Note 23 — Chapter II
William Johnston translation
Whether the worship of the Egyptian Apis came from India, or the sacred ox of the Indians was carried from Egypt, cannot, as far as I am able to judge, be determined. The mode of worship in both countries has without doubt a great deal of similarity, though in many things different. The sacred ox of the Indians, for example, remains only three years in life; whereas that of the Egyptians, according to Plutarch, remained twenty-five, after which he was drowned, then embalmed and deposited in a subterranean burying-place destined for that purpose near the village of Abusir, the ancient Busiris, not far from Memphis. The coffin of the Apis ox was found there by Paul Lucas and Wortley Montague, the latter of whom carried away a stone with sculpture on it representing the embalming of Apis. This stone may be seen in the British Museum, to the keepers of which I first explained it. F.