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CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 WiLLARD FiSKE 
 
 Endowment 
 
THE 
 
 ergent Pgt|s 0f %umt ^gpl. 
 
 A COMPAEATIVE HISTORY OF THESE MYTHS 
 
 COMPILED FBOM 
 
 ■ THE " RITUAL OF THE DEAD," EGYPTIAN INSCRIPTIONS, PAPYRI, AND 
 MONUMENTS IN THE BRITISH AND CONTINENTAL MUSEUMS. 
 
 By W. R. cooper, F.R.S.L., 
 
 HON. SEC. SCO. BIB. ABOHiEOLOGY. 
 
 Vitk Notes a-nd Bemarks by Dr. S. Birch, M. Eenouf, M. Lenormant, 
 S. M. Dbach, Esq., and other Egyptologers. 
 
 Being a Paper read before the Victoria Institute, 
 or, Philosophical Society of Great Britain, 8, Adelphi Terrace, Strand.- 
 
 ( With the Discussion.) 
 
 THE WHOLE ILLUSTRATED WITH 129 ENGRAVINGS, 
 
 LONDON : 
 ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1873. 
 
 {The riglifs of Translation and Reproductio)i are rese^'ved.) 
 
L 1 
 
 OOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO 
 
 m 
 
 Shrine of tbe great deity Amun-Ra, with the goddesses Mersokar and Eileithya in 
 the form of snakes on either side of the door. Above are the solar disk and the 
 usual cornice of everliving uraai. (Leyden Museum.) 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON TEE SEBPENT MYTHS OF 
 ANCIENT EGYPT.* Illustrated with Explanatory 
 Figures from Egyptian Monuments and Ancient Gems. By 
 W. R. CooPEE, Esq., F.E.S.L., Secretary of the Society 
 of Biblical Archceology. 
 
 WHILE mucli has been done for the elucidation of the 
 Ophiolatry of India^ Greece, and Rome by many most 
 able scholarSj yet the serpent myths of Egypt, — the oldest, 
 most abundant, and best preserved of them all, have been but 
 little attended to since the time of ChampoIIion and Wilkinson. 
 On the Continent it is true that MM. Pierret, Brugsch, and 
 Lenormantf have published a few isolated pa,pers upon parts of 
 the legends of hieroglyphy, but these have never been trans- 
 lated into English, and even the originals are but little known. 
 This is both a subject of regret and of surprise, for no one 
 who considers the very early connection between Egypt and 
 Israel in Biblical times can fail to have noticed that there were 
 many allusions and restrictions in the ceremonial laws of the 
 latter nation, which only by a reference to the customs of their 
 contemporary neighbours could be duly understood. While the 
 Romans doubted, and the Greeks ridiculed, their gods, the 
 nobler and more primitive Egyptians loved, and were supposed 
 to be beloved, by them. The profane and the impure divinities 
 of the Grecian Olympus, the debaucheries of Silenus and of 
 Pan, the fraudulent Mercury, and the unchaste Venus, find no 
 counterpart in the Egyptian Pantheon. Not till the irruption 
 of the semi-greek Psammetioi does Theban worship become 
 obscene, and Theban sculpture gratuitously indecent; and it 
 may be safely asserted, without fear of contradiction, that 
 there is, morally and scientifically, more to disgust in the 
 Odes of Horace or The Bays and Weelis of Hesiod, than in the 
 whole vast range of ancient Egyptian literature. 
 
 ^ I^hose aware of some of the tendencies of modern thought will recog- 
 nize the value of this paper. Since it was read thp author has kindly taken 
 the opportunity of adding such new matter as the most recent investigations 
 on the subject afford, in order that it might be as complete a statement of 
 the serpent myths of ancient Egypt as could be at present published. The 
 engravings have been carefully done on the graphotype process by Mr. John 
 Allen.— Ed. 
 
 t Mostly in the Revue ArcMologique, of Paris, and the Zeitsdirift fiir 
 Mqyptische S-pradie, of Berlin. England as yet possesses no journal wholly 
 devoted to exegetical archreology. 
 
 b2 
 
2. The danger of Egyptian theology was not in its innate 
 impurityj but its extremely speculative character^ its endless 
 subtleties and misunderstood^mbolisms, its fetish amulets, and 
 degrading animal idolatry. |In these it was, to a great extent, 
 imitated by the Jews, whom, despite the precautions of the 
 divine lawgiver, it corrupted, while by associating with the 
 visible agencies of good and evil the ideas of invisible and 
 supernatural power^ the hieroglyphers, as more or less all sym- 
 bolists eventually do, obscured the antitypes they intended to 
 typify, and overloaded their imperfectly significant faith by a 
 still less significant system of representationf} These errors 
 the pride and subtlety of the hierarchy permitted the common 
 orders to fall into by the division of their dogmatic teaching 
 into an exoteric, and esoteric, meaning, — one for the people 
 and another for themselves, — and then, after a time, avarici 
 and statecraft usurping the place of principle, the bulk of the 
 Egyptians were left to follow their own interpretations of their 
 symbolic statuary, while the secret beauty of the Theoretic 
 faith was reserved for the hierophants alone. 
 
 3. Foremost among all the natural objects first associated as 
 representatives, and then as hypostases, of the Deity, were the 
 sun and the heavenly bodies ; the sun asChefer- and Horus-Ea 
 (fig. 1), the moon as Isis, the heavens as Neith; and upon earth 
 
 Fig. 1. Hbrus-Ea, wearing the solar disk and urseug. (Arundale.) 
 
 the benevolent and fertilizing Nile as the deity Hapimou, or a 
 form of Khem, father of the land of Egypt. The sanctification 
 of beasts, birds, and reptiles followed — some for their beauty, 
 others for their utility ; then a spirit of fear led on the way to 
 the propitiation of destructive agencies and injurious animals 
 — the storm, the east wind, the lightning, in the first class, 
 and the hippopotamus, the crocodile, and the Seepent] in the 
 other, — till, in the end, after centuries of superstition and de- 
 
cadence^ the adoration, vocative and precativej of this latter 
 reptile spread throughout the whole of the Egyptian mytho- 
 logy, and the serpent lay enshrined in the temples of the 
 oldest and most beneficent divinities. 
 
 4. From the very earliest period to which our researches are 
 enabled to extend, there is written and monumental evidence 
 that out of three kinds of serpents, known in Egypt and 
 represented on the monuments, two were the objects of a 
 peculiar veneration and of an almost universal worship. Unlike 
 "the adoration of Seb (fig. 2), the crocodile deity of Ombos and 
 
 K A 
 
 Fig. 2. The deity Sobek wearing the Teshr or great plume ot Osiris. (Bunsen.) 
 
 Tentyra,* and the batrochocephalan deity, Pthah, the frog- 
 headed fire-god of Memphis in the Delta, the reverence paid 
 to the snake was not merely local or 'even limited to one 
 period of history, but it prevailed alike in every district of the 
 Pharian empire, and has left its indelible impress upon the archi- 
 tecture and the archeology of both Upper and Lower Egypt. /R" 
 
 5. The three serpents peculiar then to Egypt and North 
 Africa appear to have been: 1. TheNaja,orOobradi Cape!lo,the 
 
 Fig! 3. The Sacred Urieus or Basilisk. (S ir. Oimen. ) 
 
 spectacle-snake of the Portuguese and the Uraeusf (fig. 3) and 
 basilisk of the Greeks; a venomous and magnificent reptile, with 
 
 * ChampoUion (le Jeune), FantUon Egyptien. 
 
 t Uraens, Gr. = Oiiro = arau, in hieroglyphics, the letters composing the 
 determinative of king. 
 
prominent eyes, ringed skin, and inflated breast. From its dan- 
 gerous beauty, and in consequence of ancient tradition asserting 
 it to have been spontaneously produced by the rays of the sun,* 
 
 Fig. 4. The solar disk encircled by an urffius wearing the Psohent. 
 
 .^this creature was universally assumed as the emblem of divine 
 / and sacro-regal sovereignty. f 2. The Asp, or Cerastes (fig. 5), 
 
 Fig. 5. The Cerastes. (Bonomi, Hieroghj pines.) 
 
 a small and deadly kind of viper, possibly the cockatrice of Holy 
 Writ, J remarkable for its short thick body, and blunt and flat- 
 tened head, crested with scaly horns. 3. A large and unidenti- 
 fied species of coluber, of great strength and hideous longitude. 
 
 Fig. 6. Limestone tiiblet in the British Museum, possibly representing the 
 generation of the months. 
 
 This last was, even from the earliest ages, associated as the 
 representative of spiritual, and occasionally physical evil, and 
 
 * Hence the reptile is termed, on an ancient papyrus, " Soul of the body 
 of Ra." 
 
 t The King or Pharaoh is hieroglyphically represented by a basilisk (nrceus) 
 encircling the solar orb alone, as. on the great gates of El-Luxor. (Pig. 4.) 
 
 Deane, an unsafe authority, asserts that death by the sting of an urreus 
 was supposed to insure an immortal life to the fictim ; hence the peculiar 
 fitness of the death of Cleopatra. 
 
 % There is a curious block at the British Museum, representing one large 
 viper (distinguished from those commonly drawn by an extremely large head) 
 between twelve smaller ones. The reptile is wrought in soft stone, of ancient 
 Egyptian work, and is unintelligible as to the mythos represented, there 
 being no hieroglyphics. (Fig. 6.) 
 
was named Hof, Rehof, or Apophis (fig. 7)j>>-^'tlie destrqmr, tlie 
 enemy of the gods,* and the devourer of the souls of men3 That 
 such a creature once inhabited the Libyandesert, we have the 
 
 B a 
 
 Fig. 7. Apophis, the deslroi/e>: The hieroglyphics above his head compose the 
 letters of his namej A — P — P. 
 
 testimony both of Hanno the Carthaginianf and Lucan the 
 Roman; I and if it is now no longer an inhabitant of that 
 region^ it is probably owing to the advance of civilization 
 having driven it further south. 
 
 6. With one or other of these snakes all the ideographic 
 theology of Egypt is involved. Does the king desire to 
 
 Fig. 8. Thothmes Til. wearing the sacred crown of Osiris ; beneath it, and above 
 the claft or plaited head-dress, is fixed the jewelled urscus. 
 
 declare his divine authorityj he assumes the sacred asp of 
 Amun-Ra (fig. 8), and wears the basilisk upon his crown. The 
 
 * From Hof or Hf is derived the Coptic name of a snake to this day. 
 t See Periphis, Cory's translation. 
 / J First of those plagues tlie drowsy asp appeared, (Cerastes.) 
 
 j Then first her crest and svpelling neck she reared ; 
 
 / A larger drop of black congealing blood 
 
 ) Distinguished her amidst the deadly brood ; 
 
 / Of all the serpent race are none so fell, 
 
 None with so many deaths such plenteous venoins swell 
 
 Her scaly fold th' Hasmarrhois unbends, (Apophis ?) 
 
priests of tlie Temple of Ea at Heliopolis, and the priestesses of 
 Isis at Alexandria,=|^,rried serpents in their hands or in Cane- 
 
 Fig. 9. The basket of tlie Eleusinian Canephorae, oontaining a serpent, from whence 
 the basket of Jupiter Serapis was derived. Fron: a Greek coin. (Sharpe.) 
 
 phorsB on their heads (fig. 9) to declare their divine ordinationj 
 (fig. 1 0} . Hence also, the secret ady ta, or sacristies of the divini- 
 
 Fig. 10. Egyptian priestess carrying the urasus. From a Ptolemaic slab engrave^i in 
 Bartoli's A dmiranda. 
 
 tiesj and the sculptured arks, with the massive shrines, great 
 
 And her vast length along the sand extends ; 
 
 AVhere'er she wounds, from every part the blood 
 
 Gushes resistless in a crimson flood 
 
 The Basilisk, with dreadful hissings heard, (ITrEciis.) 
 
 And from afar by every serpent feared, 
 
 To distance drives the vulgar, and remains 
 
 The lonely monarch of the desert plains 
 
 Lucan, Fharsalia, lib. ix. 1200-30, Eowe's Translation. 
 * Sometimes the Pschent, or Eoyal crown, was decorated by a cresting 
 of pendent urcei similar to the usual ornamentation of a shrine. See Lepsius, 
 Abth. iii. Bl. 284. 
 
sacred triads^ were crested with a cornice of jewelled snakes 
 (fig- 31), As the emblem of divine goodness, the crowned 
 Uraeus, resting upon a staflF, was one of the most usual of the 
 
 nonnnno.pfi 
 
 Fig. 11. Upper portion of snake-crested oornioe from interoolumnar slabs. (Philai.) 
 
 ^Egyptian standards, and the serpent upon a pole, which 
 Moses, by divine direction, upheld to the Israelites in the 
 wilderness (fig. 12),*] has been supposed to have been either 
 
 ^-^ 
 
 Fig. 12. An Egyptian standard, bearing a bronze figure of the goddess Ranno. 
 
 (iiharpe. ) 
 
 an adaptation, or imitation, of the well-known pagan symboij- 
 Again, when once the Urseus had been associated with the 
 idea of divinity, the Theban priests, rightly desiring to 
 ascribe thdTgift of life and the power of healing to the Deity 
 
 * Numljers xxi. f). 
 
 t Sharpe, Bible Texts, p. 47. 
 
LO 
 
 alonej significantly enough twined the serpent around the 
 trident of Jupiter Ammon (fig. 13)^ and the staff of Thoth, 
 
 Pig. 13. Trident and serpent of Jupiter Ammon. From a gem. (Maffei.) 
 
 "1 
 
 or Hermes Trismegistus (fig. 14),* the author of medicine,; to 
 imply the source from which that subordinate demigod's virtues 
 
 Fig, 14. Staff of Hermes ; on the top is the mystic hawk of Horus-Ba, and the solar 
 urseus. (Wilkinson.) 
 
 were derived.f From this, in the later periods of her history. 
 
 * Wilkmson, Ancient Egy23tian.s, vol. v. p. 12, plate 46 ; and vol. iv. 
 p. 183. 
 
 t Tlie older Italian antiquaries, whose treatises are as comprehensive in 
 detail, as they are excellent in composition, have written much of this and 
 cognate mythological analogies ; as, for example, Cartari, Vicenzo, Le Inmgini 
 (lei Dei de gli Antichi, 1581 ; Orlandi, Orazio, Osservaaioni : il Serpente cli 
 Bronzo, 1773 ; Agostini, Lionardo, Le Gemme Antiche, 1657. All these are 
 in the library of the Soaue Museum, the curator of which affords every facility 
 for their inspection. 
 
11 
 
 Egypt r6mifctedJ irL-ficggf!ft^a,1oTi(y with the so-called forty-six 
 hermetic treatises, theTraditional caduceus, or serpent sceptre 
 
 Pig. 15. The Cadueeus or serpent-staff of Mercury. 
 
 of Cyllenius (fig. 15) and iEsculapius (fig. 16),* and by a sub- 
 
 Fig. 16. Staff or club of iE.;culapius, the god of medicine. {From Maffei.) 
 
 sequent transformation of the same deities into a feminine 
 
 ^S> 
 
 Fig. 17. The serpent and bowl of the goddess Hygeia. 
 
 form, the snake and bowl of Hygeia (fig. 1 7), the goddess of 
 
 ' * On the side of the rook grotto of Trophonios were sculptured images of 
 f Trophonios and Herkyna with serpent- twined staves. — Eaol Eochette, 
 I Monumenti incditi, pp. 21, 22. 
 
12 / 
 
 ( 
 health. * Following out the same symbolic teaching, to imply ■ 
 the swiftness and extent of the divine attributes, the serpent 
 
 Fig. 18. The serpent and dish of the goddess Maut, the great mother. 
 
 of good is often invested with wings ; not that such creatures 
 ever existed, but to identify the active and passive properties 
 of the divine essence in one impersonation.-)- Instances also 
 occur, as on the sarcophagus in the Soane Museum, J where four 
 
 Fig. 19. Four-winged serpent, Chnuphis or Bait. ^.'-'^'^ 
 
 wings are'attached to the divine reptile (fig. 1 9), that "the four _;pj<i' 
 corners of the earth," a completely Egyptian mode of ex- ' 
 pression, might be represented as being embraced by and v /■ 
 sheltered by the Supreme Providence, while in another instance 
 the solar disk is crested with four serpents (fig. 20), the Urasi 
 of goodness, embodying the same metaphorical allusion. 
 
 ■"' »Sf66 Maffei, Alessandro, Ocnime Antiche figurate, 1707, plates 55 and 57. ' 
 
 The serpent and bowl are doubtless derived from the hieroglyphical 
 
 characters for Maut, the mother goddess, these being a serpent upon a shallow ' 
 
 bowl, which the Greeks, not reading as the hieroglyphiciil signs for '• Lady i 
 
 Mother," modified into mere ornamental attributes. I 
 
 " t Such serpents occur on the sarcophagi of Pepar, XXX. Dyn., in the ! 
 
 British Museum, and papyri of Petuk Hans, Hesi Hem-Kebi, XXI. Dyn.. ^ 
 
 and Amen-Shau, XXVI. Dyn. ', 
 
 t That of Oimeneptheh I. / 
 
13 
 
 Snaljes guarded the gates of the eternal region ; and snakes 
 were worshipped while living, in the temple of Khonso at 
 
 r^r^ 
 
 Fig. 20. Plume of Amun-Ra, and solar disk, with four uraei. (Leyden Museum.) 
 
 Napata, and mummied when dead in the temple of Kneph 
 
 Fig. 21. Head of the ram-headed god Chnum, the spiritual generator, bearing the 
 feminine ureeus of Ranno. 
 
 or Chnouphis, the spirit or soul (fig. 21) of the world. The 
 
 ,Fig. 22. The symbolic winged serpent of the goddess Mersokar, or Melsokar, wearing 
 the crowns of the upper and lower kingdoms. (Wilkinson.) 
 
 ih 
 
 I 
 
 guardian genii of Upper and Lower Egypt, Melsokar (fig. 22) 
 and Eilethya (fig. 23),* were honoured under the guise of ursei ; 
 
 * Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, vol. v. plate 52. 
 
14 
 
 and the avenging Oabereii (fig. 24),* or torturers of the wJ.-^ked 
 
 Fig. 23. The symbolic winged serpent of the goddess Eileithya, wearing the crown of 
 the Lower kingdom. 
 
 in the Egyptian purgatory, inflicted the fellest punishment 
 upon the condemned, by scourging them with whips of living 
 
 Fig. 24 The avenging Cabereii, the tormentors of the dead. At the left hand is the 
 f ylon jr entrance to hell, guarded by two Cynooephali, the emblematic monkeys 
 of Truth and Justice. (Sharpe. ) ^ f . j 
 
 snakes, or thrusting them, in company with ferocious vipers. 
 
 ( S.^^ 
 
 Fig. 25. The goddess Chiun, Venus. From a stelfi in the British Museum ' 
 (Sharpe.) ' ( 
 
 into a lake or tank of fire. f The goddess Eemphan (fig. 25] 
 
 ' ^ h 
 
 * Cabereii, from -iDp. Children of Pthah Typhnn and his hideous consort! 
 Thoeris, the source of the Hellene Eumenides. I 
 
 t A common representation, which occurs on the outside of several wooden) 
 sarcophagi in the British Museum, as No. 38, Upper Eoyptian room. 
 
