es in the bosom of the Nu, of the dark waters. In fulness of
time the god of each nome drew them forth, classified them, marshalled
them according to the bent of his particular nature, and made his
universe out of them by methods peculiarly his own. Nit of Sais, who was
a weaver, had made the world of warp and woof, as the mother of a family
weaves her children's linen.

Khnumu, the Nile-God of the cataracts, had gathered up the mud of his
waters and therewith moulded his creatures upon a potter's table. In the
eastern cities of the Delta these procedures were not so simple. There
it was admitted that in the beginning earth and sky were two lovers lost
in the Nu, fast locked in each other's embrace, the god lying beneath
the goddess. On the day of creation a new god, Shu, came forth from the
primaeval waters, slipped between the two, and seizing Nuit with both
hands, lifted her above his head with outstretched arms.[*]

* This was what the Egyptians called _the upliftings of
Shu_. The event first took place at Hermopolis, and certain
legends added that in order to get high enough the god had
been obliged to make use of a staircase or mound situate in
this city, and which was famous throughout Egypt.

Though the starry body of the goddess extended in space--her head being
to the west and her loins to the east--her feet and hands hung down to
the earth. These were the four pillars of the firmament under another
form, and four gods of four adjacent principalities were in charge of
them. Osiris, or Horus the sparrow-hawk, presided over the southern, and
Sit over the northern pillar; Thot over that of the west, and Sapdi, the
author of the zodiacal light, over that of the east. They had divided
the world among themselves into four regions, or rather into four
"houses," bounded by those mountains which surround it, and by the
diameters intersecting between the pillars. Each of these houses
belonged to one, and to one only; none of the other three, nor even
the sun himself, might enter it, dwell there, or even pass through
it without having obtained its master's permission. Sibu had not been
satisfied to meet the irruption of Shu by mere passive resistance. He
had tried to struggle, and he is drawn in the posture of a man who has
just awakened out of sleep, and is half turning on his couch before
getting up. One of his legs is stretched out, the other is bent and
partly drawn up as in the act of risi