of the museum, than this hearing of the old words actually spoken by the
modern inhabitants of the land.

The religion of Ancient Egypt, like those of Greece and Rome, was killed
by Christianity, which largely gave place, at a later date, to
Muhammedanism; and yet, in the hearts of the people there are still an
extraordinary number of the old pagan beliefs. I will mention a few
instances, taking them at random from my memory.

In, ancient days the ithiphallic god Min was the patron of the crops,
who watched over the growth of the grain. In modern times a degenerate
figure of this god Min, made of whitewashed wood and mud, may be seen
standing, like a scarecrow, in the fields throughout Egypt. When the
sailors cross the Nile they may often be heard singing _Ya Amuni, Ya
Amuni_, "O Amon, O Amon," as though calling upon that forgotten god for
assistance. At Aswan those who are about to travel far still go up to
pray at the site of the travellers' shrine, which was dedicated to the
gods of the cataracts. At Thebes the women climb a certain hill to make
their supplications at the now lost sanctuary of Meretsegert, the
serpent-goddess of olden times. A snake, the relic of the household
goddess, is often kept as a kind of pet in the houses of the peasants.
Barren women still go to the ruined temples of the forsaken gods in the
hope that there is virtue in the stones; and I myself have given
permission to disappointed husbands to take their childless wives to
these places, where they have kissed the stones and embraced the figures
of the gods. The hair of the jackal is burnt in the presence of dying
people, even of the upper classes, unknowingly to avert the jackal-god
Anubis, the Lord of Death. A scarab representing the god of creation is
sometimes placed in the bath of a young married woman to give virtue to
the water. A decoration in white paint over the doorways of certain