Mane J Lester Memoirs, Vol. lix. (191 5), No. 10. 133 



cision), and probably were sun-worshippers. Long before 

 3400 B.C. they began to work copper and gold. By 3000 

 B.C. they had begun the practice of embalming, making 

 rock-cut tombs, stone superstructures and temples. By 

 the mere chance that the capital of the united Kingdom 

 of Egypt happened to be in the centre of serpent-worship 

 (and the curious symbolism associated with it — Sethe, 74), 

 the sun, serpent and Horus-hawk (the older symbol of 

 royalty) became blended in the symbol of sun-worship 

 and as the emblem of the king, who was regarded as the 

 son of the sun-god. 



The peculiar beliefs regarding the possibility of ani- 

 mate beings dwelling in stone-statues (and later even in 

 uncarved columns), and of human beings becoming petri- 

 fied, developed out of the Egyptian practices of the 

 Pyramid Age (circa 2800 B.C.). 



By 900 B.C. practically the whole of the complex 

 structure of the "heliolithic" culture had become built up 

 and definitely conventionalized in Egypt, with numerous 

 purely accidental additions from neighbouring countries. 



The great migration of the " heliolithic" culture-com- 

 plex probably began shortly before 800 B.C. [Its influence 

 in the Mediterranean and in Europe, as also in China and 

 Japan, is merely mentioned incidentally in this communi- 

 cation.] 



Passing to the east the culture-complex reached the 

 Persian Gulf strongly tainted with the influence of North 

 Syria and Asia Minor, and when it reached the west 

 coast of India and Ceylon, possibly as early as the end of 

 the eighth century B.C., it had been profoundly influenced 

 not only by these Mediterranean, Anatolian and es- 

 pecially Babylonian accretions, but even more profoundly 

 with Eastern African modifications. These Ethiopian 

 influences become more pronounced in Indonesia (no 



