ANCIENT EGYPT THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
NOTES TO BOOK 5
[1] [Not from Geil. Source.]
[2] [Daily Chronicle, August 10th, 1904.]
[3] [Daily Mail, March 2nd, 1904.]
[5] [Source.]
[7] [Wiedemann, 'Egyptian Monuments at Dorpat,' PSBA, 16, 152. See full text.]
[8] [Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 280.]
[9] [Maspero, Dawn of Civilisation, p. 32, note 6. 'The African origin of the donkey was first brought to light by H. Milne-Edwards, in the Comptes rendus de l'Academie des Sciences, 1869, vol. lxix, p. 1259.']
[10] [Ibid., p. 57, note 5. 'The burying place of Abydos, especially the most ancient, have furnished us with millions of shells, pierced and threaded, as necklaces: they all belong to the species of cowries used in Africa as money at the present day.' The cowrie shell, is of course, a symbol of the female vulva, and is still worshipped as such by many African, as well as Asian, tribes. Abydos, incidentally, has been identified as the burying place of the pharaoh known as the Scorpion King who united upper and lower Egypt in the dynasty now known as Dynasty 0.]
[11] [Macdonald, Africana, vol. 1, p.?]
[12] [New Light on Dark Africa: Being the Narrative of the German Emin-Pasha Expedition, p. 378. 'The early dawn found us, as usual, on the march. A broad road led us over two more ridges of hills, now ever in a southerly direction; from all sides crowds of people came hurrying along, either to offer us joyful greetings or in respectful silence to watch us as we marched by. To the right I noticed a line of buildings, which looked, from a to the distance, like pyramids, but were in reality cone-shaped. I learned afterwards that they were funeral monuments of Mtesas and the kings of the Wakintu dynasty.']
[14] [Bent, Ruined Cities of Mashonoland, p. 326.
'Next morning we walked up to visit 'Mtoko in his kraal. The twenty huts which
compose it are girt around with a strong palisade. Each hut is large, and has a
porch. 'Mtoko and his head men were seated on a rock in the midst of it with a
wood fire for lighting their pipes. One of the indunas had just decorated
his hair in splendid fashion, tying up his black tufts with beads, and covering
the whole with a thick coating of grease, which soaked into his matted hair
before our eyes under the strong influence of the sun. Into this circle we were
all invited, for the dread of the white lady seemed to have passed away. She
presented the monarch with some English needles, and his delight in receiving
these treasures exceeded even that which he showed on receipt of the Chartered
Company's gifts, for in 'Mtokoland they are accustomed to use strong sharp
blades of grass for needles, on which ours were a distinct improvement.
Our object to-day was to inquire into the politics of the
country, and to verify the strange stories we had heard about the priest of the
lion god, the Mondoro, who is reported to be even stronger than the chief. We
wanted to learn more concerning the cult of the lion, and where the Zimbabwe of
'Mtokoland was, where the annual sacrifices take place to the king of beasts.
The question was a delicate one, and had to be tenderly
approached, knowing as we did by this time the extreme reluctance of the Kaffirs
to disclose to white men the secrets of their religion. A man called Benoula
seemed to take the lead in everything. The 'Mtoko hardly spoke, and looked very
uncomfortable whilst the catechising was going on. The results of our
investigations were vague. The Mondoro, or lion priest, was uncle to the chief,
and he resided at Lutzi, the village by which we had passed. The old 'Mtoko on
his death-mat had left his son and heir somehow or another in tutelage to this
mysterious priest-uncle of his. When asked where the Zimbabwe was, he replied
reluctantly: 'The Mondoro may tell you if he likes; I dare not.' Finally, after
'the Home of the Buffaloes' hair had been taken down by his majesty's special
request, we made arrangements for Benoula to accompany us to Lutzi on the morrow
and introduce us to the priest, whom we had been so near without knowing it when
we first entered the country.']
[16] [Africana, vol. 1, p. 115.]
[17] [The Creation.]
[20] [Last Journals of David Livingstone, vol. 1, entry date: 4th Dec. 1868. 'A sort of idol is found in every village in this part, it is of wood, and represents the features, markings and fashion of the hair of the inhabitants: some have little huts built for them—others are in common houses. The Babemba call them Nkisi ("Sancan" of the Arabs): the people of Rua name one Kalubi; the plural, Tulubi; and they present pombe, flour, bhang, tobacco, and light a fire for them to smoke by. They represent the departed father or mother, and it is supposed that they are pleased with the offerings made to their representatives, but all deny that they pray to them.']
[21] [Ellis, Ewe-speaking Peoples,
p. 15. '1. That he has a second individuality, an indwelling spirit residing in
his body. He calls this a kra.
2. That he himself will, after death, continue his present existence in a
ghostly shape. That he will become, in short, the ghost of himself, which he
calls a srahman. Now 1 has very frequently been confounded with 2, though
they are essentially distinct. The kra existed before the birth of the
man, probably as the kra of a long series of men, and after his death it
will equally continue its independent career, either by entering a newborn human
body, or that of an animal, or by wandering about the world as a sisa or
kra without a tenement. The general idea is that the sisa always
seeks to return to a human body and again become a kra, even taking
advantage of the temporary absence of a kra from its tenement to usurp its
place. Hence it is that any involuntary convulsion, such as a sneeze, which is
believed to indicate that the kra is leaving the body, is always followed
by wishes of good health. The kra can quit the body it inhabits at will,
and return to it again. Usually it only quits it during sleep, and the
occurrences dreamed of are believed to be the adventures of the kra
during its absence. The srahman, or ghost-man, only commences his career
when the corporeal man dies; and he simply continues, in the ghost- world or
land of dead men, the existence the corporeal man formerly led in the world.']
[22] [Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate, vol. 2, p. 655. 'The Lendu have no very clearly marked religion, though they have a distinct ancestor-worship, and are accustomed to remember the dead by placing roughly carved wooden dolls (supposed to represent the deceased persons) in the abandoned hut where the dead lie buried.']
[23] [Geil, Yankee in Pygmy Land, p. 250.]
[24] [Three Years in Savage Africa, pp. 344-45. 'On the march from time to time each of them will deposit in the same spot a twig of wood or a stone in such a way that a great heap gets collected. I have observed the same custom on the plateau of Tanganika, but that was to ensure a safe return. If they halt in the midst of high grass each will plait a handful of grass, which they tie together so as to make a kind of bower. In the forest, if they are pressed for time, each will make a cut with a blow of a hatchet in a tree; but if they have time they will cut down trees, lop off the branches, and place these poles against a big tree; in certain places I have seen stacks of hundreds of them round a single tree. Sometimes they will strip pieces of bark from the trees and stick them on the branches, and at others they will place a pole supported by two trees right over the path. On it they will hang up a broken gourd or an old box made of bark. On some occasions they will even erect a little hut made of straw to the Musimo on the road itself, but this is usually done when they are going on a hunting expedition and not a journey.']
[25] [Macdonald,
Africana, vol. 1, pp. 123-26.
Rit. ch. 82.]
[26] [Personal communication.]
[27] [Callaway, Religious System of the Amazulu,
p. 9. 'It was said at first before the arrival of missionaries, if we asked, "By
what were the stones made?" "They were made by Umvelingangi." It is said that we
men came out of a bed of reeds, where we had our origin.'
Note: 'Umhlanga is a bed of reeds. We must not confound umhlanga
with uhlanga. Umhlanga is the place where they broke off or
out-came from Ualanga.']
[28] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 1. 30. 'To denote ancient descent they depict a BUNDLE OF PAPYRUS, and by this they intimate the primeval food; for no one can find the beginning of food or generation.']
