ed with a loud voice
(saying): The old race of man hath been turned back into clay, because I
assented to an evil thing in the council of the gods, and agreed to a
storm which hath destroyed my people that which I brought forth" (King,
"Babylonian Religion," p. 134).

The Nile god, Knum, Lord of Elephantine, was reputed to have formed the
world of alluvial soil. The coming of the waters from Elephantine
brought life to the earth.]

[374: In the Babylonian story, Bel "bade one of the gods cut off his
head and mix the earth with the blood that flowed from him, and from the
mixture he directed him to fashion men and animals" (King, "Babylonian
Religion," p. 56). Bel (Marduk) represents the Egyptian Horus who
assumes his mother's role as the Creator. The red earth as a surrogate
of blood in the Egyptian story is here replaced by earth _and_ blood.

But Marduk created not only men and animals but heaven and earth also.
To do this he split asunder the carcase of the dragon which he had
slain, the Great Mother Tiamat, the evil _avatar_ of the Mother-Goddess
whose mantle had fallen upon his own shoulders. In other words, he
created the world out of the substance of the "giver of life" who was
identified with the red earth, which was the elixir of life in the
Egyptian story. This is only one more instance of the way in which the
same fundamental idea was twisted and distorted in every conceivable
manner in the process of rationalization. In one version of the Osirian
myth Horus cut off the head of his mother Isis and the moon-god Thoth
replaced it with a cow's head, just as in the Indian myth Ganesa's head
was replaced by an elephant's.]

[375: See Frazer, _op. cit._, p. 9.]

[376: Compare with this the story of Picus the giant who fled to Kirke's
isle and there was slain by Helios, the plant [Greek: moly] springing
from his blood (A. B. Cook, "Zeus," p. 241, footnote 15). For a
discussion of _moly_ see Andrew Lang's "Custom and Myth".]

[377: Frazer, p. 6.]

[378: In Socotra a tree (dracaena) has been identified with the dragon,
and its exudation, "dragon's blood," was called cinnabar, and confused
with the mineral (red sulphide of mercury), or simply with red ochre. In
the Socotran dragon-myth the elephant takes the hero's role, as in the
American stories of Chac and Tlaloc (see Chapter II). The word
_kinnabari_ was applied to the thick matter that issues from the dragon
when crushed beneath the weight of the dying ele