THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 19 



Besides this mundane egg theory of 

 Egyptian cosmogony, that of Trans- 

 mutation was resuscitated in the 19th cen- 

 tury by some of your scientists as the best 

 mode of explaining the origin of the human 

 race. Perhaps the earliest propounder of 

 this theory was the Latin poet OVID,* 

 as he describes in his Metamorphosis the 

 many changes which a sacred hierophant 

 represents himself to have undergone before 

 becoming one of the human race " I have 

 been a blue salmon, a dog, a stag, a roe- 

 buck on the mountains, a stock of a tree, 

 a spade, an axe in the head, a pin in a 

 forceps for a year and a half, a cock varie- 

 gated with white, a horse, a buck of yellow 

 hue in the act of feeding. I have been a 

 grain vegetating on a hill. I was received 

 by a hen with red fangs, and remained 

 nine nights an infant inside her. I have 

 been in Hades; I have died; I have 

 revived; and conspicuous with my ivy 

 branch, I have been a leader, and by my 

 bounty I became poor" 



* See Appendix A. 



o 2 



