f Shu, and as each divine son was one with his parents, it inevitably
followed that these parents themselves were identical with Tumu.
Reasoning in this way, the Egyptians naturally tended towards that
conception of the divine oneness to which the theory of the Hermopolitan
Ogdoad was already leading them. In fact, they reached it, and the
monuments show us that in comparatively early times the theologians were
busy uniting in a single person the prerogatives which their ancestors
had ascribed to many different beings. But this conception of deity
towards which their ideas were converging has nothing in common with the
conception of the God of our modern religions and philosophies. No god
of the Egyptians was ever spoken of simply as God. Tumu was the "one
and only god"--_nutir uau uaiti_--at Heliopolis; Anhuri-Shu was also the
"one and only god" at Sebennytos and at Thinis. The unity of Atumu did
not interfere with that of Anhuri-Shu, but each of these gods, although
the "sole" deity in his own domain, ceased to be so in the domain of the
other. The feudal spirit, always alert and jealous, prevented the higher
dogma which was dimly apprehended in the temples from triumphing over
local religions and extending over the whole land. Egypt had as many
"sole" deities as she had large cities, or even important temples; she
never accepted the idea of the sole God, "beside whom there is none
other."

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CHAPTER III.---THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

_THE DIVINE DYNASTIES: RA, SHU, OSIEIS, SIT, HOEUS--THOT, AND THE
INVENTION OF SCIENCES AND WRITING--MENES, AND THE THREE FIRST HUMAN
DYNASTIES._

_The Egyptians claim to Be the most ancient of peoples: traditions
concerning the creation of man and of animals--The Heliopolitan Enneads
the framework of the divine dynasties--Ra, the first King of Egypt, and
his fabulous history: he allows himself to be duped and robbed by Isis,
destroys rebellious men, and ascends into heaven.

The legend of Shu and Sibil--The reign of Osiris Onnophris and of Isis:
they civilize Egypt and the world--Osiris, slain by Sit, is entombed by
Isis and avenged by Horus--The wars of Typhon and of Horus: peace, and
the division of Egypt between the two gods.

The Osirian embalmment; the kingdom of Osiris opened to the followers of
Horus--The Book of the Dead--The journeying of the soul in searc