s; but the period of growth lies behind recorded history,
and we are here reduced to hypotheses and _a posteriori_
reconstructions. The same criticism applies, no doubt, to other
religions, like those of Greece and Rome. In Egypt, however, the
difficulty is much aggravated by the poor quality of the evidence. The
religious books are textually very corrupt, one-sided in their
subject-matter, and distributed over a period of more than two thousand
years. The greatest defect of all is their relative silence with regard
to the myths. For the story of Isis and Osiris we have indeed the late
treatise ascribed to Plutarch, and a few fragments of other myths may be
culled from earlier native sources. But in general the tales that passed
current about the gods are referred to only in mysterious and recondite
allusions; as Herodotus for his own times explicitly testifies, a
reticence in such matters seems to have been encouraged by the priests.
Thus with regard to Egyptian theology we are very imperfectly informed,
and the account that is here given of it must be looked upon as merely
provisional. The actual practices of the cult, both funerary and divine,
are better known, and we are tolerably familiar with the doctrines as to
the future state of the dead. There is good material, too, for the study
of Egyptian magic, though this branch has been somewhat neglected
hitherto.

2. _Main Sources._--(a) _The Pyramid texts,_ a vast collection of
incantations inscribed on the inner walls of five royal tombs of the Vth
and VIth Dynasties at Sakkara, discovered and first published by
Maspero. Much of these texts is of extreme antiquity; one incantation at
least has been proved to belong to an age anterior to the unification of
the Northern and Southern kingdoms. Later copies also exist, but possess
little independent critical value. The subject-matter is funerary, i.e.
it deals with the fate of the dead king in the next life. Some chapters
describe the manner in which he passes from earth to heaven and becomes
a star in the firmament, others deal with the food and drink necessary
for his continued existence after death, and others again with the royal
prerogatives which he hopes still to enjoy; many are directed against
the bites of snakes and stings of scorpions. It is possible that these
incantations were recited as part of the funerary ritual, but there is
no doubt that their mere presence in the tombs was supposed to be
magically effe