used by the pre-dynastic Egyptians as an amulet, and though their dynastic successors do not seem to have known exactly what it represented, from the fact that they associate it with and it would appear that they associated it with the human body. Many Egyptologists have suggested identifications for, but none is satisfactory, and the fact is that no one knows what this sign represents.1 The Egyptian Christians, or Copts, adopted both the sign and its meaning in connection with the Cross of Christ, and it is seen frequently on gravestones (see the stele of Pleïnos in the Coptic Room of the British Museum). During some excavations made by the late Colonel G. T. Plunkett, R.E., and myself in 1887, near the Monastery of St. Simeon at Aswân, we found the remains of an episcopal staff with a silver head. This head was formed off,,and, joined together thus, and the fusions seem to represent the bishop's attempt to merge the symbols of the three great Egyptian amulets into the great Symbol of Christianity. The loop of the stands for the solar disk O, and for the horizon, but it was Christ, and not Rā, Whose rising with healing in His wings was indicated by the solar disk on the horizon. Thus the object represented the "Life" of Christ, Isis and Osiris, and the bishop who affixed it to his pastoral staff no doubt used it, as did the ascetics in other parts of Egypt, to drive away devils and evil spirits, and to cure diseases. IX.-The Utchat, EE, or or "Symbolic Eye." This amulet was made of faïence, glazed in various colours, wood, granite, haematite, carnelian, lapis-lazuli, gold, silver, copper and many other materials. Its name is derived from utcha,I "to be in good health," "sound and comfortable in mind and body." The reason why this amulet was so popular is obvious. The source of all health and happiness was the right Eye of Horus the Elder, and later the right Eye of Rā, which was able to protect both the living and the dead. The two Utchats, one facing to the right and the other to the left, represented the two eyes of Horus, i.e., the sun and the moon, or, as late texts seem to indicate, the southern and northern halves of the sun's daily course. The twin Utchats, , appear on coffins as early as the VIth dynasty, and indicate Les Talismans et Q," in Bull. de l'Institut Français, that the dead were under the protection of the Eyes of the Sun and Moon. On sepulchral boxes we often find them with a triple between, B. The Utchat amulet is made both as a solid plaque and in hollow-work, and when made of carnelian the eyebrow is carefully marked (B.M. 15624, 29041). Sometimes a uraeus wearing a solar disk is attached, (B.M. 29040), and sometimes it is provided with a wing and the leg and claw of a bird (hawk?) (B.M. 29222). The examples in faïence are interesting, some having a head of Hathor stamped on them (B.M. 7357), others a figure of Bes (B.M. 21547). In some two pairs of Utchats are (B.M. 7386). Occasionally the Utchat is quite united, round, and is outlined on one side, and on the convex side about 50 small eyes are shown in relief (B.M. 30035). Egyptian tradition told the story of how the Eye of Ra had suffered injury and eclipse through a mighty storm which had been stirred up by Set, or Apepi, and also of how the Eye of the Moon had been swallowed up by the same monster, but in each case the Eye was "brought back,' i.e., restored to its original state, by Thoth. The Book of the Dead (Chapter LXVII) provides a heka, or spell, which the deceased can use to prevent himself from suffering through a similar calamity. It reads: -- Jum De Imm Chapter of bringing an Utchat. حة Brought Thoth (ie., restored) Mhe Ağ the Utchat. 嘘』 s it sent forth & L 14 tempest-tossed greatly, but 18 ھے NAIL NAY It is sound [and] I am sound. 1 IM- is the scribe འ Nebseni, lord of reverence. The Egyptians celebrated a great festival in honour of the Filling of the Utchat" on the last day of the sixth month of their year, on which day the Sun-god Ra was believed to obtain his maximum strength. The Vignette of Chapter CXL in the Saïte Recension shows us the deceased adoring Anubis, and a god sitting with the R The Chapter is The first amulet A either Utchat on his head, with Rā,, behind him. ordered to be recited over two Utchat amulets. was to be made of lapis-lazuli or mag stone, plated with or set in gold, and offerings were to be made to it. The second amulet was to be made of khenem stone, and laid on some part of the body of the deceased, and when the Chapter had been recited over these, the deceased would become one of the gods, and would be able to take his seat in the boat of the Sun-god. During the recital of the Chapter at the moment when the Utchat was full, fires were to be kindled on twelve altars-four in honour of Ra-Tem, four for the Utchat, and four for the Two Companies of the Gods who sang, “Hail to thee, Rā, overthrower of Apep! Hail to thee, Ra, self-produced, who camest into being as Kheperȧ! Hail to thee, Rā, destroyer of thine enemies! Hail to thee, Rā, who hast broken the skulls of the impotent rebels, the Mesu Betshu " The day of the filling of the Utchat was the longest day of the Egyptian year. ሰ ቦ X.