Photo from J^gypt Eixploration Fund 



mummifie:d ibises in bi,ack and white ceremonial wrappings 



"These grave coverings are more carefully tailored and as handsomely and elaborately- 

 designed as the shrouds of Egyptian princesses. Very few, indeed, of the royal family ever 

 possessed burial garments equal to some of them, the cloth being of finest texture and so 

 perfectly manufactured that even its color is in some cases completely preserved. These 

 mummy wrappings have received the most elaborate and loving decorations — rosettes and 

 figures of ibises, and royal crowns and other beautiful designs surprisingly artistic in their 

 color scheme, being worked upon these 'shrouds' by fingers expert in the finest needlework" 

 (see page 1043). 



THE GOD WITH THE IBIS HEAD 



It was in the form of an ibis that 

 Thoth, inventor of astrology and mathe- 

 matics, the god of w^isdom and magic, 

 had escaped from Set, the evil god of 

 the underw^orld. This bird w^as dedi- 

 cated to him and was indeed the hiero- 

 glyphic of his name as w^ell as the hiero- 

 glyphic for ''the soul." 



To kill an ibis, as Diodorus tells us, 

 was to commit murder and bring upon 

 one capital punishment. The reason for 

 this is seen in this bird's identification 

 with Thoth, through w^hose magical wis- 

 dom Osiris had been brought back to 

 life. One of the common titles of Thoth 

 was "He of the nose," referring to the 

 ibis beak, and he is generally represented 

 on the monuments with an ibis head (see 

 page 1050). The ibis was his ordinary 

 pictorial representative and its meaning 



in religion can only be grasped as we 

 understand Thoth's position among the 

 gods, as the great magician who had in- 

 vented the formulae which, given to Isis, 

 gathered together the scattered parts of 

 the mutilated body of Osiris and worked 

 the miracle of his revivification. 



So when Horus was stung by a scor- 

 pion and died, Nephthys, sister of Isis, 

 cried to Thoth, who came down from 

 his sun boat and by his words of power 

 brought him back to life again. What 

 he did for Osiris and Horus he could do 

 for all the myriads of the dead. If prop- 

 erly honored, he would assist these dead 

 men each to become an Osiris, and un- 

 derneath his bier, or close to the dead 

 mummy form, we can always in the 

 tomb pictures see this wonder-working, 

 ibis-headed deity. 



Why were hawks, shrews, jackals, and 

 at least one beetle occasionally buried in 



1046 



