xth Dynasties. These documents, written
forty-five centuries ago, were first brought to light in modern times in
1880-81; and since the late Sir Gaston Maspero published the first
translation of them, many scholars have helped in the task of
elucidating their meaning. But it remained for Blackman to discover the
explanation they give of the origin and significance of the act of
pouring out libations. "The general meaning of these passages is quite
clear. The corpse of the deceased is dry and shrivelled. To revivify it
the vital fluids that have exuded from it [in the process of
mummification] must be restored, for not till then will life return and
the heart beat again. This, so the texts show us, was believed to be
accomplished by offering libations to the accompaniment of incantations"
(_op. cit._ p. 70).

In the first three passages quoted by Blackman from the Pyramid Texts
"the libations are said to be the actual fluids that have issued from
the corpse". In the next four quotations "a different notion is
introduced. It is not the deceased's own exudations that are to revive
his shrunken frame but those of a divine body, the [god's fluid][42]
that came from the corpse of Osiris himself, the juices that dissolved
from his decaying flesh, which are communicated to the dead
sacrament-wise under the form of these libations."

This dragging-in of Osiris is especially significant. For the analogy of
the life-giving power of water that is specially associated with Osiris
played a dominant part in suggesting the ritual of libations. Just as
water, when applied to the apparently dead seed, makes it germinate and
come to life, so libations can reanimate the corpse. These general
biological theories of the potency of water were current at the time,
and, as I shall explain later (see p. 28), had possibly received
specific application to man long before the idea of libations developed.
For, in the development of the cult of Osiris[43] the general
fertilizing power of water when applied to the soil found specific
exemplification in the potency of the seminal fluid to fertilize human
beings. Malinowski has pointed out that certain Papuan people, who are
ignorant of the fact that women are fertilized by sexual connexion,
believe that they can be rendered pregnant by rain falling upon them
(_op. cit. infra_). The study of folk-lore and early beliefs makes it
abundantly clear that in the distant past which I am now discussing no
cle