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No confirmation is found on the monuments for this feast at Bubastis; but there was a similar one for five days, in the month Thoth, at Denderah, the details of which correspond closely to the description here.

The κρόταλα and flutes are genuine Egyptian instruments; κρόταλα=‘rattles’; others translate ‘cymbals’; H. does not mention the σεῖστρον, which is the most common of all. Clapping of hands, to mark time, was as common in ancient as it is in modern Egypt.


καί makes the figure more emphatic (cf. 44. 4). The number is exaggerated; Wiedemann well compares the 70,000 pilgrims who, according to Mohammedan belief, go to Mecca every year, and whose number is made up by angels, if it would otherwise fall short.

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