The immemorial custom of planting trees on graves in China is supposed

by De Groot (p. 277) to be due to "the desire to strengthen the soul of

the buried person, thus to save his body from corruption, for which

reason trees such as pines and cypresses, deemed to be bearers of great

vitality for being possessed of more _shen_ than other trees, were used

preferably for such purposes". But may not such beliefs also be an

expression of the idea that a tree growing upon a grave is developed

from and becomes the personification of the deceased? The significance

of the selection of pines and cypresses may be compared to that

associated with the so-called "cedars" in Babylonia, Egypt, and

Phoenicia, and the myrrh- and frankincense-producing trees in Arabia and

East Africa. They have come to be accredited with "soul-substance,"

since their use in mummification and as incense and for making coffins,

has made them the means for attaining a future existence. Hence in

course of time they came to be regarded as charged with the spirit of

vitality, the _shen_ or "soul-substance".

In China also it was because the woods of the pine or fir and the cyprus

were used for making coffins and grave-vaults and that pine-resin was

regarded as a means of attaining immortality (De Groot, _op. cit._ pp.

296 and 297) that such veneration was bestowed upon these trees. "At an

early date, Taoist seekers after immortality transplanted that animation

[of the hardy long-lived fir and cypress[67]] into themselves by

consuming the resin of those trees, which, apparently, they looked upon

as coagulated soul-substance, the counterpart of the blood in men and

animals" (p. 296).

In India the _amrita_, the god's food of immortality, was sometimes

regarded as the sap exuded from the sacred trees of paradise.

Elsewhere in these pages it is explained how the vaguely defined Mother

"Goddess" and the more distinctly anthropoid Water "God," which

originally developed quite independently the one of the other,

ultimately came to exert a profound and mutual influence, so that many

of the attributes which originally belonged to one of them came to be

shared with the other. Many factors played a part in this process of

blending and confusion of sex. As I shall explain later, when the moon

came to be regarded as the dwelling or the impersonation of Hathor, the

supposed influence of the moon over water led to a further assimilation

of her attributes with those of Osiris as the controller of water, which

received definite expression in a lunar form of Osiris.

But the link that is most intimately related to the subject of this

address is provided by the personification of the Mother-Goddess in

incense-trees. For incense thus became the sweat or the tears of the

Great Mother just as the water of libation was regarded as the fluid

of Osiris.

[59: As I shall explain later (see page 38), the idea of the divinity of

the incense-tree was a result of, and not the reason for, the practice

of incense-burning. As one of the means by which the resurrection was

attained incense became a giver of divinity; and by a simple process

of rationalization the tree which produced this divine substance became

a god.

The reference to the "eye of the body" (see p. 55) means the life-giving

god or goddess who is the "eye" of the sky, _i.e._ the god with whom the

dead king is identified.]

[60: It would lead me too far afield to enter into a discussion of the

use of scents and unguents, which is closely related to this question.]

[61: "The Religion of the Semites," p. 133.]

[62: Breasted, p. 28.]

[63: For reasons explained on a subsequent page (56).]

[64: It is also worth considering whether the extension of this idea may

not have been responsible for originating the practice of cremation--as

a device for transferring, not merely the animating incense and the

supplications of the living, but also the body of the deceased to the

sky-world. This, of course, did not happen in Egypt, but in some other

country which adopted the Egyptian practice of incense-burning, but was

not hampered by the religious conservatism that guarded the sacredness

of the corpse.]

[65: "The Ascent of Olympus," 1917.]

[66: For a collection of stories relating to human beings, generally

women, dwelling in trees, see Hartland's "Legend of Perseus".]

[67: The fact that the fir and cypress are "hardy and long-lived" is not

the reason for their being accredited with these life-prolonging

qualities. But once the latter virtues had become attributed to them the

fact that the trees were "hardy and long-lived" may have been used to

bolster up the belief by a process of rationalization.]

The Breath of Life.

Although the pouring of libations and the burning of incense played so

prominent a part in the ritual of animating the statue or the mummy, the

most important incident in the ceremony was the "opening of the mouth,"

which was regarded as giving it the breath of life.

Elsewhere[68] I have suggested that the conception of the heart and

blood as the vehicles of life, feeling, volition, and knowledge may have

been extremely ancient. It is not known when or under what circumstances

the idea of the breath being the "life" was first entertained. The fact

that in certain primitive systems of philosophy the breath was supposed

to have something to do with the heart suggests that these beliefs may

be a constituent element of the ancient heart-theory. In some of the

rock-pictures in America, Australia, and elsewhere the air-passages are

represented leading to the heart. But there can be little doubt that the

practice of mummification gave greater definiteness to the ideas

regarding the "heart" and "breath," which eventually led to a

differentiation between their supposed functions.[69] As the heart and

the blood were obviously present in the dead body they could no longer

be regarded as the "life". The breath was clearly the "element" the lack

of which rendered the body inanimate. It was therefore regarded as

necessary to set the heart working. The heart then came to be looked

upon as the seat of knowledge, the organ that feels and wills during

waking life. All the pulsating motions of the body seem to have been

regarded, like the act of respiration, as expressions of the vital

principle or "life," which Dutch ethnological writers refer to as "soul

substance". The neighbourhood of certain joints where the pulse can be

felt most readily, and the top of the head, where pulsation can be felt

in the infant's fontanelle, were therefore regarded by some Asiatic

peoples as the places where the substance of life could leave or enter

the body.

It is possible that in ancient times this belief was more widespread

than it is now. It affords an explanation of the motive for trephining

the skull among ancient peoples, to afford a more ready passage for the

"vital essence" to and from the skull.

In his lecture on "The Socratic Doctrine of the Soul,"[70] Professor

John Burnet has expounded the meaning of early Greek conceptions of the

soul with rare insight and lucidity. Originally, the word [Greek:

psychê] meant "breath," but, by historical times, it had already been

specialized in two distinct ways. It had come to mean _courage_ in the

first place, and secondly the _breath of life_, the presence or absence

of which is the most obvious distinction between the animate and the

inanimate, the "ghost" which a man "gives up" at death. But it may also

quit the body temporarily, which explains the phenomenon of swooning

([Greek: lipopsychia]). It seemed natural to suppose it was also the

thing that can roam at large when the body is asleep, and even appear to

another sleeping person in his dream. Moreover, since we can dream of

the dead, what then appears to us must be just what leaves the body at

the moment of death. These considerations explain the world-wide belief

in the "soul" as a sort of double of the real bodily man, the Egyptian

_ka_,[71] the Italian _genius_, and the Greek [Greek: psychê].

Now this double is not identical with whatever it is in us that feels

and wills during our waking life. That is generally supposed to be blood

and not breath.

What we feel and perceive have their seat in the heart: they belong to

the body and perish with it.

* * * * *

It is only when the shades have been allowed to drink blood that

consciousness returns to them for a while.

At one time the [Greek: psychê] was supposed to dwell with the body in

the grave, where it had to be supported by the offerings of the

survivors, especially by libations ([Greek: choai]).

An Egyptian psychologist has carried the story back long before the

times of which Professor Burnet writes. He has explained "his conception

of the functions of the 'heart (mind) and tongue'. 'When the eyes see,

the ears hear, and the nose breathes, they transmit to the heart. It is

he (the heart) who brings forth every issue and it is the tongue which

repeats the thought of the heart.'"[72]

"There came the saying that Atum, who created the gods, stated

concerning Ptah-Tatenen: 'He is the fashioner of the gods.... He made

likenesses of their bodies to the satisfaction of their hearts. Then the

gods entered into their bodies of every wood and every stone and every

metal.'"[73]

That these ideas are really ancient is shown by the fact that in the

Pyramid Texts Isis is represented conveying the breath of life to Osiris

by "causing a wind with her wings".[74] The ceremony of "opening the

mouth" which aimed at achieving this restoration of the breath of life

was the principal part of the ritual procedure before the statue or

mummy. As I have already mentioned (p. 25), the sculptor who modelled

the portrait statue was called "he who causes to live," and the word "to

fashion" a statue is identical with that which means "to give birth".

The god Ptah created man by modelling his form in clay. Similarly the

life-giving sculptor made the portrait which was to be the means of

securing a perpetuation of existence, when it was animated by the

"opening of the mouth," by libations and incense.

As the outcome of this process of rationalization in Egypt a vast crop

of creation-legends came into existence, which have persisted with

remarkable completeness until the present day in India, Indonesia,

China, America, and elsewhere. A statue of stone, wood, or clay is

fashioned, and the ceremony of animation is performed to convey to it

the breath of life, which in many places is supposed to be brought down

from the sky.[75]

In the Egyptian beliefs, as well as in most of the world-wide legends

that were derived from them, the idea assumed a definite form that the

vital principle (often referred to as the "soul," "soul-substance," or

"double") could exist apart from the body. Whatever the explanation, it

is clear that the possibility of the existence of the vital principle

apart from the body was entertained. It was supposed that it could

return to the body and temporarily reanimate it. It could enter into and

dwell within the stone representation of the deceased. Sometimes this

so-called "soul" was identified[76] with the breath of life, which

could enter into the statue as the result of the ceremony of "opening

the mouth".

