laddens his abode during his nightly journey through the Underworld.
The theory with which we are concerned suggests that this dominant trait
in Egyptian religion passed, with other elements of culture, beyond the
bounds of the Nile Valley and influenced the practice and beliefs of
distant races.

This suggestion has been gradually elaborated by its author, Professor
Elliot Smith, who has devoted much attention to the anatomical study of
Egyptian mummification. Beginning with a scrutiny of megalithic building
and sun-worship,(1) he has subsequently deduced, from evidence of common
distribution, the existence of a culture-complex, including in addition
to these two elements the varied practices of tattooing, circumcision,
ear-piercing, that quaint custom known as couvade, head-deformation, and
the prevalence of serpent-cults, myths of petrifaction and the Deluge,
and finally of mummification. The last ingredient was added after an
examination of Papuan mummies had disclosed their apparent resemblance
in points of detail to Egyptian mummies of the XXIst Dynasty. As a
result he assumes the existence of an early cultural movement, for which
the descriptive title "heliolithic" has been coined.(2) Starting with
Egypt as its centre, one of the principal lines of its advance is
said to have lain through Syria and Mesopotamia and thence along the
coastlands of Asia to the Far East. The method of distribution and the
suggested part played by the Phoenicians have been already criticized
sufficiently. But in a modified form the theory has found considerable
support, especially among ethnologists interested in Indonesia. I do
not propose to examine in detail the evidence for or against it. It will
suffice to note that the Deluge story and its alleged Egyptian origin in
solar worship form one of the prominent strands in its composition.

(1) Cf. Elliot Smith, _The Ancient Egyptians_, 1911.

(2) See in particular his monograph "On the significance of
the Geographical Distribution of the Practice of
Mummification" in the _Memoirs of the Manchester Literary
and Philosophical Society_, 1915.

One weakness of this particular strand is that the Egyptians themselves
possessed no tradition of the Deluge. Indeed the annual inundation
of the Nile is not such as would give rise to a legend of
world-destruction; and in this respect it presents a striking contrast
to the Tigris and Euphrates. The ancient Egyptian's con