15 
 
 and the younger Horus, to declare their power over life and 
 deathj hold snakes in one hand and flowers in the other, offer- 
 ing the symbols of beauty and health to the EgyptianSj and 
 threatening the Syrians on the left hand with the envenomed 
 creatures of death.* The Greeks, who, two thousand years later, 
 introduced all these theories into their own mythology, and 
 interpreted the sacred figures of the Egyptians by their own 
 less esoteric cultus, have, through the mistakes of their philoso- 
 phers, greatly obscured the real symbolism of the ophiolatry of 
 Egypt ; and those who would unravel the mysteries of Alex- 
 andrian and Theban faith, must begin by disregarding the 
 Olympian Pantheon, and forgetting the perversions of Roman 
 ignorance and Plinian supercilious incredulity. 
 
 7. Further, be it remembered, the Egyptian reverence, both 
 in fear and love, of the serpent, was contemporaneous with the 
 lives of the oldest Biblical patriarchs ; and to one who is 
 unable or unwilling to accept the sacred chronicles and the 
 antiquity of their earliest chapters, it is axceedingly difficult to 
 
 Fig. 26. Kristna entangled in the folds of the great serpent Caliya, who is biting 
 his heel ; the incarnate deity is waiting for divine assistance from Indra to enable 
 him to overcome the enemy. 
 
 account for the prevalence of a serpent myth, not only in 
 Egypt, but in- Assyria, Etruria, and Hindustan;! still more 
 difficult is it for such a one to explain the extraordinarily 
 
 * Sharpe, Egyptian Monuments in the British Museum, p. 70. 
 
 t As in the myths of Raraayana and Krishna, and the serpent Caliya. 
 For an exhaustive treatise on Indian ophiolatry, see Fergusson's Tree and 
 Serpent Worship. 
 
16 
 
 close analogies existing between the very words in which 
 the serpent is described, and the acts in which he is repre- 
 sented as officiating, and those titles and deeds by which the 
 
 Fig. 27. Krishna triumphant over Caliya ; with both his hands the deity grips the 
 folds of the hated monster, and crushes its head beneath hia feet. (Conf. Gen. 
 iii. 16.) 
 
 ancient serpent is painfully familiar to ns all in the Mosaic 
 record. A Greco-Egyptian writer of the Ptolemaic period, 
 HorapollOjf does, indeed, assign a motive for the superstition ; 
 and his language is sufficiently curious to excuse our quoting 
 it accordingly; and here is also the best place wherein to 
 interpolate a few other extracts whose novelty will at least 
 excuse their introduction, though it will be obvious that, from 
 a purely philosophical point of view, the explanation they afford 
 of the serpent- worship of Egypt is unsatisfactory in the 
 extreme. 
 
 "When they would represent the universe they delineate a serpent with 
 variegated scales, devouring its own tail ; by the scales intimating the stars in 
 the universe. The animal is also extremely heavy, as is the earth, and 
 extremely slippery, like the water ; moreover it every year puts oflF its 
 old age with its skin, as in the universe the annual period effects a corre- 
 sponding change, and becomes renovated. And the making use of its own 
 
 „v:- 
 
 * Tl -, and the preceeding figure are from drawings supplied by William 
 Simpson, Esq. 
 t HorapoUo, lib. i. capn>'i. 
 
17 
 
 body for food implies that all things whatsoever that are generated by Divine >t 
 Providence in the world undergo a corruption into it again." * 
 
 Fig. 28. The Orphic egg, symboliziag inert matter vivified by the demiurge. 
 (Bryant. )f 
 
 This relates to the coluber or serpent called Bait, " soul of 
 the world," alone. According to Champollion, the emblem of 
 
 Fig. 29. The serpent Chnuphis. From a Gnostic gem. (Montfaucon.) The name 
 inside the circle is that of the Archangel Michael. 
 
 the Creative power of the Deity (fig. 29) under the form of the 
 god Chnuphis (fig. 30), a deity identified with Jehovah Sabaw 
 
 Fig. 30. The deity Chnuphis, as a double-headed serpent. 
 (Champollion, Panthlon Egyplien.) 
 
 (lAQ SABAQ)t (fig. 31) by the Gnostic heretics of the second 
 century. § 
 
 * Hence the well-known symbol of a serpent entwined round an egg, used 
 by the Orphic mystics to signify matter vivified by spirit. 
 
 t For further details of the great Egyptian Orphic myth which evolved 
 creation out of the cosmic egg, which breaking, the up,, ' ^f became 
 heaven and the lower earth, see Creuzer's SymboKk, ii. 224, andi,,, ''iS-S. 
 
 t Di>*2iJ (Tsebaoth), "Lord of Hosts."— S. Drach 
 
 § See Montfaucon, art. " Gnostiques" ;, Abra~-s, torn. ii. part 2. 
 
 C 
 
18 
 
 " When they would represent eternity differently, they delineate a serpent 
 with its tail covered by the rest of its body, and they place golden figures of 
 it roimd the gods* The Egyptians say that eternity is represented by this 
 
 Fig. 31. The symbolic serpent of the deity lAQ. {Drawn from memory.) 
 
 animal because of the three existing species of serpents ; the others are 
 mortal, but this alone is iminortal, and because it destroys any other animal 
 by merely breathing upon it, even without biting. And hence, as it appears to 
 have the power of life and death, they place it upon the heads of the gods."t 
 
 Fig. 32. Solar disk and double ursi. (Leemans.) 
 
 This evidently refers to the urseus only, who is frequently 
 represented as guarding the sacred cypress groves of the 
 Amenti (Sheol) by breathing out fire to destroy any invading 
 or unjustified soul J (fig. 33). Hence arose the origin of the 
 
 * On the front of the head-dresses peculiar to divinities and kings. 
 
 t HorapoUo, lib. i. cap. L A curious example of the manner in which a 
 symbol is exac'gerated when its significance is misunderstood or forgotten, is 
 afforded by a Eomano- or Greco-Egyptian statue of a kmg wearing the great 
 crown of Amun-Ra, the supreme divinity, with two urigi instead of one, on 
 the solar disk ; ridiculously intended by the sculptor as a double compliment 
 to the monarch.— See Musie de Leide, part i. plate 1. 
 
 + Ureeus = -ii« light— burning furnace.— S. Drach. 
 
19 
 
 Grecian myth of the Hesperidean garden and the fire-breathing 
 dragons which guarded it (fig. 34). With respect to the urseuSj 
 
 Fig. 33. The comers of Paradise guarded by fire-breathing ursei ; further on, but not 
 shown in the plate, are the bodies of the just awaiting in the cypress shades their 
 ultimate repiviflcation. (Sar. Oimen.) 
 
 one circumstance deserves notice ; it is, always represented in 
 the feminine form^ and is used as a symbol of fecundity. Hence 
 
 ^'7 
 
 i^L^- 
 
 Fig. 34. The serpent guarding the apple-tree of the Hesperidee. 
 in the British Museum. (Sharpe. ) 
 
 From a Greek vase 
 
 all the goddesses of Egypt were adorned with, and represented 
 by, ursei ; and not unfrequently the snake is alone figured, with 
 the name of the goddess written in hieroglyphics above (fig. 35). 
 This is notably the case in the tablets from the Belmore col- 
 lection in the British Museum {seeinfra, §11, first moiety), and 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 on the sarcophagus of Hapimen, a great functionary of the 
 nineteenth dynasty, and on that of Oimenepthah I., a monarch 
 ot the same period. (Fig. 36.) 
 
 -/. "To represent the mouth they depict a serpent, because the serpent is 
 powerful in no other of its members except the mouth alone."* 
 
 Fig. 35. Jewel in bronze, representing the serpent of goodness, or the goddess Ranno,. 
 Orreoo-Egyptian period. ' (From the original in the Hay collection.) Exact size. ' 
 
 This latter assertion is not borne out by the hieroglyphics, 
 where the serpent urseusf is simply the phonetic of the letter 
 g, and the asp, or coluber, of the letter/, or a sound analo- 
 
 Fig. 36. The goddesses of Heaven as arsei resting by the side of the river of Amenti. 
 
 (Sar. Oimen.) 
 
 gous to the Greek ^ alone. Possibly it was an error for the 
 name of another snake, Ru, which is the determinative ideo- 
 graph for mouth. J This identification of Pharaoh vsrith the 
 serpent of goodness§ gives a wonderful . ^significance to the 
 bitter apostrophe of the Jewish prophet, who' from the' river of 
 Chebar, foreseeing the final subjection of the Egyptian empire 
 by the Chaldeans, terms the sovereign of Thebes " the great 
 
 * Horapollo, lib. i. cap. 45. t S. Drach. % Bunsen, vol. i. p. 545, note. 
 § The first king of Abyssinia is traditionally said to have been a serpent. 
 Is this a misunderstood myth derived also from Egypt, whose kings, under 
 the nineteenth dynasty, invaded, if they did not conquer, Abyssinia V 
 
21 
 
 serpent in the waters/' as it were denouncing him as the 
 serpent Apophisj the enemy and destroyer of his country by 
 his fierce opposition to that god, by whose right hand he, Kke 
 Apophis, should be overthrown. " Son of man," says the divine 
 afflatus to Ezekiel, " set thy face against Pharaoh, king of 
 Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt. 
 Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am 
 against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon that 
 lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said. My river is 
 mine own, and I have made it for myself. .... I will have 
 thee thrown into the wilderness . . . thou shalt fall upon the 
 open fields, and all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I 
 am the Lord."— Ezek. xxix. 3—6. Cf. also Isaiah li. 9, and 
 xxvii. 1, where the same reference to the Apophic myth runs 
 throughout. (Eig. 37.) 
 
 . '.- , Fig. 37. Apophis ID the mystic celestial ocean between the goddesses Isis and 
 
 Nepthys. (Sar. Oimen.) 
 
 I ^ 8. The urseus is also the ideograph of the word " immortal " ; 
 
 ^ whence the phrase, " the living years of the ureeus," as applied 
 ' to the immortality of the king. (Fig. 38.) 
 
 Fig. 38. A Greek coin, representing Ptolemy with the attributes of the Grecian 
 Herakles, and the sacred snakes of the Egyptian Amun Ba. (Sharpe, Lee 
 collection.) 
 
 " The asp is worshipped on account of a certain resemblance between it 
 and the operations of the Divine Power, and being in no fear of old age, and 
 moving with great facility, though it does not seem to enjoy the proper 
 organs for motion, it is looked upon as a proper symbol of the stars." * 
 
 ^ 
 
 X 
 
 * Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, § 74. 
 
22 
 
 " In the vicinity of Thebes there are also sacred serpents not at all trouble- 
 Bome to men ; they are very small, but have two horns on the top of the 
 head. When they die, they are buried in the temple of Jupiter, to whom 
 they are said to belong." * 
 
 This corresponds in some degree to a statement by the 
 famous Principal of the Medical College at Cairo, M. Clot Bey, 
 ■who asserts f that the uraeuSj or cobra, is not poisonous. _ Un- 
 fortunately the passage from Herodotus implies not the Naja, or 
 Nasha, but the Cerastes, or two-horned yiper. The temple of 
 Jupiter is of course that of the god Chefer-Ea, who held a 
 position in some respects analogous to that of Jupiter with the 
 Romans or Zeus among the Greeks. 
 
 Cite we yet a further passage, and this time it shall be one 
 from the Great Ritual of the Dead itself. It is the apo- 
 strophe to the serpent Bata in " Heaven, where the sun is/^ 
 (Fig. 39.) 
 
 ^ 
 
 Fig. 39. The serpent Satl, or Bata, on the High Hill of Heaven. (Ritual, cap. oxlix.) 
 
 " Say, thou who hast gone, serpent of millions of years, millions of 
 years in length, in the quarter of the region of the great winds, the pool of 
 millions of years ; all the other gods return to all places, stretching to 
 where is the road belonging to him ? {i. e. who can measure the length of 
 his infinity of years). Millions of years are following to him. The road is 
 of fire, they whirl in fire behind him." (Celestial, not infernal, fire is here to 
 be understood.) J 
 
 This symbolic creature may be the serpent alluded to by 
 Job, when, in special reference to the works of God in the 
 heavens, he declares. By his spirit he garnished the heavens. 
 His head wounded the crooked (cowardly§) serpent. — Job 
 xxvi. 13. (Figs. 40, 41.) 
 
 * Herodotus, Eutmye, 74. 
 
 t Bonomi, Catalogue of Antiguites, Eartwell House, p. 22, No. 171. 
 J Chap, cxxxi. 
 
 § Sharpe's translation. n~l3 U^m Query, "gliding or barred serpent." - 
 S. Drach. 
 
23 
 
 From a misconception or mistranslation of this chapter^ it 
 is probable that Horapollo derived his confused account of the 
 
 Fig. 40. The constellation Hydra. From the Zodiac of Denderah. 
 Egyptian period. (Denon.) 
 
 Romano- 
 
 serpent myths. Between the Egyptians and the Greeks there 
 was little in common^ and the priests purposely misled their 
 Grecian querists, whom indeed they designated and treated as 
 children.* 
 
 Fig. 41. The same constellation. From the Zodiac of EsnS. A little earlier period. 
 
 (Denon. ) 
 
 9. ASj in the order of Providence, good always precedes 
 evil, we will so far digress from the main purport of this 
 paper, the Myth of Apophis, " the Destroyer,'' as to dwell for 
 a few paragraphs upon the urasus of immortal divinity, and 
 the Egyptian goddesses symbolized by it. (Pig. 42.) 
 
 J - ^. 
 
 Fig'. 42. The goddess Pasbt, or Bato, holding in one hand the Cucufa staff and in the 
 other a feminine uraeus. (Sai-. Oimen.) 
 
 10. The feminine deities were more numerous, and their cha- 
 racter and offices were less distinctive than the male divinities. 
 Each and all of them are written hieroglyphically by an urasus _^^ 
 alone, sometimes with the ordinary proper name affixed; ' 
 
 * Tlie reply of the Egyptian priest to Solon the Athenian is almost pro- 
 verbial : — " Yoa Greeks are children." 
 
24 
 
 sometimes wifch the epithets " living, sparkling, shining, or 
 immortal" (fig, 43); and sometimes, and far more frequently 
 
 Pig. 43. One of a series of goddesses adoring Amun Ea, and holding stars as 
 offerings. (Sar. Oimen.) 
 
 also, with a mystical compound name, the exact significance of 
 which is not capable of literal interpretation. Often as the 
 feminine spiritual principle, the goddess, as a serpent, twines 
 
 Fig. 44. The god Khonso in a shrine ; at his feet is the serpent Eanno. (Sar. Oimen. ) 
 
 round, reclines beneath, or over-canopies one of the greater 
 male divinities (fig. 44),* or with rising crest and inflated 
 
 Pig. 45. The god Knuphis, or Chnum, the spirit, in a shrine on the hoat of the sun, 
 canopied by the goddess Ranno, who is also represented as facing him inside the 
 shrine. (Sar. Oimen,) 
 
 * Belmore Collection, plate 18. See also triple mummy-case of Aevo 
 Ai, plate 1, — " Num in the sacred barge protected and canopied by Kenno 
 or Isis." 
 
25 
 
 hood, protects her protege with her terrible fangs (fig. 45). 
 The generative power of the solar beams is always typified 
 
 Fig. 46. The winged sun of Tliebes. From the great Pylons at El Luxor. (Bonotni.) 
 In this instance the signet of authority is suspended by the serpents in lieu of 
 the usual Tau eross. 
 
 by pendent ureei (fig. 46),* which latter have generally the 
 
 ^1? 
 
 Fig. 47. The bowl and snake of the goddess Mersokar ; beneath is the lily of the 
 upper country. (Wilkinson. ) 
 
 crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, representing the god- 
 desses Melsokar (fig. 47) and Eileithya (fig. 48) respectively. f 
 
 Fig. 48. The bowl and snake of the goddess Eileithya ; beneath is the papyrus of the 
 lower kingdom. (Wilkinson.) 
 
 Often a goddess, incarnated in a serpent, rests in a shrine 
 or sits upon a throne to receive the worship of her votary.} 
 
 * Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, vol. i. p. 239, second series. 
 
 t Ancient Egyptians, vol. v. p. 45. 
 
 X As in an unique example of the Ptolemaic period in the British Museum, 
 which represents a quadrangular shrine, at the door of which a sittuig nrssus 
 is sculptured. The cornice is terminated by a pyramidion, and the whole is 
 executed in soft limestone. A nearly, but not quite, similar shrine, is figured 
 in Music de Leide, vol, i. plate 35. 
 
26 
 
 Fruit, bread, flowers, and incense are the gifts most usually 
 presented, human beings and animals, never.* The goddesses 
 
 Fig. 49. The sacred urceus of goodness, or the goddess Ranno, wearing the symbolioa 
 crown of Amun-Ra. (Sharpe.) 
 
 ■whose cultus has left the most positive traces of its extent, are 
 Melsokar or Mersokcar, the patron of Lower Egypt; Eenno 
 
 Fig. 50. Shrine, with the sacred urseus. (Froni memory.) 
 
 " (fig. 49), t the mother of gestation, and goddess of harvest; :jk 
 and Urhuk, one of the doorkeepers of Sheol or Amenti. Of all 
 
 Fig. 51. Shrine, with the sacred urseus. On either side are columns hearing a vase 
 of oil and honey for the food of the reptile. (Leemans.) 
 
 these statements, the incised and painted tablets and papyri in 
 the British Museum afi'ord ample evidence ; and some of these. 
 
 ■* Contrary in this respect to the serpent " Fire fiice." See infra, fig. 100. 
 
 t Curiously enough, the Hebrew word for green vegetation, p^ (Cant. i. Vh) ~U 
 strongly resembles that of this goddess. May the word have an Egyptian 
 ontjin 1 
 
 ? 
 
27 
 
 and notably so those in the Belmore collection^ we will now 
 proceed to describe. 
 
 11. On four of these monuments the adoration of onOj who^ 
 in addition to her other offices^ was the patron deity of 
 nurses, women, and children, the goddess Eanno, is repre- 
 sented. In each case the offerings are precisely similar, 
 and consist of flowers, fruit, and cakes. In No. 5,6, which 
 is unfortunately broken, a Nubian gentleman,* kneeling 
 on one knee, presents the divinity with lotus-flowers and 
 
 Fig. 52. Sepulchral tablet in the Belmore collection, representing the worship of the 
 goddess Ranno. (British Museum.) 
 
 ornamental leaves, and offers for her acceptance a kind of wave 
 offering, f Ranno (fig. 52) is drawn as crawling on the ground 
 before the suppliant ; and the serpent's scaly crest is sur- 
 
 Fig. 53. Sepulchral tablet as above. (Same collection.) 
 
 mounted by a placid human head, J adorned with a splendid 
 askh or collar.§ In fig. 53 || the same subject is again re- 
 
 * Belmore Collection, plate 8. 
 
 t The wave offering of the Jev^s seems to have been horrov7ed from Egypt, 
 as it was a purely Egyptian custom, it consisted of waving before the deity 
 a small metal stand, containing vegetables and flowers. 
 
 J Belmore Collection, plate 8. 
 
 § For an example of this characteristic decoration, see the mummies in 
 the Upper Egyptian Saloon, British Museum. 
 
 II Belmore Collection, plate 12. 
 
28 
 
 peated, differing onlyin this respect, that no votiviare presented, 
 and the goddess, entirely serpentine, is resting on the outside 
 
 Fig. 54. Another, ditto ditto. These three tablets are fully described in the text. 
 
 of the shrine or pylon. In fig. 54 * Eanno is represented as 
 a female figure, only so far ophite as to have a serpent's head. 
 She is seated upon the ordinary throne of the gods, and in 
 her right hand holds the peculiar cucufa staff, used by the 
 male deities alone (the proper sceptre of the goddesses being a 
 papyrus stem in blossom, with which they are usually repre- 
 sented); t the left hand of the deity appears to have been in- 
 tended to clasp the ankh or cross of life. J A priest kneeling, 
 before the great goddess, shields his face with his hands while 
 supplicating her favour. In fig. 55 § the subject represented is 
 purely mythical, and forms part of the vignette to a funeral stel^. 
 
