teres Egyptiens," 1913, pp. 13-17.)]

[101: Many other factors played a part in the development of the stories
of the birth of ancestors from stones. I have already referred to the
origin of the idea of the cowry (or some other shell) as the parent of
mankind. The place of the shell was often taken by roughly carved
stones, which of course were accredited with the same power of being
able to produce men, or of being a sort of egg from which human beings
could be hatched. It is unlikely that the finding of fossilized animals
played any leading role in the development of these beliefs, beyond
affording corroborative evidence in support of them after other
circumstances had been responsible for originating the stories. The more
circumstantial Oriental stories of the splitting of stones giving birth
to heroes and gods may have been suggested by the finding in pebbles of
fossilized shells--themselves regarded already as the parents of
mankind. But such interpretations were only possible because all the
predisposing circumstances had already prepared the way for the
acceptance of these specific illustrations of a general theory.

These beliefs may have developed before and quite independently of the
ideas concerning the animation of statues; but if so the latter event
would have strengthened and in some places become merged with the other
story.]

[102: For an extensive collection of these remarkable petrifaction
legends in almost every part of the world, see E. Sidney Hartland's "The
Legend of Perseus," especially Volumes I and III. These distinctive
stories will be found to be complexly interwoven with all the matters
discussed in this address.]

The Worship of the Cow.

Intimately linked with the subjects I have been discussing is the
worship of the cow. It would lead me too far afield to enter into the
details of the process by which the earliest Mother-Goddesses became so
closely associated or even identified with the cow, and why the cow's
horns became associated with the moon among the emblems of Hathor.
But it is essential that reference should be made to certain aspects of
the subject.

I do not think there is any evidence to justify the common theory that
the likeness of the crescent moon to a cow's horns was the reason for
the association. On the other hand, it is clear that both the moon and
the cow became identified with the Mother-Goddess quite independently
the one of the other, and at a very remote pe