ept it as it occurs, and yet it exercises a decisive influence
on the manner of his death. According as he enters the world on the 4th,
5th, or 6th of Paophi, he either dies of marsh fever, of love, or of
drunkenness. The child of the 23rd perishes by the jaws of a crocodile:
that of the 27th is bitten and dies by a serpent. On the other hand, the
fortunate man whose birthday falls on the 9th or the 29th lives to an
extreme old age, and passes away peacefully, respected by all.

[Illustration: 304.jpg THE GODS FIGHTING FOE THE MAGICIAN WHO HAS
INVOKED THEM. 1]

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the tracing by Golbnischeff,
_Die Metternich-Stele_, pi, iii. 14.

Thot, having pointed out the evil to men, gave to them at the same time
the remedy. The magical arts of which he was the repository, made him
virtual master of the other gods. He knew their mystic names, their
secret weaknesses, the kind of peril they most feared, the ceremonies
which subdued them to his will, the prayers which they could not refuse
to grant under pain of misfortune or death. His wisdom, transmitted to
his worshippers, assured to them the same authority which he exercised
upon those in heaven, on earth, or in the nether world. The magicians
instructed in his school had, like the god, control of the words and
sounds which, emitted at the favourable moment with the "correct voice,"
would evoke the most formidable deities from beyond the confines of the
universe: they could bind and loose at will Osiris, Sit, Anubis, even
Thot himself; they could send them forth, and recall them, or constrain
them to work and fight for them. The extent of their power exposed the
magicians to terrible temptations; they were often led to use it to the
detriment of others, to satisfy their spite, or to gratify their grosser
appetites. Many, moreover, made a gain of their knowledge, putting it at
the service of the ignorant who would pay for it. When they were asked
to plague or get rid of an enemy, they had a hundred different ways of
suddenly surrounding him without his suspecting it: they tormented him
with deceptive or terrifying dreams; they harassed him with apparitions
and mysterious voices; they gave him as a prey to sicknesses, to
wandering spectres, who entered into him and slowly consumed him. They
constrained, even at a distance, the wills of men; they caused women to
be the victims of infatuations, to forsake those they had loved, and
to love tho