It has been commonly assumed by Sir Edward Tyler and those who accept

his theory of animism that the idea of the "soul" was based upon the

attempts to interpret the phenomena of dreams and shadows, to which

Burnet has referred in the passage quoted above. The fact that when a

person is sleeping he may dream of seeing absent people and of having a

variety of adventures is explained by many peoples by the hypothesis

that these are real experiences which befell the "soul" when it wandered

abroad during its owner's sleep. A man's shadow or his reflection in

water or a mirror has been interpreted as his double. But what these

speculations leave out of account is the fact that these dream- and

shadow-phenomena were probably merely the predisposing circumstances

which helped in the development of (or the corroborative details which

were added to and, by rationalization, incorporated in) the

"soul-theory," which other circumstances were responsible for

creating.[77]

I have already called attention (p. 5) to the fact that in many of the

psychological speculations in ethnology too little account is taken of

the enormous complexity of the factors which determine even the simplest

and apparently most obvious and rational actions of men. I must again

remind the reader that a vast multitude of influences, many of them of a

subconscious and emotional nature, affect men's decisions and opinions.

But once some definite state of feeling inclines a man to a certain

conclusion, he will call up a host of other circumstances to buttress

his decision, and weave them into a complex net of rationalization. Some

such process undoubtedly took place in the development of "animism"; and

though it is not possible yet to reconstruct the whole history of the

growth of the idea, there can be no question that these early strivings

after an understanding of the nature of life and death, and the attempts

to put the theories into practice to reanimate the dead, provided the

foundations upon which has been built up during the last fifty centuries

a vast and complex theory of the soul. In the creation of this edifice

the thoughts and the aspirations of countless millions of peoples have

played a part: but the foundation was laid down when the Egyptian king

or priest claimed that he could restore to the dead the "breath of life"

and, by means of the wand which he called "the great magician,"[78]

could enable the dead to be born again. The wand is supposed by some

scholars[79] to be a conventionalized representation of the uterus, so

that its power of giving birth is expressed with literal directness.

Such beliefs and stories of the "magic wand" are found to-day in

scattered localities from the Scottish Highlands to Indonesia and

America.

In this sketch I have referred merely to one or two aspects of a

conception of vast complexity. But it must be remembered that, once the

mind of man began to play with the idea of a vital essence capable of

existing apart from the body and to identify it with the breath of life,

an illimitable field was opened up for speculation. The vital principle

could manifest itself in all the varied expressions of human

personality, as well as in all the physiological indications of life.

Experience of dreams led men to believe that the "soul" could also leave

the body temporarily and enjoy varied experiences. But the

concrete-minded Egyptian demanded some physical evidence to buttress

these intangible ideas of the wandering abroad of his vital essence. He

made a statue for it to dwell in after his death, because he was not

able to make an adequately life-like reproduction of the dead man's

features upon the mummy itself or its wrappings. Then he gradually

persuaded himself that the life-substance could exist apart from the

body as a "double" or "twin" which animated the statue.

Searching for material evidence to support his faith primitive man not

unnaturally turned to the contemplation of the circumstances of his

birth. All his beliefs concerning the nature of life can ultimately be

referred back to the story of his own origin, his birth or creation.

When an infant is born it is accompanied by the after-birth or placenta

to which it is linked by the umbilical cord. The full comprehension of

the significance of these structures is an achievement of modern

science. To primitive man they were an incomprehensible marvel. But once

he began to play with the idea that he had a double, a vital essence in

his own shape which could leave the sleeping body and lead a separate

existence, the placenta obviously provided tangible evidence of its

reality. The considerations set forth by Blackman,[80] supplementing

those of Moret, Murray and Seligman and others, have been claimed as

linking the placenta with the _ka_.

Much controversy has waged around the interpretation of the Egyptian

word _ka_, especially during recent years. An excellent summary of the

arguments brought forward by the various disputants up to 1912 will be

found in Morel's "Mystères Égyptiens". Since then more or less

contradictory views have been put forward by Alan Gardiner, Breasted,

and Blackman. It is not my intention to intervene in a dispute as to the

meaning of certain phrases in ancient literature; but there are certain

aspects of the problems at issue which are so intimately related to my

main theme as to make some reference to them unavoidable.

The development of the custom of making statues of the dead necessarily

raised for solution the problem of explaining the deceased's two bodies,

his actual mummy and his portrait statue. During life on earth his vital

principle dwelt in the former, except on those occasions when the man

was asleep. His actual body also gave expression to all the varied

attributes of his personality. But after death the statue became the

dwelling place of these manifestations of the spirit of vitality.

Whether or not the conception arose out of the necessities unavoidably

created by the making of statues, it seems clear that this custom must

have given more concrete shape to the belief that all of those elements

of the dead man's individuality which left his body at the time of death

could shift as a shadowy double into his statue.

At the birth of a king he is accompanied by a comrade or twin exactly

reproducing all his features. This double or _ka_ is intimately

associated throughout life and in the life to come with the king's

welfare. In fact Breasted claims that the _ka_ "was a kind of superior

genius intended to guide the fortunes of the individual _in the

hereafter_" ... there "he had his abode and awaited the coming of his

earthly companion".[81] At death the deceased "goes to his _ka_, to the

sky". The _ka_ controls and protects the deceased: he brings him food

which they eat together.

It is important clearly to keep in mind the different factors involved

in the conception of the _ka_:--

(a) The statue of the deceased is animated by restoring to it the breath

of life and all the other vital attributes of which the early Egyptian

physiologist took cognisance.

(b) At the time of birth there came into being along with the child a

"twin" whose destinies were closely linked with the child's.

(c) As the result of animating the statue the deceased also has restored

to him his character, "the sum of his attributes," his individuality,

later raised to the position of a protecting genius or god, a Providence

who watches over his well-being.[82]

The _ka_ is not simply identical with the breath of life or _animus_, as

Burnet supposes (_op. cit. supra_), but has a wider significance. The

adoption of the conception of the _ka_ as a sort of guardian angel which

finds its appropriate habitation in a statue that has been animated does

not necessarily conflict with the view so concretely and unmistakably

represented in the tomb-pictures that the _ka_ is also a double who is

born along with the individual.

This material conception of the _ka_ as a double who is born with and

closely linked to the individual is, as Blackman has emphasized,[83]

very suggestive of Baganda beliefs and rites connected with the

placenta. At death the circumstances of the act of birth are

reconstituted, and for this rebirth the placenta which played an

essential part in the original process is restored to the deceased. May

not the original meaning of the expression "he goes to his _ka_" be a

literal description of this reunion with his placenta? The

identification of the _ka_ with the moon, the guardian of the dead man's

welfare, may have enriched the symbolism.

Blackman makes the suggestion that "on the analogy of the beliefs

entertained by the Hamitic ruling caste in Uganda," according to Roscoe,

"the placenta,[84] or rather its ghost, would have been supposed by the

Ancient Egyptians to be closely connected with the individual's

personality, as" he maintains was also the case with the god or

protecting genius of the Babylonians.[85] "Unless united with his twin's

[i.e. his placenta's] ghost the dead king was an imperfect deity, i.e.

his directing intelligence was impaired or lacking," presumably because

the placenta was composed of blood, which was regarded as the material

of consciousness and intelligence.

In China, as the quotations from de Groot (see footnote) show, the

placenta when placed under felicitous circumstances is able to ensure

the child a long life and to control his mental and physical welfare.

In view of the claims put forward by Blackman to associate the placenta

with the _ka_, it is of interest to note Moret's suggestion concerning

the fourteen forms of the _ka_, to which von Bissing assigns the

general significance "nourishment or offerings". He puts the question

whether they do not "personify the elements of material and intellectual

prosperity, all that is necessary for the health of body and spirit"

(_op. cit._, p. 209).

The placenta is credited with all the varieties of life-giving potency

that are attributed to the Mother-Goddess. It therefore controls the

welfare of the individual and, like all maternal amulets (_vide supra_),

ensures his good fortune. But, probably by virtue of its supposed

derivation from and intimate association with blood, it also ministered

to his mental welfare.

In my last Rylands Lecture I referred to the probability that the

essential elements of Chinese civilization were derived from the West. I

had hoped that, before the present statement went to the printer, I

would have found time to set forth in detail the evidence in

substantiation of the reality of that diffusion of culture.

Briefly the chain of proof is composed of the following links: (a) the

intimate cultural contact between Egypt, Southern Arabia, Sumer, and

Elam from a period at least as early as the First Egyptian Dynasty; (b)

the diffusion of Sumerian and Elamite culture in very early times at

least as far north as Russian Turkestan and as far east as Baluchistan;

(c) at some later period the quest of gold, copper, turquoise, and jade

led the Babylonians (and their neighbours) as far north as the Altai and

as far east as Khotan and the Tarim Valley, where their pathways were

blazed with the distinctive methods of cultivation and irrigation; (d)

at some subsequent period there was an easterly diffusion of culture

from Turkestan into the Shensi Province of China proper; and (e) at

least as early as the seventh century B.C. there was also a spread of

Western culture to China by sea.[86]

I have already referred to some of the distinctively Egyptian traits in

Chinese beliefs concerning the dead. Mingled with them are other equally

definitely Babylonian ideas concerning the liver.

It must be apparent that in the course of the spread of a complex system

of religious beliefs to so great a distance, only certain of their

features would survive the journey. Handed on from people to people,

each of whom would unavoidably transform them to some extent, the

tenets of the Western beliefs would become shorn of many of their

details and have many excrescences added to them before the Chinese

received them. In the crucible of the local philosophy they would be

assimilated with Chinese ideas until the resulting compound assumed a

Chinese appearance. When these inevitable circumstances are recalled the

value of any positive evidence of Western influence is of special

significance.

