DISCOVERY 



155 



numbers, which had been dug up during the 

 recent excavations of Seyd bey Khashbeh and lay 

 scattered about the ancient burial site on which our 

 camp was situated. Their object was to " jump " 

 over the bone in order to ensure the production of off- 

 spring. I acceded to their request and then, of course, 

 thought of my " pendants," which unfortunately I 

 had forgotten to bring out to Egypt with me. How- 

 ever, I sent a message to the women to say that I had 

 written to England, requesting that certain very potent 

 charms that I possessed should be sent to me as soon as 

 possible. 



When the parcel arrived, I caused the fact to be 

 known in the various villages of the district, at the samt/ 

 time intimating that I should be glad to see any of the 

 women who wished to make use of them. From that 

 time onwards, in order to take advantage of my offer, 

 women, sometimes as many as ten at a time, would 

 walk from their various villages across the lower desert 

 up to our camp on the hills which rose into the upper 

 desert. They were usually accompanied by a middle- 

 aged man or woman, sometimes by both. The man was 

 not present at the ceremony, but the woman chaperon 

 stayed with them all the time. 



The ritual was as follows : The women first repaired 



mouth of the shaft admitting to the subterranean 

 burial chamber. When all had thus performed, they 

 returned to the undccorated tomb-chapel in which I 



Fig. I.— a W0>L\X in the ACT OP STEPPING OVER TWO OF 

 THE BI,UE-GI,.\ZED .4MUI,ETS, OUTSIDE THE ROCK-CUT 

 TOMB-CHAPEI, WHERE THE AUTHOR LIVED. 



to one of the ancient decorated tomb-chapels, ac- 

 companied by our servant, who had the key, and on 

 entering they, one by one, stepped seven times back- 

 wards and forwards over what they supposed to be the 



FIG. 2.— THE BLUE-GI.AZED AMULETS. 



lived. Here I produced the charms, two of which were 

 placed on the ground at a time, and then were solemnly 

 stepped over seven times, backwards and forwards, by 

 each woman (Fig. i). Four charms in all were used, 

 representing the head of Isis, a mummiform divinity, 

 a scarab, and a cat (Fig. 2). When this was accom- 

 plished, a lower jaw-bone of an ancient Egyptian was 

 placed on the ground and a similar ceremony was gone 

 through, this ceremony being also repeated in the case 

 of two heads of the ancient inhabitants, one a well- 

 preserved mummified head, the other a skull. A 

 glass of water was then brought, into which the blue- 

 glazed charms were dropped. Each woman drank 

 some of the water, and then picked out the charms and 

 sucked them. Some of the women also rubbed their 

 bodies with these magical objects. Generally, especially 

 when, as was often the case, I took my charms to women 

 in the \'illages, each woman would have a separate 

 tumbler of water into which the charms were placed, 

 and, after drinking some of the water, sucking the 

 charms, and sometimes rubbing herself with them, 

 she took the remainder of the water and douched her- 

 self with it. 



It may interest my readers to know that on my re- 

 turn to Egypt at the end of last year one of the first 

 items of news communicated to me by my servant 

 was that at least two of the women who had " jumped " 

 over my charms and the ancient heads and jaw-bone 

 would shortly present their husbands with a child. 



I am told that great efficacy is attached to the pjTa- 

 mids, and that a childless woman will repair to one of 

 them and walk round it seven times, believing that 

 this will enable her to become a mother. Women 

 sometimes beg to be allowed to remove small portions 