[29] [Brugsch.]
[30] [Cook, 'Hymn to the Nile,' RP, 4, 113.]
[31] [Matthews, 'A Part of the Navajo Mythology,' AA 5, 209. 'At length the mountain ceased to grow and they planted on the summit a great reed, into the hollow of which they all entered. The reed grew every night but it did not grow in the day time; and this is the reason why the reed grows in joints to this day—the hollow internodes shows where it grew by night, and the solid nodes shows where it rested by day. Thus the waters gained on them in the daytime. The turkey was the last to take refuge in the reed and, therefore, he was at the bottom. When the waters rose high enough to wet the turkey they all knew that danger was near. Often did the waves wash the end of his tail; and it is for this reason that the tips of the turkey's tail-feathers are, to this day, lighter than the rest of his plumage. At the end of the fourth night from the time it was planted, the reed had grown up to the floor of the fourth world, and here they found a hole through which they passed to the surface.']
[33] [Johnston, The Uganda
Protectorate, vol. 1, p. 65. 'The current of the Nile forms a discernible
channel up the western part of this winding lake, though the water is often
blocked with mud. There is a good deal of clear water in the southern and
central parts of Ijike Kioga, but the banks are almost unapproachable through
the growth of papyrus and reed jungles.'
Ibid., vol. 1, p. 107. 'Looking on either side as the marsh is being
crossed, notice first of all the gigantic papyrus, which may be growing up as
high as fifteen feet above the water, and interspersed amongst papyrus roots are
quantities of fern, of amaranth, or "love-lies-a-bleeding,''']
[34] [Naville, 'Destruction of Mankind,' RP, 6, 103.]
[35] [Plutarch, Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 50.]
[36] [Stern, 'Festival of the Nile,' RP, 10, 42.]
[37] [Cook, 'Hymn to the Nile,' RP, 4,
105.
Rit. ch.
149.]
[40] [The Uganda Protectorate, vol. 1, p. 211. 'The Uganda harps are exactly like those depicted on the Egyptian monuments. Is it possible that some of the "Bahima" (the aristocracy of Hamitic type prevalent in Western Uganda, Unyoro, Toro, Ankole, part of the adjoining Congo Free State, and the countries on the south-east of the Victoria Nyanza and towards the north and east of Tanganyika) are the descendants of traders from Ethiopia, who came to these countries many centuries ago? The Bahima have completely forgotten any Hamitic language that they may have once spoken. They speak now, with a marked accent of their own, the Bantu language of the country where they dominate as an aristocracy or where they serve as proud cattle-keepers. The Bahima must have mingled in ancient times—possibly they mingle still to some extent—with the surrounding Negroes, from whom they have derived their closer, woollier hair, and, in some individuals, their darker colour. But one notices amongst them again and again a type of face startlingly Egyptian in its main features, and sometimes not much darker in complexion.']
[42] [Maspero, Dawn of Civilisation, p. 84, e.g. 'They know that Hathor, the milch cow, had taken up her abode in their land from very ancient times, and they called her the Lady of Pûanît, after the name of her native country.']
[44] [Maspero, Histoire Ancienne, p. 5. Wrong p. no. Unable to trace.]
[45] [Inscription, Rohan. Uncertain of this title.]
[46] [Petrie, Egyptian Tales, First
Series,
pp. 82, 90. 'As for me I am prince of the land of Punt, and I have perfumes.'
'"As for me, I am prince of the land of Punt, and I have perfumes"―and
the scene of departure. All of these points show a firm hand and practised
taste, although there is still a style of simplicity clinging to it which agrees
well to its date in the XIIth Dynasty.']
[47] [The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland, p. 218. 'An interesting parallel to the ancient gold workings in Mashonaland is to be found by studying the account of the ancient gold workings at the Egyptian gold mines in Wadi Allaga, also given us by Diodorus. ... Hence it is obvious that the process employed by the ancient Egyptians for crushing, smelting, and forming into ingots was exactly the same as that employed by the ancient inhabitants of Zimbabwe; which fact, when taken in conjunction with the vast amount of evidence of ancient cult, ancient construction, and ancient art, is, I think, conclusive that the gold-fields of Mashonaland formed one at least of the sources from which came the gold of Arabia, and that the forts and towns which ran up the whole length of this gold-producing country were made to protect their men engaged in this industry.']
[48] [Dawn of Civilisation, p. 232. 'The Great Oasis had been considered at first as a sort of mysterious paradise, whither the dead went in search of peace and happiness. It was called Uit, the Sepulchre; this name clung to it after it had become an actual Egyptian province, and the remembrance of its ancient purpose survived in the minds of the people, so that the "cleft," the gorge in the mountain through which the doubles journeyed towards it, never ceased to be regarded as one of the gates of the other world.']
[49] [Herodotus, Histories, bk. 3.26. 'Thus fared the expedition against the Ethiopians: and those of the Persians who had been sent to march against the Ammonians set forth from Thebes and went on their way with guides; and it is known that they arrived at the city of Oasis, which is inhabited by Samians said to be of the Aischrionian tribe, and is distant seven days' journey from Thebes over sandy desert: now this place is called in the speech of the Hellenes the "Isle of the Blessed." It is said that the army reached this place, but from that point onwards, except the Ammonians themselves and those who have heard the account from them, no man is able to say anything about them; for they neither reached the Ammonians nor returned back. This however is added to the story by the Ammonians themselves: they say that as the army was going from this Oasis through the sandy desert to attack them, and had got to a point about mid-way between them and the Oasis, while they were taking their morning meal a violent South Wind blew upon them, and bearing with it heaps of the desert sand it buried them under it, and so they disappeared and were seen no more. Thus the Ammonians say that it came to pass with regard to this army.' Tr., Macauley.]
[50] [Maspero, Dawn of Civilisation, p. 183. 'After being equipped with the formulas and amulets wherewith his prototype, Osiris, had been furnished, he set forth to seek the "Field of Reeds."']
[51] [The Creation of Man.]
[52] [Higgins, Names of the Stars and Constellations,
p. 36. 'Piscis Australis = The Southern Fish,
The Latins called this, Piscis Major = The greater Fish.
The Arabs called this, Dhifda al awla = Frog the first.
Beta = Dhifda al Tania, of the Whale, being Frog the second.
Name on charts, Arabic, Meaning,
Alpha (Fomalhaut) Fom = The mouth.']
[53] [De Groot, Les fêtes annuellement célébrées à Émoui, vol. 1, p. 74.]
[54] [Antiquities of the Jews, bk. 1, ch. 2, 3. 'Now Adam, who was the first man, and made out of the earth, (for our discourse must now be about him,) after Abel was slain, and Cain fled away, on account of his murder, was solicitous for posterity, and had a vehement desire of children, he being two hundred and thirty years old; after which time he lived other seven hundred, and then died. He had indeed many other children, but Seth in particular. As for the rest, it would be tedious to name them; I will therefore only endeavour to give an account of those that proceeded from Seth. Now this Seth, when he was brought up, and came to those years in which he could discern what was good, became a virtuous man; and as he was himself of an excellent character, so did he leave children behind him who imitated his virtues. All these proved to be of good dispositions. They also inhabited the same country without dissensions, and in a happy condition, without any misfortunes falling upon them, till they died. They also were the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies, and their order. And that their inventions might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam's prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars, the one of brick, the other of stone: they inscribed their discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad to this day.' Whiston's tr.]
