336 
“ When they would represent eternity differently, they delineate a serpent 
with its tail covered hy the rest of its body, and they place golden figures of 
it round the gods* The Egyptians say that eternity is represented by this 
Fig. 81. The symbolic serpent of the deity IAQ. (Drawn from memory.) 
animal because of the three existing species of serpents; the others are 
mortal, but this alone is immortal, and because it destroys any other amma 
by merely breathing upon it, even without biting. And hence, as it appears to 
have the power of life and death, they place it upon the heads of the go . . 
This evidently refers to the urEeus only, who is fr e q“ en % 
.oil t (fig- S3). Hence .no., the ongm »f the 
* On the front of the head-dresses peculiar to ^™f^“ e d r ^hich a 
t Horapollo, ub ; L it ^,i3ranceT misunderstood or forgotten, is 
ssfi istSi 
