the Khetas, Luxor, (From Champollion, pi. 328.) deposited in the naos. Upon the occurrence of a festival, the priest to whom the duty was delegated by the king entered the naos and brought out the mysterious emblem which was hidden frorn all other eyes ; he covered it with a rich veil, and it was then carried under a canopy." A ritual to which so much " pomp and circumstance " was attached required material appliances on a great scale. The preservation of so much apparatus required extensive store-rooms, which, like the sanctuary itself, had to be kept in almost total darkness in order to preserve the sacred vestments and other ^ To follow these processions was an act of piety. Upon a Theban stele we find the following words addressed to Amen-Ra : " I am one of those who follow thee when thou goest abroad." The stele of Suti and Har, architects at Thebes, translated into French by Paul Pierret, in Reaieil de Travaiix, p. 72.