ABSTRACT
What the earliest pictorial forms of Tern, Ptah and Khnemu were is not known, but the first and second appear as men at an early period, and the third is represented by a special form of ram or kudu. Ra, who usurped the attributes of Tem, also appears as a man. But of the original creative power which existed of and by itself in the watery mass of N unu no form is known. The mind of man was incapable of imagining him, and the hand of man was incapable of making a figure that could be considered to be an image or likeness of him. Under the XVI lIth dynasty an Egyptian scribe composed a hymn to Hep (or Hap or f::lapi) , the Nile-god, in which he traced his origin back to the great watery mass of NUl1u. He says of him, "He cannot be sculptured in stone in figures whereon is placed the 'White Crown. He cannot be seen. Service cannot be rendered to him. Gifts cannot be presented to him. He is not to be approached in the sanctuarif'~. vVhere he is is not known. He is not to he found in inscribed shrines. No habitation can contain him. There is none who acteth as guide to his heart." I The
144 Nile-god is thus described only because he was the direct emanation from the great unseen, unknown and incomprehensible creative power, which had existed for ever and was the source of all created things. Statues of the Nile-god were made under the last dynasties of the New Empire, but the hymn quoted above was written many centuries earlier.