 Fig. 55. The god Chnum overcanopied by the goddess Ranno. (Same collection.) 
 
 This picture contains the Deity Chnuphis (fig. 55), or Kneph-Ra, 
 the creating agency, || in the form of a ram-headed man, sitting 
 
 * Belmore Collection, plate 7. 
 _ t See an example in the British Museum, from the Wilkinson Collec- 
 tion, Case 1, Great Saloon. 
 
 t See for examples of both this sceptre and the ankh, the colossal statues 
 of the goddess Pasht or Bubastis at the British Museum, Lower Saloon. 
 
 § Belmore Collection. 
 
 II Or Num, according to Dr. Birch. 
 
 X 
 
29 
 
 in the sacred boat BariSj while the goddess Ranno (fig. 56), 
 as a serpentj canopies him with her divine hypostasisj a sub- 
 
 Fig. 56. The sacred boat (Baris) of the sun, with the head of Amun, the supreme 
 deity, encompassed by the serpent of goodness. (From the sarcophagus of 
 Oimenepthah I.) 
 
 ject exactly similar to the vignette on the mummy-case of 
 Aero Aij before referred to, excepting that in this case the 
 deity is Kneph-, and in the other, Horus-Ra. Both may 
 probably idealize the same theory, — abstract immortality. It 
 must, however, not be overlooked that, while in the case of 
 Horus, Ranno wears the crown of the united kingdom, in that 
 of Kneph-Ra she is coronated with the head-dress of Osiris, 
 
 00( 
 
 Fig. 57. Sepulchral tablet representing the worship of the goddess Ranno. 
 
 collection.) 
 
 (Same 
 
 the avenger and judge of all men. In fig. 57,* which, 
 like fig. 56, is defective, a priest is figured adoring Mersokar, 
 the goddess of Upper Egypt, and presenting for her acceptance 
 a tablet of cakes and bread. One remarkable peculiarity dis- 
 tinguishes this tablet : the goddess herself is not only drawn 
 as a urseus, but her crest is surmounted by a head-dress formed 
 of three ursei, each wearing the solar disk, as if to indicate a 
 trinity of potentiality, or the junction of the offices of Isis, 
 Nepthys, and Osiris, in her own person, three being, as is well i 
 known, the common Egyptian numerograph for completeness,! 
 
 * Belmore ColleotioD, plate 8. 
 
30 
 
 Fig. 58, * the last and most singular state in the whole 
 collection, is of a very different class to the preceding ; and it 
 is to be regretted that Egyptologists are not yet decided as to 
 
 Fig. 58. Adoration of an unknown species of coluber. (Same collection.) 
 
 its actual signification. Before a large and slender serpent/ 
 more resembling Apophis than any other of the mystic snakes 
 of Egypt, kneels upon one knee an adoring worshipper. He 
 is not, as in other instances, shielding or hiding his face with 
 his hands, but is uplifting them in the usual attitude hiero- 
 glyphically adopted to signify the verb " to pray." The great 
 snake itself is coiled in four upright convolutions, and appears 
 to regard the suppliant with a majestic and not ungentle 
 aspect. Although resembling Apophis (fig. 59), this reptile 
 
 Fig. 59. The oartouch containing the name of the last but one of the Hycsos kings, 
 who was named Apophis after the great serpent of evil whom his predecessors 
 worshipped. 
 
 cannot be identified with that monster, for there is no 
 example of direct worship paid to the evil creature throughout 
 
 Fig. 60. Head of the serpent Apophis, with the hieroglyphics composing his name. 
 
 Beknore Collection, plate 7. 
 
31 
 
 tlie whole of Egyptian Mythology^* unless, indeed, we identify 
 it witli Sutekh, as the shepherd kings, the last but one of whom 
 was named Apophis (fig. 60), appear to have done; and in that 
 case the innovation led to a sanguinary revolution, which termi- 
 nated the sway of the seventeenth dynasty, according to some 
 chronologers 2214 B.C.f The probability, therefore, is that 
 the adoration intended on this last tablet was offered to one of 
 the household serpentine divinities analogous to that which 
 obtained, in after-time, among the Romans, who, in all likeli- 
 hood, derived it through the Etruscans, from the Egyptians 
 themselves. t With respect to the kind of food offered in all 
 these cases to serpent deities. Sir Gardner Wilkinson, in his 
 
 Fig. 61. The domestic snake of the Eomans, with the altar containing a cluster of 
 fruit. (From Gell and Gaudy's Pompeii.) 
 
 great but imperfect, because passe, work, has a most interest- 
 ing paragraph, which it will be only proper here to introduce. 
 
 ".ffilian§ relates many strange stories of the asp|| and the respect paid to 
 it by the Egyptians ; but we may suppose that in his sixteen species of aspsIT 
 other snakes were included.** He also speaks of a dragon, which was sacred 
 in the Egyptian Melite, and another kind of snake called Paries or Paruas, 
 dedicated to ^sculapius.ff The serpent of Melite had priests and ministers, 
 a table and a bowl. JJ Itwas kept in a tower (fig. 61) and fed by the priests with 
 cakes §§ made of flour and honey, which they placed there in the bowl. 
 Havmg done this, they retired. The next day, on returning to the apart- 
 
 -'' * Le Page Eenouf, ex. gr., in a letter to the author. 
 
 + Lenormant, Ancient History, vol. i. p. 197. 
 
 j See Gell and Gaudy's Pompeiana, plate 76, for illustrations of mural 
 paintings representing the Roman household serpents (Pig. 61.) 
 
 § ^lian, X. 31, xi. 32, iv. 54. || Pliny, viii. 23. 
 
 ir JElian, x. 31. ** ^lian, xi. c. 17. 
 
 ft It is evident from Pausanias, that the dragon of the Greeks was only a 
 large kind of snake, with, as he says, " scales like a pine cone." 
 
 XI Mlian, viii. c. 19. 
 
 §§ Cakes seem to have been usually given to the snakes of antiquity, as 
 to the dragon of the Hesperides. — Mneid, iv. 483. 
 
32 
 
 ment, the food was found to be eaten, and the same quantity was again put 
 into the bowl, for it was not lawful for any one to see the sacred reptile."* 
 
 " According to Juvenal,t the priests of Isis, in his time, contrived that 
 the silver idols of snakes, kept in her temple, should move their heads to a 
 supplicating votary.'' — Ancient Ugyptiaiis, vol. v. pp. 240-1. 
 
 Fig. 62. The serpent In the tower. From a Gnostic gem. (Montfauoon.) 
 
 All this is in exact accordance witli monumental evidence, and 
 in harmony with one of the most curious of the Apocryphal 
 books, the story of Bel and the Dragon. 
 
 12. Eetnrn we now to the serpent, the rise of whose myth 
 is more immediately before us, — Apophis,J " the Destroyer." 
 Prominent above all other species of reptile, a king among his 
 genus, this baleful serpent twines his imbricated folds, as it were, 
 around the stem of the ancestral tree of the Egyptian Theo- 
 gony, and with brazen head and fiery eyes § stands forth 
 in awful prominence. Vengeful and mysterious, always a 
 malignant being, he was chosen to represent the very 
 impersonation of spiritual, as his brother Typhon, or Baal, 
 was of physical, evil. For the remainder then of this, not 
 
 * Cf. Ovid, lib. ii. Amor. Eleg. 13 to Isis : " Labatur circa donaria serpens." 
 t " Bt movisse caput visa est argentea serpens." — Juvenal, Sat. VI. 537. 
 " Gently the silver serpent seems to nod." — Holyday's Translation. 
 
 " The sUver snake 
 Abhorrent of the deed, was seen to quake." 
 
 Gifford's rendering. 
 
 J Apophis = C)i^-t)Ji^ duplicate of rjX nose, wrath, PjJX foaming with 
 rage (anaph). 
 
 § The usual epithets applied to Apophis, in the Eitual of the Dead and 
 the Litany of the Sun, 
 
33 
 
 exhaustive but indicative, essay, his cultus claims, and 
 must receive, our sole and best atteiition.* This fearful 
 monster, called also th.e G iant, the En emy, an d the Devourer . 
 was believed to inhabit" the deptEs~of that mvsterio"u8 
 ocean, upon which t ne ±iaris." lqr_; ^oat of the sun, was " 
 ^a^ga ted by the g^ ods through the~hour3~of day and ni^ht. 
 in the~celestiai regions. In not a few instances he was 
 identified w ith Typhon,t themurderer of Osiris the (Rhot- 
 Amenti, or judge of the aead), and the antagonist of Chefer- 
 Ra, the benevolent creator, by whose son, the juvenile divinity 
 
 M 
 
 ^ 
 
 .^ 
 
 Fig. 63. The Osirian and the goddess Isis bringing Apophis wounded and bound to 
 be .slain in the head by Horus. Isis stands at the head, and the Osirian at the 
 tail- of Apophis. (Sharpe, Sar, Oimen.) 
 
 Horus (fig. 63), he is eventually overcome, aided by the united 
 efforts of Isis, the Queen of Heaven, sister-consort of Osiris, 
 and the twelve lesser deities_of,the^eavenly powers. All this, ' 
 
 Fig. 64. The gods Set and Horns, united as one divinity, between the triple serpents 
 of good. Executed prior to the time of the obliteration of all remains of the 
 worship of Set, who was subsequently confounded with Apophis. (Sar. Oimen. ) 
 
 * Occasionally Apophis is drawn with the crown of the lower kincrdom 
 upon his head, which, however, is not extraordinary, as the religion of the 
 Delta had a great deal more of animal-worship in it than that of the Thebaid, 
 and there the gods were venerated more from fear than love. 
 
 t In later Greco-Roman times, as in the earlier period, Apophis is also 
 identified with Set, or Seth, the ass-headed deity of the Syrian or Hyesis 
 tribes. One very late monument indeed speaks of " Seth, who is the Apophis 
 of the watei-s." — Bunsen, i. 427. 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 and mucli more wMch is wholly inexplicable^ is derived from 
 perhaps the oldest of all uninspired liturgies, that most 
 remarkable combination of prayers, incantations, and con- 
 fessions, which extends over 166 chapters, and is caUed m 
 hieroglyphy,"The Book of the Manifestation to Light, or the 
 Eitual of the Dead. This work may be almost certainly 
 traced back to the reign of Hesepti, of the first dynasty, . 
 according to Lenormant,* whose era is 5004 B.C., and to that of ^^ 
 Menkera, the Mycerinus of Herodotus, of the fourth dynasty, j 
 4325 B.c.t The names of both of these early Pharaohs occur m 
 the test itself, although — and this is a most important incident 
 to note — the final revision of the work, and a few additional 
 chapters, were added as late as the period of Ethiopian conquest 
 of Egypt, under the twenty-sixth dynasty, 665 B.C. Throughout 
 this wonderful Ritual the idea of the serpent, as the soul of the 
 world, and another variety of it, the Apophis, as the evil being, 
 both antalogaes of each other, occurs again and again, the soul 
 has to arm itself against its machinations, and. the body to be 
 protected from its malignity. The deceased, when soul and 
 body are reunited in the Amenti, or Egyptian Sheol, has 
 to do combat with it, and the aid of eveiy divinity is in turn 
 invoked to overcome the enemy of the sun. J This will become -^f- 
 still more apparent as we proceed to examine the Ritual, ' 
 following the analysis of M. Lenormant and Dr. Birch, the 
 while illustrating oar examination by extracts from the myste- 
 rious document itself. 
 
 13. The opening chapter (1) of this ancient formulary is thus 
 headed — " The beginning of the Chapters of the coming forth 
 from the Day of bearing the Dead (spirits) in Hades (Ker- 
 neter) said on the day of the funeral .... by the (soul of) 
 the Osirian deceased." In this prefatory portion of the Eitual, 
 the deceased, addressing the deity of Hades, by the mouth of 
 Thoth,§ the god of writing, enumerates all his claims to his 
 favour, and asks for admittance into his dominions. Here 
 at once appears the first indication of the contest against 
 
 * Manual of the Ancient History of the East, vol. i., whose chronology is- 
 a fair via media between the extravagancies of the French, and the incredu- 
 lities of the English, school. 
 
 t The enormous antiquity ascribed by these authors to the Egj'ptian 
 empire is neither generally accepted or even avowed, as the materials are still 
 too few to fix a chronological table with any certainty. 
 
 X The modem Jews recite many blessings as they clothe- themselves in -4 
 
 the morning on rising, a system apparently borrowed from the Zendavesta , I 
 Liturgy. — Anqnetil dn Perron, Adoration of Ormuzd. 
 
 § Mercury, or Hermes Psychopompos, of the Greek ^"iMKp"- 
 
• 35 
 
 Apophis, the evil being, by the soul of the deceased ex- 
 claiming to the gods : " I have fought for thee. I come 
 to expel the wicked [literally ' the opposers ' of Satan the jj^ 
 ^ accuser] from Skhem (the heavenly region)." To this ' " 
 appeal the souls of the previously deceased, reply by in- 
 terceding with Osiris for the admission of the applicant; 
 speaking, as in the ancient idiom, of themselves in the third 
 person, they exclaim : " Oh, companions of souls, made in the 
 house of Osiris, accompany ye the soul of the Osirian, with 
 yourselves, to the house of Osiris ! Let him see as ye see ; 
 let him hear as ye hear ; let him stand as ye stand ; let him 
 sit as ye sit ! Oh, givers of food -and drink to the spirits and 
 souls made in the house of Osiris, give ye food and drink in 
 due season to the Osirian with yourselves I Oh, openers of roads 
 a nd guides of paths to the soul made in the ^b ode of O siris, 
 open ye the roaHsTTevel ye th e--pR,t. hs to the-Osn-is with y jur^ 
 s elves! " * The result of this intercessional chorus is, that, 
 ' He enters the gate of Osiris ;,he _ is not found wanting in 
 |;he balance ; he goes in with exultation; he comes out (or 
 passes through) in peace ; he is like the demons in heaven ; 
 he is justified ! " 
 
 14. After this grand exordium follow many short paragraphs 
 (ii. to xiv.) of far less significance, relating chiefly to the body 
 of the deceased, and the preliminary ceremonies of his funeral. 
 These occupy the second to the fourteenth chapters. At last 
 the soul of the deceased passes through the gates of the 
 Kerneter (Hades), which, by the way, is a subterranean sphere, 
 and at its entry is dazzled by the glory of the sun, which it 
 now sees for the first time since its departure from the body 
 (chap. XV.). Awe-struck with praise and admiration, thus the 
 Osirian, or rather his soul, addresses the beneficent emblem of 
 the Creator: — "Hail! Sun, Lord of the sunbeams. Lord of 
 eternity ! Hail ! Sun, Creator ! self-created ! Perfect is thy 
 light in the horizon, illuminating the world with thy rays ! All 
 the gods rejoice when they see the King of Heaven ! Glory 
 to thee, shining in the firmament : thou hast shone, thou 
 hast rendered it divine, making festive all countries, cities, 
 and temples; supported by thy goodness; giving victory, 
 first of the first ; illuminating the Osirian in Hades, smiting 
 the evil, placing him out of sin, and letting him be with the 
 great blessed ! Hail ! thou judge of the gods, weighing words 
 in Hades. Hail ! thou who art over the gods. Hail ! thou who 
 
 * Of. Isaiah (xl. 3) : " Prepare ye the way of the Lord ; make straight in 
 the desert a highway for our God." 
 
36 
 
 hast cut iu pieces the scorner, and strangled the ApopMs ! ^ 
 (Thou art the _ ,good peace of the souls of the dead !) * Oh ! 
 Creator, Father of the gods, incorruptible ! " With this 
 magnificent apostrophe concludes the first part ot the 
 Eitual. 
 
 16. In the second section of the book are traced the journeys 
 and migrations of the soul in the lower region or Hades, to 
 prepare it for which a long and complicated creed is intro- 
 duced, forming the sixteenth chapter, or " the Egyptian faith." 
 This section is accompanied, as indeed is every chapter, with 
 a large vignette, representing the most sacred symbols of the 
 mystic religion ; and the test contains a description of these 
 figures, with their mystical explanation. At first these are suf- 
 ficiently clear, but, as they advance, a higher and more obscure 
 region is reached; and, as it not unfrequently happens in 
 theological works, the explanation ends by being more obscure 
 than the symbols intended to be explained. This arises in a 
 great measure from the rubrics added on to the text at a later 
 datJf probably in the nineteenth dynasty; and also to the 
 esoteric, or magical invocations, which (by the same principle 
 
 ■ as the secreta in the Roman Missal) were ordered to be said 
 privately by the embalmer on behalf of the deceased, and by 
 the soul itself before the Hadean deities. In process of time 
 these glosses and rubrics became confused with the Ritual, 
 and by the ignorance of the Egyptian scribes, who had lost the. 
 knowledge of the sacred language they copied. f The confusion 
 is thus rendered now almost inextricable. To make this appa- 
 rentj a few sentences from the chapter shall here follow. The 
 soul speaks, as before, sometimes in the third person, or else 
 in the character of each of the principal divinites, by hypostatic 
 union. The rubrics are here italicised, and the glosses printed 
 in capitals. " I am the great God creating himself. It is water 
 OR Nu, WHO IS THE FATHER OP THE GODs. Let Mm explain it. I 
 
 .^am yesterday [pre-existent eternity]. I know the morning 
 [future eternity]. Let him explain it. Yesterday is' Osiris, 
 THE Morning the Sun. The day on which are strangled the - - 
 deriders of the universal lord. Soul of the Sun is his name ! 
 Begotten by Himself is his name ! Let him explain it. I am 
 the soul in two halves. Let him explain it. The soul in 
 TWO halves is the soul op the sun, and the soul op Osiris. 
 He (the soul) is conceived by Isis, engendered by Nepthys. 
 Isis corrects his crimes, Nepthys cuts away his failings. 
 
 * Lenormaut's rendering. 
 
 t As the modern Brahmin has that of the Vedic Sanscrit. 
 
37 
 
 Millions of arms touch me, pure spirits approach me, evil- 
 doers and all enemies avoid me ; I live as I wished. Let him 
 explain it." It may a little clear off the obscurity of the 
 preceding passages to quotCj from another papyrus, " The 
 soul, v?hich dies like Osiris, rises again like the sun (Ra)." * 
 
 16. After the chapter on faith, follovr a series of prayers 
 to be pronounced during the process of embalming, vphilst the 
 body is being enveloped in its v^rappers. These invocations 
 are addressed to Thofch, who, as among the Greeks, performed 
 the office of psychopompe, or conductor of souls. Throughout 
 these are continual references to the mythic contest between / 
 Osiris and his half-brother Typhou, or Apophis, whom, by the *' ^ .' 
 assistance of his son, the mediator Horus, he finally over- 
 comes, not however till he has himself upon this world been 
 slain and dismembered by his opponent. Here, as elsewhere, ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 Fig. 65. Head Of the goddess Typho, deity of gestation, with tbe usual feminine ~-L 
 urseus. "{Bunsen.) 
 
 Apophis, the great serpent, represents Typhon (fig. 65) as the evil 
 principle, and the deceased implores, or rather the embalming 
 priests do for him, that Thoth will assist him to assume the 
 character of Horus, "the avenger of his father,'' that "his 
 heart may be filled with delight, and his house be at peace 
 before the head of the universal lord." To this petition the 
 deity responds, "Let him go "; and the rubric adds : " This 
 chapter being said, a person comes pure from- the day he has 
 been laid out, making all the transmigrations to place his 
 heart. Should this chapter (have been attended to by him),t 
 he (proceeds from above the earth,) he comes forth from all 
 flame ; no evil thing approaches him in pure clothes for mil- 
 lions of ages." 
 