According to the ancient Chinese, man has two souls, the _kwei_ and the

_shen_. The former, which according to de Groot is definitely the more

ancient of the two (p. 8), is the material, substantial soul, which

emanates from the terrestrial part of the universe, and is formed of

_yin_ substance. In living man it operates under the name of _p'oh_,

and on his death it returns to the earth and abides with the deceased

in his grave.

The _shen_ or immaterial soul emanates from the ethereal celestial part

of the cosmos and consists of _yang_ substance. When operating actively

in the living human body, it is called _khi_ or "breath," and _hwun_;

when separated from it after death it lives forth as a refulgent spirit,

styled _ming_.[87]

But the _shen_ also, in spite of its sky-affinities, hovers about the

grave and may dwell in the inscribed grave-stone (p. 6). There may be a

multitude of _shen_ in one body and many "soul-tablets" may be provided

for them (p. 74).

Just as in Egypt the _ka_ is said to "symbolize the force of life which

resides in nourishment" (Moret, p. 212), so the Chinese refer to the

ethereal part of the food as its _khi_, i.e. the "breath" of its _shen_.

The careful study of the mass of detailed evidence so lucidly set forth

by de Groot in his great monograph reveals the fact that, in spite of

many superficial differences and apparent contradictions, the early

Chinese conceptions of the soul and its functions are essentially

identical with the Egyptian, and must have been derived from the

same source.

From the quotations which I have already given in the foregoing pages,

it appears that the Chinese entertain views regarding the functions of

the placenta which are identical with those of the Baganda, and a

conception of the souls of man which presents unmistakable analogies

with Egyptian beliefs. Yet these Chinese references do not shed any

clearer light than Egyptian literature does upon the problem of the

possible relationship between the _ka_ and the _placenta_.

In the Iranian domain, however, right on the overland route from the

Persian Gulf to China, there seems to be a ray of light. According to

the late Professor Moulton, "The later Parsi books tell us that the

Fravashi is a part of a good man's identity, living in heaven and

reuniting with the soul at death. It is not exactly a guardian angel,

for it shares in the development or deterioration of the rest of the

man."[88]

In fact the Fravashi is not unlike the Egyptian _ka_ on the one side and

the Chinese _shen_ on the other. "They are the _Manes_, 'the good folk'"

(p. 144): they are connected with the stars in their capacity as spirits

of the dead (p. 143), and they "showed their paths to the sun, the moon,

the sun, and the endless lights," just as the _kas_ guide the dead in

the hereafter.

The Fravashis play a part in the annual All Soul's feast (p. 144), for

which Breasted has provided an almost exact parallel in Egypt during the

Middle Kingdom.[89] All the circumstances of the two ceremonies are

essentially identical.

Now Professor Moulton suggests that the word Fravashi may be derived

from the Avestan root _var_, "to impregnate," and _fravasi_ mean

"birth-promotion" (p. 142). As he associates this with childbirth the

possibility suggests itself whether the "birth-promoter" may not be

simply the placenta.

Loret (quoted by Moret, p. 202), however, derives the word _ka_ from a

root signifying "to beget," so that the Fravashi may be nothing more

than the Iranian homologue of the Egyptian _ka_.

The connecting link between the Iranian and Egyptian conceptions may be

the Sumerian instances given to Blackman[90] by Dr. Langdon.

The whole idea seems to have originated out of the belief that the sum

of the individual attributes or vital expressions of a man's personality

could exist apart from the physical body. The contemplation of the

phenomena of sleep and death provided the evidence in corroboration

of this.

At birth the newcomer came into the world physically connected with the

placenta, which was accredited with the attributes of the life-giving

and birth-promoting Great Mother and intimately related to the moon and

the earliest totem. It was obviously, also, closely concerned in the

nutrition of the embryo, for was it not the stalk upon which the latter

was growing like some fruit on its stem? It was a not unnatural

inference to suppose that, as the elements of the personality were not

indissolubly connected with the body, they were brought into existence

at the time of birth and that the placenta was their vehicle.

The Egyptians' own terms of reference to the sculptor of a statue show

that the ideas of birth were uppermost in their minds when the custom of

statue-making was first devised. Moret has brought together (_op. cit.

supra_) a good deal of evidence to suggest the far-reaching significance

of the conception of ritual rebirth in early Egyptian religious

ceremonial. With these ideas in his mind the Egyptian would naturally

attach great importance to the placenta in any attempt to reconstruct

the act of rebirth, which would be regarded in a literal sense. The

placenta which played an essential part in the original act would have

an equally important rôle in the ritual of rebirth. [For a further

comment upon the problem discussed in the preceding ten pages, see

Appendix A, p. 73.]

[68: "Primitive Man," _Proceedings of the British Academy_, 1917, p. 41.

It is important to remember that the real meaning of respiration was

quite unknown until modern science revealed the part played by oxygen.]

[69: The enormous complexity and intricacy of the interrelation between

the functions of the "heart," and the "breath" is revealed in Chinese

philosophy (see de Groot, _op. cit._ Chapter VII. _inter alia_).]

[70: Second Annual Philosophical Lecture, Henriette Hertz Trust,

_Proceedings of the British Academy_, Vol. VII, 26 Jan., 1916.]

[71: The Egyptian _ka_, however, was a more complex entity than this

comparison suggests.]

[72: Breasted, _op. cit._ pp. 44 and 45.]

[73: _Op. cit._ pp. 45 and 46.]

[74: _Ibid._ p. 28.]

[75: W. J. Perry has collected the evidence preserved in a remarkable

series of Indonesian legends in his recent book, "The Megalithic Culture

of Indonesia". But the fullest exposition of the whole subject is

provided in the Chinese literature summarized by de Groot (_op. cit._).]

[76: See, however, the reservations in the subsequent pages.]

[77: The thorough analysis of the beliefs of any people makes this

abundantly clear. De Groot's monograph is an admirable illustration of

this (_op. cit._ Chapter VII.). Both in Egypt and China the conceptions

of the significance of the shadow are later and altogether subsidiary.]

[78: Alan H. Gardiner, Davies and Gardiner, _op. cit._ p. 59.]

[79: F. Ll. Griffith, "A Collection of Hieroglyphs," 1898, p. 60.]

[80: Aylward M. Blackman, "Some Remarks on an Emblem upon the Head of an

Ancient Egyptian Birth-Goddess," _Journal of Egyptian Archæology_, Vol.

III, Part III, July, 1916, p. 199; and "The Pharaoh's Placenta and the

Moon-God Khons," _ibid._ Part IV, Oct., 1916, p. 235.]

[81: "Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt," p. 52. Breasted denies

that the _ka_ was an element of the personality.]

[82: For an abstruse discussion of this problem see Alan H. Gardiner,

"Personification (Egyptian)," Hastings' _Encyclopædia of Religion and

Ethics_, pp. 790 and 792.]

[83: _Op. cit. supra_.]

[84: Mr. Blackman is puzzled to explain what "possible connexion there

could be between the Pharaoh's placenta and the moon beyond the fact

that it is the custom in Uganda to expose the king's placenta each new

moon and anoint it with butter."

To those readers who follow my argument in the later pages of this

discussion the reasoning at the back of this association should be plain

enough. The moon was regarded as the controller of menstruation. The

placenta (and also the child) was considered to be formed of menstrual

blood. The welfare of the placenta was therefore considered to be under

the control of the moon.

The anointing with butter is an interesting illustration of the close

connexion of these lunar and maternal phenomena with the cow.

The placenta was associated with the moon also in China, as the

following quotation shows.

According to de Groot (_op. cit._ p. 396), "in the _Siao 'rh fang_ or

Medicament for Babies, by the hand of Ts'ui Hing-kung [died 674 A.D.],

it is said: 'The placenta should be stored away in a felicitous spot

under the salutary influences of the sky or the moon ... in order that

the child may be ensured a long life'". He then goes on to explain how

any interference with the placenta will entail mental or physical

trouble to the child.

The placenta also is used as the ingredient of pills to increase

fertility, facilitate parturition, to bring back life to people on the

brink of death and it is the main ingredient "in medicines for lunacy,

convulsions, epilepsy, etc." (p. 397). "It gives rest to the heart,

nourishes the blood, increases the breath, and strengthens the _tsing_"

(p. 396).

These attributes of the placenta indicate that the beliefs of the

Baganda are not merely local eccentricities, but widespread and sharply

defined interpretations of the natural phenomena of birth.]

[85: _Op. cit._ p. 241.]

[86: See "The Origin of Early Siberian Civilization," now being

published in the _Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and

Philosophical Society_.]

[87: De Groot, p. 5.]

[88: _Early Religious Poetry of Persia_, p. 145.]

[89: _Op. cit._ p. 264.]

[90: _Ibid._ p. 240.]

The Power of the Eye.

In attempting to understand the peculiar functions attributed to the eye

it is essential that the inquirer should endeavour to look at the

problem from the early Egyptian's point of view. After moulding into

shape the wrappings of the mummy so as to restore as far as possible the

form of the deceased the embalmer then painted eyes upon the face. So

also when the sculptor had learned to make finished models in stone or

wood, and by the addition of paint had enhanced the life-like

appearance, the statue was still merely a dead thing. What were needed

above all to enliven it, literally and actually, in other words, to

animate it, were the eyes; and the Egyptian artist set to work and with

truly marvellous skill reproduced the appearance of living eyes (Fig.

5). How ample was the justification for this belief will be appreciated

by anyone who glances at the remarkable photographs recently published

by Dr. Alan H. Gardiner.[91] The wonderful eyes will be seen to make the

statue sparkle and live. To the concrete mind of the Egyptian this

triumph of art was regarded not as a mere technical success or

æsthetic achievement. The artist was considered to have made the statue

really live; in fact, literally and actually converted it into a "living

image". The eyes themselves were regarded as one of the chief sources of

the vitality which had been conferred upon the statue.

