waters
which produced all living things, the Egyptian god Nun and the goddess
Nut, were expressed in hieroglyphic as pots of water. The goddess was
identified with Hathor's celestial star-spangled cow, the original
mother of the sun-god; and the word "Nun" was a symbol of all that was
new, young, and fresh, and the fertilizing and life-giving waters of the
annual inundation of the Nile. Hathor was the daughter of these waters,
as Aphrodite was sprung from the sea-foam.

[332: _Archaeol. Survey of Egypt_, 1898, p. 3.]

[333: Compare the two-fold meaning of the Latin _testa_ as "shell" and
"bowl".]

[334: Compare the association of shells with altars in Minoan Crete and
the widespread use of large shells as bowls for "holy water" in
Christian churches.]

[335: Miss Winifred M. Crompton, Assistant Keeper of the Egyptian
Department of the Manchester Museum, has called my attention to a
remarkable piece of evidence which affords additional corroboration of
the view that Hathor was a development of the cowry-amulet. Upon the
famous archaic palette of Narmer (Fig. 18), a sporran, composed of four
representations of Hathor's head, takes the place of the original
cowries that were suspended from more primitive girdles.

The cowries of the head ornament of primitive peoples of Africa and Asia
(and of the Mediterranean area in early times--Schliemann's "Ilios,"
Fig. 685) are often replaced in Egypt by lotus flowers (W. D. Spanton,
"Water Lilies of Egypt," _Ancient Egypt_, 1917, Part I, Figs. 19, 20,
and 21). Upon the head-band of the statue of Nefert, which I have
reproduced in Chapter I (Fig. 4), a conventional lotus design is found
(see Spanton's Fig. 19), which is almost identical with the classical
thunder-weapon.]

[336: Among the Dravidian people at the present day the seven goddesses
(corresponding to the seven Hathors) are often represented by seven
pots.]

[337: The luxuriant crop of stories of the Holy Grail was not inspired
originally by mere literary invention. A tradition sprung from the
fountain-head of all mythology, the parent-story of the Destruction of
Mankind, provided the materials which a series of writers elaborated
into the varied assortment of legends of the Mother Pot. The true
meaning of the Quest of the Holy Grail can be understood only by reading
the fabled accounts of it in the light of the ancient search for the
elixir of life and the historical development of the narrative
describing that