xviii Introduction. 



practice. But it also became drawn into the scheme ot 

 the new body of doctrine when the possibility of water 

 also vitalising the human body was admitted. 



As a result of this new trend of thought, the belief 

 gradually took shape, for reasons which I have explained 

 in detail elsewhere, 9 that a statue made in imitation of a 

 human being or an animal, or in fact any part of such a 

 living creature, or any article of food or furniture which 

 the deceased needed, could be animated by means of such 

 ritual observances as I have enumerated. These ideas 

 added definiteness to the further conception that any object 

 reproducing the form of a part of the body could magically 

 influence the structure which it mimicked. 



At a time when such beliefs represented the ortho- 

 doxy of religion no less than the latest teaching of science, 

 for then the two were identical, some humble children of 

 nature who worshipped at this dual shrine were impressed 

 with the likeness to the female pudenda of cowry-shells, 

 picked up no doubt on the shores of the Red Sea ; and 

 with the analogy between the process by which the 

 mollusc extruded itself from its shell to the act of parturi- 

 tion. In strict accordance with the teaching of the time 

 this discovery naturally made the cowry an amulet for 

 insuring in women fertility and easy delivery in labour. 

 Thus these shells became appropriate offerings to be made 

 to girls on reaching maturity, or on the occasion of their 

 marriage. They were also worn to cure sterility and to 

 avert danger in parturition. These ideas spread until 

 they encircled the world. 



But the idea of encouraging the bringing to life or 

 the conception of offspring became extended to include 

 the power of vitalising or animating a corpse. This is an 



"The Relationship of the Practice of Mummification, etc.," op. cit. 

 supra. 