[Illustration: Fig. 5--Statue of an Egyptian Noble of the Pyramid Age to

show the technical skill in the representation of life-like eyes]

This is the explanation of all the elaborate care and skill bestowed

upon the making of artificial eyes. No doubt also it was largely

responsible for giving definition to the remarkable belief in the

animating power of the eye. But so many other factors of most diverse

kinds played a part in building up the complex theory of the eye's

fertilizing potency that all the stages in the process of

rationalization cannot yet be arranged in orderly sequence.

I refer to the question here and suggest certain aspects of it that seem

worthy of investigation merely for the purpose of stimulating some

student of early Egyptian literature to look into the matter

further.[92]

As death was regarded as a kind of sleep and the closing of the eyes was

the distinctive sign of the latter condition the open eyes were not

unnaturally regarded as clear evidence of wakefulness and life. In fact,

to a matter-of-fact people the restoration of the eyes to the mummy or

statue was equivalent to an awakening to life.

At a time when a reflection in a mirror or in a sheet of water was

supposed to afford quite positive evidence of the reality of each

individual's "double," and when the "soul," or more concretely, "life,"

was imagined to be a minute image or homunculus, it is quite likely that

the reflection in the eye may have been interpreted as the "soul"

dwelling within it. The eye was certainly regarded as peculiarly rich in

"soul substance". It was not until Osiris received from Horus the eye

which had been wrenched out in the latter's combat with Set that he

"became a soul".[93]

It is a remarkable fact that this belief in the animating power of the

eye spread as far east as Polynesia and America, and as far west as the

British Islands.

Of course the obvious physiological functions of the eyes as means of

communication between their possessor and the world around him; the

powerful influence of the eyes for expressing feeling and emotion

without speech; the analogy between the closing and opening of the eyes

and the changes of day and night, are all hinted at in Egyptian

literature.

But there were certain specific factors that seem to have helped to give

definiteness to these general ideas of the physiology of the eyes. The

tears, like all the body moisture, came to share the life-giving

attributes of water in general. And when it is recalled that at funeral

ceremonies emotion found natural expression in the shedding of tears, it

is not unlikely that this came to be assimilated with all the other

water-symbolism of the funerary ritual. The early literature of Egypt,

in fact, refers to the part played by Isis and Nephthys in the

reanimation of Osiris, when the tears they shed as mourners brought

life back to the god. But the fertilizing tears of Isis were life-giving

in the wider sense. They were said to cause the inundation which

fertilized the soil of Egypt, meaning presumably that the "Eye of Re"

sent the rain.

There is the further possibility that the beliefs associated with the

cowry may have played some part, if not in originating, at any rate in

emphasizing the conception of the fertilizing powers of the eye. I have

already mentioned the outstanding features of the symbolism of the

cowry. In many places in Africa and elsewhere the similarity of this

shell to the half-closed eyelids led to its use as an artificial "eye"

in mummies. The use of the same objects to symbolize the female

reproductive organs and the eyes may have played some part in

transferring to the latter the fertility of the former. The gods were

born of the eyes of Ptah. Might not the confusion of the eye with the

genitalia have given a meaning to this statement? There is evidence of

this double symbolism of these shells. Cowry shells have also been

employed, both in the Persian Gulf and the Pacific, to decorate the bows

of boats, probably for the dual purpose of representing eyes and

conferring vitality upon the vessel. These facts suggest that the belief

in the fertilizing power of the eyes may to some extent be due to this

cowry-association. Even if it be admitted that all the known cases of

the use of cowries as eyes of mummies are relatively late, and that it

is not known to have been employed for such a purpose in Egypt, the mere

fact that the likeness to the eyelids so readily suggests itself may

have linked together the attributes of the cowry and the eye even in

Predynastic times, when cowries were placed with the dead in the grave.

Hathor's identification with the "Eye of Re" may possibly have been an

expression of the same idea. But the rôle of the "Eye of Re" was due

primarily to her association with the moon (_vide infra_, p. 56).

The apparently hopeless tangle of contradictions involved in these

conceptions of Hathor will have to be unravelled. For "no eye is to be

feared more than thine (Re's) when it attacketh in the form of Hathor"

(Maspero, _op. cit._ p. 165). If it was the beneficent life-giving

aspect of the eye which led to its identification with Hathor, in course

of time, when the reason for this connexion was lost sight of, it became

associated with the malevolent, death-dealing _avatar_ of the goddess,

and became the expression of the god's anger and hatred toward his

enemies. It is not unlikely that such a confusion may have been

responsible for giving concrete expression to the general psychological

fact that the eyes are obviously among the chief means for expressing

hatred for and intimidating and "brow-beating" one's fellows. [In my

lecture on "The Birth of Aphrodite" I shall explain the explicit

circumstances that gave rise to these contradictions.]

It is significant that, in addition to the widespread belief in the

"evil eye"--which in itself embodies the same confusion, the expression

of admiration that works evil--in a multitude of legends it is the eye

that produces petrifaction. The "stony stare" causes death and the dead

become transformed into statues, which, however, usually lack their

original attribute of animation. These stories have been collected by

Mr. E. S. Hartland in his "Legend of Perseus".

There is another possible link in the chain of associations between the

eye and the idea of fertility. I have already referred to the

development of the belief that incense, which plays so prominent a part

in the ritual for conferring vitality upon the dead, is itself replete

with animating properties. "Glaser has already shown the _anti_ incense

of the Egyptian Punt Reliefs to be an Arabian word, _a-a-netc_,

'tree-eyes' (_Punt und die Südarabischen Reiche_, p. 7), and to refer to

the large lumps ... as distinguished from the small round drops, which

are supposed to be tree-tears or the tree-blood."[94]

[91: "A New Masterpiece of Egyptian Sculpture," _The Journal of Egyptian

Archæology_, Vol. IV, Part I, Jan., 1917.]

[92: In all probability the main factor that was responsible for

conferring such definite life-giving powers upon the eye was the

identification of the moon with the Great Mother. The moon was the Eye

of Re, the sky-god.]

[93: Breasted, "Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt," p. 59. The

meaning of the phrase rendered "a soul" here would be more accurately

given by the word "reanimated".]

[94: Wilfred H. Schoff, "The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea," 1912, p.

164.]

The Moon and the Sky-World.

There are reasons for believing that the chief episodes in Aphrodite's

past point to the Red Sea for their inspiration, though many other

factors, due partly to local circumstances and partly to contact with

other civilizations, contributed to the determination of the traits of

the Mediterranean goddess of love. In Babylonia and India there are very

definite signs of borrowing from the same source. It is important,

therefore, to look for further evidence to Arabia as the obvious bond of

union both with Phoenicia and Babylonia.

The claim made in Roscher's _Lexicon der Mythologie_ that the Assyrian

Ishtar, the Phoenician Ashtoreth (Astarte), the Syrian Atargatis

(Derketo), the Babylonian Belit (Mylitta) and the Arabian Ilat (Al-ilat)

were all moon-goddesses has given rise to much rather aimless

discussion, for there can be no question of their essential homology

with Hathor and Aphrodite. Moreover, from the beginning, all

goddesses--and especially this most primitive stratum of fertility

deities--were for obvious reasons intimately associated with the

moon.[95] But the cyclical periodicity of the moon which suggested the

analogy with the similar physiological periodicity of women merely

explains the association of the moon with women. The influence of the

moon upon dew and the tides, perhaps, suggested its controlling power

over water and emphasized the life-giving function which its association

with women had already suggested. For reasons which have been explained

already, water was associated more especially with fertilization by the

male. Hence the symbolism of the moon came to include the control of

both the male and the female processes of reproduction.[96]

The literature relating to the development of these ideas with

reference to the moon has been summarized by Professor Hutton

Webster.[97] He shows that "there is good reason for believing that

among many primitive peoples the moon, rather than the sun, the planets

or any of the constellations, first excited the imagination and aroused

feelings of superstitious awe or of religious veneration".

Special attention was first devoted to the moon when agricultural

pursuits compelled men to measure time and determine the seasons. The

influence of the moon on water, both the tides and dew, brought it

within the scope of the then current biological theory of fertilization.

This conception was powerfully corroborated by the parallelism of the

moon's cycles and those of womankind, which was interpreted by regarding

the moon as the controlling power of the female reproductive functions.

Thus all of the earliest goddesses who were personifications of the

powers of fertility came to be associated, and in some cases identified,

with the moon.

In this way the animation and deification of the moon was brought about:

and the first sky deity assumed not only all the attributes of the

cowry, i.e. the female reproductive functions, but also, as the

controller of water, many of those which afterwards were associated with

Osiris. The confusion of the male fertilizing powers of Osiris with the

female reproductive functions of Hathor and Isis may explain how in some

places the moon became a masculine deity, who, however, still retained

his control over womankind, and caused the phenomena of menstruation by

the exercise of his virile powers.[98] But the moon-god was also a

measurer of time and in this aspect was specially personified in Thoth.

The assimilation of the moon with these earth-deities was probably

responsible for the creation of the first sky-deity. For once the

conception developed of identifying a deity with the moon, and the

Osirian beliefs associated with the deification of a dead king grew up,

the moon became the impersonation of the spirit of womankind, some

mortal woman who by death had acquired divinity.

