caverns seem to have been furnished with a well. The cave of Trophonius had something of this kind, in which, and from which, stars appeared ascending and descending. Morrice has ably maintained, that Jacob's ladder was the Siderial ladder of the eastern cavern-rites, and I shall not therefore go into the argument, but only remark, that the remains of something of the kind was found attached to this. Many of the wells descending to the mummy pits (the only Hades of the Egyptians) have steps cut in the sides. All the heroic descents into hell seem to have derived their origin from the exhibitions in these initiatory caverns. It is by this means that hell has become synonymous with Barathrum, a pit, and "the pit," and "the mouth of the pit," as it is called in Hebrew. The descent of Orpheus in search of Eurydice is evidently an Egyptian initiation. It is reported that he underwent the severest trials, being suspended over a vast pit, and that his courage failed before the consummation. According to Barruel, the being suspended over a pit, by cords or concealed machinery, was one of the Magian and Masonic trials. However, Orpheus failed in the law which Pluto (Serapis again) imposed upon him, and which was an initiatory law-that of not looking back. It was one of the laws of Pythagoras. So Ulysses on a similar occasion was commanded:

But from the infernal rite thy eye withdraw,
And back to Ocean glance with reverend awe.

Proceed we to Belzoni's model.

Certainly, one chamber, viz. that immediately after the well, is painted to represent an initiation; and there is a personage initiated. But the initiation appertains to Serapis. He is represented seated with his usual

green mask implying death, and in the white dress used at initiations. His feet are swathed also, which was one of the rites, and is moreover a known mark of Harpocrates and Serapis, signifying the sun in the winter months. He holds as usual the symbols of final judgment; for, the three infernal judges of the Greeks were derived from his tricipital capacity. It is ridiculous to say that it is Osiris, when Osiris with his usual hawk mask stands beside him. It is equally ridiculous to say that Osiris is indicated by a bent bar and hand. What proof is there of this? Besides there is no such thing as a bent bar and hand among the hieroglyphics. It is a hand and arm drawn according to some superstitious rule, which was never departed from in order to producé verisimilitude. The fact is, that some person as an initiate is introduced to the beatific presence" of the king of the mysteries" by his usual four attendant Hierophants. But was it Psammis? There is no proof of it. The individuals of different nations on the left prove nothing, and are evidently not captives. They are in attitudes of adoration. It is probable that the Negroes and the Chaldeans, as well as the Jewish devotees of Thammuz, worshipped the same king of the secret mysteries as the Egyptians, and this perhaps is all that is intended. The interpretation of names on the belt or elsewhere of the candidate must be received with great caution. There is no quackery so likely to delude and mislead an enthusiast as this. Besides, the mode of interpretation is not new, being derived from Kercher. It is probably the king who built the Serapeum, or Aseth, the first who devoted the cycle of twenty-five years to Apis, and established his secret rites. This is all that

can be surmised with any thing like a substantial foundation. The painting of the Hall of Beauties, or rather the Pantheon, represents the introduction of the same personage to the assembled gods, but principally to Serapis, who occupies the prominent position, on either side the door. The whole terminates in him. Indeed, on all sides of the model exhibited by Belzoni are symbols of Serapis. This deity was sometimes represented a figure with swathed feet, as a vase with four heads of animals; sometimes as a column with four capitals; sometimes as a column with the head of Osiris for a capital; and bearing the emblems of a last judgment, the flail and crook. His attending priests bore the marks of the animals devoted to him, one was a lion, another a hawk, another a dog, and the other was unmasked. Four vases, as appears from numerous pictures with similar heads, were devoted to the dead. These masked personages are the same as figured at Eleusis, for the unmasked figure was the "king of the mysteries;" that with the hawk's head was the torchbearer or emblem of the sun, the lion was the emblem of Apollo, and the dog of Anubis or Mercury. figures, as we have intimated, agree with the Jewish cherubim; they constituted the original Cerberus, another emblem dedicated to Pluto or Serapis; for, this Cerberus was supposed to guard the way of the Elysian Fields, and was placed at the gate of the pagan Eden at Molossus, as the way of Eden was guarded by the "fiery sword" of the Jewish cherubim.

These

The figures of Serapis and his attendant priests are to be seen on all sides in Belzoni's Model. Directly opposite is the mystical corn van "Vannus Iacchi," on an altar. In the entrance passage appear a human

figure swathed into the resemblance of a column, and placed on a pedestal. In the "Hall of Beauties" he stands with his back to a column of measurement with four capitals, and is receiving an offering of the mint which was devoted to him; for fruits and flowers were consecrated to him as the king of Elysium, as they were dedicated to Adonis. Denon has a plate representing a similar offering to Apis. On the side of the exit door are two priestesses dressed like Bacchanals in panther skins, which demonstrated the connexion between the funereal rites of Osiris and Bacchus. In the next room is the representation of an initiate being introduced into the presence of Serapis as "king of the mysteries," who is seated and clothed in white.

The usual masked hierophants of the God, appear also on the three sides of the four columns which support the chamber. The paintings round the room, are representations of the rites of initiation, and will be found to tally with some of the descriptions of these rites. The column of Serapis again appears in the double pillared room; which Belzoni calls the sideboard chamber. No one can doubt for a moment that the figure represented on that column is Serapis, and that this was consequently the oracle or secret cell of his most secret mysteries. Again, can it be doubted. that the splendid room, called the saloon, was devoted to the rites of Apis, when the remnant of an EMBALMED APIS is found there, and when the Bull Apis is almost the only; certainly, the only prominent figure represented there. Can any one doubt that this tomb (as it is called) was one of the "SECRET Caverns in which Apis was EMBALMED-WHICH NO STRANGER EVER AP

PROACHED-WHICH THE PRIESTS THEMSELVES NEVER

ENTERED BUT ON THAT OCCASION, and which BELONGED TO AN ANCIENT TEMPLE of SERAPIS?"-Pausanias.

The chambers, the galleries, the staircases, are all well calculated for the performance of the initiatory rite. The well is not less calculated for one of the severe trials of the initiate.-The descent of three hundred feet beneath the Sarcophagus, was evidently intended for a priestly juggle, or a secret entrance. Even the bats which Homer describes as the frequenters of the oracular cells are to be found here, nor could a descent to Hades be better symbolized than by that dark and dreary passage, terminating, perhaps, in the mummy pits, or subterranean Necropolis of Thebes.-The splendid saloon, its pillared vestibule, and bold proscenium like a theatre, were equally well calculated for the dramatic pageants exhibited in the mysteries; the chambers of each side for the retiring rooms of the actors; and the magnificent Sarcophagus for the concluding and crowning rite.

That final beatific vision" has been before adverted to. Some dazzling machinery seems to have been connected with it. "A miraculous light discloses itself," says Stobæus-"I rushed forward," says Apuleius, "amidst conflicting elements, and beheld a sun shining with the splendour of day amidst the depths of midnight." All the Pagan nations had a Sol Inferus, who presided over funereal rites; Serapis was the Sol Inferus of Egypt, as Pluto was the Jupiter Inferus of the Greeks.

It was in the saloon, then, that the veil of mystery was removed. It was here, perhaps, amidst the efflux of glory, "dark with excessive light," amidst the vibration of tumultuous torches, and the deep reverbera