X.ITCRH 



[May 2, iSq5 



■description of the gods of "The Book of the Dead," and | 

 of the pnncipal geographical and mythological places 

 mentioned therein. The practical side of Egyptian 

 worship then engages our attention, and we see the I 

 priest performing the complicated system of ritual and 

 ceremony that accompanied (he burial of the dead : and, 

 the ground having thus been cleared, one passes on to a i 

 consideration of the Papyrus of Ani itself. -Ani, in whose . 

 honour the work was written, was chancellor of the 

 ecclesiastical revenues and endowments of .Abydos and i 

 Thebes. From the fact of his exalted official position, 

 therefore, we may, with Dr. Budge, regard liis Papyrus ' 

 as ■■ typical of the funeral book in vogue among the 

 Theban nobles of his tmie." 



In the course of the Introduction Dr. Budge has 

 .admirably distinguished the uses of the Egyptian word 

 m-ter, which correspond to a transition from anthropo- 

 morphic and pol>'theistic ideas to a lofty monotheism. ; 

 The derivation of the word is a moot point among ^ 

 Egyptologists, though all agree in rendering the word 

 by "'god.'' Its original signification, however, may be 



• disregarded, for it does not affect the later history of the 

 word, with which we are at present concerned. What- 



• ever its origin, there is no doubt that the singular iicUr 

 is often used to express an entirely different conception 

 to'] that conveyed by iicteru, its plural, the former being 

 employed to designate a supreme god, the latter a j 

 number of powers and beings, which were held to be ; 

 supernatural, but were finite and endowed with human ' 

 qualities and limitations. The truth of this will be 



■ evident to any one who will read through the passages 

 ■collected by Dr. Budge in support of his contention. 



Dr. Budge- cites the similar difficulty that attaches to 

 the interpretation of the Hebrew word Hloltiin, a com- , 

 parison that might be dwelt on with advantage. One 

 point of difference, however, may here be noted. In 

 the history -of the Hebrews we can point to the exact 

 period when the radical change from polytheism to the 

 belief in one god took place. With the rise of the 

 prophets in the ninth century l!.c. the nation im- 

 bibed thij loftier conception, and they assimilated the 

 prophetic teaching with such effect, that, durinj; the posl- 



■ exilic collection of the national literature, all traces of 

 their former polytheism were as far as possible obliter- 

 ated. In their literature, therefore, as it has reached 

 us, the earlier national beliefs have survived only in 

 mdirect allusions and in the form of single words. With 

 the Egyptians, on the other hand, this change in con- 

 i:eption can be ascribed to no particular epoch. We 

 find the idea of a supreme god in existence as early as 

 the fifth dynasty ; yet throughout the whole period of 

 Egyptian history there existed side by side with it the 

 lower conception of half-human deities, and the belief 

 in an eternal and infinite god was not considered incon- 

 sistent with legends concerning lesser deities, who could 

 eat and drink, and, like men, grew old and died. 



To this tolerance, or rather attachment, <lisplaye(l l)y 

 the Egyptians for their legends and traditional beliefs, 

 students of roniparalivc religion at the present day owe 

 a lasting debt of gratitude. For many of the legends 

 preserved in late papyri have been handed down un- 

 changed from earlier times, while the earlier monuments 

 themselves have escaped the fury of the iconoclast. We 

 NO. 1331, VOL. 52] 



will refer to one such legend cited by Dr. Budge. In .i 

 text of the fifth dynasty, the deceased king Unas is de- 

 scribed in the form of a god as feeding upon men and 

 gods. He hunts the gods in the fields, and, having; 

 snared them, roasts and eats the best of them, using thi- 

 old gods and goddesses for fuel ; and, by thus eating; 

 their bodies and drinking the blood, he absorbs their 

 divine nature and life into his own. Many parallels to 

 this quaint legend might be cited from the primitive 

 beliefs of other races. 



We cannot conclude without a reference to the un- 

 poleniical spirit in which the book is written, which is 

 perhaps the result of a scientific training in Semitic 

 languages and literature ha\ ing been brought to bear on 

 the difficult problems of Egyptian religion. Througliout 

 the work it is evident that one of the chief aims of Dr. 

 Budge has been to assist the reader to understand tlu- 

 e\idence which documents nearly 7000 >ears old are here 

 made to produce, and to judge of its value for himself. 

 To the anthropologist and the student of comparative 

 religion we, theiefore, believe the work will be equally 

 valuable. 



THE POLLINATION OF FLOIVERS. 

 0''i'?- (ic Bciirttcliting licr liloeiiitii in lut Kciiipisch 

 Gcdielte van Vlaandercn. By J. .Mac Leod. With 

 125 Figures. (Gent: X'uylsteke, 1894.) 



THIS book is prefaced with a historical introduction 

 which traces the study of the biology of flowers 

 from the appearance of the work of Camerarius in 1691 

 to the present day. Not only does the author give an 

 account of the work of the \arious writers, but he also 

 devotes a gooc^ deal of space to criticising their con- 

 clusions, and comparing them with one another. Of 

 these criticisms, it may be noticed, that he considers that 

 too much importance has been ascribed to the colours of 

 flowers in attracting insect-visitors, and he adduces 

 several facts in support of his view. From these 

 examples it appears that there are certainly some cases 

 in which the bright colours of flowers have not got the 

 object of attracting insects : yet surely in the vast majority 

 of cases, whether the development of bright colours was 

 primarily for this object or not, the showj floral lca\es 

 act as advertisements to catch the eye of wandering 

 insects. .\s the author substitutes no definite theory 10 

 account for the colouration of flowers, it seems prol)able 

 that the old view will hold its ground. 



The greater part of the book labout 430 pp.l is 

 taken up with an account of the floral nu'chanisnis of 

 the plants found in East and West Flanders. The 

 mechanisms of a large number of species are carefully 

 described, and the descriptions are illustrated by many 

 good woodcuts, in great part original, in a few cases I 

 borrowed from other authors. .\t the conclusion of the 

 description of each species a list of their insect-visitors 

 is given ; these lists appear to be very complete, and will 

 doubtless be useful for reference. 



The latter part of the work is largely taken up with an 

 endeavour to find a |)arallelism between the annual 

 evolution of the various classes of plants and insect•^. 

 classified according to their mutual biolot^ical relations. 

 But the author admits thai this attempt has not bei.n 

 successfid. 