[55] [Plato refers to these columns as pillars, identifying them (in the Timaeus) with the Straits of Gibraltar: 'This great island lay over against the Pillars of Heracles, in extent greater than Libya and Asia put together, and was the passage to other islands and to a great ocean of which the Mediterranean sea was only the harbour; and within the Pillars the empire of Atlantis reached in Europe to Tyrrhenia and in Libya to Egypt. This mighty power was arrayed against Egypt and Hellas and all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. Then your city did bravely, and won renown over the whole earth. For at the peril of her own existence, and when the other Hellenes had deserted her, she repelled the invader, and of her own accord gave liberty to all the nations within the Pillars. A little while afterwards there were great earthquakes and floods, and your warrior race all sank into the earth; and the great island of Atlantis also disappeared in the sea. This is the explanation of the shallows which are found in that part of the Atlantic ocean.']
[56] [The Origine and Antiquity of our English Weights and Measures.]
[57] [Library of History, bk. 1.]
[58] [Goodwin, 'Upon an Inscription in the Reign of Shabaka,'—in Chabas' 'Stele of Beka,' 3rd series.]
[59] [The Gold Children.]
[60] [Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 226-7. 'It is necessary also to remember that ceremonial objects, such as the Waninga, which figure largely in some districts, are unknown in others where their place is taken by entirely different objects. Thus, for example, in the northern part of the Arunta and in the Ilpirra tribe, a sacred pole called a Nurtunja is used, and in these parts this has precisely the significance of the Waninga, which is never met with in the northern districts, just as the Nurtunja is never met with in the south.']
[61] [A term borrowed by Grant to designate the nether side of the Tree of Life. See Kenneth Grant, Nightside of Eden.]
[62] [Johnston,
British Central
Africa, p. 40. 'But the year is clearly divided into seasons of rain and
drought. The rainy season generally begins at the end of the month of November
and heavy rains fall in December.'
Ibid., p. 42.
'In the rainy season the wind usually blows from a northerly direction and is
what one may call a benign wind, being warm and wet. During the dry season the
cursed south-eastern prevails. This hated wind comes up from the South Pole and
is cold and dry. It is the equivalent of our east wind in England and produces
much the same effects on health when it blows strongly.']
[63] [City of God, bk.18, ch. 39, Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, 2, 383-4. 'Now we must not believe that Heber, from whose name the word Hebrew is derived, preserved and transmitted the Hebrew language to Abraham only as a spoken language, and that the Hebrew letters began with the giving of the law through Moses; but rather that this language, along with its letters, was preserved by that succession of fathers. Moses, indeed, appointed some among the people of God to teach letters, before they could know any letters of the divine law. The Scripture calls these men Urammateisa, who may be called in Latin inductores or introductores of letters, because they, as it were, introduce them into the hearts of the learners, or rather lead those whom they teach into them. Therefore no nation could vaunt itself over our patriarchs and prophets by any wicked vanity for the antiquity of its wisdom; since not even Egypt, which is wont falsely and vainly to glory in the antiquity of her doctrines, is found to have preceded in time the wisdom of our patriarchs in her own wisdom, such as it is. Neither will any one dare to say that they were most skillful in wonderful sciences before they knew letters, that is, before Isis came and taught them there. Besides, what, for the most part, was that memorable doctrine of theirs which was called wisdom but astronomy, and it may be some other sciences of that kind, which usually have more power to exercise men's wit than to enlighten their minds with true wisdom? As regards philosophy, which professes to teach men something which shall make them happy, studies of that kind flourished in those lands about the times of Mercury, whom they called Trismegistus, long before the sages and philosophers of Greece, but yet after Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and even after Moses himself. At that time, indeed, when Moses was born, Atlas is found to have lived, that great astronomer, the brother of Prometheus, and maternal grandson of the eider Mercury, of whom that Mercury Trismegistus was the grandson.' Donaldson's tr.]
[64] [HL, p. 397. 'The
decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions has shown that the belief in
Babylonian "Sabaism" was, after all, not altogether a chimera.
Babylonia was really the cradle of astronomical observations. Long before the
lofty zigurrdti or "towers" of the temples were reared, where the royal
astronomers had their stations and from whence they sent their reports to the
king, the leading groups of stars had been named, a calendar had been formed,
and the eclipses of the sun and moon had been noted and recorded.']
[65] [Robert Brown, Jun, Researches into the Origin of the Constellations of the Greeks, Phoenicians, and Babylonians, vol. 1, p. 19. 'Although Egypt may have obtained her god-system or a very important portion of it from the Euphrates Valley, she was not indebted to any foreign region for her original scheme of constellations, which are entirely or almost entirely distinct from those of Babylonia, Phoenicia, Kanaan and Greece.']
[67] [Phaenomena, p. 412. 'High runs the path of
Arcturus, but sooner passes the Altar to the western sea. But that Altar even
beyond aught else hath
ancient Night, weeping the woe of men, set to be a mighty sign of storm at sea.'
G. R. Mair's tr.]
[68] [Astronomicon, bk. 1,
lines 420-1: 'mundo templum est, victrixque solutis
Ara nitet sacris.']
[69] [Sayce, 'Babylonian Story of
Creation,'
RPNS,
1, 149.
See also Sayce, 'Ancient
Babylonian Legend of the Creation,' RP, 11,
109.]
[72] [Sayce, 'Magical Texts,' HL,
p. 199. 'They were the demons "who had been created in the lower part of
heaven," and who warred against the Moon-god when he suffered eclipse. They were
likened to all that was most noxious to man. The first, we are told, was "the
sword (or lightning) of rain;" the second, "a vampire" the third, "a leopard;"
the fourth, "a serpent;" the fifth, "a watch-dog" (?); the sixth, "a violent
tempest which (blows) against god and king;" and the seventh, "a baleful
wind."'
Also p. 463. See note below.]
[73] [Ibid., pp. 463-69. See texts here.]
[74] [Talbot, 'War of the Seven Evil
Spirits,' RP,
5, 161.
Sayce, 'Accadian Poem
on Spirits,' 9, 143.]
[75] [Drummond, Œdipus Judaicus, pl. 2.]
[76] [Bel and The Dragon.]
[77] [See above note.]
[78] [Schiaparelli, Astronomy in the Old Testament,
p. 22. 'The earth's disk. Limits of the regions known to the Jews. The earth's
foundations. The abyss and Sheol. The firmament. The upper and lower waters.
Theory of subterranean waters and of springs, of rain, snow, and hail: the
clouds. General idea of Hebrew cosmography.
About the form and general arrangement of the visible world the Jews had
much the same ideas as we find originally in all peoples, ideas which have
satisfied at every time the greater part of men even among nations with a
pretence to culture: in fact, the cosmography of appearances.']
[80] [WAI, 2. 16, 37-71.
'In the first year there made its appearance, from a part of the Erythraean sea which bordered upon Babylonia, an animal endowed with
reason, who was called Oannes. (According to the account of Apollodorus) the
whole body of the animal was like that of a fish; and had under a fish's head
another head, and also feet below, similar to those of a man, subjoined to the
fish's tail. His voice, too, and language was articulate and human; and a
representation of him is preserved even to this day.
This Being, in the day-time, used to converse with men; but took no food at that
season; and he gave them an insight into letters, and sciences, and every kind
of art. He taught them to construct houses, to found temples, to compile laws,
and explained to them the principles of geometrical knowledge. He made them
distinguish the seeds of the earth, and showed them how to collect fruits. In
short, he instructed them in everything, which could tend to soften manners and
humanise mankind. From that time, so universal were his instructions, nothing
material has been added by way of improvement. When the sun set it was the
custom of the Being to plunge again into the sea, and abide all night in the
deep, for he was amphibious.' From Alexander Polyhistor, preserved by Syncellus
in his Chronology, and Eusebius in his Chronicon, from Cory's
Ancient Fragments, p. 57.
