Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/548

 476 represented in different views and variations. Such contradictions and variants of doctrine and myth must naturally arise, for thousands of years passed over that which to-day is called Egyptian religion, and men in all classes of the population, from the king and scholar down to the artisan and husbandman contributed their share and left in the mirror of faith a reflection of their thought and sentiment. . ..

This origin impressed a peculiar stamp upon the religious ideas of the people. Close to the loftiest ideas are found the crudest and most primitive forms of thought; in one and the same text we meet with the intellectual attainments of centuries lying far apart, regardless of whether they fit together or not. As a result, the religious traditions of Egypt present themselves to the student to-day in a chaotic condition, and it requires some courage to enter the maze of this labyrinth. But having once taken this step and having laid aside the à priori desire to find a united, consistent system of Egyptian religion such as never existed, one follows the different individual thoughts and thus the texts gain new interest every day.

From these religious writings there arises a picture of the thoughts and the inner life of the people on the banks of the Nile from the time of the pyramids, that is, not less than 4,000 years B. C. down to the time of the Greeks and Romans,—a picture of such variety and wealth of color as is shown by no other ancient people. Every newly disclosed text adds new lights to the picture, and fresh life blossoms from every fragment of Egyptian tradition.

The following pages are devoted to one of these fragments, a most peculiar creation myth of the highest antiquity which, up to the present time, has not found coherent treatment or proper appreciation.

The number of Egyptian creation myths, some of which are known only in fragments, is very large. A large number of deities are occasionally credited with the act of creation: Ra, Osiris, Chnum, Ptah, and others claim the honor. Sometimes a certain god completed the work alone, again he had the assistance of other powers, which either worked as his servants or continued on their own responsibility the work begun by the first god. The modes of bringing forth