m 



Photo fromlCgypt E^xijloration Fund 



IBIS-HE:ADI:D THOTH giving I.II*E to SETY I : ABYDOS TEMPIvE 



"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 

 whose magical wisdom 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 1046). 



tainty of direction out in the limitless, 

 trackless, demonic desert, and the fact 

 that though his home is the desert, yet he 

 is never far from an oasis, made this 

 animal the best possible symbol of a 

 guide for the dead. 



Blessed even now is the lost traveler 

 on these sands who sees a jackal track ! 

 It was only last year that a member of 

 this very camp was lost on the gebel, and 

 would have spent the night there had he 

 not, by good fortune, found a jackal 

 track, which guided him to the valley. 

 Says the Book of the Dead: ''I am the 

 Jackal of Jackals, I am Shu, and I draw 

 air from the presence of the God of Light 

 to the bounds of Heaven and to the 

 bounds of earth and to the bounds of the 

 uttermost limits of the flight of the Nebeh 

 bird. May air be given unto these young 

 divine beings !" 



Not folly, but religious devotion, 

 caused the Egyptians to honor this ani- 

 mal and thus pictorially teach a great 

 truth concerning the mystic journey from 

 death to life and the soul's need of a 



heavenly guide if it make the journey 

 successfully. Yonder far to the west is 

 Khargah, the longed for oasis, and Anu- 

 bis is the only possible guide thither and 

 the jackal is his embodiment. Let us 

 give him honor ! 



THE SPHINX CITY OE THE EARTH 



Abydos ic the Sphinx city of the earth. 

 Only three other places in Egypt can 

 compare with it in the extent and majesty 

 of its ruins, and no other possesses the 

 deep mystery which glooms the strange 

 and inexplicable constructions. Here 

 was situated the oldest sanctuary known 

 in human history, dedicated to Osiris and 

 almost certainly dating back to the first 

 dynasty. 



Here is the largest and oldest necropo- 

 lis of the world, where for 3,000 years 

 the nobles of Egypt came for burial, and 

 even when unable to find final resting 

 place in this sacred ground, here they 

 would lie in state under the shadow of 

 the temple of the beautiful-faced Osiris 

 and bury here some sacred images and 



1050 



