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The Queensland Naturalist August 1947 
lives. Storms, great winds, etc., all called for explana- 
tion, and in their fear of what they did not understand, 
very naturally they attached awful significance to these 
happenings. 
Death to our “rude forefathers’' was a mystery. 
They were quick to notice that a dead body grew cold, 
and the tale was told that life was a flame within us, and 
in early myths the soul was represented as a flame. Later, 
when it was realised that breath as well as heat left the 
body, the soul was envisaged as a wind, and even as the 
wind, so does a bird fly. There is a race of people in South 
America who stuff the mouth, nose and ears of a dying 
man to prevent his soul flying out — hardly a comfortable 
condition in which to spend one’s last hours! Even 
to-day, there are people who will tell you that departed 
spirits are floating over us, and perhaps the ancients are 
right and they are birds. How many of us have used the 
expression, “A little bird told me," without thinking? 
Way back in Ecclesiastes there is a man who says, “Curse 
not the King, no, not in thy thought, and curse not the 
rich in thy bed chamber, for a bird of the air shall carry 
thy voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the 
matter.” 
The Egyptians held the Ibis to be sacred and embalm- 
ed bodies of the birds have been found. In the History of 
Herodotus we find reference to the Ibis: “The story goes 
that with the spring the winged snakes come flying from 
Arabia towards Egypt, but are met in this gorge by the 
birds called ibises, who forbid their entrance and destroy 
them all. The Arabians assert, and the Egyptians admit, 
that it is on recount of the service thus rendered that the 
Egyptians hold the ibis in so much reverence.” 
It is thought thal the winged snakes referred to were 
locusts which approached Egypt in great swarms from the 
east, and the destruction of which was of great service. 
There is < record, however, of the skin of a partly digested 
snake being found hv Cuvier in the intestines of one of 
the mummified birds. Further, the arrival of the flocks 
of ibis coincided with the inundation of the Nile, and the 
season of plenty, and this doubtless further endeared the 
ibis to the people. So for its virtues the head of the ibis 
became the representation of the God Thoth. God of 
Intelligence and the Moon, inventor of magic spells, 
numerical figures and time-keepers. “Lord of the creative 