After the idea had developed of regarding the moon as the spirit of a

dead person, it was only natural that, in course of time, the sun and

stars should be brought within the scope of the same train of thought,

and be regarded as the deified dead. When this happened the sun not

unnaturally soon leapt into a position of pre-eminence. As the moon

represented the deified female principle the sun became the dominant

male deity Re. The stars also became the spirits of the dead.

Once this new conception of a sky-world was adumbrated a luxuriant crop

of beliefs grew up to assimilate the new beliefs with the old, and to

buttress the confused mixture of incompatible ideas with a complex

scaffolding of rationalization.

The sun-god Horus was already the son of Osiris. Osiris controlled not

only the river and the irrigation canals, but also the rain-clouds. The

fumes of incense conveyed to the sky-gods the supplications of the

worshippers on earth. Incense was not only "the perfume that deities,"

but also the means by which the deities and the dead could pass to their

doubles in the newly invented sky-heaven. The sun-god Re was represented

in his temple not by an anthropoid statue, but by an obelisk,[99] the

gilded apex of which pointed to heaven and "drew down" the dazzling rays

of the sun, reflected from its polished surface, so that all the

worshippers could see the manifestations of the god in his temple.

These events are important, not only for creating the sky-gods and the

sky-heaven, but possibly also for suggesting the idea that even a mere

pillar of stone, whether carved or uncarved, upon which no attempt had

been made to model the human form, could represent the deity, or rather

could become the "body" to be animated by the god.[100] For once it was

admitted, even in the home of these ancient ideas concerning the

animation of statues, that it was not essential for the idol to be

shaped into human form, the way was opened for less cultured peoples,

who had not acquired the technical skill to carve statues, simply to

erect stone pillars or unshaped masses of stone or wood for their gods

to enter, when the appropriate ritual of animation was performed.[101]

This conception of the possibility of gods, men, or animals dwelling in

stones spread in course of time throughout the world, but in every place

where it is found certain arbitrary details of the methods of animating

the stone reveal the fact that all these legends must have been derived

from the same source.

The complementary belief in the possibility of the petrifaction of men

and animals has a similarly extensive geographical distribution. The

history of this remarkable incident I shall explain in the lecture on

"Dragons and Rain Gods" (Chapter II.).[102]

[95: I am not concerned here with the explanation of the means by which

their home became transferred to the planet Venus.]

[96: In his discussion of the functions of the Fravashis in the Iranian

Yasht, the late Professor Moulton suggested the derivation of the word

from the Avestan root _var_, "to impregnate," so that _fravasi_ might

mean "birth-promotion". But he was puzzled by a reference to water.

"Less easy to understand is their intimate connexion with the Waters"

("Early Religious Poetry of Persia," pp. 142 and 143). But the Waters

were regarded as fertilizing agents. This is seen in the Avestan

Anahita, who was "the presiding genie of Fertility and more especially

of the Waters" (W. J. Phythian-Adams, "Mithraism," 1915, p. 13).]

[97: "Rest Days," New York, 1916, pp. 124 _et seq._]

[98: Wherever these deities of fertility are found, whether in Egypt,

Babylonia, the Mediterranean Area, Eastern Asia, and America,

illustrations of this confusion of sex are found. The explanation which

Dr. Rendel Harris offers of this confusion in the case of Aphrodite

seems to me not to give due recognition to its great antiquity and

almost world-wide distribution.]

[99: L. Borchardt, "Das Re-heiligtum des Königs Ne-woser-re". For a good

exposition of this matter see A. Moret, "Sanctuaires de l'ancien Empire

Égyptien,"; _Annales du Musée Guimet_, 1912, p. 265.]

[100: It is possible that the ceremony of erecting the _dad_ columns may

have played some part in the development of these beliefs. (On this see

A. Moret, "Mystères Égyptiens," 1913, pp. 13-17.)]

[101: Many other factors played a part in the development of the stories

of the birth of ancestors from stones. I have already referred to the

origin of the idea of the cowry (or some other shell) as the parent of

mankind. The place of the shell was often taken by roughly carved

stones, which of course were accredited with the same power of being

able to produce men, or of being a sort of egg from which human beings

could be hatched. It is unlikely that the finding of fossilized animals

played any leading rôle in the development of these beliefs, beyond

affording corroborative evidence in support of them after other

circumstances had been responsible for originating the stories. The more

circumstantial Oriental stories of the splitting of stones giving birth

to heroes and gods may have been suggested by the finding in pebbles of

fossilized shells--themselves regarded already as the parents of

mankind. But such interpretations were only possible because all the

predisposing circumstances had already prepared the way for the

acceptance of these specific illustrations of a general theory.

These beliefs may have developed before and quite independently of the

ideas concerning the animation of statues; but if so the latter event

would have strengthened and in some places become merged with the other

story.]

[102: For an extensive collection of these remarkable petrifaction

legends in almost every part of the world, see E. Sidney Hartland's "The

Legend of Perseus," especially Volumes I and III. These distinctive

stories will be found to be complexly interwoven with all the matters

discussed in this address.]

The Worship of the Cow.

Intimately linked with the subjects I have been discussing is the

worship of the cow. It would lead me too far afield to enter into the

details of the process by which the earliest Mother-Goddesses became so

closely associated or even identified with the cow, and why the cow's

horns became associated with the moon among the emblems of Hathor.

But it is essential that reference should be made to certain aspects of

the subject.

I do not think there is any evidence to justify the common theory that

the likeness of the crescent moon to a cow's horns was the reason for

the association. On the other hand, it is clear that both the moon and

the cow became identified with the Mother-Goddess quite independently

the one of the other, and at a very remote period.

It is probable that the fundamental factor in the development of this

association of the cow and the Mother-Goddess was the fact of the use of

milk as food for human beings. For if the cow could assume this maternal

function she was in fact a sort of foster-mother of mankind; and in

course of time she came to be regarded as the actual mother of the human

race and to be identified with the Great Mother.

Many other considerations helped in this process of assimilation. The

use of cattle not merely as meat for the sustenance of the living but as

the usual and most characteristic life-giving food for the dead

naturally played a part in conferring divinity upon the cow, just as an

analogous relationship made incense a holy substance and was responsible

for the personification of the incense-tree as a goddess. This influence

was still further emphasized in the case of cattle because they also

supplied the blood which was used for the ritual purpose of bestowing

consciousness upon the dead, and in course of time upon the gods also,

so that they might hear and attend to the prayers of supplicants.

Other circumstances emphasize the significance attached to the cow: but

it is difficult to decide whether they contributed in any way to the

development of these beliefs or were merely some of the practices which

were the result of the divination of the cow. The custom of placing

butter in the mouths of the dead, in Egypt, Uganda, and India, the

various ritual uses of milk, the employment of a cow's hide as a

wrapping for the dead in the grave, and also in certain mysterious

ceremonies,[103] all indicate the intimate connexion between the cow and

the means of attaining a rebirth in the life to come.

I think there are definite reasons for believing that once the cow

became identified with the Mother-Goddess as the parent of mankind the

first step was taken in the development of the curious system of ideas

now known as "totemism".

This, however, is a complex problem which I cannot stay to discuss here.

When the cow became identified with the Great Mother and the moon was

regarded as the dwelling or the personification of the same goddess, the

Divine Cow by a process of confused syncretism came to be regarded as

the sky or the heavens, to which the dead were raised up on the cow's

back. When Re became the dominant deity, he was identified with the sky,

and the sun and moon were then regarded as his eyes. Thus the moon, as

the Great Mother as well as the Eye of Re, was the bond of

identification of the Great Mother with an eye. This was probably how

the eye acquired the animating powers of the Giver of Life.

A whole volume might be written upon the almost world-wide diffusion of

these beliefs regarding the cow, as far as Scotland and Ireland in the

west, and in their easterly migration probably as far as America, to the

confusion alike of its ancient artists and its modern ethnologists.[104]

As an illustration of the identification of the cow's attributes with

those of the life-giving Great Mother, I might refer to the late

Professor Moulton's commentary[105] on the ancient Iranian Gâthâs, where

cow's flesh is given to mortals by Yima to make them immortal. "May we

connect it with another legend whereby at the Regeneration Mithra is to

make men immortal by giving them to eat the fat of the ... primeval Cow

from whose slain body, according to the Aryan legends adopted by

Mithraism, mankind was first created?"[106]

[103: See A. Moret, _op. cit._ p. 81, _inter alia_.]

[104: See the Copan sculptured monuments described by Maudslay in Godman

and Salvin's "Biologia Centrali-Americana," Archæology, Plate 46,

representing "Stela D," with two serpents in the places occupied by the

Indian elephants in Stela B--concerning which see _Nature_, November 25,

1915. To one of these intertwined serpents is attached a cow-headed

human dæmon. Compare also the Chiriqui figure depicted by MacCurdy,

"A Study of Chiriquian Antiquities," Yale University Press, 1911, fig.

361, p. 209.]

[105: "Early Religious Poetry of Persia," pp. 42 and 43.]

[106: _Op. cit._ p. 43. But I think these legends accredited to the

Aryans owe their parentage to the same source as the Egyptian beliefs

concerning the cow, and especially the remarkable mysteries upon which

Moret has been endeavouring to throw some light--"Mystères Égyptiens,"

p. 43.]

The Diffusion of Culture.

In these pages I have made no attempt to deal with the far-reaching and

intricate problems of the diffusion abroad of the practices and beliefs

which I have been discussing. But the thoughts and the aspirations of

every cultured people are permeated through and through with their

influence.

It is important to remember that in almost every stage of the

development of these complex customs and ideas not merely the "finished

product" but also the ingredients out of which it was built up were

being scattered abroad.

