a celebrated deity of the Egyptians, daughter of Saturn and Rhea, according to Diodorus of Sicily. Some suppose her to be the same as Io, who was changed into a cow, and restored to her human form in Egypt, where she taught agriculture, and governed the people with mildness and equity, for which reasons she received divine honours after death. According to some traditions mentioned by Plutarch, Isis married her brother Osiris, and was pregnant by him even before she had left her mother's womb. These two ancient deities, as some authors observe, comprehended all nature and all the gods of the heathens. Isis was the Venus of Cyprus, the Minerva of Athens, the Cybele of the Phrygians, the Ceres of Eleusis, the Proserpine of Sicily, the Diana of Crete, the Bellona of the Romans, &c. Osiris and Isis reigned conjointly in Egypt; but the rebellion of Typhon, the brother of Osiris, proved fatal to this sovereign. The ox and the cow were the symbols of Osiris and Isis; because these deities, while on earth, had diligently applied themselves in cultivating the earth. As Isis was supposed to be the moon as Osiris the sun, she was represented as holding a globe in her hand, with a vessel full of ears of corn. The Egyptians believed that the yearly and regular inundations of the Nile proceeded from the abundant tears which Isis shed for the loss of Osiris, whom Typhon had basely murdered. The word Isis, according to some, signifies "ancient," and on that account the inscriptions on the statues of the goddesses were often in these words: "I am all that has been, that shall be, and none among mortals has hitherto taken off my veil." The worship of Isis was universal in Egypt, the priests were obliged to observe perpetual chastity, their head was closely shaved, and they always walked barefooted, and clothed themselves in linen garments. They never eat onions, they abstained from salt with their meat, and were forbidden to eat the flesh of sheep and of hogs. During the night they were employed in continual devotion near the statue of the goddess. Cleopatra, the beautiful queen of Egypt, was wont to dress herself like this goddess, and affected to be called a second Isis.

Thames, a river that has its rise in Gloucestershire, and flows through only a small part of Wiltshire. It enters this county near its source, and begins to be navigable for boats at Cricklade; but after running in a serpentine manner about four miles, it leaves Gloucestershire at a village called Calf Eaton.

ISLAM; the true faith, according to the Mahometans. See MAHOMETANISM.