charm. If the papyrus or linen were steeped in water and the water
drunk, the words were equally efficacious as a charm against snake-
bites. To this day water in which the written words of a text from the
Kur'an have been dissolved, or water drunk from a bowl on the inside of
which religious texts have been written, is still regarded as a never-
failing charm in Egypt and the Sudan. Thus we see that the modern
custom of drinking magical water was derived from the ancient
Egyptians, who believed that it conveyed into their bodies the actual
power of their gods.





IV.




THE LEGEND OF HERU-BEHUTET AND THE WINGED DISK.




The text of this legend is cut in hieroglyphics on the walls of the
temple of Edfu in Upper Egypt, and certain portions of it are
illustrated by large bas-reliefs. Both text and reliefs were published
by Professor Naville in his volume entitled Mythe d'Horus, fol., plates
12-19, Geneva, 1870. A German translation by Brugsch appeared in the
Ahandlungen der Gottinger Akademie, Band xiv., pp. 173-236, and another