t up into Egypt under cover of night, slew and pillaged, and then
hastily returned to their fastnesses with the booty which they had
carried off. From sea to sea Ka had fortified the eastern frontier
against them. He had surrounded the principal cities with walls,
embellished them with temples, and placed within them those mysterious
talismans more powerful for defence than a garrison of men. Thus
Ait-nobsu, near the mouth of the Wady-Tumilat, possessed one of the
rods of the Sun-god, also the living uraeus of his crown whose breath
consumes all that it touches, and, finally, a lock of his hair, which,
being cast into the waters of a lake, was changed into a hawk-headed
crocodile to tear the invader in pieces.[*]

* Egyptians of all periods never shrank from such marvels.
One of the tales of the Theban empire tells us of a piece of
wax which, on being thrown into the water, changed into a
living crocodile capable of devouring a man. The talismans
which protected Egypt against invasion are mentioned by the
Pseudo-Callisthenes, who attributes their invention to
Nectanebo. Arab historians often refer to them.

The employment of these talismans was dangerous to those unaccustomed
to use them, even to the gods themselves. Scarcely was Sibu enthroned as
the successor of Shu, who, tired of reigning, had reascended into heaven
in a nine days' tempest, before he began his inspection of the eastern
marches, and caused the box in which was kept the uraeus of Ra to be
opened. "As soon as the living viper had breathed its breath against the
Majesty of Sibu there was a great disaster--great indeed, for those
who were in the train of the god perished, and his Majesty himself was
burned in that day. When his Majesty had fled to the north of Ait-nobsu,
pursued by the fire of this magic urasus, behold! when he came to the
fields of henna, the pain of his burn was not yet assuaged, and the gods
who were behind him said unto him: 'O Sire! let them take the lock of Ra
which is there, when thy Majesty shall go to see it and its mystery, and
his Majesty shall be healed as soon as it shall be placed upon thee.'
So the Majesty of Sibu caused the magic lock to be brought to
Piarit,--the lock for which was made that great reliquary of hard stone
which is hidden in the secret place of Piarit, in the district of the
divine lock of the Lord Ra,--and behold! this fire departed from the
members of the Majesty of Sib