them run to Elephantine and
bring me mandragora in plenty.'"[**]

** The mandragora of Elephantine was used in the manufacture of an
intoxicating and narcotic drink employed either in medicine or in magic.
In a special article, Brugsch has collected particulars preserved by the
texts as to the uses of this plant. It was not as yet credited with
the human form and the peculiar kind of life ascribed to it by western
sorcerers.

When they had brought him the mandragora, the Majesty of this great god
summoned the miller which is in Heliopolis that he might bray it; and
the women-servants having crushed grain for the beer, the mandragora,
and also human blood, were mingled with the liquor, and thereof was made
in all seven thousand jars of beer. Ra himself examined this delectable
drink, and finding it to possess the wished-for properties: "'It is
well,' said he; 'therewith shall I save men from the goddess;' then,
addressing those of his train: 'Take these jars in your arms, and carry
them to the place where she has slaughtered men.' Ra, the king, caused
dawn to break at midnight, so that this philtre might be poured down
upon the earth; and the fields were flooded with it to the depth of four
palms, according as it pleased the souls of his Majesty." In the morning
the goddess came, "that she might return to her carnage, but she
found that all was flooded, and her countenance softened; when she had
drunken, it was her heart that softened; she went away drunk, without
further thought of men." There was some fear lest her fury might return
when the fumes of drunkenness were past, and to obviate this danger
Ra instituted a rite, partly with the object of instructing future
generations as to the chastisement which he had inflicted upon the
impious, partly to console Sokhit for her discomfiture. He decreed
that "on New Year's Day there should be brewed for her as many jars of
philtre as there were priestesses of the sun. That was the origin of
all those jars of philtre, in number equal to that of the priestesses,
which, at the feast of Hathor, all men make from that day forth."

Peace was re-established, but could it last long? Would not men, as
soon as they had recovered from their terror, betake themselves again to
plotting against the god? Besides, Ra now felt nothing but disgust for
our race. The ingratitude of his children had wounded him deeply; he
foresaw ever-renewed rebellions as his feebleness became more marked,
a