Egypt. It shows a tender- 

 ness of regard and loving 

 homage entirely unexpect- 

 ed. Even the feathers, 

 sometimes with the purple 

 sheen still brilliant, and the 

 scattered bones of these 

 creatures were carefully 

 gathered up and put in 

 mummy form, although the 

 body itself had been de- 

 stroyed. In one the eggs 

 were also carefully pre- 

 served. It is in the realm 

 of the old Egyptian faith 

 that we must look for the 

 explanation. 



In the divine days after 

 the reorganization of the 

 heavens and the earth, when 

 Ra left the earth to traverse 

 in his golden barque the 

 shining waters of the ce- 

 lestial ocean and to scatter 

 his beams of light over the 

 two lands, then the majesty 

 of the god Ra spake unto 

 Thoth: "Let us go, leaving 

 heaven and my dwelling, 

 for I will make something 

 shining and resplendent in 

 the underworld and in the 

 land of the deep. There 

 shalt thou register those 

 who did wicked deeds as 

 inhabitants, and there shalt 

 thou imprison them. But 

 thou art in my place and 

 thou shalt be called Thoth, 

 the representative of Ra. 

 I also give unto thee power 

 to send forth thy messen- 

 gers." Thereupon the ibis, 

 the messenger of Thoth, 

 came into being. 



rut VIRTUES 01^ the: ibis 



Such was the mythologi- 

 cal creation of the divine 

 bird. A twelfth dynasty 

 artist has preserved for us 

 his portrait of the ibis in 

 the fourth of the Beni 

 Hasan tombs. The plu- 

 mage is white except head, 

 neck, and extremity of the 

 wings and tail, all which 

 are quite black. The mi- 



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