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A MAZE IN ZAZAZA ENTER AZAZAZ AZAZAZAZAZAZAZZAZAZAZAZAZAZA ZAZAZAZAZAZAZAZAZAAZAZAZAZAZAZAZAZAZ THE MAGICALALPHABET ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA 12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262625242322212019181716151413121110987654321
WORK DAYS OF GOD Herbert W Morris D.D.circa 1883 Page 22
LIGHT AND LIFE Lars Olof Bjorn 1976 Page 197 "By writing the 26 letters of the alphabet in a certain order one may put down almost any message (this book 'is written with the same letters' as the Encyclopaedia Britannica and Winnie the Pooh, only the order of the letters differs). In the same way Nature is able to convey with her language how a cell and a whole organism is to be constructed and how it is to function. Nature has succeeded better than we humans; for the genetic code there is only one universal language which is the same in a man, a bean plant and a bacterium." "BY WRITING THE 26 LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET IN A CERTAIN ORDER ONE MAY PUT DOWN ALMOST ANY MESSAGE"
"BY WRITING THE 26 LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET IN A CERTAIN ORDER ONE MAY PUT DOWN ALMOST ANY MESSAGE"
A HISTORY OF GOD Karen Armstrong 1993 The God of the Mystics Page 250 "Perhaps the most famous of the early Jewish mystical texts is the fifth century Sefer Yezirah (The Book of Creation). There is no attempt to describe the creative process realistically; the account is unashamedly symbolic and shows God creating the world by means of language as though he were writing a book. But language has been entirely transformed and the message of creation is no longer clear. Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is given a numerical value; by combining the letters with the sacred numbers, rearranging them in endless configurations, the mystic weaned his mind away from the normal connotations of words."
THIS IS THE SCENE OF THE SCENE UNSEEN THE UNSEEN SEEN OF THE SCENE UNSEEN THIS IS THE SCENE
THE FAR YONDER SCRIBE AND OFT TIMES SHADOWED SUBSTANCES WATCHED IN FINE AMAZE THE ZED ALIZ ZED IN SWIFT REPEAT SCATTER STAR DUST AMONGST THE LETTERS OF THEIR PROGRESS AT THE THROW OF THE NINTH RAM WHEN IN CONJUNCTION SET THE FAR YONDER SCRIBE MADE RECORD OF THEIR FALL
NUMBER 9 THE SEARCH FOR THE SIGMA CODE Cecil Balmond 1998 Cycles and Patterns Page 165 Patterns "The essence of mathematics is to look for patterns. Our minds seem to be organised to search for relationships and sequences. We look for hidden orders. These intuitions seem to be more important than the facts themselves, for there is always the thrill at finding something, a pattern, it is a discovery - what was unknown is now revealed. Imagine looking up at the stars and finding the zodiac! Searching out patterns is a pure delight. Suddenly the counters fall into place and a connection is found, not necessarily a geometric one, but a relationship between numbers, pictures of the mind, that were not obvious before. There is that excitement of finding order in something that was otherwise hidden. And there is the knowledge that a huge unseen world lurks behind the facades we see of the numbers themselves."
FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS A QUEST FOR THE BEGINNING AND THE END Graham Hancock 1995 Chapter 32 Speaking to the Unborn Page 285 "It is understandable that a huge range of myths from all over the ancient world should describe geological catastrophes in graphic detail. Mankind survived the horror of the last Ice Age, and the most plausible source for our enduring traditions of flooding and freezing, massive volcanism and devastating earthquakes is in the tumultuous upheavals unleashed during the great meltdown of 15,000 to 8000 BC. The final retreat of the ice sheets, and the consequent 300-400 foot rise in global sea levels, took place only a few thousand years before the beginning of the historical period. It is therefore not surprising that all our early civilizations should have retained vivid memories of the vast cataclysms that had terrified their forefathers. A message in the bottle of time" 'Of all the other stupendous inventions,' Galileo once remarked, what sublimity of mind must have been his who conceived how to communicate his most secret thoughts to any other person, though very distant either in time or place, speaking with those who are in the Indies, speaking to those who are not yet born, nor shall be this thousand or ten thousand years? And with no greater difficulty than the various arrangements of two dozen little signs on paper? Let this be the seal of all the admirable inventions of men.3 If the 'precessional message' identified by scholars like Santillana, von Dechend and Jane Sellers is indeed a deliberate attempt at communication by some lost civilization of antiquity, how come it wasn't just written down and left for us to find? Wouldn't that have been easier than encoding it in myths? Perhaps. "What one would look for, therefore, would be a universal language, the kind of language that would be comprehensible to any technologically advanced society in any epoch, even a thousand or ten thousand years into the future. Such languages are few and far between, but mathematics is one of them" "WRITTEN IN THE ETERNAL LANGUAGE OF MATHEMATICS"
RA IN BOW IN RA THE LIGHT IS RISING RISING IS THE LIGHT
THE DEATH OF GODS IN ANCIENT EGYPT Jane B. Sellars 1992 Page 204 "The overwhelming awe that accompanies the realization, of the measurable orderliness of the universe strikes modern man as well. Admiral Weiland E. Byrd, alone In the Antarctic for five months of polar darkness, wrote these phrases of intense feeling: Here were the imponderable processes and forces of the cosmos, harmonious and soundless. Harmony, that was it! I could feel no doubt of oneness with the universe. The conviction came that the rhythm was too orderly. too harmonious, too perfect to be a product of blind chance - that, therefore there must be purpose in the whole and that man was part of that whole and not an accidental offshoot. It was a feeling that transcended reason; that went to the heart of man's despair and found it groundless. The universe was a cosmos, not a chaos; man was as rightfully a part of that cosmos as were the day and night.10 Returning to the account of the story of Osiris, son of Cronos god of' Measurable Time, Plutarch takes, pains to remind the reader of the original Egyptian year consisting of 360 days. Phrases are used that prompt simple mental. calculations and an attention to numbers, for example, the 360-day year is described as being '12 months of 30 days each'. Then we are told that, Osiris leaves on a long journey, during which Seth, his evil brother, plots with 72 companions to slay Osiris: He also secretly obtained the measure of Osiris and made ready a chest in which to entrap him. The, interesting thing about this part of the-account is that nowhere in the original texts of the Egyptians are we told that Seth, has 72 companions. We have already been encouraged to equate Osiris with the concept of measured time; his father being Cronos. It is also an observable fact that Cronos-Saturn has the longest sidereal period of the known planets at that time, an orbit. of 30 years. Saturn is absent from a specific constellation for that length of time. A simple mathematical fact has been revealed to any that are even remotely sensitive to numbers: if you multiply 72 by 30, the years of Saturn's absence (and the mention of Osiris's absence prompts one to recall this other), the resulting product is 2,160: the number of years required, for one 30° shift, or a shift: through one complete sign of the zodiac. This number multplied by the /Page205 / 12 signs also gives 25,920. (And Plutarch has reminded us of 12) If you multiply the unusual number 72 by 360, a number that Plutarch mentions several times, the product will be 25,920, again the number of years symbolizing the ultimate rebirth. This 'Eternal Return' is the return of, say, Taurus to the position of marking the vernal equinox by 'riding in the solar bark with. Re' after having relinquished this honoured position to Aries, and subsequently to the to other zodiacal constellations. Such a return after 25,920 years is indeed a revisit to a