is not unfrequent, here and in other places. The English word is not a
translation of the Egyptian one, which has to be explained before any
equivalent for it can be proposed. And the explanation of it has to be
sought in the ‘Solar Litany,’ first completely published by M. Naville.
There we find the Sun-god Rā invoked as a Power _pouring itself forth_
or _overflowing_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂[139] in 75 _forms_ and the
_forms_ in 75 ⁂⁂⁂. Each of these divine _forms_ (⁂⁂⁂)
has its own ⁂⁂⁂ as a dwelling-place, to which however it is
not confined.
The seventy-five Forms in question (each of which is a god) are, as the
text itself shows, simply so many names of the Solar god or solar
phenomena. Each of them is addressed as ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ‘Rā,
supreme of power,’ after which some attribute of the deity is mentioned,
and the name of the deity is connected with this attribute.
In Greece, Apollo was called ἑκηβόλος, καταιβάσιος, ἀποτροπαῖος,
νεομήνιος, and by ever so many other names expressive of the attributes
with which he was credited. These names correspond to what Egyptian
mythology called the ⁂⁂⁂ of a god, and each of the names has
but a limited application. The god is not always thought of as
‘Far-darting’; under the conception of ‘Neomenios,’ he _dwells_ in what
Egyptian mythology called another ⁂⁂, which is the local
habitation, or, as mathematicians would say, the _locus_ of the concept.
M. de Rougé, without giving any reason, but probably guided by what
Champollion had written, translates the word _zone_. M. Naville, who has
carefully studied the word, prefers _sphere_. And no better word could
be thought of, if we used it as we do in speaking of ‘moving in a
certain sphere,’ ‘each in his own sphere,’ or, ‘the sphere of action;’
without applying a strict geometrical sense to the word. For the
Egyptian ⁂⁂ was a hollow cylinder like a round tower, a chimney,
or a deep well rather than a sphere.
With the explanation I have just given, I prefer _Bounds_ as a more
expressive translation. The word appears in the dual form on account of
the presence of the god.
The name ⁂⁂⁂ was given to the fabulous Source of the
Nile, supposed to be in the neighbourhood of Elephantine. The
inscription of Seti I at Redesieh (_Denkm._, III, 140B) compares the
abundance of water at the King’s cistern to that of the
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “the cavern of the
double Well of Elephantine.”
In the later orthography the word is written ⁂ or ⁂⁂. It has
been supposed that the Coptic ⲕⲟⲣⲓ _cataracts_ might be connected with
the old Egyptian name. But the history of the Coptic word is not
sufficiently known to justify any inferences.