reptiles of all kinds, and their number, and the importance which was
attached to them, suggest that Egypt must always have produced these
pests in abundance, and that the Egyptians were always horribly afraid
of them. The text of Unas, which was written towards the close of the
Vth Dynasty, contains many such spells, and in the Theban and Saite
Books of the Dead several Chapters consist of nothing but spells and
incantations, many of which are based on archaic texts, against
crocodiles, serpents, and other deadly reptiles, and insects of all
kinds. All such creatures were regarded as incarnations of evil
spirits, which attack the dead as well as the living, and therefore it
was necessary for the well-being of the former that copies of spells
against them should be written upon the walls of tombs, coffins,
funerary amulets, etc. The gods were just as open to the attacks of
venomous reptiles as man, and Ra, himself, the king of the gods, nearly
died from the poison of a snake-bite. Now the gods were, as a rule,
able to defend themselves against the attacks of Set and his fiends,
and the poisonous snakes and insects which were their emissaries, by
virtue of the fluid of life, which was the peculiar attribute of
divinity, and the efforts of Egyptians were directed to the acquisition
of a portion of this magical power, which would protect their souls and
bodies and their houses and cattle, and other property, each day and
each night throughout the year. When a man cared for the protection of
himself only he wore an amulet of some kind, in which the fluid of life
was localized. When he wished to protect his house against invasion by
venomous reptiles he placed statues containing the fluid of life in
niches in the walls of various chambers, or in some place outside but
near the house, or buried them in the earth with their faces turned in
the direction from which he expected the attack to come.