

1 82 ROMAN PAVEMENTS AND INTkECCl. 



The unhappy soul, terrified at the prospect of this encounter, 

 was to be succoured by magical arts. Inscriptions were to be 

 traced on fresh papyrus, and wax figures of Apep were to be 

 wrapped in it and cast upon the ground and into the fire. Make 

 the figure of a serpent, runs the instruction, having its tail in its 

 mouth, and a knife stuck in its back. Cast it upon the ground 

 and say, Apep the Fiend. Make a second serpent with the face 

 of a cat ; make two more serpents with other bestial faces. 

 Tie each one up and fetter it, and cast it upon the ground, saying 

 " O Apep, enemy of Ra, get thee back, down with thy head even 

 to the dust. May thy tail be placed in thine own mouth ; 

 mayest thou bite into thine own skin. Apep, the Fiend, be 

 fettered ! " 



Such thaumaturgy may, perhaps, be recognised in the coils of 

 the serpent that protects the canopy over Ra, in his barge ; 

 and, tail in mouth, surrounded the solar disc which is the sign of 

 Ra, in his passage through the underworld.* Magical arts that 

 long ago came hither from the East are still followed in the 

 towns and villages of England by persons who, nevertheless, go 

 to church and listen to sermons that are sometimes scientific. 

 What may not have been practised when even priests believed 

 that Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, descended into hell and 

 waged war against his great foe, the evil one, in the underworld, 

 where the soul, exposed to unknown dangers, must wait until the 

 resurrection ? So spells were wrought against heaven's enemy, 

 and they were endowed with a certain permanence by being 

 made of metal or carved on stone. The two serpents on the 

 Bedale tomb, with tail in mouth, are entangled in their death 

 throe. The like may be seen displayed on the porch at Monk- 

 wearmouth. Elsewhere Christ, the divine Stag, is trampling 

 upon contorted reptiles. The feet of the monsters on the 

 Bakcwell coffin are fettered, and each is biting his own body. 

 Toils, also, are spread for the feet of the beast at Pcnmon 



* Sarcophagus of Oimeneptha, Plates 4, 6. 



