384 
or rather genera, of Coluber, Naja, and Asp (fig. 6, etc.). 
The ancient writers gravely asserted that the sand of the 
Theban desert spontaneously generated these dangerous 
reptiles ; * and it would seem as if the whole of the Theban 
mythology were buried in the cockatrice den, or written upon 
the skin of a snake. 
41. A peculiar malignity, according to the Egyptians, attached 
itself to a serpent's bite, for not only was it fatal to the 
living, but the dead themselves became obnoxious to its influ- 
ence. The pure spirit of the Eternal could not inhabit a body 
Fig. 113. Steatite amulet (exact size). The goddess Mersokar. (Hay collection. ) 
infected with the venom of a snake or scorpion. t Hence the 
mummies of the deceased were protected from ophite injury by 
Fig. 112. Hahab, or Nahab-ka, as in fig. 109, 
# Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. cap. i. 
f Ritual, caps. xxxv. and xli. 
