utterly removed from contact with Egypt, as they are part of the European
folk-lore of the visits of mortals to fairyland (in which it is fatal to
taste fairy food), I do not see that Eleusis need have borrowed such
common elements of early belief from the Egyptians in the seventh century
B.C. {90} One might as well attribute to Egypt the Finnish legend of the
descent of Wainamoinen into Tuonela; or the experience of the aunt of
Montezuma just before the arrival of Cortes; or the expedition to
fairyland of Thomas the Rhymer. It is not pretended by M. Foucart that
the _details_ of the "Book of the Dead" were copied in Greek ritual; and
the general idea of a river to cross, of dangerous monsters to avoid, of
perils to encounter, of precautions to be taken by the wandering soul, is
nearly universal, where it must be unborrowed from Egypt, in Polynesian
and Red Indian belief. As at Eleusis, in these remote tribes formulas of
a preservative character are inculcated.

The "Book of the Dead" was a guidebook of the itinerary of Egyptian
souls. Very probably similar instruction was given to the initiate at
Eleusis. But the Fijians also have a regular theory of what is to be
done and avoided on "The Path of the Shades." The shade is ferried by
Ceba (Charon) over Wainiyalo (Lethe); he reaches the mystic pandanus tree
(here occurs a rite); he meets, and dodges, Drodroyalo and the two
devouring Goddesses; he comes to a spring, and drinks, and forgets sorrow
at Wai-na-dula, the "Water of Solace." After half-a-dozen other
probations and terrors, he reaches the Gods, "the dancing-ground and the
white quicksand; and then the young Gods dance before them and sing. . . . "
{91a}

Now turn to Plutarch. {91b} Plutarch compares the soul's mortal
experience with that of the initiate in the Mysteries. "There are
wanderings, darkness, fear, trembling, shuddering, horror, then a