ABSTRACT
MAN cannot live by bread alone, although wheat was believed to have been formed of the body of God, and without water he could not live at all. His whole existence depends upon it, and from the earliest times man has regarded water as a thing of mystery and has attributed to it supernatural and animistic powers. It gave life to himself and the beasts and the vegetable creation, and it was to him a thing of indefinable and inscrutable origin, and possessed of a divine essence. According to the Egyptians the oldest thing in the world was the great watery abyss called "Nu" or "NENU," and from this sprang the first god, RA:, or KHEPERA, who created the heavens and the earth from the germs which existed in the abyss. From out of this abyss the primeval god sent a river into Egypt, which was thought to enter the country from two openings in the bases of the rocks at the First Cataract, and this river we know as the Nile. The throne of Osiris was set over or by this river, and when the Egyptians became Christians they placed the throne of God by the great river of heaven, whence came the Nile, and He regulated the supply of water to Egypt with His feet. To the Egyptians water was the "Father of the gods," and the Nile was the " water of life," which not only preserved life in the living but revivified
the dead. In Babylonia the great rivers the Tigris and Euphrates had their origin in the great primeval abyss APsu, which was the abode of the god EA. As in Egypt, so it was in Babylonia, water was holy and divine, and was, of course, worshipped as a god. Both in Egypt and Babylonia it was used largely in medical, magical and religious ceremonies of all kinds, for it was regarded as the supreme cleanser of both soul and body. Pagan philosophers believed that water was in existence before God created the heavens and the earth, and the Egyptian Christians said, " there is no one whatsoever who knoweth anything about the creation of water except God Himself." They also placed water, the wheat plant and the throne of the Father in one category, and regarded them as the equivalents of the Son of God. In scores of prescriptions given in the Ebers Papyrus water forms one of the principal ingredients of the medicines.