See also NG 2:390.]
[81] [Sayce, HL, p. 281. 'here was yet another animal with which the name of Ea had been associated. This was the serpent. The Euphrates in its southern course bore names in the early inscriptions which distinctly connect the serpent with Ea on the one hand, and the goddess Innina on the other. It was not only called "the river of the great deep" a term which implied that it was a prolongation of the Persian Gulf and the encircling ocean; it was further named the river of the sulur Ulli, "the shepherd's hut of the lillu" or "spirit," "the river of Innina," "the river of the snake," and "the river of the girdle of the great god." In-nina is but another form of Innana or Nana, and we may see in her at once the Istar of Eridu and the female correlative of Anuna. Among the chief deities reverenced by the rulers of Tel-loh was one whose name is expressed by the ideographs of "fish" and "enclosure," which served in later days to denote the name of Nina or Nineveh.']
[82] [Bunsen, Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. 2. p. 77. 'The King AN, however, was found by Lepsius among the old monumental names on a tomb of the field of Pyramids of Gizeh. The change in the position of the fish, here placed at the top of the scutcheon, was merely calligraphic.']
[83] [Sayce,
HL, p. 67-8. 'Sallimmanu, "the god of peace," was a god honoured
particularly in Assyria, where the name of more than one famous king (Shalman-eser)
was compounded with it. As the name of Nineveh was ideographically expressed by
a fish within a basin of water,* while the name itself was connected in popular
etymology with the Assyrian nunu, "a fish," it is possible that the cult
of Sallimman or Solomon in Assyria was due to the fact that he was a fish-god,
perhaps Ea himself.
* The ideograph also represented the name of the goddess Nina a word which means
"the Lady" in Sumerian who was the daughter of Ea the god of Eridu (W. A. I.
iv. 1, 38). There was a city or sanctuary in Babylonia of the same name (K 4629,
Rev. 8), which explains the statement of Ktesias that Nineveh stood on the
Euphrates (ap. Diod. ii. 3).']
[84] [Chabas, 'Magic Papyrus,' RP, 10, 135. See p. 149. ]
[85] [See above note.]
[86] [Omoroca is translated as Thalatth in the Chaldee and Thalassa in Greek, not Tiavath or Thavath. Cory believes Omoroca is a corruption of the Aramaic word AMQUIA, i.e., the deep, or ocean, and that the translation in Chaldee or Greek is 'tha', i.e., the, plus the Greek for salt, hence, the sea. See Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 59, and notes. See note 94 below.]
[88] [Chabas, 'Magic Papyrus,' RP, 10, 135. See p. 148.]
[89] [See above note.]
[90] [Moures, Egyptian Calendar of Astronomical Observations.]
[91] [The Phainomena of Aratus,
line 397-9. 'One large and bright by both the Pourer's feet,
The other 'neath the dusky Monster's tail,
And all are called the Water.' Brown's tr.]
[92] [Book of Enoch, 58, 10. 'Then I asked of another angel to show me the power of those monsters, how they became separated, how they became separated on the same day, one being in the depths of the sea, and one in the dry desert.']
[93] [Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 58. 'There was a time in which there was nothing but darkness and an abyss of waters, wherein resided most hideous beings, which were produced of a twofold principle.']
[94] [Ibid., p. 59. 'The person who was supposed to have presided over them, was a woman named Omoroca; which in the Chaldee language is Thalath; which in Greek is interpreted Thalassa, the sea.' See note 86 above.]
[95] [Ibid., p. 59. 'All things being in this situation, Belus came,
and cut the woman asunder; and, out of one half of her he formed the earth, and
of the other half the heavens, and at the same time he destroyed the animals in
the abyss. The deity (Belus) above-mentioned, cut off his own head; upon which
the other gods mixed the blood, as it gushed out, with the earth; and from
thence men were formed.'
See also NG 1:514.]
[96] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 34.]
[97] [Sayce, HL, p. 377. 'A mythological tablet, it will be remembered, states that "the heaven was created from the waters," before that "the god and goddess," or Ansar and Kisar, "created the earth," in exact agreement with the account in Genesis. Here, too, the firmament of the heaven is created out of the waters of the deep on the second day, dividing "the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament," while the earth does not emerge above the surface of the deep until the third day.']
[98] [As above note.]
[99] [Pinches, 'The Non-Semitic
Version of the Creation Story,' RPNS, 6,
107.
Sayce, 'Assyrian Story of Creation,' RPNS, 1,
122 &
147.]
[100]
[HL, p. 377. 'If Bahu, therefore, was ever identified with the deep
in the mind of the southern Babylonian, it must have been when the deep had
ceased to be the watery abyss of chaos and had become the home of the creator
Ea, deriving its waters from the heavens above.
But it is more probable that the identification was due to a total misconception
of the true character of Bahu. In the Phoenician mythology as in Genesis, Bohu
is simply "chaos," but it is the chaos which existed on earth, not within the
waters of the abyss. It represents that pre-human age which, according to the
legend of Cutha, witnessed the creation of the monsters of Tiamat. These
monsters had their home, their "city," in "the ground;" there was therefore
already an earth by the side of the deep. But this earth was the abode of chaos,
of Bahu, and had originated, like the sky, out of the waters of the abyss. There
were thus two representatives of chaos, the primaeval Apzu, the Tiamat of the
Semitic epoch, and the secondary Bahu who presided over the chaos of the earth.']
[101] [Source.
See also Rawlinson's commentary on Herodotus, vol. 2, pp. 449-50. 'Derceto or
Dercetus was the same as Atergatis or Atargatis, the a being omitted in
the "Greek name Derceto," as Pliny calls it (v. 23); and Derceto is said by
Lucian and Diodorus to be a woman in the upper part, who from the thighs
downwards terminated in a fish's tail. This cetaceous monster was the "fabulosa
Ceto," said by Pliny (v. 14) to be worshipped at Joppa. According to Athenaius (Deipn.
viii. p. 84e) Atergatis was suffocated in a lake near Askalon with her son
Ichthys, by king Mopsus, and devoured by fish; and he relates another reason for
fish of gold and silver being dedicated to the Deity (viii. p. 346d). Jonah
signifies a "dove," and the connexion with the "fish" and Joppa is remarkable.
Atargatis was the same as Athara (Strabo, vi. p. 540). She was worshipped at
Hierapolis, Bambyce (near Aleppo) or "Magog of the Syrians" (Plin. V. 2; Strabo,
xvi. p. 515), and was called a Syrian or Assyrian Goddess. It is not impossible
that the name was derived from Athara; and the island of Cythera was called
after the Venus of the Phoenicians who colonised it. The resemblance of Athar or
Athra, "fire" (in the Zend), to the beginning of her name, recalls the
Babylonian Adar, "fire," but it is not necessarily connected with Atargatis, nor
with Athor, the Venus of Egypt; and Athor claims hers as a native appellation,
being Ei-t-hor, "the abode of Horus," which shows her to be closely allied to
Isis. But still Athor may have been originally a foreign deity transferred to
Egypt, and the name Athara may easily have been made to accord with an Egyptian
one of similar sound; which, being thought to connect her with Isis, obtained
for her the emblems of the mother of Horus.']
[102] [Berosus, in Cory's Ancient Fragments, pp.
51-70.
