ain literary evidence to support the inferences drawn from
archaeological data of a more remote age. For instance, the red jasper
amulet sometimes called the "girdle-tie of Isis," was supposed to
represent the blood of the goddess and was applied to the mummy "to
stimulate the functions of his blood";[257] or perhaps it would be more
accurate to say that it was intended to add to the vital substance which
was so obviously lacking in the corpse.

[249: In response to the prompting of the most fundamental of all
instincts, that of the preservation of life.]

[250: See Alan Gardiner, _Journal of Egyptian Archaeology_, Vol. IV,
Parts II-III, April-July, 1917, p. 205. Compare also the Babylonian
story of Gilgamesh.]

[251: Some of these have been discussed in Chapter 1 ("Incense and
Libations") and will not be further considered here.]

[252: "The life which is the blood thereof" (Gen. ix. 4).]

[253: See, for example, Sollas, "Ancient Hunters," 2nd Edition, 1915,
pp. 326 (fig. 163), 333 (fig. 171), and 36 (fig. 189).]

[254: Sollas, _op. cit._, pp. 347 _et seq._]

[255: The "redeeming blood," [Greek: Pharmakon athanasias].]

[256: The practice of blood-letting for therapeutic purposes was
probably first suggested by a confused rationalization. The act of
blood-letting was a means of healing; and the victim himself supplied
the vitalizing fluid!]

[257: Davies and Gardiner, "The Tomb of Amenemhet," p. 112.]

The Cowry as a Giver of Life.

Blood and its substitutes, however, were not the only materials that had
acquired a reputation for vitalizing qualities in the Reindeer Epoch.
For there is a good deal of evidence to suggest that shells also were
regarded, even in that remote time, as life-giving amulets.

If the loss of blood was at first the only recognized cause of death,
the act of birth was clearly the only process of life-giving. The portal
by which a child entered the world was regarded, therefore, not only as
the channel of birth, but also as the actual giver of life.[258] The
large Red Sea cowry-shell, which closely simulates this "giver of life,"
then came to be endowed by popular imagination with the same powers.
Hence the shell was used in the same way as red ochre or carnelian: it
was placed in the grave to confer vitality on the dead, and worn on
bracelets and necklaces to secure good luck by using the "giver of life"
to avert the risk of danger to life. Thus the general life-giving
propertie