* * * * *

I shall briefly refer to certain evidence from Asia and America in

illustration of this fact and in substantiation of the reality of the

diffusion to the East of some of the beliefs I have been discussing.

The unity of Egyptian and Babylonian ideas is nowhere more strikingly

demonstrated than in the essential identity of the attributes of Osiris

and Ea. It affords the most positive proof of the derivation of the

beliefs from some common source, and reveals the fact that Egyptian and

Sumerian civilizations must have been in intimate cultural contact at

the beginning of their developmental history. "In Babylonia, as in

Egypt, there were differences of opinion regarding the origin of life

and the particular natural element which represented the vital

principle." "One section of the people, who were represented by the

worshippers of Ea, appear to have believed that the essence of life was

contained in water. The god of Eridu was the source of the 'water of

life'."[107]

"Offerings of water and food were made to the dead," not primarily so

that they might be "prevented from troubling the living,"[108] but to

supply them with the means of sustenance and to reanimate them to help

the suppliants. It is a common belief that these and other procedures

were inspired by fear of the dead. But such a statement does not

accurately represent the attitude of mind of the people who devised

these funerary ceremonies. For it is not the enemies of the dead or

those against whom he had a grudge that run a risk at funerals, but

rather his friends; and the more deeply he was attached to a particular

person the greater the danger for the latter. For among many people

the belief obtains that when a man dies he will endeavour to steal

the "soul-substance" of those who are dearest to him so that they

may accompany him to the other world. But as stealing the

"soul-substance"[109] means death, it is easy to misunderstand such a

display of affection. Hence most people who long for life and hate death

do their utmost to evade such embarrassing tokens of love; and most

ethnologists, misjudging such actions, write about "appeasing the dead".

It was those whom the gods _loved_ who died young.

Ea was not only the god of the deep, but also "lord of life," king of

the river and god of creation. Like Osiris "he fertilized parched and

sunburnt wastes through rivers and irrigating canals, and conferred upon

man the sustaining 'food of life'.... The goddess of the dead commanded

her servant to 'sprinkle the Lady Ishtar with the water of life'" (_op.

cit._, p. 44).

In Chapter III. of Mr. Mackenzie's book, from which I have just quoted,

there is an interesting collection of quotations clearly showing that

the conception of the vitalizing properties of the body moisture of gods

is not restricted to Egypt, but is found also in Babylonia and India, in

Western Asia and Greece, and also in Western Europe.

It has been suggested that the name Ishtar has been derived from Semitic

roots implying "she who waters," "she who makes fruitful".[110]

Barton claims that: "The beginnings of Semitic religion as they were

conceived by the Semites themselves go back to sexual relations ... the

Semitic conception of deity ... embodies the truth--grossly indeed, but

nevertheless embodies it--that 'God is love'" (_op. cit._ p. 107). [This

statement, however, is very misleading--see Appendix C, p. 75.]

Throughout the countries where Semitic[111] influence spread the

primitive Mother-Goddesses or some of their specialized variants are

found. But in every case the goddess is associated with many distinctive

traits which reveal her identity with her homologues in Cyprus,

Babylonia, and Egypt.

Among the Sumerians "life comes on earth through the introduction of

water and irrigation".[112] "Man also results from a union between the

water-gods."

The Akkadians held views which were almost the direct antithesis of

these. To them "the watery deep is disorder, and the cosmos, the order

of the world, is due to the victory of a god of light and spring over

the monster of winter and water; man is directly made by the gods".[113]

"The Sumerian account of Beginnings centres around the production by the

gods of water, Enki and his consort Nin-ella (or Dangal), of a great

number of canals bringing rain to the desolate fields of a dry

continent. Life both of vegetables and animals follows the profusion of

the vivifying waters.... In the process of life's production besides

Enki, the personality of his consort is very conspicuous. She is called

_Nin-Ella_, 'the pure Lady,' _Damgal-Nunna_, the 'great Lady of the

Waters,' _Nin-Tu_, 'the Lady of Birth'" (p. 301). The child of Enki and

Nin-ella was the ancestor of mankind.[114]

"In later traditions, the personality of that Great Lady seems to have

been overshadowed by that of Ishtar, who absorbed several of her

functions" (p. 301).

Professor Carnoy fully demonstrates the derivation of certain early

so-called "Aryan" beliefs from Chaldea. In the Iranian account of the

creation "the great spring Ardvi Sura Anahita is the

life-increasing, the herd-increasing, the fold-increasing who makes

prosperity for all countries (Yt. 5, 1) ... that precious spring is

worshipped as a goddess ... and is personified as a handsome and stately

woman. She is a fair maid, most strong, tall of form, high-girded. Her

arms are white and thick as a horse's shoulder or still thicker. She is

full of gracefulness" (Yt. 5, 7, 64, 78). "Professor Cumont thinks that

Anahita is Ishtar ... she is a goddess of fecundation and birth.

Moreover in Achæmenian inscriptions Anahita is associated with Ahura

Mazdah and Mithra, a triad corresponding to the Chaldean triad:

Sin-Shamash-Ishtar. [Greek: Anaitis] in Strabo and other Greek writers

is treated as [Greek: Aphroditê]" (p. 302).

But in Mesopotamia also the same views were entertained as in Egypt of

the functions of statues.

"The statues hidden in the recesses of the temples or erected on the

summits of the 'Ziggurats' became imbued, by virtue of their

consecration, with the actual body of the god whom they represented."

Thus Marduk is said to "inhabit his image" (Maspero, _op. cit._ p. 64).

This is precisely the idea which the Egyptians had. Even at the present

day it survives among the Dravidian peoples of India.[115] They make

images of their village deities, which may be permanent or only

temporary, but in any case they are regarded not as actual deities but

as the "bodies" so to speak into which these deities can enter. They are

sacred only when they are so animated by the goddess. The ritual of

animation is essentially identical with that found in Ancient Egypt.

Libations are poured out; incense is burnt; the bleeding right fore-leg

of a buffalo constitutes the blood-offering.[116] When the deity is

reanimated by these procedures and its consciousness restored by the

blood-offering it can hear appeals and speak.

The same attitude towards their idols was adopted by the Polynesians.

"The priest usually addressed the image, into which it was imagined the

god entered when anyone came to inquire his will."[117]

But there are certain other aspects of these Indian customs that are of

peculiar interest. In my Ridgeway essay (_op. cit. supra_) I referred to

the means by which in Nubia the degradation of the oblong Egyptian

_mastaba_ gave rise to the simple stone circle. This type spread to the

west along the North African littoral, and also to the Eastern desert

and Palestine. At some subsequent time mariners from the Red Sea

introduced this practice into India.

[It is important to bear in mind that two other classes of stone circles

were invented. One of them was derived, not from the _mastaba_ itself,

but from the enclosing wall surrounding it (see my Ridgeway essay, Fig.

13, p. 531, and compare with Figs. 3 and 4, p. 510, for illustrations of

the transformed _mastaba_-type). This type of circle (enclosing a

dolmen) is found both in the Caucasus-Caspian area as well as in India.

A highly developed form of this encircling type of structure is seen in

the famous rails surrounding the Buddhist _stupas_ and _dagabas_. A

third and later form of circle, of which Stonehenge is an example, was

developed out of the much later New Empire Egyptian conception of

a temple.]

But at the same time, as in Nubia, and possibly in Libya, the _mastaba_

was being degraded into the first of the three main varieties of stone

circle, other, though less drastic, forms of simplification of the

_mastaba_ were taking place, possibly in Egypt itself, but certainly

upon the neighbouring Mediterranean coasts. In some respects the least

altered copies of the _mastaba_ are found in the so-called "giant's

graves" of Sardinia and the "horned cairns" of the British Isles. But

the real features of the Egyptian _serdab_, which was the essential

part, the nucleus so to speak, of the _mastaba_, are best preserved in

the so-called "holed dolmens" of the Levant, the Caucasus, and India.

[They also occur sporadically in the West, as in France and Britain.]

Such dolmens and more simplified forms are scattered in Palestine,[118]

but are seen to best advantage upon the Eastern Littoral of the Black

Sea, the Caucasus, and the neighbourhood of the Caspian. They are found

only in scattered localities between the Black and Caspian Seas. As de

Morgan has pointed out,[119] their distribution is explained by their

association with ancient gold and copper mines. They were the tombs of

immigrant mining colonies who had settled in these definite localities

to exploit these minerals.

Now the same types of dolmens, also associated with ancient mines,[120]

are found in India. There is some evidence to suggest that these

degraded types of Egyptian _mastabas_ were introduced into India at some

time after the adoption of the other, the Nubian modification of the

_mastaba_ which is represented by the first variety of stone

circle.[121]

I have referred to these Indian dolmens for the specific purpose of

illustrating the complexities of the processes of diffusion of culture.

For not only have several variously specialized degradation-products of

the same original type of Egyptian _mastaba_ reached India, possibly by

different routes and at different times, but also many of the ideas

that developed out of the funerary ritual in Egypt--of which the

_mastaba_ was merely one of the manifestations--made their way to India

at various times and became secondarily blended with other expressions

of the same or associated ideas there. I have already referred to the

essential elements of the Egyptian funerary ritual--the statues,

incense, libations, and the rest--as still persisting among the

Dravidian peoples.

But in the Madras Presidency dolmens are found converted into Siva

temples.[122] Now in the inner chamber of the shrine--which represents

the homologue of the _serdab_--in place of the statue or bas-relief of

the deceased or of the deity, which is found in some of them (see Plate

I), there is the stone _linga-yoni_ emblem in the position corresponding

to that in which, in the later temple in the same locality (Kambaduru),

there is an image of Parvati, the consort of Siva.

