It has been said that the name or the emblem or the picture of a god or demon could become an amulet with power to protect him that wore it. But the Egyptians went a step further than this, and they believed that it was possible to transmit to the figure of any man, or woman, or animal, or living creature, the soul of the being which it represented, and its qualities and attributes. The statue of a god in a temple contained the spirit of the god which it represented, and the people of Egypt believed that every statue and every figure possessed an indwelling spirit. In the following pages we shall endeavor to describe the uses which the Egyptians made of the figures of gods, and men, and beasts, to which magical powers had been imparted by means of the performance of certain symbolic ceremonies and the recital of certain words of power; and how they could be employed to do both good and evil.