-The Cow, Ahat. An ancient tradi tion held that in primitive times, when the Sun-god Rā was about to set for the first time, he felt that when he had lost the vital heat which had been in him in the daytime he would become an inert, dead mass. His mother, the Sky-goddess, appealed to a mighty god by his secret names, and Rā was at once surrounded by flames of fire, which prevented his death. In the Saïte Period, or earlier, the editor of the Book of the Dead included a Chapter (CLXII) containing a series of hekau, or words of power, which were to be recited on behalf of the deceased with the intention of preserving the vital heat in his body for ever. The Chapter is entitled " Chapter of making to become heat (or, fire) under the head of the Aakhu," to be recited over a figure of a cow in fine gold, which is to be placed on the neck of the deceased. The Vignette shows the cow wearing a disk and plumes between her horns, and she has a menat suspended from her neck. Besides this a figure of the cow was to be written on a piece of new papyrus and placed under the head of the deceased, who would then retain the vital heat which he possessed during his life. When the image of the goddess was placed in position on the body the following prayer was to be said: "O Amen, O Amen who art in heaven, turn thy face upon the dead body of thy son, and make him sound and strong in Khert-Neter." The amulets of the Cow, which have been found under the heads of mummies, are circular in form, and are made up of a series of layers of linen gummed together; they are slightly concave in shape, and therefore fit the back of the mummy's head. The linen is covered with a thin layer of plaster, upon which are drawn in black outline: (1) a four-headed Ram-god adored by six dog-headed apes; (2) the cow Ahat, the Four Sons of Horus, an Ütchat goddess, and a serpent adoring a man-headed Hawk-god; (3) a god with two heads facing in opposite directions, the boat of Her-Sept, the Boat of Kheperȧ, and a boat containing the soul of the deceased. All these scenes are enclosed in a circle that is intended to represent the pupil of the Eye of Rã, and outside it extracts in hieroglyphs from Chapter CLXII are given. See the examples in the British Museum-No. 37330, which was made for Tcheḥer (Teôs), the son of Utchat-Shu, No. 35875, which was made for Her , and No. 37909, which was made for Ta-kharṭ-Khensu, XI.-The Frog, gerer. The frog was an incarnation of the goddess Ḥeqit,, who played a very important and prominent part in Egyptian mythology. She is mentioned in the Pyramid text of Pepi I,1 and she was present when Rut-Tet, the wife of the priest of Rā, gave birth to the three boys who afterwards became kings of Egypt under the names of Userkaf, Saḥurā and Kakaȧ. She presided over conception and birth, and was present when Osiris was united to Isis after his death. Her cult flourished at Abydos under the XIXth dynasty and later. On the bas-reliefs there she is seen assisting Anubis to reconstitute the body of Osiris, and she is present when the soul of Osiris is rejoining its body. And it was assumed that she was present at the birth of every king and every person of royal rank. The four great primeval gods, Nen, Heḥ, Kek and Nau, are depicted in the form of a frog. The frog amulet appears in two forms, one being about 5 inches. long and the other about half an inch long. The former, the matlamétlo (Pyxicephalus adspersus), appears from out of the sands of the desert as soon as the rains begin to fall, and the natives associate with it the idea of new life and fertility. The latter, the small tree-frog, appears suddenly in myriads as soon as the Nile begins to rise in the Sûdân, and the women of many tribes in Africa eat them, as they do the scarabaeus sacer, to make themselves fertile.1 Models of this little tree-frog were made in large numbers in steatite, faïence, hard stone, and gold, and were worn as pendants on necklaces, pectorals, etc. (for specimens see B.M. 14609, 14758, 29050). According to King (The Gnostics, London, 1864, p. 139) the frog was not an uncommon device for a heathen's signet, and it was often adopted by early converts. It came into the list of emblems of the resurrection of the body on account of the complete change of nature it goes through in the second stage of its existence, i.e., from a fish to a quadruped. And Plutarch says (De E. Delphico, X) that the frogs and the snakes on the basis of the bronze palm-tree which the Corinthians dedicated to Phoebus typified the spring. The Copts also regarded the frog as a type of the resurrection, and on a Christian lamp described by Lanzone (Dizionario, p. 853) there is a raised figure of a frog surrounded by the legend, Εγώ εἰμι ̓Ανάστασις, "I am the resurrection." In the catacombs of Alexandria the frog is often seen associated with the Cross,2 each being intended to typify resurrection. From Egypt the cult of the frog passed westwards, and even at the present day glazed earthenware models of the giant frog may be seen in many houses in Morocco and the neighbouring countries. An interesting example of the association of the frog with the symbol of virility is afforded by a bronze handle of a knife or dagger which was formerly in the well-known Collection of Dr. Fouquet in Cairo. This handle is 24 inches in length, and is formed by the figure of a pygmy who is standing on the top of a lotus flower and holding a cluster of lotus flowers. He is furnished with a large phallus, which is out of all proportion to his size, and on the end of it is perched a frog. The little green tree-frogs which swarm when the Nile is beginning to rise in the Sûdân have already been mentioned, and the frog and the pygmy together recall the Sûdânf belief in the frog as a symbol of fertility and fecundity. When the Fouquet Collection was sold in Paris in 1923 the bronze handle described above was purchased for the British Museum, where it is now preserved in the Greek and Roman Department. |