Legends of the Gods | Page 9

as the
creator of the universe, and describes the god of "many names" as
unknowable, even by the gods. At this time Isis lived in the form of a
woman who possessed the knowledge of spells and incantations, that is
to say, she was regarded much in the same way as modern African
peoples regard their "medicine-women," or "witch-women." She had
used her spells on men, and was tired of exercising her powers on them,
and she craved the opportunity of making herself mistress of gods and
spirits as well as of men. She meditated how she could make herself
mistress both of heaven and earth, and finally she decided that she
could only obtain the power she wanted if she possessed the knowledge
of the secret name of Ra, in which his very existence was bound up. Ra
guarded this name most jealously, for he knew that if he revealed it to
any being he would henceforth be at that being's mercy. Isis saw that it
was impossible to make Ra declare his name to her by ordinary
methods, and she therefore thought out the following plan. It was well
known in Egypt and the Sudan at a very early period that if a magician
obtained some portion of a person's body, e.g., a hair, a paring of a nail,

a fragment of skin, or a portion of some efflux from the body, spells
could be used upon them which would have the effect of causing
grievous harm to that person. Isis noted that Ra had become old and
feeble, and that as he went about he dribbled at the mouth, and that his
saliva fell upon the ground. Watching her opportunity she caught some
of the saliva of the and mixing it with dust, she moulded it into the
form of a large serpent, with poison-fangs, and having uttered her spells
over it, she left the serpent lying on the path, by which Ra travelled day
by day as he went about inspecting Egypt, so that it might strike at him
as he passed along. We may note in passing that the Banyoro in the
Sudan employ serpents in killing buffaloes at the present day. They
catch a puff-adder in a noose, and then nail it alive by the tip of its tail
to the round in the middle of a buffalo track, so that when an animal
passes the reptile may strike at it. Presently a buffalo comes along, does
what it is expected to do, and then the puff-adder strikes at it, injects its
poison, and the animal dies soon after. As many as ten buffaloes have
been killed in a day by one puff-adder. The body of the first buffalo is
not eaten, for it is regarded as poisoned meat, but all the others are used
as food.[FN#22]

[FN#22] Johnston, Uganda, vol. ii., p. 584. The authority for this
statement is Mr. George Wilson, formerly Collector in Unyoro.

Soon after Isis had placed the serpent on the Path, Ra passed by, and
the reptile bit him, thus injecting poison into his body. Its effect was
terrible, and Ra cried out in agony. His jaws chattered, his lips trembled,
and he became speechless for a time; never before had be suffered such
pain. The gods hearing his cry rushed to him, and when he could speak
he told them that he had been bitten by a deadly serpent. In spite of all
the words of power which were known to him, and his secret name
which had been hidden in his body at his birth, a serpent had bitten him,
and he was being consumed with a fiery pain. He then commanded that
all the gods who had any knowledge of magical spells should come to
him, and when they came, Isis, the great lady of spells, the destroyer of
diseases, and the revivifier of the dead, came with them. Turning to Ra

she said, "What hath happened, O divine Father?" and in answer the
god told her that a serpent had bitten him, that he was hotter than fire
and colder than water, that his limbs quaked, and that he was losing the
power of sight. Then Isis said to him with guile, "Divine Father, tell me
thy name, for he who uttereth his own name shall live." Thereupon Ra
proceeded to enumerate the various things that he had done, and to
describe his creative acts, and ended his speech to Isis by saying, that
he was Khepera in the morning, Ra at noon, and Temu in the evening.
Apparently he thought that the naming of these three great names
would satisfy Isis, and that she would immediately pronounce a word
of power and stop the pain in his body, which, during his speech, had