, had given birth to all men,
Egyptians (_romitu, rotu_), Libyans, and Asiatics, excepting
only the negroes. The latter were born from another part of
his body by the same means as those employed by Atumu in the
creation of Shu and Tafnuit.

** The same story is told, but with reference to rats only,
by Pliny, by Diodorus, by AElianus, by Macrobius, and by
other Greek or Latin writers. Even in later times, and in
Europe, this pretended phenomenon met with a certain degree
of belief, as may be seen from the curious work of Marcus
Fredericus Wendelinus, _Archipalatinus, Admiranda Nili_,
Franco-furti, mdcxxiii., cap. xxi. pp. 157-183. In Egypt all
the fellahin believe in the spontaneous generation of rats
as in an article of their creed. They have spoken to me of
it at Thebes, at Denderah, and on the plain of Abydos; and
Major Brown has lately noted the same thing in the Fayum.
The variant which he heard from the lips of the notables is
curious, for it professes to explain why the rats who infest
the fields in countless bands during the dry season,
suddenly disappear at the return of the inundation; born of
the mud and putrid water of the preceding year, to mud they
return, and as it were dissolve at the touch of the new
waters.

It was not Ra alone whose tears were endowed with vitalizing power. All
divinities whether beneficent or malevolent, Sit as well as Osiris or
Isis, could give life by weeping; and the work of their eyes, when once
it had fallen upon earth, flourished and multiplied as vigorously as
that which came from the eyes of Ra.

[Illustration: 224.jpg KHNUMU MODELLING MAN UPON A POTTER'S TABLE. 1]

1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gayet. The scene is
taken from bas-reliefs in the temple of Luxor, where the god
Khnumu is seen completing his modelling of the future King
Amenothes III. and his double, represented as two children
wearing the side-lock and large necklace. The first holds
his finger to his lips, while the arms of the second swing
at his sides.

The individual character of the creator was not without bearing upon
the nature of his creatures; good was the necessary outcome of the
good gods, evil of the evil ones; and herein lay the explanation of
the mingling of things excellent and things execrable, which is found
everywhere throughout th