priests in the service of Ptah. The latter, who held perhaps the highest
sacerdotal office in Egypt, as high priest of Ptah at Memphis, is
repeatedly found combining with his own special office that of the
_sem_. The ceremony which is here referred to consisted in a grand
procession round the walls of the great sanctuary of Ptah, conveying
upon a sledge the bark ⁂ in which the coffin of the god was supposed
to rest. Sokaru signifies ‘the coffined,’ and Ptah Sokaru is only a form
of Osiris. Abundant details of the ceremony will be found in the plates
of M. Mariette’s _Abydos_, I, pl. 36 and following. The king Seti I is
represented as a Sem priest presiding at the festival.