Page:Myth, Ritual, and Religion (Volume 2).djvu/365

Rh Brinton, dont il accepte les opinions, dit expressément que c'est un cas de totemisme. Voici maintenant ses paroles d'après le résumé publié dans l ' Academy:

"It will however be shown that the ancient Egyptians had myths very similar to that of the Michabo of the Algonkins, and that our knowledge of the Egyptian language enables us to see clearly into the origin of these myths, and also to see how utterly futile all speculation on the subject must be in the absence of such data as the Egyptian language alone can supply. Osiris is one of the chief gods of Egyptian mythology. That he is identical with the sun is no mere inference of modern scholars; the identity is asserted in a vast number of authoritative texts. The benefits conferred upon the earth and upon mankind are sung in hymns, many of which are still extant; and the euhemerising Greeks, as we see in Plutarch or Diodorus, derived from them the tales which recent writers on mythology call 'culture-myths.' But in the original Egyptian texts it is distinctly to Osiris as the sun, and not to a deified king, that all the benefits are ascribed. A hare-headed divinity is seen in the temple of Dendera, seated upon an invisible throne, wrapped in mummy clothing, and with the two arms and hands in the position for holding the crook and flail, characteristic of Osiris. The same hare-headed god appears in the usual vignettes of the 146th chapter of the 'Book of the Dead,' but here the throne is visible, and the hands hold knives. There is also a hare-headed goddess in a picture at Dendera whose name is ' Unnut, the mistress of the city Unnut and Dendera.' The city Unnut was the metropolis of the 15th nome of Upper Egypt, that of the hare Un, called by the Greeks Hermopolites. The male divinity would be called Un or Unnu, even when the final vowel is omitted in writing. It may be asked, Do we know of such a god? Unne-fer, or rather Unnu-neferu, as a proper name, bears the same relation to Unnu that Ra-neferu, Hor-neferu, Ptah-neferu, Amen-neferu, Sebak-neferu, Ames-neferu, bear to Ra, Horus, Ptah, Amen, Sebak, and Ames. Unnu