 17. The body once wrapped in its coverings, a-nd the soul 
 well provided with a store of necessary knowledge, and able 
 further to repeat and to explain the principles of the Egyptian 
 faith, the deceased commences his journey; but as he is still 
 
 * Pierret, Dogme de la Resurrection. 1871. 
 
 t '< Should this chapter have lieen inscribed or repeated over him."— Le 
 Pace Kenouf. Or, " He goes forth upon the earth."— Id. 
 
38 
 
 / 
 
 unable to move, and has not yet acquired the use pf his limbs, 
 it is necessary to address the gods, who successively restore 
 all the faculties he possessed during life, so that he can stand 
 upright, walk, speak, eat, and fight against the serpent 
 Apophis, and his adherents. This process occupies chapters 
 xxi. to xxix., which form the section called the " Eeconstruc- 
 tion of the deceased." Osiris opens his mouth, gives him 
 power to speak, restores his mind, &c. ; and thus prepared 
 he starts ; he holds the pectoral scarabeus over his heart as a 
 talisman, and then triumphantly passes from the gates of 
 Hades, exclaiming as he does so : "I flourish upon earth ; 
 I never die in the west; I flourish as a spirit there for 
 ever" (chap. xxx.). 
 
 18. From the first step, however, the actual conflict of 
 the sou.1 begins; tei-rible obstacles present themselves in 
 its way ; frightful Apophic monsters, servants of Typhon, 
 crocodiles on land and in water, serpents of all kinds, tortoises, 
 , and other reptiles, more wild and terrible than Puseli ever 
 imagsined, or Breughel drew, assail the deceased, and attempt 
 to devour him. 
 
 Pig. 66. The Osirian repelling the crocodiles in Amenti. (Sharpe, from the 
 Todtenhok by Lepsius.) 
 
 19. First approaches the crocodile of Seb (fig. GO), whom he 
 apostrophizes thus : — 
 
 " Stop, go back, crocodile, from coming to me. I know thee by my 
 spells. Thou darest not speak the name of the great God,* because I myself 
 have come. I perceive, I prevail, I judge ; I have defended myself ; I have 
 sat in the birthplace of Osiris ; born with him, I renew myself like him." — 
 Bunsen's translation, chap. xxxi. 
 
 " Back, crocodile Hem, back, crocodUe Shui. Come not against me. I 
 
 !\ 
 
 * The mystic name of deity among the Greeks, or the Tetragrammaton, 
 was likewise not allowed to be uttered. The Jews have a similar notion con- 
 cerning the word nin', which they asserted enabled Jesus to perform aU his 
 miracles, by stealing the pronunciation of it from the high priest while 
 playing in the temple area. 
 
39 
 
 have knowledge of potent spells. Utter not the name of the great God." — 
 Renoitf's translation. 
 
 By these adjuratioBS the crocodile is repelled. 
 
 20. Four other crocodiles now approach, one from each 
 quarter of the world ; bat these are also driven back by the 
 Osirianj with the following precations : — 
 
 "My father saves me from the eight crocodiles. Back, crocodile of the 
 west, living ofiF those that never rest, I am not given to thee. Back, croco- "v/ 
 dile in the east, do not turn me, I have not been given to thee. Back, " 
 crocodile of the south, living off the unclean, do not gore me with thy claw, ' 
 I am not given to thee. Back, crocodile of the north, spit thou thy venom _}J^- 
 away from my head, I am not given to thee. My face is open, my heart is ,' 
 in its place, my head is on me daily ; I am the sun creating himself, no evil 
 thing injures me " (chap, xxxii.). 
 
 21. These driven away^ a viper approaches the Osirian, 
 which, with a spear, he turns back, addressing it thus : — 
 
 Fig. 67. The Osirian repelling the viper Ru in Amenti. (Sharpe, as above.) 
 
 " walking viper, makest thou Seb and Shu (the deities) stop. Thou 
 hast'eatenTtEe'abominable rat of the sun ; thou hast devoured the bones of 
 the filthy cat " (chap, xxxiii.). 
 
 Or— 
 
 " viper Eu, advance not. Mine is the virtue of Seb and Shu. Thou 
 hasteaten the rat which the sun ab o minates." * 
 
 22. Other combats follow; the deceased and the reptiles, 
 against which he contends, mutually insulting and menacing 
 each other in a perfectly Homeric fashion. At last, in the 
 39th chapter, a serpent sent forth from Apophis attacks him, 
 breathing out venom and fire, but in vain ; with his weapon 
 the Osirian repels the reptiles, accompanying the action with 
 these words :^— 
 
 " Back, thou precursor, the sent forth from Apophis ; thou shalt be 
 
 •>^ 
 
 * This is theliteral rendering of a passage, which means simply, '• I am 
 Sob and Shu."— Kenouf. 
 
./, 
 
 40 
 
 drowned in the pool of the firmament, where thy father has ordered thee to 
 be cut up. Back, block of stone, thy destruction is ordered for thee by 
 ruth (Thmei). The precursors of Apophis, the accusers of the sun are ^;;^ 
 yerthrown." ' "■" 
 
 23. Thus baffled, the terrible serpent would withdraw; but 
 he is not thus to escape punishment, for the deceased, 
 assuming the character of each of the lesser gods in turn, 
 assists them to loosen the ropes from the back of the sun, and 
 therewith to bind the Apophis. Other deities, with snares 
 
 Fig. 68. The gods holding Apophis back. (Sar. Oimen. ) 
 
 and nets, search the celestial lake in pursuit of the hideous 
 reptile (fig. 68), whom at last they find, and whose struggles 
 
 Fig. 09. The hand of Amun restraining the malevolence of Apophis. (Sar. Oimen.) -L; 
 
 would overturn the boat of the sun, and immerse the deities 
 in the water, if it were not for an enormous mystic hand 
 (fig. 69) (that of Amun), which, suddenly arising from the 
 
 Fig. 70. Another vignette representing the same subject. (Sar. Oimen.) 
 
 depths below, seizes the rope, and thus secures the Evil 
 One (fig. 70). Once fastened, Horus wounds the snake in 
 the head with his spear,* while the deceased and the 
 
 * Here the mythic contests of VishnU and the great serpent Caliya in 
 Hindu theology, will at once occur to the recollection of the reader. 
 
41 
 
 guardian deities, standing upon its voluminous folds, stab 
 the Apophio monster with knives and lances (fig. 71).* 
 
 Fig. 71. Apophis transfixed by knives. (Sar. Oimen. ) 
 
 Wounded, tortured, and a prisoner, the great snake is . 
 at last destroyed and annihilated,t and the boat of the sun ^.^XT" 
 shortly after attains the extreme limit of the horizon, and ' 
 disappears in the heavenly region of Amen ti, or the west.} It 
 has been necessary a little to anticipate this struggle of good 
 against evil, the origin of the Persian dualistic system, and 
 the Ophite Gnostic heresy, necessary, because the soul of the 
 deceased, in the character of the gods, performs these avenging 
 acts, and in the taunting speeches which preface them, declares 
 the supreme sovereignty of one Divine being,§ the creator alike ^ 
 of good and evil, the rewarder of all the just, and the ultimate 
 annihilatar of the wicked. This prefaced, the following 
 extracts from the 39th chapter of the Ritual will now become 
 intelligible. It is the soul who is accosting the baffled Apophis, 
 and prophetically foretelling his future conquest of it by 
 ■ speaking in the past and present tenses. 
 
 " I act peaceably for thee, san ; I make the tiaul of thy rope, sun. 
 
 
 '-'^ The Apophis is overthrown ; the cords of all the gods bind the south, ->/^'^ 
 north, east, and west. Their cords are on him. Victory, the sphinx, has ' 
 overthrown hira ; .the god Harubah has knotted him. The Apophis and 
 accusers of the sun fall, overthrown is the advance of Apophis. [To Apophis] : 
 Thy tongue is greater than the envious tongue of a scorpion which has been 
 made to thee ; it has failed in its power for ever. Back, thy hard head is 
 cat ; the gods drag thy limbs and cut thy arms. [To Horns] : Horus, 
 V,- the water of the sun is stopped by the e. The great Apophis, the accuser of 
 TEesim, has been jud"ged by Akar. (? ) Lift ye up your good faces. The 
 wicked one has been stopped by tne assembled gods ; he has been received 
 
 ^ by Nu (the deity Chnuphis). He stands, and the great gods are victors 
 
 towing himi Athor and the gods drag him exhausted, avenging the sun four^^^i,,^-'^ 
 ;^ times [an Egyptian idiom, signifying perfectly] against the Apophis." || 
 
 ^^~~^ ^ ^'?^^ 
 
 * Bonomi, Sarcopliagiis of Oimeneptlmh I., Plates 2, 3, 7, and 8. 
 f Of. Isaiahxxvii. 1 ; Eev. xii. 9 ; Job xxvi. 1.3. 
 
 I Champollion, Lettres ecrites mr VEgyiite, 1833, p. 232. 
 
 § " I make peace and create evil."— Isaiah xlv. 7. •„•■,, 
 
 II The whole of this chapter is dreadfully corrupt, and unmtelligible 
 except by bits. — Eenouf. 
 
42 
 
 " 24. After tHa triumphant victory, the deceased, or rather 
 his soul, breaks out into a song of triumph. He declares 
 himself to be identical with the great gods, and likens the 
 members of his body to those of the gods to whom they are 
 dedicated, and by whom they are protected. He even boasts 
 , that he has the strength of Typhon, whom he has overthrown, ^ 
 and thus he declares his members to be dedicated, and equal,' ' 
 to those of the following deities : — 
 
 The Dedication of different parts of the hody (chap. xlii.). 
 
 My Hair is in shape (au) that of Nu.* 
 
 „ Eyes „ ,, Athor. 
 
 „ Ears „ „ Spheru. 
 
 „ Nose „ „ Khentskhem. 
 
 „ Lips „ „ Anup. 
 
 „ Teeth „ „ Selk. 
 
 „ Neck „ „ Isis. 
 
 „ Arms „ „ -Lord of Tattu (the soul). 
 
 „ Elbows „ „ Neith, of Sais. 
 
 „ Legs „ „ Mentu, of Khar. 
 
 „ Belly and Back „ Seb, or Thoth. /) 
 
 ' '■ „ Phallus „ „ Osiris, v _____,— — ' 
 
 „ Thigh „ „ Eye of Horus. 
 
 ,, Legs (2) „ „ Nu. 
 
 „ Eeet „ „ Pthah. 
 
 „ Arms „ „ HerHeft,orSheft (the ram-headed) 
 
 „ Fingers and Nails „ Living Ureei. 
 
 There is not a limb of him (the Osirian) without a god. 
 He it is who comes out sound : immortal is his name. He 
 dies not again. He is escaped from all evil things. He is 
 Horus (in his capacity of the destroy^ of Apophis), who lives 
 amongst millions. ^"/er'^-^^ <^ s/Vv 'i<yc^jC<J - 
 
 (This chapter concludes the section entitled the Preservation 
 of the Body in Hades.) 
 
 25. After these exhausting labours the Osirian needs rest, 
 and for a while he waits in Amenti to recruit his strength, 
 and satisfy his hunger (chaps, xliii. to Ivi.). He has escaped 
 great dangers, and has not gone astray in themystic desert. 
 
 ^ 
 
 * The verb aix may be either indicative or subjunctive. I believe the con- 
 text requires it to be subjunctive, and that all this is a prayer thus : " Let 
 the hair of the Osirian be that of Nu (or become Nu) .... Let there not 
 "be a limb of him without a god." — Kenouf. 
 
43 
 
 where he would have died of hunger and thirst (chaps, li.— liii.). 
 At last he reaches the sacred sycamore, or tree of Hfe,* in the 
 
 Fig. 72. The goddess Nu in the sacred sycamore-tree, pouring out the water of life 
 to the Osirian and his soul, represented as a bird, in Ameuti. (Sharpe, from a 
 funereal stele in the British Museum.) 
 
 ' midst of the boughs of which the goddess Nuf (fig. 72) is 
 stationed. She, pitying his exhausted condition, and 
 anxious to aid his further progress, gives him heavenly 
 bread, with supernatural virtues of sustentation, and a fluid 
 which is expressly termed " the_vgatar_of life." This having 
 drunk, grateful and refreshed, the Osirian exclaims, "1 
 grow, I live, I breathe again ! " and prepares to recommence 
 his journey to reach the first gate of heaven. J 
 
 26. Then commences a long dialogue between the deceased 
 and the personification of the divine light, who instructs him 
 in a chapter called the Manifestation to Light (chap. Ixiv.). 
 This dialogue presents a most remarkable resemblance to the 
 dialogue prefixed to the books given by the Alexa ndrian 
 Greeks ~as' translations o f the ancien treligious writings of 
 EgyptTb etween Thoth"THermes Trismegistus) and the Ligh t, 
 the latter' explaining to Thoth the most sublime mysteries of 
 nature. This portion is certainly one of the best and grandest 
 of the Ritual, and is doubtless the source of all that is mystical 
 and profound in the so-called Hermetic books of the later 
 Platonists.§ 
 
 27. The Osirian having passed the first gate, continues to 
 advance, guided by this new light, to whom, in the Ixv* to 
 the Ixxv* chapters, he addresses his invocations. He then 
 
 * The tree of life i.9 sometimes represented as a. persea, or peach-tree, 
 groves of which formerly adorned the inner courts of many Egyptian 
 temples, and the last specimen of which in Egypt existed till very lately in 
 the garden of a convent at Cairo, but has been recently wantonly destroyed. 
 
 t°WilJiinson, vol. i. p. 391. J Lenormant, in loco. 
 
 § Bilnal, cap. lix. 
 
 \ 
 
-f- 
 
 44 
 
 enters on a series of transformation, more and more elevated, 
 assuming the form of, and identifying himself witb, the 
 noblest divine symbols. He is changed successively into a 
 hawk, emblem of Horus-Ea (chap. Ixxvii.) ; an angel, or a 
 divine messenger, (chaps. Ixxix., Ixxx.) ; into a lotus (Ixxxi.) ; 
 the " pure lily which comes out of the fields of the sun " ; into ~f 
 the god Pthah (Ixxxii.), in which hypostasis ]he declares "he is ' 
 stronger than the lord of many years " ; into a kind of crested 
 heron, the sacred bird of Osiris, called Bennu (chap. Ixxxiii.), 
 whose residence is on the boughs of the tree of life; into a,$U. 
 crane, or a species of nycticorax (chap. Ixxxiv.) ; into a human- 
 headed bird,* the most usual of all emblematic representations 
 of the soul, a bird, moreover, occasionally represented as fur- 
 nished with human hands, which it holds up in adbration to 
 the sun (chap. Ixxxv.); into a swallow (chap. Ixxxvi.), in which 
 latter form the soul utters this remarkable expression, " 
 great one, I have dissipated my sins ; I have destroyed my 
 failings, for I have got rid of the sins which detained me upon 
 earth"; next into a serpent, the soul of_the earth; and here, -^J- 
 although in one form the ser~peiit "br'tTie earth is confounded 
 with Apophis, in another, it is distinct, a circumstance which 
 has misled many students in comparative mythology. As the 
 chapter (Ixxxvii.) is a short one, it will be as well to re-insert 
 it entire. 
 
 " I am the serpent Ba-tat {not Apophis), [or ' Sata (the serpent) of long ^J^ 
 years, in the extremities of the earth.' — Eeuouf,] soul of the earth, whose 
 length is years, laid out and born daily ; I am the soul of the earth in the 
 parts of the earth ; I am laid out and born, decay and become young daily." 
 (See suprk, fig. 39.) 
 
 28. The last transformation of the Osirian is into another 
 reptile ; the first of those which on entering Hades he over- 
 came, viz. a crocodile (chap. Ixxxviii.) no longer "the eater of 
 filth and the oiDposer of the souls, ■'■' but the crocodile "who 
 dwells in victories, whose soul comes from men, the great fish 
 (or rather reptile) of Horns." Up to this time the soul of the 
 deceased has been making its journeys alone, it has been 
 merely a sort of il^wXov (eidolon), that is an image — a shade 
 with the appearance of the body which yet lay torpid and 
 sensationless. After these transformations, the soul becomes 
 reunited to the body which it will need for the rest of its 
 journey. This theory it was which rendered the process of 
 mummification so important, for it was indispensable that the 
 
 * The souls of kings are generally furnished with crowns, as vide numerous 
 examples in the Hay collection. 
 
 t Bata, Brass of Earth.— Di, Birch. 
 
46 
 
 soul upon its return should find its former residence well and 
 sacredly preserved. " 0," cries the body by a sublime paro- 
 nomasia, '•' that in the dwelling of the master of life I may 
 be reunited to my glorified soul. Do not order the guardians 
 of Heaven to destroy me, so as to send away my soul from 
 my corpse, and hinder the eve of Horus, who is with thpg^ ^ vZ-^ 
 fr om ^Brfijm£ing.j^«!r wa^" (chap. Ixxxix.). The vignette to -y^ 
 'this chapter is one of the most usual in Egyptian hieroglyphy ; 
 it represents the embalmed body laid upon a bier, havino- 
 under it the four vases for the eviscerated organs ; at the side 
 of the couch stands Anubis, the guardian of the dead, pre- 
 paring the body for its revivification, while above flies a ^ — ' 
 
 Fig. 73. The ankh, or crux ansata, from the very earliest periods the hieroglyph for 
 life, originally supposed to have been an earring.* 
 
 human-headed bird, having in one talon the ankh (fig. 73), or 
 tau cross, and in the other a mast and expanded sail, the 
 ideographs for "breath" and life. respectively. 
 
 29. The deceased traverses next the dwelling of Thoth, who 
 presents him with a roll containing further instructions for 
 his safe progress, and fresh lessons of the heavenly knowledge 
 he is soon to require (chap. xc). Armed with these, the Osirian 
 arrives on the banks of the subterranean river, separating him 
 from the Elysian fields of Amenti; but there a new danger 
 avi'aits him. A false boatman, the emissary of the Typhonic 
 Powers (in this instance distinct from Apophis), lays wait for 
 him on his way, and endeavours by deceitful words to get him 
 into his boat, so as to mislead, and take him to the east instead 
 of to the west (chap, xciii.), his proper destination, the shore 
 where he ought to land and rejoin the sun of the lower world. 
 Fortified by his previous instructions, the Osirian again escapes 
 this subtle danger; he remarks the perfidy of the false mes- 
 senger, and repulses him with bitter reproaches. At last ho 
 meets the right vessel to conduct him to his destination (chaps. 
 xcvii., xcviii.) ; and now in sight of the true boat; over the 
 unknown and fathomless river, he declares that he is prepared 
 " to pass from earth to heaven, to go along to the ever tran- 
 quil gods, when they go to cut the Apophis." " I," he con- 
 
 * From its sign also being the determinative hieroglyphic of everything 
 peitaining to the ear. 
 
