recognized him as their son, and, according to the ceremonial imposed
by custom in such cases, consecrated his adoption by offering him the
breast to suck, as they would have done to their own child.

[Illustration: 028.jpg THE GODDESS ADOPTS THE KING BY SUCKLING HIM]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger. The
original is in the great speos of Silsilis. The king here
represented is Harmhabît of the XVIIIth dynasty; cf.
Champollion, _Monuments de l'Egypt et de la Nubie,_ pl.
cix., No. 3; Rosellini, _Monumenti Storici,_ pl. xliv. 5;
Lepsius, Denkm., iii. 121 b.

Ordinary mortals spoke of him only in symbolic words, designating him by
some periphrasis: Pharaoh, "Pirûi-Aûi," the Double Palace, "Prûîti," the
Sublime Porte, His Majesty,* the Sun of the two lands, Horus master of
the palace, or, less ceremoniously, by the indeterminate pronoun "One."

* The title "Honûf" is translated by the same authors,
sometimes as "His Majesty," sometimes as "His Holiness." The
reasons for translating it "His Majesty," as was originally
proposed by Champollion, and afterwards generally adopted,
have been given last of all by E. de Rougé.

The greater number of these terms is always accompanied by a wish
addressed to the sovereign for his "life," "health," and "strength," the
initial signs of which are written after all his titles. He accepts all
this graciously, and even on his own initiative, swears by his own life,
or by the favour of Râ, but he forbids his subjects to imitate him: for
them it is a sin, punishable in this world and in the next, to adjure