385 
Fig. 114. Porcelain amulet (exact size). The goddess Ranno. (Hay collection.) 
charms, talismans, and incantations (figs. 113, 114). Some of 
these, of the Greco-Egyptian or Ptolemaic period, have been 
Fig. 115. Wooden amulet for domestic use. Same deity. (Leemans.) 
preserved to the present time (fig. 115). The highly symbolical 
nature of the figures depicted, and mythical character of the 
words employed, render them exceedingly difficult of interpre- 
tation ; not to mention the circumstance that in many instances 
the papyri and tablets have been wilfully defaced, or broken 
asunder by later sectaries. One of them, engraved by Sharpe, - 
in the Egyptian Inscriptions ,* has been in part translated by 
M. Chabas,t and appears to contain, in the first section, a series 
of directions or rubrics to the mourners or embalmers. After 
these follows the charm itself, being an adjuration against the 
serpenPs enemies, both in this earth and Amenti, addressed 
to Horns, the protector of the dead. 
“ 0 sheep, son of a sheep, lamb, son of a sheep, who suckest the milk of 
thy mother the sheep, do not let the defunct he bitten by any serpent, male 
or female, by any scorpion or any reptile ; do not let any one of them 
possess [have the mastery] over his limbs. Do not let him be penetrated [or 
possessed] by any male or female dead ; may no shade of any spirit haunt 
him, may the mouth of the serpent Ham-ha-hu-f have no power over 
him.” (Figs. 116, 117.) 
# Egyptian Inscriptions , fol. 1837, plates 9-12. 
t Bulletin Archeologique, p. 44, Juin, 1855. 
2 I 2 