The earliest deities in Egypt, both Osiris and Hathor, were really

expressions of the creative principle. In the case of Hathor, the

goddess was, in fact, the personification of the female organs of

reproduction.[123] In these early Siva temples in India these principles

of creation were given their literal interpretation, and represented

frankly as the organs of reproduction of the two sexes. The gods of

creation were symbolized by models in stone of the creating organs.

Further illustrations of the same principle are witnessed in the

Indonesian megalithic monuments which Perry calls "dissoliths".[124]

The later Indian temples, both Buddhist and Hindu, were developed from

these early dolmens, as Mr. Longhurst's reports so clearly demonstrate.

But from time to time there was an influx of new ideas from the West

which found expression in a series of modifications of the architecture.

Thus India provides an admirable illustration of this principle of

culture contact. A series of waves of megalithic culture introduced

purely Western ideas. These were developed by the local people in their

own way, constantly intermingling a variety of cultural influences to

weave them into a distinctive fabric, which was compounded partly of

imported, partly of local threads, woven locally into a truly Indian

pattern. In this process of development one can detect the effects of

Mycenæan accretions (see for example Longhurst's Plate XIII), probably

modified during its indirect transmission by Phoenician and later

influences; and also the more intimate part played by Babylonian,

Egyptian, and, later, Greek and Persian art and architecture in

directing the course of development of Indian culture.

Incidentally, in the course of the discussions in the foregoing pages, I

have referred to the profound influence of Egyptian, Babylonian and

Indian ideas in Eastern Asia. Perry's important book (_op. cit. supra_)

reveals their efforts in Indonesia. Thence they spread across the

Pacific to America.

In the "Migrations of Early Culture" (p. 114) I called attention to the

fact that among the Aztecs water was poured upon the head of the mummy.

This ritual procedure was inspired by the Egyptian idea of libations,

for, according to Brasseur de Bourbourg, the pouring out of the water

was accompanied by the remark "C'est cette eau que tu as reçue en venant

an monde".

But incense-burning and blood-offering were also practised in America.

In an interesting memoir[125] on the practice of blood-letting by

piercing the ears and tongue, Mrs. Zelia Nuttall reproduces a remarkable

picture from a "partly unpublished MS. of Sahagun's work preserved in

Florence". "The image of the sun is held up by a man whose body is

partly hidden, and two men, seated opposite to each other in the

foreground, are in the act of piercing the helices or external borders

of their ears." But in addition to these blood-offerings to the sun, two

priests are burning incense in remarkably Egyptian-like censers, and

another pair are blowing conch-shell trumpets.

[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Representation of the ancient Mexican Worship of

the Sun.

The image of the sun is held up by a man in front of his face; two men

blow conch-shell trumpets; another pair burn incense; and a third pair

make blood-offerings by piercing their ears--after Zelia Nuttall.]

But it was not merely the use of incense and libations and the

identities in the wholly arbitrary attributes of the American pantheon

that reveal the sources of their derivation in the Old World. When the

Spaniards first visited Yucatan they found traces of a Maya baptismal

rite which the natives called _zihil_, signifying "to be born again". At

the ceremony also incense was burnt.[126]

The forehead, the face, the fingers and toes were moistened. "After they

had been thus sprinkled with water, the priest arose and removed the

cloths from the heads of the children, and then cut off with a stone

knife a certain bead that was attached to the head from childhood."[127]

[The custom of wearing such a bead during childhood is found in Egypt at

the present day.]

In the case of the girls, their mothers "divested them of a cord which

was worn during their childhood, fastened round the loins, having a

small shell that hung in front ('una conchuela asida que les venia a dar

encima de la parte honesta'--Landa). The removal of this signified that

they could marry."[128]

This use of shells is found in the Soudan and East Africa at the present

day.[129] The girdle upon which the shells were hung is the prototype of

the cestus of Hathor, Ishtar, Aphrodite, Kali and all the goddesses of

fertility in the Old World. It is an admirable illustration of the fact

that not only were the finished products, the goddesses and their

fantastic repertory of attributes, transmitted to the New World, but

also the earliest and most primitive ingredients out of which the

complexities of their traits were compounded.

In Chapter III ("The Birth of Aphrodite") I shall explain what an

important part the invention of this girdle played in the development of

the material side of civilization and the even vaster influence it

exerted upon beliefs and ethics. It represents the first stage in the

evolution of clothing; and it was responsible for originating the belief

in love-philtres and in the possibility of foretelling the future.

It would lead me too far from my main purpose in this book to discuss

the widespread geographical distribution and historical associations of

the customs of baptism and pouring libations among different peoples. I

may, however, refer the reader to an article by Mr. Elsdon Best,

entitled "Ceremonial Performances Pertaining to Birth, as Performed by

the Maori of New Zealand in Past Times" (_Journal of the Royal

Anthropological Institute_, Vol. XLIV, 1914, p. 127), which sheds a

clear light upon the general problem.

The whole subject of baptismal ceremonies is well worth detailed study

as a remarkable demonstration of the spread of culture in early times.

[107: Donald A. Mackenzie, "Myths of Babylonia and Assyria," p. 44 _et

seq._]

[108: Dr. Alan Gardiner has protested against the assertions of "some

Egyptologists, influenced more by anthropological theorists than by the

unambiguous evidence of the Egyptian texts," to the effect that "the

funerary rites and practices of the Egyptians were in the main

precautionary measures serving to protect the living against the dead"

(Article "Life and Death (Egyptian)," Hastings' _Encyclopædia of

Religion and Ethics_). I should like to emphasize the fact that the

"anthropological theorists," who so frequently put forward these claims

have little more justification for them than "some Egyptologists".

Careful study of the best evidence from Babylonia, India, Indonesia, and

Japan, reveals the fact that anthropologists who make such claims have

in many cases misinterpreted the facts. In an article on "Ancestor

Worship" by Professor Nobushige Hozumi in A. Stead's "Japan by the

Japanese" (1904) the true point of view is put very clearly: "The origin

of ancestor-worship is ascribed by many eminent writers to the _dread of

ghosts_ and the sacrifices made to the souls of ancestors for the

purpose of _propitiating_ them. It appears to me more correct to

attribute the origin of ancestor-worship to a contrary cause. It was the

_love_ of ancestors, not the _dread_ of them" [Here he quotes the

Chinese philosophers Shiu-ki and Confucius in corroboration] that

impelled men to worship. "We celebrate the anniversary of our ancestors,

pay visits to their graves, offer flowers, food and drink, burn incense

and bow before their tombs, entirely from a feeling of love and respect

for their memory, and no question of 'dread' enters our minds in doing

so" (pp. 281 and 282). [See, however, Appendix B, p. 74.]]

[109: For, as I have already explained, the idea so commonly and

mistakenly conveyed by the term "soul-substance" by writers on

Indonesian and Chinese beliefs would be much more accurately rendered

simply by the word "life," so that the stealing of it necessarily means

death.]

[110: Barton, _op. cit._ p. 105.]

[111: The evidence set forth in these pages makes it clear that such

ideas are not restricted to the Semites: nor is there any reason to

suppose that they originated amongst them.]

[112: Albert J. Carnoy, "Iranian Views of Origins in Connexion with

Similar Babylonian Beliefs," _Journal of the American Oriental Society_,

Vol. XXXVI, 1916, pp. 300-20.]

[113: This is Professor Carnoy's summary of Professor Jastrow's views as

expressed in his article "Sumerian and Akkadian Views of Beginnings".]

[114: Jastrow's interpretation of a recently-discovered tablet published

by Langdon under the title _The Sumerian Epic of Paradise, the Flood and

the Fall of Man_.]

[115: I have already (p. 43) mentioned the fact that it is still

preserved in China also.]

[116: Henry Whitehead (Bishop of Madras), "The Village Deities of

Southern India," Madras Government Museum, Bull., Vol. V, No. 3, 1907;

Wilber Theodore Elmore, "Dravidian Gods in Modern Hinduism: A Study of

the Local and Village Deities of Southern India," University Studies:

University of Nebraska, Vol. XV, No. 1, Jan., 1915. Compare the

sacrifice of the fore-leg of a living calf in Egypt--A. E. P. B.

Weigall, "An Ancient Egyptian Funeral Ceremony," _Journal of Egyptian

Archæology_, Vol. II, 1915, p. 10. Early literary references from

Babylonia suggest that a similar method of offering blood was practised

there.]

[117: William Ellis, "Polynesian Researches," 2nd edition, 1832, Vol. I,

p. 373.]

[118: See H. Vincent, "Canaan d'après l'exploration récente," Paris,

1907, p. 395.]

[119: "Les Premières Civilizations," Paris, 1909, p. 404: Mémoires de la

Délégation en Perse, Tome VIII, archéol.; and Mission Scientifique au

Caucase, Tome I.]

[120: W. J. Perry, "The Relationship between the Geographical

Distribution of Megalithic Monuments and Ancient Mines," _Memoirs and

Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society_, Vol.

60, Part I, 24th Nov., 1915.]

[121: The evidence for this is being prepared for publication by Captain

Leonard Munn, R.E., who has personally collected the data in Hyderabad.]

[122: Annual Report of the Archæological Department, Southern Circle,

Madras, for the year 1915-1916. See for example Mr. A. H. Longhurst's

photographs and plans (Plates I-IV) and especially that of the old Siva

temple at Kambaduru, Plate IV (b).]