See also Sayce, HL, pp. 368-71. 'First of all, however, let us read the
account given by Berossos of the creation of the world, and professed by him to
be derived from the writings of Oannes, that semi-piscine being who rose out of
the waters of the Persian Gulf to instruct the people of Chaldaea in the arts
and sciences of life. It is pretty certain that Berossos had access to documents
which purported to come from the hand of Oannes or Ea, and consequently to deal
with events which preceded the appearance of man on the earth. The Chaldean
system of astronomy which Berossos translated into Greek was likewise asserted
by him to have been composed by a god, namely Bel; and the fragments of the
original work which we now possess show that his assertion was correct, inasmuch
as the work bears the title of the Observations of Bel. The inscriptions,
moreover, expressly inform us that Ea was not only the god of wisdom, but
himself an author. We learn from a tablet, "with warnings to kings against
injustice," that if the king "decrees according to the writing of Ea, the great
gods will establish him in good report and the knowledge of justice." There is,
there fore, no reason to doubt the statement of Berossos that the account of
the creation which he gives was extracted from a document that professed to have
been inscribed by the god of Eridu himself.
"The following is the purport of what he said: There was a time in which there
existed nothing but darkness and an abyss of waters, wherein resided most
hideous beings, which were produced by a two fold principle. There appeared men,
some of whom were furnished with two wings, others with four, and with two
faces. They had one body, but two heads; the one that of a man, the other of a
woman; they were likewise in their several organs both male and female. Other
human figures were to be seen with the legs and horns of a goat; some had horses
feet, while others united the hind-quarters of a horse with the body of a man,
resembling in shape the hippocentaurs. Bulls like wise were bred there with the
heads of men; and dogs with four-fold bodies, terminated in their extremities
with the tails of fishes; horses also with the heads of dogs; men, too, and
other animals, with the heads and bodies of horses and the tails of fishes. In
short, there were creatures in which were combined the limbs of every species of
animal. In addition to these, there were fishes, reptiles, serpents, with other
monstrous animals, which assumed each other's shape and countenance.
Of all which were preserved delineations in the temple of Belos at Babylon.
The person who was supposed to have presided over them was a woman named Omoroka,
which in the Chaldaean language is Thalatth (read Thavatth), which in Greek is
interpreted Thalassa (the sea); but according to the most true interpretation it
is equivalent to the Moon. All things being in this situation, Belos came and
cut the woman asunder, and of one half of her he formed the earth, and of the
other half the heavens, and at the same time destroyed the animals within her
(in the abyss).
All this was an allegorical description of nature. For, the whole universe
consisting of moisture, and animals being continually generated therein, the
deity above-mentioned (Belos) cut off his own head; upon which the other gods
mixed the blood, as it gushed out, with the earth, and from thence men were
formed. On this account it is that they are rational, and partake of divine
knowledge. This Belos, by whom they signify Zeus, divided the darkness, and
separated the heavens from the earth, and reduced the universe to order. But the
recently-created animals, not being able to bear the light, died. Belos upon
this, seeing a vast space unoccupied, though by nature fruitful, commanded one
of the gods to take off his head, and to mix the blood with the earth, and from
thence to form other men and animals, which should be capable of bearing the
light. Belos formed also the stars and the sun and the moon and the five
planets."
The account of the cosmological theories of the Babylonians thus given by
Berossos has not come to us immediately from his hand. It was first copied from
his book by Alexander Polyhistor, a native of Asia Minor, who was a slave at
Rome for a short period in the time of Sulla; and from Polyhistor it has been
embodied in the works of the Christian writers Eusebios and George the Synkellos.
It is not quite certain, therefore, whether the whole of the quotation was
originally written by Berossos himself. At all events, it evidently includes two
inconsistent accounts of the creation of the world, which have been awkwardly
fitted on to one another. In one of them, the composite creatures who filled the
watery chaos, over which Thavatth, the Tiamat or Tiavat of the inscriptions,
presided, were represented as being destroyed by Bel when he cut Thavatth
asunder, forming the heavens out of one portion of her body, and the earth out
of the other. In the second version, the monsters of chaos perished through the
creation of light, and their places were taken by the animals and men produced
by the mixture of the earth with the blood of Eel. What this blood meant may be
gathered from the Phoenician myth which told how the blood of the sky, mutilated
by his son Kronos or Baal, fell upon the earth in drops of rain and filled the
springs and rivers. It was, in fact, the fertilising rain.
Both versions of the genesis of the universe reported by Berossos agree not only
in the representation of a chaos that existed before the present order of
things, but also in the curious statement that this chaos was peopled with
strange creatures, imperfect first attempts of nature, as it were, to form the
animal creation of the present world. In these chaotic beginnings of animal life
we may see a sort of anticipation of the Darwinian hypothesis. At any rate, the
Babylonian theory on the subject must have been the source of the similar theory
propounded by the Ionic philosopher Anaximander in the sixth century before our
era. The philosophical systems of the early Greek thinkers of Asia Minor came to
them from Babylonia through the hands of the Phoenicians, and it is consequently
no more astonishing to find Anaximander declaring that men had developed out of
the fish of the sea, than to find his predecessor Thales agreeing with the
priests of Babylonia in holding that all things have originated from a watery
abyss.
The fact that Anaximander already knew of the Babylonian doctrine shows that it
could not have been suggested to Berossos himself, as we might be tempted to
think, by the colossal bulls that guarded the gates, and the curious monsters
depicted on the walls, of the temple of Bel. And we are now able to carry the
belief back to a period very much earlier than that of Anaximander.']
[103] [Sayce,
HL, p. 99. '"(Thou art) the king of the land, the lord of the world!
O first-born of Ea, omnipotent over heaven and earth.
mighty lord of mankind, king of (all) lands,
(Thou art) the god of gods,
(The prince) of heaven and earth who hath no rival,
The companion of Anu and Bel (Mul-lil),
The merciful one among the gods,
The merciful one who loves to raise the dead to life,
Merodach, king of heaven and earth,
King of Babylon, lord of A-sagila,
King of E-Zida, king of E-makh-tilla (the supreme house of life),
Heaven and earth are thine!
The circuit of heaven and earth is thine,
The incantation that gives life is thine,
The breath that gives life is thine,
The holy writing of the mouth of the deep is thine:
Mankind, even the black-headed race (of Accad),
All living souls that have received a name, that exist in the world,
The four quarters of the earth wheresoever they are,
All the angel-hosts of heaven and earth
(Regard) thee and (lend to thee) an ear."']
[104] [Oliver, An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Collegiate Church of Wolverhampton, in the County of Stafford, p. 109.]
[105] [Whitley Stokes, Three Middle Irish Homilies. '"He sained three hundred victorious crosses, Three hundred wellsprings that were swift, An hundred booksatchels, With an hundred croziers, with an hundred wallets."']
[107] [Longstaffe, Richmondshire, its Ancient Lords & Edifices, p. 96.]
[109] [Cook, 'Hymn to the Nile,' RP, 4, 105.]
[110] [Should be 'Hymn 13'. See above note.]
[111] [Cook, 'Hymn to the Nile,' RP, 4, 105. Hymn 13. ]
[112] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 1.
