72 Bird Notes from the Nile. 



Thoth, the god of learning and 

 '' Scribe of the Gods," has the head 

 of an ibis. His quaint figure is well 

 known, pen and tablet in hand, taking 

 notes of the trial of some departed soul, 

 whose heart is being weighed in the balance 

 against truth, truth being typified by a 

 feather. 



The " Benu," the sacred bird, is 

 the emblem of resurrection. It is 

 supposed to have risen out of a flaming 

 tree, and the song it sang was so ex- 

 quisitely sweet that Ra was compelled 

 to listen. 



Mut, the Great Mother, takes the form 

 of a vulture. The goddess Nekhebit too, 

 the patron of the South, the seat of whose 

 worship was at El Kab, is often repre- 

 sented as a vulture. 



Wings were given as an additional 

 dignity to the Sacred Uraeus Snake, and 

 more conspicuous than all is the great sun 

 disc (the hor-behntet), with protecting 

 outspread wings, sculptured over the 

 entrance of almost every temple and 

 pylon in the land. 



Thus parallel with the lives of 