[123: As I shall show in "The Birth of Aphrodite" (Chapter III).]

[124: W. J. Perry, "The Megalithic Culture of Indonesia".]

[125: "A Penitential Rite of the Ancient Mexicans," Archæological and

Ethnological Papers of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Vol. I,

No. 7, 1904.]

[126: Bancroft, _op. cit._ Vol. II, pp. 682 and 683.]

[127: _Op. cit._ p. 684.]

[128: _Ibid._]

[129: See J. Wilfrid Jackson, _op. cit. supra_.]

Summary.

In these pages I have ranged over a very wide field of speculation,

groping in the dim shadows of the early history of civilization. I have

been attempting to pick up a few of the threads which ultimately became

woven into the texture of human beliefs and aspirations, and to suggest

that the practice of mummification was the woof around which the web of

civilization was intimately intertwined.

I have already explained how closely that practice was related to the

origin and development of architecture, which Professor Lethaby has

called the "matrix of civilization," and how nearly the ideas that grew

up in explanation and in justification of the ritual of embalming were

affected by the practice of agriculture, the second great pillar of

support for the edifice of civilization. It has also been shown how

far-reaching was the influence exerted by the needs of the embalmer,

which impelled men, probably for the first time in history, to plan and

carry out great expeditions by sea and land to obtain the necessary

resins and the balsams, the wood and the spices. Incidentally also in

course of time the practice of mummification came to exert a profound

effect upon the means for the acquisition of a knowledge of medicine and

all the sciences ancillary to it.

But I have devoted chief attention to the bearing of the ideas which

developed out of the practice and ritual of embalming upon the spirit of

man. It gave shape and substance to the belief in a future life; it was

perhaps the most important factor in the development of a definite

conception of the gods: it laid the foundation of the ideas which

subsequently were built up into a theory of the soul: in fact, it was

intimately connected with the birth of all those ideals and aspirations

which are now included in the conception of religious belief and ritual.

A multitude of other trains of thought were started amidst the

intellectual ferment of the formulation of the earliest concrete system

of biological theory. The idea of the properties and functions of water

which had previously sprung up in connexion with the development of

agriculture became crystallized into a more definite form as the result

of the development of mummification, and this has played an obtrusive

part in religion, in philosophy and in medicine ever since. Moreover its

influence has become embalmed for all time in many languages and in the

ritual of every religion.

But it was a factor in the development not merely of religious beliefs,

temples and ritual, but it was also very closely related to the origin

of much of the paraphernalia of the gods and of current popular beliefs.

The swastika and the thunderbolt, dragons and demons, totemism and the

sky-world are all of them conceptions that were more or less closely

connected with the matters I have been discussing.

The ideas which grew up in association with the practice of

mummification were responsible for the development of the temple and its

ritual and for a definite formulation of the conception of deities. But

they were also responsible for originating a priesthood. For the

resuscitation of the dead king, Osiris, and for the maintenance of his

existence it was necessary for his successor, the reigning king, to

perform the ritual of animation and the provision of food and drink. The

king, therefore, was the first priest, and his functions were not

primarily acts of worship but merely the necessary preliminaries for

restoring life and consciousness to the dead seer so that he could

consult him and secure his advice and help.

It was only when the number of temples became so great and their ritual

so complex and elaborate as to make it a physical impossibility for the

king to act in this capacity in all of them and on every occasion that

he was compelled to delegate some of his priestly functions to others,

either members of the royal family or high officials. In course of time

certain individuals devoted themselves exclusively to these duties and

became professional priests; but it is important to remember that at

first it was the exclusive privilege of Horus, the reigning king, to

intercede with Osiris, the dead king, on behalf of men, and that the

earliest priesthood consisted of those individuals to whom he had

delegated some of these duties.

In conclusion I should like to express in words what must be only too

apparent to every reader of this statement. It claims to be nothing more

than a contribution to the study of some of the most difficult problems

in the history of human thought. For one so ill-equipped for a task of

such a nature as I am to attempt it calls for a word of explanation. The

clear light that recent research has shed upon the earliest literature

in the world has done much to destroy the foundations upon which the

theories propounded by scholars have been built up. It seemed to be

worth while to attempt to read afresh the voluminous mass of old

documents with the illumination of this new information.

The other reason for making such an attempt is that almost every modern

scholar who has discussed the matters at issue has assumed that the

fashionable doctrine of the independent development of human beliefs and

practices was a safe basis upon which to construct his theories. At best

it is an unproven and reckless speculation. I am convinced it is utterly

false. Holding such views I have attempted to read the evidence afresh.

APPENDIX A.

On re-reading the discussion of the significance of the _ka_ I realize

that, in striving after brevity and conciseness--to keep the size of my

statement within the limits of the _Bulletin of the John Rylands

Library_, generously elastic though it is--I have left the argument in a

rather nebulous form.

It must not be imagined that a concrete-minded people like the ancient

Egyptians entertained highly abstract and ethereal ideas about "the

soul". They recognized that all the expressions of consciousness and

personality could cease during sleep; and at the same time the phenomena

of dreams seemed to afford evidence that these absent elements of the

individual's being were enjoying real experiences elsewhere. Thus there

was an _alter ego_, identified by this matter-of-fact people with the

twin (placenta) which was born with the child and was clearly concerned

with its physical and intellectual nourishment--for it was obviously

connected by its stalk to the embryo like a tree to its roots, and it

seemed to be composed of blood, which was regarded as the vehicle of

mind. But this intellectual "twin" kept pace in its growth with the

physical body. When a statue was made to represent the latter the _ka_

could dwell in the real body or the statue.

The identification of the placenta with the moon helped the growth of

the conception that this "birth-promoter" could not only bring about a

re-birth in the life to come, but also facilitate a transference to the

sky-world. The placenta had already been superintending the deceased's

welfare upon earth and would continue to do so when he rejoined his _ka_

in the sky world.

The complexity of the conception is due to the fact that the simple

early belief in "a double" was gradually elaborated, as one new idea

after another became added to it, and rationalized to blend with the

former complex in an increasingly involved synthesis. It was only when

the elaborate scaffolding of material factors was cleared away that a

more ethereal conception of "the soul" was sublimated.

APPENDIX B.

I should like to emphasize the fact that my protest (on p. 63) was

directed against the claim that the custom of offering food and drink to

the dead was inspired _primarily_ to prevent them from troubling the

living. Its original purpose was to sustain and reanimate the dead; but,

of course, when its real meaning was forgotten, it was explained in a

great variety of ways by the people who made a practice of presenting

offerings to the dead without really knowing why they did so.

Dr. Alan Gardiner himself has made a statement which casual readers

(i.e., those who do not discriminate between the motive for the

invention of a procedure and the reasons subsequently given for its

continuance) might regard as a contradiction of my quotation from his

writings on p. 62. Thus he says: "Any god could doubtless attack human

beings, but savage and malicious deities, like Seth [Set], the murderer

of Osiris, or Sakhmet, [Sekhet], the 'lady of pestilence' (_nb-t 'idw_),

were doubtless most to be feared." [This attitude of the malignant

goddesses is revealed in a most obtrusive form in the village deities of

the Dravidians of Southern India.] "The dead were specially to be

feared; nor was it only those dead who were unhappy or unburied that

might torment the living, for the magician sometimes warns them that

their tombs are endangered" (Article "Magic (Egyptian)," _Hastings'

Encycl. Ethics and Religion_, p. 264).

But it is important to bear in mind, as the same scholar has explained

elsewhere ["Life and Death (Egyptian)," _Hastings' Encycl._, p. 23]:

"Nothing could be farther from the truth [than the statement that 'the

funerary rites and practices of the Egyptians were in the main

precautionary measures serving to protect the living against the dead'];

it is of fundamental importance to realize that the vast stores of

wealth and thought expended by the Egyptians on their tombs--that wealth

and that thought which created not only the pyramids, but also the

practice of mummification and a very extensive funerary literature--were

due to the anxiety of each member of the community with regard to his

own individual future welfare, and not to feelings of respect, or fear,

or duty felt towards the other dead."

It was only in response to certain binding obligations that the living

observed all those costly and troublesome rules which were believed to

insure the welfare of the deceased. But this recognition of the primary

and real purpose of the food offerings as sustenance for the dead or the

gods must not be allowed to blind us to the fact that there is

widespread throughout the world a real fear of the dead and ghosts, and

that in many places food-offerings are made for the specific purpose "of

appeasing the fairies".

Mr. Donald Mackenzie tells me that offerings of milk and porridge are

made at the stone monuments in Scotland, and children carry meal in

their pockets to protect themselves from the fairies. For the dead went

to Fairyland.

Beliefs of a similar kind can be collected from most parts of the world:

but the point I specially want to emphasize is that they are _secondary_

rationalizations of a custom which originally had an utterly different

significance.

APPENDIX C.

Prof. Barton's statement (_supra_, p. 64) is typical of a widespread

misapprehension, resulting from the confusion between sexual relations

and the giving of life. At first primitive people did not realize that

the manifestations of the sex instinct had anything whatever to do with

reproduction. They were aware of the fact that women gave birth to

children; and the organ concerned in this process was regarded as the

giver of life, the creator. The apotheosis of these powers led to the

conception of the first deity. But it was only secondarily that these

life-giving attributes were brought into association with the sexual act

and the masculine powers of fertilization. Much confusion has been

created by those writers who see manifestations of the sexual factor and

phallic ideas in every aspect of primitive religion, where in most cases

only the power of life-giving plays a part.