21. 'To signify the rising of the Nile, which they call in the
Egyptian language NOUN, and which, when interpreted, signifies New, they
sometimes pourtray a LION, and sometimes THREE LARGE WATERPOTS, and at other
times HEAVEN AND EARTH GUSHING FORTH WITH WATER. And they depict a LION, because
when the sun is in Leo it augments the rising of the Nile, so that oftentimes
while the sun remains in that sign of the zodiac, half of the new water [Noun,
the entire inundation?] is supplied; and hence it is, that those who anciently
presided over the sacred works, have made the spouts [?] and passages of the
sacred fountains in the form of lions. Wherefore, even to this day in prayer for
an abundant inundation .... And they depict THREE WATERPOTS, or
HEAVEN AND EARTH GUSHING FORTH WITH WATER, because they make a waterpot like a
heart having a tongue,—like a heart, because in their opinion the heart is the
ruling member of the body, as the Nile is the ruler of Egypt, and like [a heart
with?] a tongue, because it is always in a state of humidity, and they call it
the producer of existence. And they depict three waterpots, and neither more nor
less, because according to them there is a triple cause of the inundation. And
they depict one for the Egyptian soil, as being of itself productive of water;
and another for the ocean, for at the period of the inundation, water flows up
from it into Egypt; and the third to symbolise the rains which prevail in the
southern parts of Ethiopia at the time of the rising of the Nile. Now that Egypt
generates the water, we may deduce from this, that in the rest of the earth the
inundations of the rivers take place in the winter, and are caused by frequent
rains; but the country of the Egyptians alone, inasmuch as it is situated in the
middle of the habitable world, like that part of the eye, which is called the
pupil, of itself causes the rising of the Nile in summer.'
See also BB
1:32 for other refs to this chapter.]
[113] [Source.]
[114] [Source.]
[115] [Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 632. Massey errs here as I can find no reference to the Orantja he mentions throughout the entire text of this work, nor to the Apapa.]
[116] [Wilkinson.]
[118] [Theal, Kaffir Folkore, p. 163.
'There was once a woman who had occasion to leave her home for a short
time, and who left her children in charge of a hare. The place where they lived
was close to a path, along which droves of wild animals were accustomed to pass.
Soon after the woman left, the animals appeared, and the hare at sight of them
became frightened. So she ran away to a distance, and stood to watch. Among the
animals was one terrible monster, which called to the hare, and demanded to know
what children those were. The hare told their names, upon which the animal
swallowed them entire.
When the woman returned, the hare told her what had happened. Then the woman
gathered some dry wood, and sharpened two pieces of iron, which she took with
her and went along the path.
Now this was the chief of the animals; therefore, when she came on a hill over
against him, the woman began to call out that she was looking for her children.
The animal replied: "Come nearer, I cannot hear you."
When she went, he swallowed her also. The woman found her children alive, and
also many other people, and oxen, and dogs. The children were hungry, so the
woman with her pieces of iron cut some pieces of flesh from the animal's ribs.
She then made a fire and cooked the meat, and the children ate.
The other people said: "We also are hungry, give us to eat."
Then she cut and cooked for them also.
The animal felt uncomfortable under this treatment, and called his councillors
together for advice, but they could suggest no remedy. He lay down and rolled in
the mud, but that did not help him, and at last he went and put his head in the
kraal fence, and died.
His councillors were standing at a distance, afraid to approach him, so they
sent a monkey to see how he was. The monkey returned and said: "Those whose home
is on the mountains must hasten to the mountains; those whose home is on the
plains must hasten to the plains; as for me, I go to the rocks."
Then the animals all dispersed.
By this time the woman had succeeded in cutting a hole through the chief's side,
and came forth, followed by her children.
Then an ox came out, and said "Bo! bo! who helped me?"
Then a dogy who said: "Ho! ho! who helped me?
Then a man, who said: "Zo! zo! who helped me?"
Afterwards all the people and cattle came out. They agreed that the woman who
helped them should be their chief.
When her children became men, they were out hunting one day, and saw a monstrous
cannibal, who was sticking fast in a mud hole. They killed him, and then
returned to tell the men of their tribe what they had done. The men went and
skinned the cannibal, when a great number of people came out of him also. These
joined their deliverers, and so that people became a great nation.']
[119] [Ibid., p. 79. 'There
was once in a certain village an old man who was very poor. He had no children,
and only a few cattle. One day, when the sky was clear and the sun was bright,
he sat down by the cattle-fold. While he was sitting there, he noticed some
birds close by which were singing very joyfully. He listened for a while, and
then he stood up to observe them better, They were very beautiful to look upon,
and they sang differently from other birds. They had all long tails and topknots
on their heads. Then the old man went to the chief and told him what he had
seen.
The chief said: "How many were they?
The old man replied: "There were seven."
The chief said: "You have acted wisely in coming to tell me; you shall have
seven of the fattest of my cows. I have lost seven sons in battle, and these
beautiful birds shall be in the place of my seven sons. You must not sleep
to-night, you must watch them, and to-morrow I will choose seven boys to catch
them. Do not let them out of your sight by any means."
In the morning the chief ordered all the boys of the village to be assembled at
the cattle-fold, when he spoke to them of the birds. He said "I will choose six
of you, and set my son who is dumb, over you, that will make seven in all. You
must catch those birds. Wherever they go, you must follow, and you must not see
my face again without them." He gave them weapons, and instructed them that if
any one opposed them they were to fight till the last of them died.
The boys set off to follow those beautiful birds. They chased them for several
days, till at last the birds were exhausted, when each of the boys caught one.
At the place where they caught the birds they remained that night.
On the morning of the next day they set out on their return home. That evening,
they came to a hut in which they saw a fire burning, but no one was there. They
went in, and lay down to sleep. In the middle of the night one of those boys was
awake. He heard some one saying: "There is nice meat here. I will begin with
this one, and take this one next, and that one after, and the one with small
feet the last." The one with the small feet was the son of the chief. His name
was Sikulume, for he had never been able to speak till he caught the bird. Then
he began to talk at once.
After saying those words the voice was still. Then the boy awakened his
companions, and told them what he had heard.
They said: "You have been dreaming; there is no one here how can such a thing
be?"
He replied: "I did not dream; I spoke the truth."
Then they made a plan that one should remain awake, and if anything happened, he
should pinch the one next him, and that one should pinch the next, till all were
awake.
After a while the boy who was listening heard some one come in quietly. That was
a cannibal. He said the same words again, and then went out for the purpose of
calling his friends to come to the feast. The boy awakened his companions
according to the plan agreed upon, so that they all heard what was said.
Therefore, as soon as the cannibal went out, they arose and fled from that
place. The cannibal came back with his friends, and when the others saw there
was no one in the hut, they killed and ate him.
As they were going on, Sikulume saw that he had left his bird behind. He stood,
and said: "I must return for my bird, my beautiful bird with the long tail and
topknot on its head. My father commanded that I must not see his face, again
unless I bring the bird."
The boys said: "Take one of ours. Why should you go where cannibals are?"
He replied: "I must have the one that is my own."
He stuck his assagai in the ground, and told them to look at it. He said:
"If it stands still, you will know I am safe; if it shakes, you will know I am
running; if it falls down, you will know I am dead." Then he left them to return
to the hut of the cannibals.
On the way he saw an old woman sitting by a big stone. She said: "Where are you
going to?" He told her he was going for his bird. The old woman gave him some
fat, and said: "If the cannibals pursue you, put some of this on a stone."
He came to the hut and got his bird. The cannibals were sitting outside, a
little way back. They had just finished eating the owner of the hut. When
Sikulume came out with his bird they saw him and ran after him. They were close
to him, when he took some of the fat and threw it on a stone. The cannibals came
to the stone, and began to fight with each other.
One said: "The stone is mine."
Another said: "It is mine."
One of them swallowed the stone. When the others saw that, they killed him and
ate him. Then they pursued again after Sikulume. They came close to him again,
when he threw the remainder of the fat on another stone. The cannibals fought
for this also. One swallowed it, and was killed by the others.
