1881. ] Anthropology. 71 
upon this branch of anthropology is. one of the most charm- 
ing books we have ever read, entitled, “ The Origin and Growth 
of Religion as illustrated by the Religion of Ancient Egypt. By 
P. Le Page Renouf. The Hibbert Lectures for 1879,” published 
by Charles Scribner’s Sons. The author prepares us for a proper 
comprehension of his theme by seeking to remove “ those preju- 
dices which incapacitate us from forming true judgments on 
systems alien to our own habits of thought.” The first two lec- 
tures are entirely devoted to the treatment of those subsidiary 
questions which clear the way for the proper comprehension of 
the subject, sucn as the history of the decipherment of the hiero- 
glyphics, the religious nature of the texts, Egyptian chronology as 
set forth in lists of sovereigns, genealogies and later writers, and 
including also prehistoric antiquity, ethnography, language, art, 
moral code, caste,and marriage customs. In the third lecture 
begins the special treatment of the subject. And the first thing 
that strikes us is the fact that for three thousand years we have a 
religion unchanged in its salient features. In the temple of each 
province, from early times, triads and enneads occur. As each 
locality had its own deity, it carae to pass both that one god was 
worshiped in different aspects, and different gods were treated 
as the same divine person. This reminds us of the fashion among 
our own Indians of using the same animal in various tribes under 
different names as the head of their respective gentes; but these 
sacred animals are not the same in passing from one tribe to 
another. This inextricable confusion is simplified in the gods of 
the first order by reducing them to two categories: 1. Ra and his 
family; 2. Osiris and his family. Ra, the sun-god, is borne 
across the sky in a boat, he proceeded from Nu (the sky), the 
father of the gods. His adversary is Apap (darkness). Shu (the 
air), and Tefnut (the dew) are the children of Ra. Osiris (the 
sun), is the eldest of five children of Seb (the earth, also the 
goose), and Nut (the heaven mother). He wedded his sister Isis 
while in his mother’s womb, and their offspring was the elder 
Horus (the Sun). Seb and Nephthys, another wedded pair, are 
their brother and sister. Seb slays Osiris, who, being avenged by 
Orus his son, reigns in the nether world. he discussion of _ 
monotheism in this chapter, pp. 92-96, the interpretation of the — 
Egyptian word nutar, Power, pp. 96-108, and the Reign of Law, | 
aig the title of Maat, are among the best pieces of work in the 
ook, 
_ The fourth lecture is devoted to the rites of burial, the construc- 
tion and ornamentation of their tombs, the Ka or genius, religious 
endowments, the material form and substance of the soul, posses- 
sion, dreams, oaths, omnipresence of the gods, angels, destiny, and 
the divine vicegerency of the king. The religious books of Egypt 
are the theme of the fifth lecture. Chief among these is the so-called 
“Book of the Dead.” It is indeed no book at all; but a collection 
