Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



a book of magic from the bottom of the sea ; 

 whereupon, first their child Merhu, then Ahura, 

 and finally Ptah-Nefer-Ka, plunge into the Nile 

 and are drowned. Egypt, we remember, is 

 the land where the royal family was condemned 

 to the closest interbreeding, even as late as the 

 Ptolemaic line. Such tales bear out the belief 

 that the bird heads seen on the sceptres of the 

 gods in Egyptian mural inscriptions are heads 

 of cuckoos. 



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