They followed still, and Sikulume was almost in their hands, when he threw off
his mantle. The mantle commenced to run another way, and the cannibals ran after
it. It was so long before they caught it that the young chief had time to reach
his companions.
They all went on their way, but very soon they saw the cannibals coming after
them. Then they observed a little man sitting by a big stone.
He said to them: "I can turn this stone into a hut."
They replied: "Do so."
He turned the stone into a hut, and they all went inside, the little man with
them. They played the "iceya" there. The cannibals came to the place and
smelt. They thought the hut was still a stone, for it looked like a stone to
them. They began to bite it, and bit till all their teeth were broken, when they
returned to their own village.
After this, the boys and the little man came out.
The boys went on. When they reached their own home they saw no people, till at
length an old woman crept out of a heap of ashes. She was very much frightened,
and said to them: "I thought there were no people left."
Sikulume said: "Where is my father?"
She replied: "All the people have been swallowed by the inabulele" (a
fabulous monster).
He said: "Where did it go to?"
The old woman replied: "It went to the river."
So those boys went to the river, and Sikulume said to them: "I will go into the
water, and take an assagai with me. If the water moves much, you will
know I am in the stomach of the inabulele; if the water is red, you will
know I have killed it." Then he threw himself into the water and went down.
The inabulele swallowed him without tearing him or hurting him. He saw
his father and his mother and many people and cattle. Then he took his
assagai and pierced the inabulele from inside. The water moved till
the inabulele was dead, then it became red. When the young men saw that,
they cut a big hole in the side of the inabulele, and all the people and
the cattle were delivered.
One day Sikulume said to another boy I am going, to the doctor's; tell my sister
to cook food for me, nice food that I may eat." This was done.
He said to his sister: "Bring me of the skin of the inabulele which I
killed, to make a mantle." She called her companions, and they went to the side
of the river. She sang this song:
"Inabulele,
Inabulele,
I am sent for you
By Sikulume,
Inabulele."
The body of the inabulele then came out. She cut two little
pieces of the skin for sandals, and a large piece to make a mantle for her
brother.
When he was a young man, Sikulume said to his friends: "I am going to marry the
daughter of Mangangezulu."
They replied: "You must not go there, for at Mangangezulu's you will be killed."
He said: "I will go."
Then he called those young men who were his chosen friends to accompany him. On
the way they came to a place where the grass was long. A mouse came out of the
grass, and asked Sikulume where he was going to.
He replied: "I am going to the place of Mangangezulu."
The mouse sang this song:
"Turn back, turn back, Sikulume.
No one ever leaves the place of Mangangezulu.
Turn back, turn back, O chief."
Sikulume replied: "I shall not turn back."
The mouse then said: "As it is so, you must kill me and throw my skin up in the
air."
He did so.
The skin said: "You must not enter by the front of the village; you must not eat
off a new mat; you must not sleep in a hut which has nothing in it."
They arrived at the village of Manggangezulu. They entered it from the wrong
side, so that all the people said: "Why is this?"
They replied: "It is our custom."
Food was brought to them on a new mat, but they said It is our custom to eat off
old mats only."
An empty hut was given to them to sleep in, but they said: "It is our custom
only to sleep in a hut that has things in it."
The next day the chief said to Sikulume and his companions: "You must go and
tend the cattle."
They went. A storm of rain fell, when Sikulume spread out his mantle and it
became a hut as hard as stone, into which they all went. In the evening they
returned with the cattle. The daughter of Mangangezulu came to them. Her mother
pressed her foot in the footprint of Sikulume, and he became an eland.
The girl loved the young chief very much. When she saw he was turned into an
eland, she made a great fire and drove him into it. Then he was burned, and
became a little coal. She took the coal out and put it in a pot of water, when
it became a young man again.
Afterwards they left that place. The girl took with her an egg, a milksack, a
pot, and a smooth stone. The father of the girl pursued them.
The girl threw down the egg, and it became mist. Her father wandered about in
the mist a long time, till at length it cleared away. Then he pursued again.
She threw down the milksack, and it became a sheet of water. Her father tried to
get rid of the water by dipping it up with a calabash, but he could not succeed,
so he was compelled to wait till it dried up. He followed still.
The girl threw down the pot, and it became thick darkness. He waited a long time
till light came again, when he followed them. He could travel very quickly.
He came close to them, and then the girl threw down the smooth stone. It became
a rock, a big rock with one side steep like a wall. He could not climb up that
rock, and so he returned to his own village.
Then Sikulume went home with his wife. He said to the people: "This is the
daughter of Mangangezulu. You advised me not to go there, lest I should be
killed. Here is my wife."
After that he became a great chief. All the people said: "There is no chief that
can do such things as Sikulume."']
[121] [Planisphere of Denderah.]
[122] [From Lockyer—see p. 151. See Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, vol. 2, p. 313, Maspero, Dawn of Civilisation, p. 92.]
[123] [Epic of Gilgamesh.]
[124] [Dawn of Civilization, p. 90. 'In Upper Egypt there is a widespread belief in the existence of a monstrous serpent, who dwells at the bottom of the river, and is the genius of the Nile. It is he who brings about those falls of earth (hatahit) at the decline of the inundation which often destroy the banks and eat whole fields. At such times, offerings of dura, fowls, and dates are made to him, that his hunger may be appeased, and it is not only natives who give themselves up to these superstitious practices. Part of the grounds belonging to the Karnak hotel at Luxor having been carried away during the autumn of 1884, the manager, a Greek, made the customary offerings to the serpent of the Nile (Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie el d'Archeologie l'Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 412, 413).']
[125] [Brugsch, Egypt Under the Pharaohs, (single vol. ed.), p. 210. 'They shall become like the hellish snake Apophis on the morning of the new year; they shall be overwhelmed in the great flood.']
[126] [Cited by Maspero, from Birch (Inscriptions, pl. xxix) and Chabas (Sur une stele hieratique, in Melanges, 2nd series, p. 334), in The Dawn of Civilization, p. 159. 'Pierced with wounds, Apophi the serpent sank into the depths of the Ocean at the very moment when the new year began.']
[128] [Phainomena, line 449. 'Another constellation trails beyond which men call the Hydra. Like a living creature it winds afar its coiling form. Its head comes beneath the middle of the Crab, its coil beneath the body of the Lion, and its tail hangs above the Centaur himself. Midway on its coiling form is set the Crater, and at the tip the figure of a Raven that seems to peck at the coil.' G. R. Mair's tr.]
[129] [Matt. 11:28. 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.']
[132] [Hesiod, Theogony, 120. 'Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them.' Tr., White.]
[133] [Lockyer, Dawn of Astronomy, p.
224. 'This star, although so little familiar to us northerners, is one of the
most conspicuous of the stars in the southern portion of the heavens, and its
heliacal rising heralded the solstice and the rise of the Nile before the
heliacal rising of Sir his was useful for that purpose!
In Phact we have the star symbolised by the ancient Egyptians under the name of
the goddess Amen-t or Teχi, whose figure in
the month table at the Ramesseum leads the procession of the months.']
[134] [NG.]
[136] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 1. 21. See note 112 above.]
[137] [Moures, Old Egyptian Calendar of Astronomical Observations, p. 19.]
[138] [Phainomena, lines 130-140. 'Above both her shoulders at her right wing wheels a star, whereof the name is the Vintager of such size and with such brightness set, as the star that shines beneath the tail of the Great Bear. For dread is the Bear and dread stars are near her.' G. R. Mair's tr.]
[139] [Plates in l'Origine de Tous les Cultes, no. 10. See also Eng. tr. of this important work here.]
[143] [Birch, 'Egyptian Magical Text,' RP, 6, 113.]