46 
 
 tinues, " I have brought the ropes, stopping the wicked (one-) 
 as I go along in the boat of Pthahj I have come from the 
 scalding pools, from the flaming fields, alive from the great 
 pool.-"* 
 
 30. Ere, however, the Osirian can enter the boat of Pthah, 
 it is necessary to ascertain if he is really capable of making 
 the voyage, if the deceased possesses a sufiicient amount of 
 the knowledge necessary to his safety, and which he is sup- 
 posed to have obtained from the papyri presented to him by 
 Thothi The divine boatmen accordingly proposes a series of 
 questions to his passenger, who declares he has come to see 
 his father Osiris, (having, as before stated, taken the nature 
 and form of Horus,) and to fight the Apophis. This reply 
 satisfies the interlocutor, who bids him " go to the boat, jC 
 which will carry him to the place he knoweth where." Here / 
 a most curious and mystical scene ensues, for each part of the 
 vessel becoming animated, requests the Osirian to " tell me my 
 name," that is, the esoteric meaning of it. Anchor, paddle, 
 mast, poop, hull, planking, all m turn accost, and are in turn 
 replied to, for twenty-three questions and answers j which 
 finished, the deceased entreats the " good beings, lords of 
 truth, who are living for ever, circling for ever," to pass him 
 through " the waters, to give him to eat food, and baked 
 cakes, and a place in the hall of the two truths before the great..-?^., • 
 God." In the hundredth chapter the Osirian, having declared \ . 
 again that he has " stopped the Apophis and turned back yH' 
 its feet," is permitted to embark, and safely crossing the^i 
 mighty river, lands on the other bank in the land of the 
 mountains of the west, the blessed country of Amenti. 
 
 Fig. 74. One of the mystic crocodiles of Amenti, named Shesh-shesh. (Sar. Oimen. 
 
 31. Here commence another series of chapters, containing 
 descriptions of and an abstract of the geography of the 
 spirit-land ; and here again, as usual in the Ritual, the Ophite 
 myth is interwoven throughout. The blessed region is de- 
 scribed as " the valley of Balot,t or abundance, at the end of 
 
 * It -would be superfluous to do more tere than refer to the Greek myths of 
 Hades, Styx, Charon and his boat, and to the mediaeval legend of St. Patrick's 
 purgatory, as given in the History of Eoger de Wendover ; their almost exact 
 analogy is too ob-vious to be d-welt upon. 
 
 t Called more properly the " Valley of Buchat."— Eenouf. 
 
 f/^ 
 
47 
 
 heaveiij 370 cubits long and 140 broad." In a cavern in one of 
 the holy mountains is the great crocodile Sabak * (chap, cviii.), 
 and at the head of the valley extends an enoi'mous snake thirty 
 cubits long and six in circumference. His head is of stone,t and 
 is three cubits broad^ and the name of the terrible supernatural 
 is " Eater of fire." On coming near to this guardian genius^ 
 for such the serpent is, the Osirian in secret assumes the cha- 
 racter of a similar reptile^ and declares " he is the serp ent^the >/ 
 
 _son of_pgj .^^ and presently he boasts tha^e has " taken~tlie ^ /^ 
 Viper oFthe sun as he was resting at evening,''^ and " that the 
 
 "grea t snake has coiled round the heaven." Further, " that he 
 is offered to approach the sun, as the sun is setting from the 
 land of life to his horizon"; that "he knows the passage of 
 spirits, the arrest of the Apophis in it." This seems to be, as 
 nearly as may be guessed, the meaning of this chapter (cviii.), 
 which is one of the most confused in the Ritual. 
 
 32. In the next chapter (cix.) is a further description of 
 the heavenly region, on the north of which is a lake called 
 th^_Lakej)f_Primprdial^^ a chaos in fact; and on the yl^ 
 
 south the lake of Sacred Principles, possibly spiritual essences. / 
 In chapter ex. the land .pf Amenti is further described as 
 a magnified kingdom of Egypt, with its lakes, canals, palaces, 
 fields, &c. There the walls are of iron, and the corn grows 
 seven cubits high. There the sycamore-trees (trees of life) 
 
 Fig. 75. The god Nilus or H.ipimou encircled by the serpent of eternal years. 
 Possibly theheavenly Nile is here represented. (Wilkinson.) 
 
 are of copper, and there the spirits of the blest are dwelling, 
 and the sun shines for ever. In this dehghtful climate for 
 
 * After whom Sabakoph, the Ethiopian, mentioned in 2 Kings xvii, 4, 
 under the name of i?'o, was named. The name is there written f^io. 
 
 t An idiom for extreme hardness, a peculiarity common to the frontal 
 plates of certain species of vipers, ^^rr _ 
 
 X Incidentally, the great antiquity of the Ritual is proven by its contmual 
 reference to lakes. Seas or oceans, such as the peninsular Hellenes dehghted 
 in do not occur in fEejnyflioIogy of the_Egyptians, who, up to the time of 
 Thothmoses, were noTaware of "threxTstence of tlie Atlantic, nor till that of 
 Necho thought otherwise than that the Mediterranean was a vast lake. 
 
s 3-9,3 8 S a H'S 
 
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49 
 
 awhile the Osirian dwells, sowing corrij ploughing with heavenly 
 oxen, and reaping the harvest in the Blysian fields. It was for 
 this purpose that a hoe and a basket full of corn were buried 
 with every Egyptian, that in the future life he might not be 
 unprepared to follow his agricultural laboui-s. There the 
 Osirian freely, and frequently, partakes of the bread of know- 
 ledge, which he is shortly to find more necessary than ever, 
 as he has arrived at the end of all his trials but one, and that 
 one the last and most terrible, for as yet he is only in a 
 superior kind of Sheol, or Hades, undergoing a purification. 
 
 Fig. 77. The avenging Assessor watching to punish the Osirian. {Papyrus, British 
 
 Museum.) 
 
 as in Hades itself his soul was subjected to purgatorial in- 
 fluence conducted by Anubis, the guardian of the dead, 
 the Osirian traverses an unknown labyrinth (chaps, cxiii. to 
 cxxi.) ; but by the aid of a clue and the assistance of Thoth, he 
 penetrates through all its inti'icacies and windings, and at last 
 is ushered into the judgment-hall, where Osiris Rhot-Amenti,* 
 
 Pig. 78. Thesnake-headed Assessor standing to interrogate the Osirian. (Willi-inson. 
 
 the judge of the dead, awaits him seated on his throne, sur- 
 rounded as by a jury, with a court of forty-two assessors, 
 four of whom are serpent-headed (figs. 77, 78). There the 
 
 * Whence the Greek name of Phito, Ehadamanthns, was doubtless derived. 
 
 E 
 
 7f- 
 
50 
 
 decisive sentence is to be pronounced, either admitting the de- 
 ceased to happiness, or excluding him for ever (chap. cxxv.). 
 
 33. On a raised throne before the Osirian, sits the 
 awful deity Osiris, upon whose head are the double crowns 
 of the united kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt, 
 circled with the solar asp or urseus. In his hands are the 
 cross of life, the Cucufa staff of dominion, the curved lituus * 
 denoting sacerdotal authority, and the scourge of Khem. 
 Behind his throne are the avenging Oabereii, children of 
 Typhon or Set, and his consort the hippopotamus-headed 
 goddess (Thoeris) of hell ; lastly, underneath his feet, fettered 
 and tortured, lie the souls of the condemned. f Lest the Osirian 
 should quail and be unable to stand before the solemn assembly, 
 the goddesses Isis and Nepthys, deities of the upper and 
 lower firmament respectively, support his trembling footsteps, 
 while Amset, Tautmutf, Kabhsenuf, and Hapi, the guardian 
 deities of the dead, intercede for his protection. On an altar 
 before them, flowers and incense burn in fragrant propitiation, 
 and between it and the judge, in a massive and yet delicate 
 balance, the heart of the deceased is weighed against the 
 feather of Thmei, the goddess of Truth. Thoth, the introducer 
 of spirits, writes down the preponderance of the weight for 
 good or evil, while an ape (the emblem of justice because all his 
 extremities are even), sitting on the summit of the cross- 
 beam, prevents either fraud or favour. Now is the Osirian 
 to give an account of his whole former life, and while each of 
 the forty-two assessors accuses him of some flagrant fault, he 
 has in return to reveal to the questioner his own secret name, and 
 to profess his innocence of the fault alleged. This is called the 
 apology, or the negative confession, and it is one of the most 
 sublime and singular ethical formularies in the whole of 
 ancient mythology. The first part of this' address is negative ; 
 but as heaven to the Egyptians was not accessible by mere 
 sinlessness, but was the reward only of active virtue, the 
 Osirian, from the evils he has not done, proceeds to the 
 enumeration of the good which he has performed, and en- 
 treats not the clemency, but the equity, of the Judge. 
 Extending then his arms towards the deity, thus he addresses 
 the adjudicator Osiris and his coadjutor divinities : — 
 
 " ye Lords of truth, thou Great God, Lord of truth, I have come to 
 thiie, iny Lord, I have brought myself to see thy blessings ; J I have known 
 
 '^ 
 
 * Is this the origin both of the Druidioal lituus and the episcopal staff ? 
 t Not always represented on the funeral PapyrL See Sar Oimen. pi. 5. 
 J For " blessings " read " splendid gloriesj' — Eenouf. 
 
51 
 
 thee, I have known thy name, I have known the names of the forty-two of 
 the gods who are with thee in the ball of the Two Truths, who live by 
 catching the wicked, and feeding off their blood, in the day of reckoning of 
 words, before the good being, the justified.* 
 
 " Rub ye away my faults,t for I have not privily done evil against m ankind, 
 neither have I afflicted persons or men ; I have not told falsehoods before the 
 tribunal of truth, I have had no acquaintance with evil, I have not done any 
 wicked thing, I have not made the labouring man perform more than his 
 daily task, I have not been idle, I have not failed, I have not been weak {in Y-' 
 the sense of sinful), I have not done what is hateful to the gods, I have not 
 calumniated the slave to his master, I have not sacrificed {filled the office 
 wrongfully of a priest), I have not murdered, I have not given orders to 
 smite a person privily, I have not done fraud to any man, neither have I 
 altered the measures of the country. I have not injured the images of the 
 gods, I have not withheld milk from the mouths of sucklings, neither 
 have I netted the sacred fish ;t I have not stopped running water, I have not 
 robbed the gods of their offered haunches, I have not caused to weep, I have 
 not multiplied words in speaking, I have not blasphemed a god, I have not 
 made a conspiracy, I have not corrupted women or men, neither have I 
 polluted myself ; I have not stolen from the dead, I have not played the 
 hypocrite, I have not caused any to weep, I have not despised any god in 
 my heart ; I am pure, I ain pure — let no harm happen to me from the 
 avenging genii ; save, save me from them. 
 
 "0 Lords of truth, I have made to the gods the tffferings due unto them, 
 I have given food to the hungry, I have given drink to the thirsty, I have 
 given clothes to the naked,§ I have been attentive to the words of truth, I, 
 am pure from all sins, I am free from the curse of the wicked, I have done 
 what the gods writ upon earth, I have no sins, and no perversion — place me 
 before thyself, Lord of Eternity, and let me pass through the roads of 
 darkness and dwell with thee for ever.'' 
 
 34. To so magnificent an appeal^ and to a soul so consciously 
 perfect^ but one answer can the deity return. At a signal 
 from Osiris, the deceased is invested in a long white linen robej|| 
 
 -. * " I have brought to you truth, and have blotted out your iniquity."— Irf. ■^^^- 
 t The first clause, literally un nefer, may really be not an address but a / 
 proper name. — Id. , ^ t ^ i • 
 
 t The Lepidotus, or Oxyrhynchus Niloticus, worshipped at Latopolis as a 
 ^- form of the goddess Athor. — Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii. 
 
 pp. 248—251. „ , , „ J u i * 
 
 § After naked occurs, in some papyri, the further clause, and a boat to 
 
 i, the shipwrecked."- Renouf. jief n r> 
 
 r" II A specimen of this garment in the Hay collection measured 16 feet by 9, 
 
 and was furnished with a broad twisted fringe along the outer edge. I he 
 
 name for this garment among the ancient Egyptians was iiasoui. ^ 
 
 E 2 
 
 / 
 
 ^C) 
 
52 
 
 fringed with a symbolical fringe along one side of it (the 
 origin possibly of the Jewish, arbang kanphoth,* niiuo yais) 
 and then, while Thoth writes the decree of acquittal upon the 
 rolls of Heaven, the deity and assessors, jointly addressing th& 
 Osirian, exclaim, " Go forth, thou who hast been introduced. 
 Thy food is from the eye of God, thy drink is from the eye 
 of God, thy meats are from the eye of God. Go thou forthj 
 Osirian, justified for ever." 
 
 35. After the confession (cxxv.) commences the third part of 
 the Ritual, or the Adoration of the Sun. The chapters in this 
 are more mystical and obscure than any of the preceding. 
 The Osirian, henceforth identified with the sun, traverses with 
 him, and as he, the various houses of heaven, fighting again 
 with the Apophis, and ascending to the lake of celestial fire, 
 the antipodes of the Egyptian hell,t and the source of all light. 
 In its closing chapters the work rises to a still more mystical 
 and higher practical character, and the deceased is finally 
 hypostated into the form of every sacred animal and divinity 
 in the Egyptian Pantheon, and with this grand consummation 
 the Ritual closes. But even in heaven itself the serpent myth 
 is dominant. Not only does the deceased, as the sun, declare 
 
 'tC. , F]g. 79. The Osirian endeavouring to snare the giant Apophis ; above his head^ as 
 protecting him in his dangerous task, is the winged orb, symbolic of divine 
 ^T^ i interpenetration and assistance. (Sar. Oimen.) 
 
 ." that he puts forth blows against the Apophis (fig. 79), strang- 
 ^. ling the wicked in the west" (chap, cxxvi.), but even in the 
 
 * See Mill's The. British Jms. 
 
 t What this fearful lake was may be gathered from the following descrip- 
 tion of the Egyptian Hell. 
 
 " Oh ! the place of waters — none of the dead can stand in it, its water is of 
 fire, its flow is of fire, it glows with smoking fire ; if wished, there is no 
 drinking it. The thirst of those who are in it is inextinguishable. Through 
 the greatness of its terror, and the magnitude of its fear, the gods, the 
 deceased, and the spirits, look at its waters froni a distance. Their thirst is 
 inextinguishable ; they have no peace ; if they wish, they cannot escape it." — 
 Ritual, chap. cl. xiii. above. 
 
53 
 
 highest heaven the house of Osiris is entered only by seven 
 pylonSj each guarded by an ureeuSj or sacred asp ; the name of 
 the first guardian being " Sut or Set "; of the secondj " Fire- 
 face "; of the third, " Vigilant "; of the fourth, " Stopper of 
 
 Fig. 80. The serpent warder of the gateway of the path of the sun ; behind 
 are Horus-Ea, and possibly the serpent Ranno. (Sar. Oimen. ) 
 
 many Words "; of the fifth, " Consumer "; the sixth, " Stone- 
 face "j and of the seventh, -'Stopper of the Eejected,"— all 
 epithets applied to the snake, and sometimes even to Apophis. 
 The next abode of Osiris has twenty-one gates, each containing 
 a different deity (the eighth being a double snake-headed god), 
 armed with swords to destroy the impious intruder. Each of 
 these in turn the Osirian supplicates ; and by each he is bidden 
 to pass on, for "thou art justified." Next is approached 
 another abode, entered through fifteen pylons, each surmounted 
 by one, two, or more snakes armed as before, whose names, 
 and that of the snakes, are as follows : — 1 . Mistress of Terror, 
 and the snake "Vulture"; 2. Mistress of Heaven, and the 
 snake " born of Pthah " : 3. Mistress of Altars, and the snake 
 
 Figs. 81, 82. Two more of the mistresses, the lion- and oow-headed respectively. 
 
 Fig. 
 
 81. "Her name is SKab the 
 Sabduer." 
 
 Fig. 82. " Her nanie is Sehnoka, or 
 Beater of the Bulls." 
 
 "Subduer" (fig. 81); 4. Hard-man, regent of earth, and the , 
 snake " Bull-smiter " (fig. 82) ; 5. Fire, mistress of the breath of yr- 
 the nostril, and the snake "Retainer of the Profane "; 6, Mistress 
 
54 
 
 ^ 
 
 y 
 
 of Generations, and tlie snake " Conspirator " ; * 7. the Gate ^ 
 of Euin.and the snake "Destroyer"; 8. Gate of Inextinguishable jiL 
 J^ Fire, and the snake " Protector of the Sacred Bye " ; 9. Mis- 
 "^ tress of Limbo (figs. 83784, 85), and the snake "Pride"; 10. 
 
 Gate of Loud Words, and the snake "Great Clasper"; 11. ^-,-- 
 Gate of Hard-face, and the snake " Terrifier " ; 12. Gate of the 
 
 The Mistresses or Doorkeepers of Amenti, with the great Ureeus above. 
 (Ritual, cap. oxlv-vi.) 
 
 mm!\ 
 
 Fig. 83. "Her name is 
 Narau, or Victory." 
 
 84. "HernameisHan-neliah, 
 or Cotamanding the idle," 
 
 85. "Her Dame is Mes- 
 Pthah.orbom of Pthah." 
 
 
 > 
 
 Questioner of Earth ; 13. Gate of Isis ? 14. Mistress of Exult- 
 ation ; 15. Gate of Souls of the Eed-haired. The names of 
 the snakes of the four last gates are not given. To these abodes 
 succeed (chap, cxlviii.) seven staircases, whose guardians have ~L 
 the same names as the snakes of the seven gates. Then the ' . 
 Osirian passes to the fourteen abodes of Elysium, in the ~4^ 
 fourth of which, " on the very high hill in Hades, — the heaven 
 rests upon it," occurs a " snake — Sati is his name. He is 
 
 ^j^ 
 
 :^^ 
 
 Fig. 86. Ruhali, the great charmer whom the sun has made. (Ritual cap. cxlix.) 
 
 ^//^ about seventy cubits in his coil, and he lives by decapitating 
 
 ' -><r" the condemned. "t In the seventh abode dwells a similar 
 
 snake, — "Ruhak is its name (fig. 87). He is about seven cubits 
 
 * Is this an allusion to tiae Indo-Germanio myth of the connection between 
 life and fire ?— See Cox's Mijiliology of the Aryan Nations ; and Kelly, 
 Indo-Germanic Folk-lore. 
 
 t Is this an exaggeration of the great African rock-snake {Python regia), 
 ■who, by the way, resembles in a remarkable degTee the Egyptian figures of 
 Apophis. 
 
 .X' 
 
 -J< 
 
65 
 
 in the length of his back, living off the dead, strangling their 
 spirits." Him the Osirian beseeches — 
 
 " Draw thy teeth, weaken thy venom, or thou dost not pass by me. Do 
 not send thy venom to me, overthrowing and prostrating me through it." 
 
 Or, more properly, "Be thy teeth broken, and thy venom 
 weakened ; come not against me, emit not thy venom against 
 me, overthrowing and prostrating (me) through it." (Renouf.) 
 Finally, at the door of the sixteenth abode resides another 
 snake, at the mouth of the heavenly Nile, who is paciiied 
 by offerings of food and grain. Other magical addresses 
 follow these, and the rubric of the last chapter ends thus : — 
 " This book is the greatest of all mysteries ; do not let the 
 
 Fig, 87. Wooden votive figure of the goddess Urhapt. (From a statue in the British 
 Museum, restored by the help of a similar figure in the Leyden Museum.) 
 
 eye of any one see it, that is detestable. Learn it, hide it, 
 make it. The Book of_th.e Ruler of the Secret Place is it 
 named. It is ended."* 
 
 "36. Such, then, is a summary of the contents of the most 
 ancient ritual extant. From it have probably been derived 
 all the later systems of Ophiolatry, as in its pages are pre- 
 served the deflected echoes of a primitive revelation. Pos- 
 sessing extraordinary coincidences with later dogmas, there is 
 yet little doubt that the condition of the work as we now 
 have it is one of great and wilful mutilation — whole chapters 
 are inverted, and sentences misconstrued. Nor can the result 
 be wondered at when it is recollected that, to quote Professor 
 Lyell,t no language is extant after a lapse of a thousand years. 
 
 s^. 
 
