and buried with them in their coffins.  Thoth also invented the science of numbers, and as he fixed the courses of the sun, moon, and stars, and ordered the seasons, he was thought to be the first astronomer.  He was the lord of wisdom, and the possessor of all knowledge, both heavenly and earthly, divine and human; and he was the author of every attempt made by man to draw, paint, and carve.  As the lord and maker of books, and as the skilled scribe, he was the clerk of the gods, and kept the registers wherein the deeds of men were written down.  The deep knowledge of Thoth enabled him to find out the truth at all times, and this ability caused the Egyptians to assign to him the position of Chief Judge of the dead.  A very ancient legend states that Thoth acted in this capacity in the great trial that took place in heaven when Osiris was accused of certain crimes by his twin-brother Set, the god of evil.  Thoth examined the evidence, and proved to the gods that the charges made by Set were untrue, and that Osiris had spoken the truth and that Set was a liar.  For this reason every Egyptian prayed that Thoth might act for him as he did for Osiris, and that on the day of the Great Judgment Thoth might preside over the weighing of his heart in the Balance.  All the important religious works in all periods were believed to have been composed either by himself, or by holy scribes who were inspired by him.  They were believed to be sources of the deepest wisdom, the like of which existed in no other books in the world.  And it is probably to these books that Egypt owed her fame for learning and wisdom, which spread throughout all the civilised world.  The “Books of Thoth,” which late popular tradition in Egypt declared to be as many as 36,525 in number, were revered by both natives and foreigners in a way which it is difficult for us in these days to realise.  The scribes who studied and copied these books were also specially honoured, for it was believed that the spirit of Thoth, the twice-great and thrice-great god, dwelt in them.  The profession of the scribe was considered to be most honourable, and its rewards were great, for no rank and no dignity were too high for the educated scribe.  Thoth appears in the papyri and on the monuments as an ibis-headed man, and his companion is usually a dog-headed ape called “Asten.”  In the Hall of the Great Judgment he is seen holding in one hand a reed with which he is writing on a palette the result of the weighing of the heart of the dead man in the Balance.  The gods accepted the report of Thoth without question, and rewarded the good soul and punished the bad according to his statement.  From the beginning to the end of the history of Egypt the position of Thoth as the “righteous judge,” and framer of the laws by which heaven and earth, and men and gods were governed, remained unchanged.

[Illustration:  Thoth, the Scribe of the Gods.]