[144] [Talbot, 'Legend of the Descent of Ishtar,' RP, 1, 141.]
[145] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 52.]
[146] [Lane, An Account of
the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians,
vol. 2, p. 254. 'The night of the 17th of June,
which corresponds with the 11th of the Coptic month of Ba-ooneh, is called "Leylet
en-Nuktah" (or the Night of the Drop); as it is believed that a miraculous drop
then falls into the Nile, and causes it to rise. Astrologers calculate the
precise moment when the "drop" is to fall; which is always in the course of the
night above mentioned.' (Or p. 453 of single ed,)
See also Maspero, Dawn of Civilisation, p. 21, note 2. 'The legend
of the tears of Isis is certainly a very ancient one. During the embalmment, and
then throughout all the funerary rites of Osiris, Isis and Nephthys had been the
wailing women, and their tears had helped to bring back the god to life. Now,
Osiris was a Nile god. "The night of the great flood of tears issuing from the
Great Goddess" is an expression found in Pyramid texts (Unas, line 395), and is
in all probability a reference to the Night of the Drop (Le Page Renouf, Nile
Mythology, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology,
vol. xiii. p. 9). Our earliest authentic form of the tradition comes to us
through Pausanias ... The date of the phenomenon is fixed for us by the
modern tradition which places which places the Night of the Drop in
June.']
[147] [Description of Greece, vol. 1, bk. 10. 'At that time the Nile begins to rise, and it is a common saying among the natives that it is the tears of Isis that cause the river to rise and water the fields.' Frazer's tr.]
[149] ['Festival Calendars of Esné and Edfû,'
in Lockyer, Dawn of Astronomers, p. 284. 'But here, as in the other
temples, we get double dates referring to the old calendars, and we find the
"wounding of Set" referred to on the 1st Epiphi and the rising of Sirius
referred to under 1 Mesori. Now this means, if the old vague year is referred
to, as it most probably is, that—
5 Epacts
30 Mesori
35 x 4 = 140 years
had elapsed since the beginning of a Sothic cycle, when the calendar
coincidences were determined, which were afterwards inscribed on the temple
walls. We have, then, 14:0 years to subtract from the beginning of the cycle in
270 b.c. This gives us 130 b.c, and it will be seen that this agrees as closely
as can be expected with my view, whereas the inscription has no meaning at all
if we take the date given by Censorinus.']
[151] [Birch, 'Dream of Thothmes IV,' in RP, 12, 43. Or Mallet, 'Stele of Thotmes IV,' RPNS, 2, 45.]
[153] [Stobaeus,
Eclogarum physicarum et ethicarum, p.
992, from a fragment of Hermes.
See also BB 1: 2.]
[154] [Maspero, Dawn of Civilization, p. 71. 'The principality of the Terebinth occupied the very heart of Egypt, where the valley is widest, and the course of the Nile most advantageously disposed by nature—a country well suited to be the cradle of an infant civilization.']
[155] [Maspero, Les Inscriptions des Pyramides de Saqqarah.]
[157] [Budge, The Mummy, p. 8. 'The number usually given in Egyptian lists is forty-two: twenty-two in Upper Egypt, and twenty in Lower Egypt. Heptanomis, or Middle Egypt, appears to have been the district between the Thebaid and the Delta; its seven nomes are said to have been Memphites, Heracleopolites, Crocodilopolites, Aphroditopolites, Oxyrhynchites, Cynopolites, Hermopolites. The Greater and Lesser Oases were considered to be parts of Heptanomis.']
[158] [Horapollo, Hieroglyphica, bk. 2. 20. 'A RIVER HORSE when delineated, denotes an hour.']
[159] [Cook, 'Hymn to the Nile,' RP, 4, 105.]
[160] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 12.]
[161] [Maspero, Dawn of Civilisation, p. 97.]
[162] [Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 150. 'Here again the concentric circles (a) represent frogs, the semi-circles (b) represent women sitting down opposite to each other, while the dots between them (c) are the holes which they make in scratching the frogs out of the sand. The three dotted lines at the end (d) bored through represent the vulva.']
[164] [Rit. chs. 7, 74, and 98.]
[165] [Maspero, Les Inscriptions des Pyramides de Saqqarah, Pepi I, line 411.]
[168] [Lockyer, The Dawn of Astronomy, p. 151.]
[169] [Prose Edda ch. 4, 6. 'Then said Ganglere: Where did Ymer dwell, and on what did he live? Answered Har: The next thing was that when the rime melted into drops, there was made thereof a cow, which hight Audhumbla. Four milk-streams ran from her teats, and she fed Ymer.']
[172] [Turner, Samoa, p. 12. 'Lu had a wife called Gaogao o le tai, expanse of sea. She had a son who was also called Lu, and when he grew up the vessel was given to him. When she next brought forth it was a lot of all kinds of shell-fish. Lu said to his mother, "What is the use of having all these things lying there bare in the sun?" "Leave it with me to make a lake for them," was her reply; and then she told him to go and get his vessel in order, and be ready to get into it when the sea was made.']
[173] [Reclus, Primitive Folklore, p. 61. 'Thus the Arabs and Bedouins prefer the urine of camels. The Banians of the Momba wash their faces with cows' urine, because, say they, the cow is their mother. This is employed also by the Silesian women as a preventative of freckles. The Chewsures of the Caucasus find it good for preserving the health and for making the hair grow luxuriantly. For this purpose they carefully collect the liquid manure of the cattle-sheds, but the liquid still impregnated with the vital warmth is accounted the most effective.']
[175] [Brown, Phainomena of Aratus, intro., p. 5. 'The Kneeler. This constellation was evidently the subject of much curiosity; all tradition respecting this personage represented had been lost.']
[176] [Brown, ibid., lines 66-70.
'Kneeler, they call him. Labouring on his knees,
Like one who sinks he seems, from both his shoulders,
His arms are raised; each stretching on its side
About a full arm's length.' ]
[178] [Shu the Kneeler, from Maspero's Dawn of Civilisation, p. 127.]
[179] [The Library of History, bk. 1.]
[180] [Rit. ch.
13.
The Cippi of
Horus illustration is best viewed from Maspero, op. cit., p.
215, and Lockyer, op. cit.,
pp. 152,
153.]
[181] [Plutarch, Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 50.]
[182] [Dawn of Civilization, p. 97.]
[184] [Higgins,
The Names of the
Stars and Constellations, p. 27. 'XVI. Perseus = The Hero with
Medusa's Head. Lover of Andromeda.
The Indian name was Parasiea = Perseus.
Name on charts. Arabic. Meaning.
Alpha, mirfak, mirfak.. The elbow.
(mirzac ) (or marfik)
Beta, algol, al ghul, The ghoul, or monster.']
[187] [Chabas, 'Hymn to Osiris,' RP, 4, 97. See p. 100.]
[190] [Epic of Gilgamesh.]
[191] [Apollodorus' Library, bk. 2, v. 2. 'A huge crab also came to the help of the hydra by biting his foot. So he killed it, and in his turn called for help on Iolaus who, by setting fire to a piece of the neighbouring wood and burning the roots of the heads with the brands, prevented them from sprouting. Having thus got the better of the sprouting heads, he chopped off the immortal head, and buried it, and put a heavy rock on it, beside the road that leads through Lerna to Elaeus. But the body of the hydra he slit up and dipped his arrows in the gall. However, Eurystheus said that this labour should not be reckoned among the ten because he had not got the better of the hydra by himself, but with the help of Iolaus.' Tr., Sir James George Frazer. This passage refers to Hercules second labour.]