 --' * Euhak or Urtuk is, as before mentioned, occasionally represented as a 
 
 goddess in tl y form of an upri ght urseuSjjjgJtlut&jajl cgiled^na kind of bow - \2 ~ 
 
 knot for a pedestal. Several votivi, in wood, to this~goddesi are in the "y^ 
 
 'gritiShMuieiiinrtJases 10 and 11, Upper Egyptian Saloon, 
 f Elements of Geolmjy. 
 
 lyt^'Z'-l^ 
 
 ^^^.^^^-1^^^ 
 
56 
 
 and the Ritual of the Dead was used and written in ancient 
 Egypt for more than thirty centuries.* 
 
 37. Apart, however, from the Ritual, the trail of the serpent 
 is as conspicuous on the monumental history of Egypt as it is 
 
 
 Fig. 88. The solar orb with the emblematic figm-e of the goddess Thmei, or Truth, 
 between the sacred ursi. (Cassell. ) See fig. 40. 
 
 in the archEeographic. Every sepulchral stele or funereal slab 
 bore at its upper extremity the usual winged disc of Ra, with its 
 pendent basilisks (fig. 88), wearing the alternate crowns of 
 
 Fig. 89. The royal and sacred head-dresses united. 
 
 Upper and Lower Egypt and the cross of life. Not unfrequently 
 the god Ra, and even the King himself, as that deity's incarna- 
 tioUjis represented, as a globe surrounded^bya serpent, whose tail 
 
 * Lcnorniant's Ancient History of the East, vol. i. section vii. 
 
57 
 
 IS twisted tightly against the solar disk. The serpent decorated 
 the monarch's crown (fig. 89) and fringed the extremities of his 
 
 Fig. 90. Royal girdle fringed with jewelled ursei. From figure of K. Seti 
 Menepthah I. (Arundale.) 
 
 girdle (fig. 90). In another instance a sphinx, emblem of regal 
 power, under the title, "Lord of the Horizon'^ (fig. 91), is repre- 
 sented as supported by, or standing between, two procumbent 
 
 Fig. 91. Top of an Egyptian standard Sphinx and urrei, implying heavenly victory. 
 
 (Leemans.) J' 
 
 f 
 
 ur«i.* Sometimes, as on the Soane sarcophagus (one of the' 
 most wonderful of all Egyptian sarcophagi, originally executed 
 
 Fig. 92. The beetle of Chefer Ka, in the Solar orb, surrounded by the serpent Kanno. 
 Possibly the Egyptian original, as far as the Mythos was concerned, of 
 the Orphic figure. No. 28. (Sar. Oimen.) 
 
 about the time of Moses, for Oimenepthah or Seti Menep- 
 thah I.), the serpent of eternity environs (fig. 92) the disk of the 
 
 * See Mush de Loich, Part I,, plate 21. 
 
 y .^ /. 
 
58 
 
 sun with seven involutions,* and the circle is completed by the 
 tail of the reptile being placed in its mouth, as in the Greek 
 
 -.; Fig. 93. Double snake-headed deity, (gar. Oimen.) 
 
 interpretation. t In the Museum specimen, however, the 
 Coluber, and not the Naja or Cobra, is the species of snake 
 
 Fig. 94. Single snake-headed deity wearing the crown of Lower Eg3T>t. (Sar. Oimen.) 
 
 adopted. Again on the same work of art is a long vignette 
 representing a number of deities, many of these again being 
 
 Fig. 95. Quadruple snake-headed deity holding forth a knife to slay the Apophis. 
 
 (Sar. Oimen.) 
 
 * A similar representation at the foot of the sarcophagus of Naskatu, at >^' 
 th^ British Museum, gives nineteen involutions to the same symbolic serpent. '"■■ 
 t See Bonomi's Sarcophagus of Oimenepthah /., plate 5. 
 
 •<» - .:. 
 
59 
 
 snake-headed (fig.93), with ropes and slings (figs. 94,95,96, 97), 
 
 Fig. 96. SiEgle snake-headed deity 'bringing a rope to bind tlie Apophis. 
 (Sar. Oimen.) 
 
 Fig. 97. The deities binding Apophis from above. (Sar. Oimen.) 
 
 Fig. 98. Another vigTiette representing the same subject. (Sar. Oimen.) 
 
 snaring the Apophis* (fig. 98). Another vignette shows the 
 
 Fig. 99. Apophia bound below with chains and bronze staples. (Sar. Oimen.] 
 
 * See Bonomi's Sarcophagus o/ Oimenepthah I., plate 12. 
 
/■ e^ 
 
 60 
 
 ^ 
 
 hand of the Eternal holding the encLained monster; another, 
 Apophis chained to the ground by four chains, symbolizing 
 the four races of mankind, fighting against the evil 
 one (fig. 99) ;* another, Apophis writhing in agony between 
 the assembled gods, who have transfixed him with many 
 knives; another,! Apophis in the mystic lake folded m H 
 twenty- eight convolutions; and lastly, J Apophis brought -j|i 
 
 Fig. 100. The serpent "Fire-face" devouring the wicked; the avenging deities are 
 standing upon his folds to restrain his violence within due bounds. (Sar. Oimen.) 
 
 prisoner to Horus Ea and slain by that merciful divinity. § 
 These, as the Eitual has shown, all belong directly to the myth 
 
 fig. 101. One of the twelve serpent warders of the twelve doors of Hades. 
 (Sar. Oiifien.) 
 
 of Apophis ; but on the same alabaster sarcophagus is engraven 
 another subject, viz. a troop of wicked men with their hands and 
 
 * See Bonomi's Sarwphagui of Oimmepthah L, plate 9. 
 t lb., plate ID. J lb., plate 7. § lb., plate 11. 
 
61 
 
 bows fastened boliind thenij led by a guardian demon to the 
 presence of a monstrous apophic reptilej called "Fire-face" (a 1^ 
 common Ophite epithet), who breathes flames upon them from ' ■ 
 his open jaws, and consumes the wicked by the breath of his 
 mouth* (fig. JOOf). On other parts of the sarcophagus are 
 further shown the gates of Hades (fig. 101), with the mystical 
 
 Fig. 102. WingGti asp^ from the same sarcophagus. + 
 
 serpent warders (fig. 102), the paradise of cypress-trees, guarded 
 by fiery urasi.§ Crocodiles, whose tails end in serpentine forms. 
 Winged serpents, the emblems of the deities Ranno and Maut. 
 
 Fig. 103. Four m3-stio figures treading on a male serpent with the crown of Lowor 
 Egypt. The serpent's name is Apte. (Sar. Oimen.) 
 
 Serpentswalkinguponhumanlegs (figs. 103, 104), theusualfigure 
 of the o-od Ohnuphis, soul of the world. Serpents with human 
 
 * See Bonomi's Sarcophagus of Oimenepthah I., plate 14. 
 
 t " O ye wicked, the flames of Amun-Ra are in thy members, they cannot 
 be extino-uished for ever."— Birch, Magical Papyrus in the British Museum. 
 
 1 For°further details on Winged serpents it is only necessary to quote the 
 search of Demeter for Persephone, in a chariot drawn by Winged serpents.— 
 
 l"ThesV''latter objects it is but fair to state are believed by M. Pierret to 
 be thecresting of the Pylons of the abodes of Amenti. 
 
^ 
 
 62 
 
 feminine heads, the representations of the god Atmoo,* the god 
 of darkness, and a basilisk with three faces, the significant 
 
 Fig. 104. Four figures similar to preceding. Serpents named Hapu. (Sar. Oimen, ) 
 
 ideograph of the Egyptian triad of Horus (fig. 106), Isis, and 
 Osiris, — the producing, the producer, and the j)£0_duced ; the i 
 
 Fig. 105. Votive mummy-case in bronze, containing the mummy of an eel sacred to ;^ 
 the god Atum, or Atmoo, the beneficent deity of darkness. (Leemans. ) 
 
 almost consimilar analogues of the Hindu triad of Blephanta, — 
 Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva.f 
 
 Fig. 106. The mystic triune basilisk of Horus, Isis, and Osiris. (Sar. Oimen. ) 
 
 38. Another sarcophagus illustrating the serpent mythos, 
 is that of Rameses III., the great founder of Medinet Habou, 
 at Cambridge, around the inscribed sides of whose basalt 
 coffin coils an enormous snake ; the extremities of the reptile 
 are conjoined, and the figure was probably intended to repre- 
 sent the eternal life of the King protected by the " snake 
 
 * Sometimes significantly enough represented by an eel, as in the votive 
 eel in the British Museum, case No. 38. (Fig. 105.) 
 t See Bonomi's Sarcophagus of Oimenepthah I., plate 11. 
 
63 
 
 whose name is millions of years — millions of days encompass 
 him." 
 
 39. An undescribed wooden mummy-case lately sold at the 
 Palais Royal,* Regent Street, bore a similar uncommon deli- 
 neation. In theBritishMuseum are threeterra-cotta groups, very 
 roughly executed, of a mother and child (fig. 107) lying upon a 
 
 ^ 
 
 I' 
 
 Fig. 107. Funereal tablet, mother and child, protected by the deity Chnuphis. 
 (British Museum.) 
 
 couch with a snake, in this instance not the Coluber, but the 
 Asp, encircling them ; probably a flattering statuette, imply- 
 ing that the mother and child of the owner should, like Isis 
 and Horus, enjoy the eternal years of divinity. 
 
 40. Thus allusion to Horus recalls a circumstance which 
 must not lightly be passed over.f All serpents, even though 
 divine, were not harmless upon this terrene sphere, and as 
 Horus was the great incarnate son of Osiris, whose mission 
 was to overcome evil and to destroy the Apophis, so that 
 divinity became naturally associated with the office of " stopper rV-i 
 of all snakes." Hence arose the custom of inscribing votive 
 cippi to that deity, representing him as a youthful and beau- 
 tiful being, standing upon the heads of two crocodiles, and 
 holding snakes and scorpions in his hands. Above him is always 
 the horrible head of Baal, or Set-Typhon, and the various attri- 
 butes of life, dominion, power, goodness, &c., with mystic vale- 
 dictory inscriptions grouped around him. Avery fine specimen 
 in wood, and others smaller in stone, are in the British 
 
 * By Messrs. Thurgood and Giles, July, 1871. The sarcophagus was of 
 sycamore-wood, and probably dated from the nineteenth dynasty, 
 t iS«« NavielJe, Texte de la Mythe d' Horns, for fuller details. 
 
64 
 
 Museum ; another as fine in hard wood was formerly in the Hay 
 collection, and has lately gone to Boston, in 'the United States. 
 A variety of these cippi, at that time supposed by Denon, 
 Wilkinson, and others to he astronomical, are engraved in 
 the "Memoires" accompanying the Descrijption de l' Egypt 
 (fig. 108); and the discoveries of later Egyptologists have 
 
 =4sf Fig. 108. Talismanio shrine of Horus, the stopper of snakes. On one side stands the 
 staff and quadrangular feathers of the deity Atnin, the god of darkness, and on 
 the other the papyrus, staff, and hawk of Horus-Ra. In the centre stands Horus 
 himself, treading upon the heads of two crocodiles, emblems of typhonic power, 
 and in either hand he holds snakes and savage beasts, as restraining their 
 violence. Above him is the head of Set or Baal, whose superhuman power 
 Horus is suppo.s6d to have assumed. The usual long lock of hair (accideutally 
 reversed by the artist) hangs over the left shoulder of the deity. (Denon, 
 Description de PJSnj/pte. ) 
 
 proven, beyond all doubt, from the hieroglyphics themselves, 
 that these objects were universally adopted in ancient Egypt 
 as preservatives against the attacks of all venomous or dan- 
 
 Fig. 109. Porcelain amulet (exact size). The snake Nuhab making an offering of wine 
 
 to the gods. 
 
 gerous reptiles by the benevolent protection of Horus, and were 
 even by the Gnostic Christians dedicated to Jehovah as the 
 
65 
 
 God lAil.* Sometimes miniature copies of these cippi were --' 
 manufactured in blue porcelain, and were hung as amulets ' 
 around the necks of children, as was also a less common figure 
 
 Fig. 110. Porcelain amulet (exact size). Horus the enake-beaded. (Hay collection.) 
 
 of the god Horus (fig. 109) wearing a serpent's head (fig. 110),t 
 and the talismanic figures of the serpent of Eanno (fig. 111). 
 
 Fig. 111. Amulet (exact size). Horus, as a hawk-beaded uraeus, wearing the solar 
 
 disk. 
 
 In fact there was, the papyrus only excepted, scarcely any 
 object so frequently used, or represented, either as an emblem 
 of good or evil, as the snake, in its three great varieties. 
 
 * Montfaucon, torn. ii. planche 370. ' 
 
 + Horus being also mystically identified with the Good Serpent 
 Agathademon.— Wilkinson, v. 398. 
 
66 
 
 or rather genera, of Coluber, Naja, and Asp (fig. 6, etc.). 
 The ancient writers gravely asserted that the sand of the 
 
 Fig. 112. Nahab, or Nahab-ka, as in fig. 109. 
 
 Thehan desert spontaneously generated these dangerous 
 reptiles ; * and it would seem as if the whole of the Theban 
 mythology were buried in the cockatrice den, or written upon 
 the skin of a snake. 
 
 ■ 41 . A peculiar malignity, according to the Egyptians, attached 
 itself to a serpent's bite, for not only was it fatal to the 
 living, but the dead themselves became obnoxious to its influ- 
 ence. The pure spirit of the Eternal could not inhabit a body 
 
 Fig. 113. Steatite amulet (exact size). The goddess Mersokar. (Hay collection.) 
 
 infected with the venom of a snake or scorpion. f Hence the 
 mummies of the deceased were protected from ophite injury by 
 
 * Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. cap. i. 
 t IHUmI, caps. XXXV. and xli. 
 
67 
 
 Fig. 114. Porcelain amulet (exact size). The goddess Eaano. (Hay collection.) 
 
 charmSj talismans, and incantations (figs. 113, 114). Some of 
 these, of the Greco-Bgyptian or Ptolemaic period, have been 
 
 l^o: 
 
 Fig. 115. Wooden amulet for domestic use. Same deity. (Leemans.) 
 
 preserved to the present time (fig. 115). The highly symbolical 
 nature of the figures depicted, and mythical character of the 
 words employed, render them exceedingly difficult of interpre- 
 tation ; not to mention the circumstance that in many instances 
 the papyri and tablets have been wilfully defaced, or broken 
 asunder by later sectaries. One of them, engraved by Sharpe, 
 in the Egyptian Inscriptions,* has been, in part translated by 
 M. Chabas,t and appears to contain, in the first section, a series 
 of directions or rubrics to the mourners or embalmers. After 
 these follo ws the charm itself, being an adjuration against the 
 serpent^s~enemie3, both in this earth and Amenti, addresse d 
 to H orns, the protector of the dead! 
 
 " sheep, son of a sheep, lamb , son of a sheep, w ho suckest the milk of 
 thy mother the sheep, do notTetthe defunct be bitten by any serpent, male 
 or female by any scorpion or any reptile ; do not let any one of them 
 possess [have the mastery] over his limbs. Do not let him be penetrated [or 
 possessed] by any male or female dead ; may no shade of any spirit haunt 
 him may the mouth of the serpent Ham-ha-hu-f have no power over 
 him.'" (Figs. 116, 117.) ~ 
 
 * Egyptian Inscriptions, fol. 1837, plates 9-12. 
 i" BuUttin Areheolngique, p. 44, Juiii, 1855. 
 f2 
 
68 
 
 Here the allusions, both to the serpent enemies of the soul 
 and the possibility of the body of one man being interpene- 
 
 Fig. 116. The serpent germinating. A pictorial representation of a phrase used 
 in the Magical Papyri. (See Birch, " Sur un Papyrus Magique,"\ftei;Ke 
 Archeologiqite.) 
 
 trated by the soul of another, and that an evil one, — the 
 doctrine of the Pistis Sophia of the Gnostics, are theologically 
 exceedingly valuable. 
 
 Fig. 117. The four-headed urajua. Another of the ideographic snakes drawn in the 
 
 Magical Papyri. 
 
 Fig. 118. Bronze coin of the Emperor Hadrian, strucic at Alexandria, showing the 
 two opposing serpents of good and evil. (Sharpe.) 
 
 Pig. 119. A similar coin. The deity Jupiter Serapis, as the sei-pent of evil, carrying 
 a basket upon his head. (Sharpo.) 
 
69 
 
 42. It were at this stage of the inquiry too long and too 
 modern a subject to trace the myth of the serpent, as the antago 
 
 Fig. 120. The serpent of evil ridinfr on a horse, emblematic of the terrible rapidity ot 
 its progress. From a Gnostic coin. (Sharpe.) 
 
 nistic powers of good and evil,* through the subtleties of the 
 Gnostic commentators (figs. 121, 122, 123, 124), and the heresy 
 
 Fig. 121. The mystic seipent of the Gnostics, standing upon a wheel and holding a 
 club. From a gem. (Montfauoon.) Compare the Chuktra and serpent of 
 Buddist mythology, t 
 
 Pig. 122. The serpent Chnuphis, spelled Cbmoymem, with the seven-r.iyed crown, 
 emblematic of the seven mystic potentialities. On one side is his name, on the 
 other an emblem of the Gnostic trinity, and beneath him the petition Abraxas, 
 i.e., "hurt me not." (?) (Montfauoon.) 
 
 * Amono- the magical emblems of the Egyptian!? was an urosus on a wheel. 
 The creature is called Akhi Sesef, " the Turner of Destruction," " the 
 Mistress of the Burning Wheel, who lives oflF [by devouring] impurity." — 
 Birch, Magic Papyrus. 
 
 t On the Egyptian coins of Hadrian, for example, where the two serpents 
 and tbe heads respectively of Isis and Serapis represent the antagonistic 
 powers, see Sharpe, History of Egypt, vol. ii. chap. 15. (Figs. 118, 119, 120.) 
 
70 
 
 Fig. 123. A similar gem. Around the leonine head of the serpent are the uncial 
 Greek characters composing his name.* 
 
 Fig. 124. Another similar gem, very late Roman. The inscription probably means 
 "Abraxas, name of God,"— ABBESSES, NUMEN (for nomen) BAEI (for dei), 
 miswritten by the ignorance of the Alexandrian seal-engraver, (Montfaucon.) 
 
 Fig. 125. Chnuphis walking crowned with seven stars (a form afterwards much used 
 by the Gnostics. See fig. 97). (Denon.) 
 
 * " In the begmning, earth and water, to mud condensing, united. After- ^y^ 
 ■wards a third principle was horn, a serpent with the heads of a bull and a ' 
 lion, and in the midst the face of a god ; it had wings on its shoulders, and was 
 called Xporot" nyriparog." — Teste Hellanicus, quoted in Creuzer's Symbolik, .j/ 
 pp. 81-4. See also King, C. W., The Gnostics and their Remains, -^ 
 plates V. and vii. 
 
71 -^ - 
 
 A 
 
 /fr. 
 
 / 
 
 Fig. 126. A very curious Greco-Egyptian Gnostic seal (considerably enlarged). Christ 
 with the attributes of Horus, treading upon the crocodile of evil, and holding 
 the sacred symbol of his name, a fish, ix^vQ^i.e. IrjaovgXpiaTog 6covTwc^uiT7ip 
 (Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour). This gem is peculiarly valuable, as 
 showing how easily the Alexandrian Christians introduced their ancient emblems 
 and their corresponding theories into the rising Christianity of Egypt. (From 
 the collection in the British Museum.) 
 
 power* (fig. 1 26). The subject is a wide^ a grave, and a sacred 
 one, and if studied at all must be reverently and unbiassedly 
 studied. Close we the story of Egyptian Ophiolatry here, and 
 in as few words as may be compatible with the lateness of the 
 hour, and the extent of the materials, summarize the results 
 of this imperfect examination. 
 
