mentioned will indicate the affection and mystic emotion he
inspired. "Homage to thee, O Hapi! (i.e. the Nile). Thou comest
forth in this land, and dost come in peace to make Egypt to live,
O thou hidden one, thou guide of the darkness whensoever it is
thy pleasure to be its guide. Thou waterest the fields which Ra
hath created, thou makest all animals to live, thou makest the
land to drink without ceasing; thou descendest the path of
heaven, thou art the friend of meat and drink, thou art the giver
of the grain, and thou makest every place of work to flourish, O
Ptah! . . . If thou wert to be overcome in heaven the gods would
fall down headlong, and mankind would perish."

In this passage the mystic observes how the natural power of
running water to suggest spontaneous movement, and therefore
life, is accentuated and denned by the actual results of the river's
beneficent overflow. And a further step is taken when Hapi is
addressed by the names of Ptah (as above) and Khnemu; for he
is not thus confused with the gods so named, but being the great
life-supplier for the land, he is, like them, regarded as a creative
power. The development of the ideas suggested is thus
essentially parallel to that described in the chapter on the
Teutonic myths of the three subterranean wells and the
World-tree.

But can any distinctive features of the Egyptian religion be
traced to the influences exerted by the phenomena of the Nile?
Most decidedly so--in two directions more especially. That
religion is one of contrasts; it represents the world as a scene of
titanic conflict. The realm of Osiris is opposed to that of
Typhon--creation to destruction. And the master influence in