 43. I. That in the Egyptian mythology, the oldest which, 
 apart from the Bible, has been handed down to us, and is clearly 
 
 (Note on some of the preceding names of serpents.) 
 * Abraxas nTl ^1^* fallen spirit (?) Ab-rahak. From Ezekiel i. 15-16. 
 Cabbala-Sohar gives lEJlX Ophan (wbeel) an order of Angels, as 1113 
 Krub (cherub), laiy (Satan) from ^UJ (shoot) wandering, Job i. 7 ; ii. 2. 
 -j^ nhi Aph-aph,— anger, wrath (of God), cjjj^ (Anaph), foaming with 
 rage «)>» Nose, inflated nostrils wing, Kanaph njs ?— S. M. Drach. 
 
 / 
 
 of Basilius into the Christian religion (fig. 125). It was as if 
 the giant Apophis, of Egypt, in dying under the spear of 
 Alexandrian Christianity, infected its destroyer with its 
 envenomed breath, and poisoned whom it could not over- 
 
 yjy> 
 
 ^^ 
 
72 
 
 traceable for three thousand years B.C.,* there are preserved, 
 along with others, though in a corrupted and exaggerated form, 
 many of the great doctrines of revealed religion. 
 
 II. That, prominent above other myths in that_ religious 
 system, was the belief in a monstrous personal evil being,t 
 typically represented as a serpent, and whose office was to 
 accuse the righteous, oppose the Supreme Deity, and devour 
 the wicked. 
 
 III. That, co-existently in the order of time, there arose a 
 dualistic principle of good, likewise represented, for scarcely 
 intelligible reasons, by an entirely different serpent, and that 
 between these two a constant spiritual warfare was main- 
 tained.J 
 
 IV. That, in the abstract, both good and evil were directly 
 produced by one Supreme Being, who also co-operated with 
 the righteous in their endeavours after holiness. 
 
 V. That the doctrine of the Metempsychosis, and the 
 dogmas of Purgatory, vicarious propitiation, a tangible Hades, 
 Heaven and Hell, were also a part of the Egyptian Cultus. 
 
 VI. That negative and positive holiness, rewards and 
 punishments, and conformity to the divine nature, were doc- 
 trines of the same theology. 
 
 VII. That the supreme delight of the justified consisted in 
 conscious hypostatic union with the Eternal Being, $ which was 
 attainable only after much purgation, and long-continued 
 eJCTtu^ 
 
 ■ "VIII. That the final punishment of the wicked consisted 
 in utter annihilation^ after a period of frightful torture in a 
 fiery hell. 
 
 IX. That the contest between good and evil would be at 
 last terminated by the incarnation of Deity overcoming the 
 great serpent, and utterly destroying him-.|| 
 
 X. That besides aU this, the serpent myths originated other 
 symbolisms indirectly connected with the preceding dogmas, 
 and that these, not being revealed by the priests to the general 
 body of the people, were by them misunderstood. 
 
 * Lenormant, Bunsen, and Wilkinson. 
 
 + Satan 1t3^ Sheitan, the hinderer, or from shoot ^!)^ = tOt^ the 
 
 wanderer (Job i. 7, and ii. 2). 
 
 J See also Plutarch, De Iside ; and Bunsen, Egypt's Place in Universal 
 History, vol. i. book i., for a fuller account of the Osiri-Typhonic myth. 
 
 S Differing herein essentially from the Nirwana or repose of Buddhism. 
 
 II See also for a brief popular resum^ of the principal of these doctrines, 
 Keary, Marly Egyptian History, pp. 364-409. 
 
73 
 
 XI. That the principal corruptions of primitive Christianity- 
 arose from the Platonists and Gnostics of the Greco-Egyptian 
 capital Alexandria,* in the same manner as their own ancient 
 religion was originally derived from a purer source, now only 
 to be found in the Bible. ■ 
 
 XII. That the study of Egyptian mythology will throw more 
 light upon the restrictive customs of the Jews,f the allusions 
 of the prophets, and the early history of the Christian church, 
 than that of any other country. 
 
 Thus then for a time we roll back the papyrus on which is 
 inscribed the story of the serpent Apophis, ask we, Why 
 the Father of Mankind has permitted these records to con- 
 tain, amid so many errors, much to testify of prophetic and 
 spiritual truth ? Seek then the answer in the words of the 
 Apostle of the Gentiles, J " God left not himself without wit- 
 ness in the world," so that even by the light of nature, " all the 
 world might become guilty before Him," and might in the 
 fulness of time be saved by His Son who is God over all, the 
 victor over the great dragon, " that old serpent," for ever — and 
 evermore. 
 
 NVIVS 
 
 * Sharrie, Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christianity. 
 
 t See particularly Chabas, F., " Hebra?o-Bgyptiaca," Trans. Soc. Bib. 
 Archmology, yoI. i. ; and Laiith, Moses der Ebraeer, 18fi8, which, although 
 wrong in its' conclusions, throws much light on early Jewish history. 
 
 t Acts xiv. 17. 
 
74 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 It m&y interest Philologists to see all the names and significant epithets 
 of the Tarioua serpents or serpent-formed Deities of Egypt in one list : — • 
 
 Names of Apophis. '■*-' 
 
 Apap, Apepi, Apophis, Apopth, App, Baba, Bebon, Btb, Chf, Chof, 
 Ho, Hof, Sba, Sutekh. 
 
 / ;' ,. 
 
 Names or the Soul of the World, j 
 Bai, Bait, Bat, Knum, Chnouphis, Chnumis. 
 
 Names of other Serpents. 
 
 Feuti, Gatfi, Ham, Har, Hu-ef, Mersokar, 'Mhn, Nfl, Nu, Ku, Ruhak, 
 Tetbi, Urtuk, Urhapt ? f 
 
 The vowels being in many cases wanting, the true etymology of these 
 names cannot now be recovered. 
 
 ENaLiSH Translations of Epithets applied in the Ritual op the 
 Dead to the various Serpents referred to 
 
 Adversary (Bunsen). 
 
 Beast (Bunsen). 
 
 Breaker of the Wicked. X' 
 
 * Brass of Earth. 
 
 * Circling (Sar. Oimen. — epithet, 1st doorkeeper). 
 Clasper (Bunsen). 
 
 Consumer (Bunsen). 
 Destroyer (Bunsen;. ^:>^ 
 
 * Devourer (Sar. Oimen., Apophis). >;" 
 Enemy (Bunsen). . ■ 
 
 1 ^, + All the feminine deities were, as before stated, either represented or J.- 
 ,»; were venerated under the form of urasL — Birch. 
 
75 
 
 Erector (Bunsen). 
 
 Fire-face (cap. 145-2ndhaU). 
 
 * Fire in his Eye (Sar. Oimen.— 8th doorkeeper). 
 Flame-face (cap. 145— 5th hall). 
 
 Giant (Bunsen). 
 Great Clasper. 
 
 * Horn of the Earth (Sar. Oimen.— 3rd doorkeeper of Amenti). ^-ji^ 
 
 * Spark-face (Sar. Oimen. — 7th doorkeeper of Amenti). 
 
 * Sparkling Face (Sar. Oimen. — 7th doorkeeper of Amenti). 
 Spitter of Fire. 
 
 Stopper of the Rejected (cap. 145 — 7th hall). 
 Stone Head (cap. 145 — 6th hall). 
 The Great Destroyer. 
 
 * The Living (Sar. Oimen.). 
 The wicked, Sba (Bunsen). 
 
 For the names of the Snakes distinguished by an asterisk the author is 
 indebted to the courtesy of the distinguished hieroglyphist Dr. S. Birch. 
 
 The Chaieman. — I am sure that we all desire to return a cordial vote of 
 thanks to Mr. Cooper for his able and interesting paper. (Cheers.) 
 
 Eev. J. James. — I should like to ask Mr. Cooper one question : In 
 what character is this Ritual of the Dead written — in hieroglyphic, hieratic 
 or demotic ? 
 
 Mr. Cooper." — It is generally found in the hieroglyphic and hieratic 
 characters. In the oldest papyri the writing is almost purely ideographic . -■■^\~ 
 The demotic script is very similar to the hieratic, but far less intelligible ; 
 having more resemblance to an exceedingly bad school-boy's hand of the 
 present time. 
 
 Mr. James. — Do you mean that there are three characters of the same 
 things — sometimes the hieroglyphic, sometimes the hieratic, and sometimes 
 the demotic ? 
 
 Mr. Cooper. — Yes ; three styles of writing the same language prevailed 
 throughout Egypt for four thousand years. The language was written in 
 bieroglyphic and hieratic, or demotic, side by side, just as you might print the 
 Prayer-book in black-letter and in italic or any other character. 
 
 Mr. James. — Are there not several manuscripts of this liturgy ? 
 
 Mr. Cooper. — M. Le Page Renouf has enumerated and collated 272. 
 Among them are, the copy of Leyden, which contains, I think, a hundred 
 perfect chapters, and the copy of Turin, which contains a hundred and fifty 
 chapters. But there are so many copies in existence that what is wanting 
 in one is supplied in another, and in that way we get altogether the one 
 hundred and sixty-six chapters of which the book is composed. 
 
 "R T H TiTCOMB. — I should like to draw attention to what I 
 may call a little bit of comparative mythology. We have been much in- 
 
76 
 
 terested to-night in the serpent myths of Egypt. Some time since I read 
 an account of the Scandinavian mythology, and ahnost the identical picture 
 is there presented which we find in the 23rd section of this paper. The 
 Scandinavian, like the Egyptian mythology, represented a lake with the 
 evil spirit under the form of a serpent, and the gods in conflict with that 
 serpent. Thor is in conflict with the serpent Midgar on a lake ; the serpent 
 rises and nearly overturns the boat in which he is. The circumstance is 
 interesting as showing how, apart from Egypt, in remote periods of time 
 and in different portions of the globe, we have a reproduction of the same 
 myth. It is an extraordinaiy piece of evidence of the unity of the human 
 race, and of the common origin of these myths as drawn from one centre — 
 the Word of God. With reference to the same subject of comparative 
 mythology and serpent myths, it may be interesting to you for me to read an 
 extract from a work by Squier, entitled Serpent Symbol in America. He gives 
 a remarkable account of one of the traditions of the Lenappi Indians, and 
 describes a great conflict between Manabozho, the presiding genius of the 
 tribe, and the Spirit of Evil represented as a large serpent. The words are 
 as follows : — 
 
 " One day, returning home from a long journey, Manabozho, the Great 
 Teacher of the Alonquins, missed his cousin who lived with him. He called 
 his name, but received no ansveer. He looked around on the sand for the 
 track of his feet, and there for the first time discovered the traU of the great 
 serpent, Meshekenabek, the Spirit of Evil. Then he knew that his cousin 
 had been seized by his great enemy. He armed himself and followed on his 
 track ; passed the great river ; crossed over mountains to the shores of the 
 deep lake where he dwelt. The bottom of the lake was filled with evil 
 spirits, his attendants and companions. In the centre of them he saw 
 Meshekenabek himself, coiling his volumes around his hapless cousin. His 
 head was red as with blood, and his eyes glowed like fire. Manabozho looked 
 on this and vowed vengeance. He directed the clouds to disappear from the 
 heavens, the winds to be still, and the air to become stagnant over the lake, 
 and bade the sun to shine on it fiercely, in order that his enemy might be 
 drawn forth from the cool shadows of the trees. By-and-by the water 
 becauie troubled, and bubbles rose to the surface, for the rays of the sun 
 penetrated to the horrible brood within its depths. The commotion increased, 
 and the hot waves dashed wildly against the rocks on its shore. Soon 
 Meshekenabek, the great serpent, emerged slowly to the surface and moved 
 towards the shore. Manabozho, who had transformed himself into the 
 stump of a tree, then silently drew an arrow from his quiver and aimed at 
 the heart of his enemy. The howl of the monster shook the mountains, for 
 ' he was mortally wounded." 
 
 This is an instance gained in another and still more distant part of 
 the world, among the rude tribes of North America, where the serpent myth 
 crops up in a way that one would least expect, and in a manner analogous 
 to that of Egypt. Here is a copy of a picture of the Judgment-hall of 
 Osiris from the very papyrus of which Mr. Cooper has been speaking — that at 
 Turin ; but instead of explaining it myself, I shall ask him to do so for you. 
 
77 
 
 Mr. Cooper. — This picture, which 
 Mr. Titcomb has so kindly brought with 
 him, is copied from a well-known vig- 
 nette in the Ritual of the Dead, but it 
 differs from some that I have seen. Gene- 
 rally speaking, these illustrations have 
 an altar with the four gods of the dead 
 upon it, because the deceased entreats 
 those four gods to intercede for him ; 
 but this papyrus is better and more ac- 
 curate. You have not the four gods of 
 the dead here, but in their place is Horus, 
 the son of God himself, who intercedes 
 standing in a reverential attitude with 
 his hands put together, praying that 
 hs father Orisis may save the deceased, 
 pardon, and admit him to the abodes 
 of the blessed. Horus stands between 
 the deceased and hell, here represented 
 as a temple filled with fire, and over heU 
 sits the monster Typho, " the devourer 
 of the souls of the unjustified " ; be- 
 tween hell and the judge is an altar con- 
 tainin g_ fruit an d flowers, supposed to 
 have been'o^red by the deceassd, wh en 
 alive, to Horus, who now offers his me- 
 diation for the deceased. By the steel- 
 yard is represented a monkey, the em- 
 blem of justice, because all his extremi- 
 ties are hands, and all are equal. In 
 one scale is the goddess of Truth, and 
 in the other is a little vase containing 
 the heart of the deceased. If it is equal 
 in weight, the deceased is acquitted ; if it 
 is not, he is condemned. The 
 deceasedstandsbetween the 
 goddesses IsLs and Nepthys, 
 and he bows before the 
 judge, with one hand on 
 his breast, while the other 
 shrouds his face, for it is 
 necessary, in standing be- 
 fore a god, or in praying to 
 the Serpent, to put the 
 hand before the face. The 
 figure of Thoth is seen 
 
 o 
 
 < 
 M 
 
 •a 
 a 
 
 dJ 
 Q 
 U 
 1-5 
 
 & 
 
 w 
 
 4 S 
 
78 
 
 writing down the good deeds of the deceased, and the resixlt of his acquittal 
 or condemnation. I am much obliged to Mr. Titcomb for bringing this 
 picture. 
 
 Mr. I. T. Peichard.— I cannot throw much light upon the subject, but 
 having been in India, may be able to give a little evidence from modem 
 times in reference to the very peculiar veneration that the natives of India 
 have for serpents, even the most venomous. The kind of cobra that 
 Mr. Cooper has mentioned is very common in India, and even the most 
 venomous serpents that we find occasionally in the gardens or in the houses it 
 is impossible to get any of the natives of the lower classes to touch. They will 
 not kin them, but are desperately afraid of them, because a bite is generally 
 death, though with proper measures life can be saved. I have often inquired 
 the reason, but they never give any — they merely say it is against their reli- 
 gion. They have some religious objection against injuring these creatures, 
 and it would certainly seem as if some kind of tradition had been handed 
 down from early times that these reptiles had a sort of sanctity about them, 
 and hence the people are afraid of touching them, even in self-defence. I 
 speak from the experience of very recent years. 
 
 Mr. Cooper. — The common Egyptians likewise never touched the serpent: 
 they had too much reverence for it. They always carried it in an ark borne 
 by four priests, and only occasionally exhibited it to the vulgar eye. 
 
 Eev. S. Wainweight, D.D. — I presume that paragraph 4, section 43, 
 is to be regarded as only giving the result of Mr. Cooper's inquiries in 
 Egyptian Mythology apart from the Bible, because it refers to a point which 
 neither he nor we recognize as belonging to Revealed Eeligion — I allude to the 
 words, " In the abstract, both good and evil were directly produced by 
 one Supreme Being." Another point I wish to mention is that to which 
 Mr. Titcomb referred — the Scandinavian Mythology, to show that there 
 too, there was an account of a boat on a lake — it occurred to me to suggest 
 that perhaps that idea of the boat which we find existing in lands so far 
 remote, may be a sort of floating tradition of the ark. 
 
 Mr. Cooper. — In common with all the Hamitic races, there is no flood 
 tradition in Egypt.* 
 
 * There is no qitarter of the globe where modern discovery can play a 
 more important part than in Africa, as comparatively little is known about 
 it. In regard to Mr. Cooper's statement, I find a well-known modern writer 
 on geology says, — " There seems to exist no such definite outline of the 
 Egyptian tradition referred to by Josephus as that preserved of the Chaldean 
 one. Even in Egypt, however, the recollection of the Deluge seems to have 
 survived, though it lay entangled amid what seem to be symbolized memories 
 of unusual floodings of the river Nile." The " Noah of Egypt," says Pro- 
 fessor Hitchcock, " appears to have been Osiris, and it is a curious fact that 
 he embarked on the 17th day of the month Athyr, the very day, most 
 probably, when Noah entered the ark." I may add that, as regards the 
 Chaldean account of the flood, Mr. G. Smith has recently found the fragments 
 of an Assyrian tablet from Nineveh, in the British Museum ; the inscription. 
 
79 
 
 Dr. Wainwriqht. — Well, there are two more points on which I should be 
 glad to have information. We know that certain classes of serpents are 
 poisonous, and I should like to know if such are found in a fossil state ; 
 also, if the Egyptians always represented serpents as cumbent. 
 
 Mr. Cooper. — The deductions given towards the close of my paper are 
 deductions from the mythology of Egypt, and my own faith winds up the 
 last paragraph, which I believe to be orthodox. As to fossil serpents 
 being venomous or non-venomous I do not know how that may be borne 
 out ; I believe that they were not venomous. The Serpent of Good is always 
 represented by the Egyptians as upright, and the Serpent of Evil as crawling, 
 and that is generally the only distinction which they make. 
 
 Rev. Gr. Henslow. — Fossil serpents are very rare ; geologists know 
 very little about them ; but in the Eocene clay snakes have been found, 
 which Professor Owen considers as probably frequenting water. 
 
 Mr. Cooper. — The water-snake is never represented in Egypt. 
 
 Mr. Henslow. — There is a snake-like form of animal among the Assyrian 
 monuments. 
 
 Mr. Cooper. — It is an emblem of Hea, the Assyrian water deity. With 
 respect to the eel, the Egyptians knew of it, but they dedicated it to the God 
 of Darkness. As to the boat, there is quite evidence enough about the 
 character of the mystic bark of the sun — the Divine Baris — without troubling 
 ourselves about it in this case. The Nile was the great highway of the 
 Egyptians, and it is natural enough to represent the sun as travelling by 
 water — the only road he could travel by ; more especially as they believed, 
 with the early Pelasgians mentioned by Herodotus, that the world was 
 entirely surrounded by an impassable ocean in which the deities sailed and 
 beyond which they resided, a theory which has an Indian analogue in the 
 cosmos of the Buddhists, and, if I mistake not, is also preserved in the Eddas 
 of the Scandinavian nations. If they had travelled as the Assyrians did, 
 by land, they would have represented the -sun as walking, or have put him, 
 as other nations did, on the backs of horses— as for instance the Greeks, who 
 put Phaeton in his quadriga. 
 
 Eev. C. A. Eow.— From the book caUed " The Eitual of the Dead," do 
 you conclude that the Egyptian theology was of an exclusively pantheistic 
 character ? I want to know whether the idea of deity involved freedom of 
 wiU or fate — whether it conceived of him, or not, as a living person ? Also, 
 
 which is in Semitic Babylonian, was copied b.c. 6C0 from a Chaldean docu- 
 ment at Erech, at least as old as the 17th century b.c, and contains many of 
 the events of the flood, but given in a legendary style, and with certain 
 minor differences which show that it embodies a distinct and independent 
 tradition belono-ing to distinct peoples. Mr. G. Smith, when reading a paper on 
 tWs inscription before the Society of Biblical Archeology, in November, 1872 
 rprnnrked on the value of the histories that are stored in the mounds and rumed 
 citTeTnowburied in the plains of Chaldea, once the cradle of civilization.-[ED.] 
 
..f^ 
 
 80 
 
 what are the ideas of the soul ; whether immortality was regarded as more or 
 less involving a personal existence I 
 
 Mr. Cooper.— First of aU, the Supreme Deity of the Egyptians was 
 Ammon-Ea, the spiritual author of all eidstence, physical, moral, and every- 
 thing else. But that was too abstract an idea for the people to grasp, 
 especially those of Lower Egypt. Therefore the priests typified all the 
 attributes of deity, and thus came near to the Persian system ; but for all 
 this they never lost sight of one Supreme Being, while the people invariably 
 did, and that is the great distinction between them. As would naturally 
 follow from such a system, they were not distinct about their deities ; one 
 man would worship a god under the form of Sate, while another would 
 worship the same god under the name of Isis, and another under that of 
 Nepthys. They had triads of gods, — a male, female, and a chUd ; but they 
 were not all the same triads, though all were more or less symbolized or 
 crowned by serpents. All the goddesses were serpents ; there is no evidence 
 to suppose that the Supreme Being was ever lost sight of by those who knew 
 the esoteric meaning of the Egyptian faith. As to the soul, it was a distinct 
 personality, separate from the body, emanating from the Supreme Being ; it 
 had to answer for its misdoings, and if, at the death of the body, it was not 
 good enough, it had to come back to earth to be purged. But if it were good, 
 it would go in a condition of extreme happiness into the presence of 
 God, and assume the character of one or other of the inferior divinities for 
 an (eon ; but then it would come back to earth, lose all its consciousness of 
 existence, and become the soul of somebody else. But it could not inhabit 
 any other body without the permission of the Supreme Being, and if it 
 found its original body all crumbled to pieces, or if another spirit had by 
 some evil means possessed it, the unhappy soul would have to float about like 
 the disembodied ghosts in Virgil. For this reason people were very anxious 
 for the preservation of their bodies after death. But it was believed that in 
 some rare instances, where the original body was completely destroyed, 
 the Supreme Being gave the soul permission to inhabit some other body. 
 In the time of the Ptolemies it was thought to be possible that the soul and 
 body might mistake each other at the resurrection to life, and hence arises 
 much of the beautiful Platonic myths of Eros and Psyche. The resurrection 
 of all men was not held by them as by us : they believed that all men would 
 be judged, but not all at the same time. 
 
 Mr. Eow.— How far is the pantheon of Egypt allied to the pantheon of 
 India ? 
 
 Mr. CooPEE. — At present nobody can definitely tell us that. We have 
 some material as to the ancient religion of hither India in the pre- 
 Bhuddist period, and there is a great similarity between that and the 
 Egyptian, but we cannot dogmatize on the subject. The Egyptian my- 
 thology was perfect at least 4,000 years before Christ, and all we can say 
 is that everything in the Indian mythology meets its analogue in the Egyptian 
 mythology. When the Semitic people came across with Rameses from India 
 
81 
 
 and conquered the aboriginal races, they introduced much of their own 
 cultus, but they also adopted Egyptian forms, the result being a very great 
 change indeed ; and it is possible that the Eamesidoa may have introduced an 
 Indian mythology with them, or, at all events, have explained Turanian myths 
 by Semitic theories. 
 
 Mr. Eow. — Was the Egyptian theology a personification of the powers of 
 nature ? 
 
 Mr. Cooper. — No ; but that the theurgia of a Supreme Being manifested 
 in the powers of nature. 
 
 Mr. Kow. — But was it not simply a personification of the powers of nature ? 
 
 Mr. Cooper. — By no means. [Mr. Cooper here drew upon the black board 
 representations of the head of an ancient Egyptian, and of the head of one of 
 the men of the Rameside period, to show the degeneration in the physiological 
 character of the races. He then proceeded to say :] It was an Indo-Germanic 
 race that conquered Egypt in the time of the Rameses, and made great 
 improvements. All the remains of Egypt, except the pyramids and one or 
 two imperfect tombs, belong to that race. There was also another conquering 
 race of a different or Arabian type, whose influence again modified the 
 Bgjfptian cultus, but it has left very few evidences. They seem to have 
 possessed no literature, and no evidence of their sway remained except the 
 extreme hatred that every Egyptian bore to the shepherd or Hykshos 
 rulers. 
 
 Rev. T. M. Gorman. — I should like to ask one question which seems 
 to have an important bearing on the rationale of this curious and diflacult 
 subject. In the paper just read reference has been made to the idea of a 
 spiritual Supreme Being as known to the most ancient Egyptians. Can 
 Egyptologers throw any light on the origin of this idea ? It would be a 
 point of great interest to show that the idea was derived, not from the fancy, 
 or even the reason of this originally grave and thoughtful people, but from 
 the primeval Revelation. It appears to me that the real and lasting value of 
 researches such as these depends materially upon the solution of questions 
 like that here proposed. If carefully and patiently worked out, considerable 
 light might be thrown on the true character and purport of Egj^ptian symbol- 
 ism, a subject full of interest for the Christian student of ancient lore. As 
 an illustration of what is meant, may be mentioned the adoption of the 
 serpent, by the Egyptians, for an emblem of evil, as opening up one of the 
 most difficult questions in theology. The study of this and kindred subjects 
 brings before us a fact which deserves our best consideration in these days ; 
 namely, the power and depth of the thinking faculty as evinced by the 
 nations of the Old World in the records that have been preserved of their 
 national life. Upwards of twenty centuries ago the Egyptians had fallen 
 away from their pristine enlightenment. Their state is described in the 
 inspired words of the Hebrew prophet :— " The princes of Zoan are fools, 
 the counsel of the wise counsellors of Tharaoh is become brutish." It 
 was not so in the old time. We learn on the same authority that Egypt 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 was once called " the son of the wise, the [son of the kings of antiquity.'' 
 Were it possible to arrive at the primal source of the knowledge pos- 
 sessed by the Egyptians of the Supreme Deity, as a spiritual creator 
 and governor, something perhaps might be done in the way of solving 
 another difficult problem — the separation of what is genuine from what is 
 spurious in Egyptian mythology. It might thus be possible to distinguish, 
 more clearly than has yet been done, the truth — of which the symbol is the 
 expression-^from the fable by which, in the lapse of ages, that truth has been 
 overgrown and weU-nigh lost to view. By working assiduously in the same 
 direction it might be possible to lessen in some degree the confusion of truth 
 and myth which at present exists in the older Greek and Eoman mythology. 
 For here also have been preserved some remnants of a true symbolism. To 
 discover, then, the source of that spiritual idea of the Deity which once 
 prevailed among this ancient and peculiar people, would, it seems to me, 
 impart a new and living interest to researches such as those on which the 
 instructive paper of this evening is based, and place students of Egyptology 
 in a much more advantageous position for estimating the true value of 
 results arrived at in this branch of learning. The acute remark of a well- 
 informed writer on the subject weU deserves to be borne in mind in the 
 present connection : — " The Egyptians are not the only people who have con- 
 verted type into substance, or adopted iu a literal sense the metaphorical 
 symbols of faith." 
 
 Mr. Cooper. — The book that contains the answer to that question is very 
 abstruse and difficult to understand, because it is written in purely ideographic 
 symbolism. It is the book of the Manifestations, or Liturgy of the Sun, and 
 has been published by M. Chabas. We cannot obtain much from it otherwise 
 than that the abstract sense of Deity is represented by the first of all sym- 
 bols — fire ; by light, and air, and by everything beautiful. There is a 
 passage that implies that the Deity is holiness also. 
 
 Rev. C. Graham. — With regard to the mythology of Greece and Rome, 
 you will find that it illustrates many of the great facts in the Book of 
 Genesis. Of course it does so in a corrupted form ; but nevertheless those 
 facts are illustrated, and I would venture to say that they are derived from 
 Egyptian mythology. In Genesis we are told most distinctly that a serpent 
 induced Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit. Now in the Greek and 
 Eoman mythology we have the Garden of the Hesperides, supposed to be 
 /^^"just on the borders of Ethiopia. We have a serpent coiled romid the tree 
 
 y^-^f\ defending the golden apples, and Atlas surrounding the gardens with 
 
 /\j^ mountains in order to prevent the fulfilment of an ancient prophecy that 
 
 /^/fX the son of a god would at length destroy the serpent and take off' the apples. 
 
 / / Another fact recorded in Genesis is, that the seed of the woman was to bruise 
 
 the head of the serpent. Now in mythology we have that great truth 
 
 yi^ also transmitted. We have, for instance, Hercules destroying the serpent 
 
 / , with his club, according to ApoUonius ; and according to Ovid and others, we 
 
 ,.,>fC ^^'^^ Apollo destroying the Python with his arrows. These facts, which lie at 
 
83 
 
 the foundation of our religion, are distinctly transmitted from classic 
 mythology, and in all probability they passed from Egypt to Greece and 
 Kome. With regard to the word Hesperides itself, many learned men derive y^^^sT 
 it irom the Hebrew word ets peri — a tree of fruit. The serpent, according to 
 ApoUonius, is called Ladon, which learned men derive from El A don, the s^-''^ 
 Grod of Eden, attributing to the serpent divine power, and making it a god. / v 
 These matters are important. I do not know whether Mr. Cooper would 
 tell us that the mythology of Greece and Kome was mainly derived from 
 an Egyptian source. 
 
 Mr. Cooper. — Oh no, not in your sense. No doubt Egypt is the mother 
 of those mythologies, but she has very bad daughters. 
 
 Mr. Graham. — Just so. But in these cases the mythology of Greece and 
 Eome is more distinct and illustrative, even than that of ancient Egypt. The 
 great facts of the Fall and of the Eedemption come out most distinctly in the 
 mythology of Greece and Rome. 
 
 Mr. Cooper. — Far less so as matters of doctrine, to my belief, than they 
 do in Egypt ; the great distinction between physical and moral evil, and 
 the sense of human responsibility prevailing far more largely in the Egyptian 
 faith than it did either in Hellene or Latin theology. Plato doubted of what 
 God was made, and Pliny doubted if there were a Supreme Deity at all. 
 The great men were philosophical sensualists, and the people unreflecting 
 fetischists. 
 
 Mr. J. Allen. — You spoke of the Egyptian mythology being perfect 4,000 
 years before Christ. I suppose you mean according to the chronology of the 
 Egyptians themselves. 
 
 Mr. Cooper. — Chronologists differ very much. There are those who, like 
 Sharpe, fix the initial date at about 2,200 before Christ, and others, like 
 Bunsen and Lenormant, who throw it back to 5,000 j'ears ; but those are 
 mere theories until we get more astronomical facts. We have got some 
 atronomical facts however ; — in the reign of Rameses III. eclipses and 
 stellar phenomena are recorded at the temple of Mediiiet Habou, which, some 
 say, could only have occurred 4,000 or 5,000 years ago. But then a great 
 deal depends upon how far the inscriptions can be chronologically arranged. 
 With regard to the Bible, the Pentateuch is full of Egypt. I think that it was 
 written in the Egyptian alphabet, for a people saturated with the symbolism 
 and the culture of Egypt ; and I consider that the Hebrew characters did not 
 exist at that time, or for centiiries afterwards. If this be so, when Moses 
 wrote the early sacred books the writing must have been ideographic or in 
 pictorial hieroglyphic characters; and in all probability he followed out 
 the plan of the Egyptians, conveying partly by symbols, partly by signs, 
 and partly by a mixture of both, the doctrines which were afterwards 
 put into o-ood Hebrew by Ezra and the later priests.* That does not 
 
 * The present Hebrew character was introduced to the Jews from Chaldaea, 
 probablyabout the time of the Babylonian captivity ; but that is no reason 
 
84 
 
 impugn the truth of the Bible at all ; but though, as a book, it may- 
 be ia some respects comparatively modern, the doctrines of the Bible 
 are coeval with the origin of the human race itself, and could only have 
 been made known by divine revelation. We have proved that book to 
 be absolutely true in matters of history ; * and I believe we shall prove it 
 to be absolutely true in matters of theology also ; but that must be done 
 by different persons. If you take a circle, and all men travel in direct 
 lines from its circumference, they will all converge in a common centre. 
 That centre in this case is orthodoxy — any divergence from it is only ap- 
 parent, not real. (Cheers.) 
 
 Dr. Wainwright. — It has been shown by Professor Donald that in 
 the time of Moses Hebrew was already a language, and had attained a 
 certain stage of consolidation ; as is shown by the fossilized character of 
 certain of its elements. There are interesting indications of the extreme 
 antiquity of the language, which show that in the time of Moses it had 
 such an antiquity as to possess other previous stages corresponding to the 
 earlier stages of our own language in the time of Chaucer. 
 
 Mr. Cooper. — That is a matter of text, and the oldest copy of the Hebrew 
 Bible in England dates from about the eighth century ; my authority is 
 Professor Lenormant — indeed, we have no copy of any writing in Greek, 
 Latin, or Hebrew so old as the time of our Lord, but we have Egyptian 
 inscriptions that can be traced up certainly to 2,000 or 3,000 years 
 before Christ. I do not now allude to incised inscriptions.f It is a 
 curious fact that, as far as written testimony goes, we have none earlier than 
 the Christian era, except the Egyptian papyri and the Assyrian magical 
 
 for assuming that the language had not an archaic character of its own, or 
 that Moses wrote in the ideographic Egyptian. The Moabite stone, 
 900 B.C., recently discovered {sec p. 125), is written in pure Hebrew, but in 
 the ancient Phosnioian character ; in which character, most probably, the 
 Pentateuch itself was written — (J. H. T.) Dr. Espin remarks {SipuJcers^ 
 Commentary, vol. ii. p. 11), — "Archaisms, found in the writings of Moses, 
 are not found in the book of Joshua, and there are traces in the latter 
 that the language had somewh;it developed itself in the interval." — [Ed.] 
 
 * There are some remarkable instances of this given in the Transactions of 
 the "Palestine Exploration Fund" for 1872, which are now added to the 
 Institute's Library. [Ed.] 
 
 f Since this discussion, Mr. Ganneau has mentioned, as regards ancient 
 Hebrew inscriptions, that " up to this time the texts found in Palestine and 
 Jerusalem are few in number and of small importance : amongst them are 
 two Hebrew te.xts in Phoenician character discovered at Siloam. Two Hebrew 
 cachets in Phwnician characters give the Biblical names of Ananias, Azarias, 
 and Achbor. These four texts belong to the time of the kings of Judah ; also 
 several inscriptions in square Hebrew." To these I may add the seal of 
 Haggai (520 b.c), the authenticity of which is, however, not yet admitted by 
 all, and the Moabite stone. A curious remark is made by Josephus, Antiq., 
 xii. ii. 1 ; it is that Demetrius Phalerius, library-keeper to Ptolemy Phila- 
 delphus (277 b.c), spoke of the Hebrew as " simUar in sound and character 
 to the language proper to the Syrians." — [Ed.] 
 
85 
 
 pottery, I see there ig a Hebrew scholar present who will perhaps say a few 
 words on the subject. 
 
 JMr. S. M. Deach. — Doctors and Eabbis say that every copy, of the 
 Pentateuch especially, is a reproduction with the greatest minuteness of the 
 original one, supposed to have been written by Moses himself. The Eabbis 
 say that the Pentateuch was originally written in characters generally known 
 as Hebrew or Samaritan, but it is generally allowed that Moses wrote the 
 Pentateuch in alphabetical writing, and there is a great distinction between 
 that and hieroglyphic writing. If we were to adopt Mr. Cooper's idea, and 
 only go upon written testimony, we might well doubt that Homer's writings 
 were written by Homer. Although it is the orthodox Jewish belief that the 
 writings of the Old Testament were in the original language of mankind, yet 
 I must dissent from that. There are a good many synonyms and Jewish 
 words which are perhaps' derived from an Indo-Germanio root ; so that the 
 Hebrew of the Pentateuch and of the Old Testament generally is something 
 like the English language, which is formed partly of Latin and partly of 
 Anglo-Saxon ; or like the Spanish, which is partly Latin and partly Arabic ; 
 and not a pure language, such as the German. Vide David Kiinchi on 
 Synonyms, " SVvut Nirdafim.^'' (12th century.) 
 
 The discussion then closed. 
 
 Alteeation of the Eules of the Institute. 
 
 The CiiAiEMAN then announced that, in accordance with a notice issued on 
 1st of November, the Meeting would be made Special, for the purpose of 
 considering the suggestion of the Council, copies of which had been sent to 
 all ; namely, that the list of 1st Class Associates should be amalgamated with 
 that of the members. 
 
 Eesolutions to this effect having been passed Hciii. con., the Council were 
 authorized to make the requisite alterations in the Bye Laws. 
 
 The Meeting was then adjourned. 
 
86 
 
 NOTE ON THE HEBREW ALPHABET AND VOWEL POINTS. 
 By the Eev. C. Graham. 
 
 Gesenius remarks, that " However dissimilar the Shemitish written cha- 
 racters may now appear, they have undoubtedly all come, by various modifi- 
 cations, from one and the same original alphabet, of which the truest copy 
 now extant is the Phcenician, from which also the Ancient Greek, and through 
 it, aU other European characters, were derived." Of the Hebrew letters now 
 in use, called the Assyrian or Square character, in which the manuscripts 
 of the Old Testament are written, he says, " They are not of the original 
 form. On the coins of the Maccabean Princes is found another character, 
 which at an earlier period was probably in general use, and which bears a 
 strong resemblance to the Samaritan and Phoenician letters. The square 
 letter may also be traced back to the Phoenician ; but it has most agree- 
 ment with certain Aramsean inscriptions found in Egypt and at Palmyra." 
 
 Gesenius remarks, what one would think ought to be obvious to every one, 
 that " the antiquity of the letters is clearly proved by the alphabetical poetic 
 compositions in Ps. xxv., xxxiv., xxxvii., cxix. ; Lam. i. to iv." 
 
 Again, he says, " Both the names and the order of the letters (with a 
 trifling alteration) passed over from the Phoenician into the Greek, in which 
 the letters, from Alpha to Tau, corresponded to the ancient alphabet. 
 
 "When the Hebrew ceased to be a spoken language, and the danger of 
 
 losing the correct pronunciation continually increased, the voicel-signs 
 
 or points were invented, which minutely settled what had previously been 
 left uncertain. 
 
 " This vowel system," he says, " has, probably for its basis the pronuncia- 
 tion of the Jews of Palestine, and its consistency, as well as the analogy of 
 the kindred languages, furnishes strong proof of its correctness, at least as 
 a whole. Its authors have laboured to exhibit by signs the minute grada- 
 tions of the vowel sounds, carefully making even half-vowels and helping 
 sounds, spontaneously adopted in all languages, yet seldom expressed in 
 writing." — See Introduction to Gesenius's " Hebrew Grammar," from the 
 fourteenth German edition, enlarged and improved hy Dr. E. Kodiger, 
 translated hy Dr. B. Davies. 
 
)hjtdB 0f t^c Wxdam ^mtxtntt. 
 
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 Philosophy and Science, but more especially those that bear upon the 
 great truths revealed in Holy Scripture, with the view of reconciling 
 any apparent discrepancies between Christianity and Science. 
 
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%txmB ai ||t^mkrs]^i;|?, ^t. 
 
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