Golden Age, golden not only because of a remarkable symmetry In the heavens, but golden because it existed before the Egyptians experienced heaven's changeability. But now to inform the reader of a fact he or she may already know. Hipparaus did: not really have the exact figures: he was a trifle off in his observations and calculations. In his published work, On the Displacement of the Solstitial and Equinoctial Signs, he gave figures of 45" to 46" a year, while the truer precessional lag along the ecliptic is about 50 seconds. The exact measurement for the lag, based on the correct annual lag of 50'274" is 1° in 71.6 years, or 360° in 25,776 years, only 144 years less than the figure of 25,920. With Hipparchus's incorrect figures a 'Great Year' takes from 28,173.9 to 28,800 years, Incorrect by a difference of from 2,397.9 years to 3,024. Since Nicholas Copernicus (AD 1473-1543) has always been credited with giving the correct numbers (although Arabic astronomer Nasir al-Din Tusi,11 born AD 1201, is known to have fixed the Precession at 50°), we may correctly ask, and with justifiable astonishment 'Just whose information was Plutarch transmitting' AN IMPORTANT POSTSCRIPT Of course, using our own notational system, all the important numbers have digits that reduce to that amazing number 9 a number that has always delighted budding mathematician. Page 206 Somewhere along the way, according to Robert Graves, 9 became the number of lunar wisdom.12 This number is found often in the mythologies of the world. the Viking god Odin hung for nine days and nights on the World Tree in order to acquire the secret of the runes, those magic symbols out of which writing and numbers grew. Only a terrible sacrifice would give away this secret, which conveyed upon its owner power and dominion over all, so Odin hung from his neck those long 9 days and nights over the 'bottomless abyss'. In the tree were 9 worlds, and another god was said to have been born of 9 mothers. Robert Graves, in his White Goddess, Is intrigued by the seemingly recurring quality of the number 72 in early myth and ritual. Graves tells his reader that 72 is always connected with the number 5, which reflects, among other things, the five Celtic dialects that he was investigating. Of course, 5 x 72= 360, 360 x 72= 25,920. Five is also the number of the planets known to the ancient world, that is, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus Mercury. Graves suggests a religious mystery bound up with two ancient Celtic 'Tree Alphabets' or cipher alphabets, which as genuine articles of Druidism were orally preserved and transmitted for centuries. He argues convincingly that the ancient poetry of Europe was ultimately based on what its composers believed to be magical principles, the rudiments of which formed a close religious secret for centuries. In time these were-garbled, discredited and forgotten. Among the many signs of the transmission of special numbers he points out that the aggregate number of letter strokes for the complete 22-letter Ogham alphabet that he is studying is 72 and that this number is the multiple of 9, 'the number of lunar wisdom'. . . . he then mentions something about 'the seventy day season during which Venus moves successively from. maximum eastern elongation 'to inferior conjunction and maximum western elongation'.13 Page 207 "...Feniusa Farsa, Graves equates this hero with Dionysus Farsa has 72 assistants who helped him master the 72 languages created at the confusion of Babel, the tower of which is said to be built of 9 different materials We are also reminded of the miraculous translation into Greek of the Five Books of Moses that was done by 72 scholars working for 72 days, Although the symbol for the Septuagint is LXX, legend, according to the fictional letter of Aristeas, records 72. The translation was done for Ptolemy Philadelphus (c.250 BC), by Hellenistic Jews, possibly from Alexandra.14 Graves did not know why this number was necessary, but he points out that he understands Frazer's Golden Bough to be a a book hinting that 'the secret involves the truth that the Christian dogma, and rituals, are the refinement of a great body of primitive beliefs, and that the only original element in Christianity- is the personality of Christ.15 Frances A. Yates, historian of Renaissance hermetisma tells, us the cabala had 72 angels through which the sephiroth (the powers of God) are believed to be approached, and further, she supplies the information that although the Cabala supplied a set of 48 conclusions purporting to confirm the Christian religion from the foundation of ancient wisdom, Pico Della Mirandola, a Renaissance magus, introduced instead 72, which were his 'own opinion' of the correct number. Yates writes, 'It is no accident there are seventy-two of Pico's Cabalist conclusions, for the conclusion shows that he knew something of the mystery of the Name of God with seventy-two letters.'16 In Hamlet's Mill de Santillarta adds the facts that 432,000 is the number of syllables in the Rig-Veda, which when multiplied by the soss (60) gives 25,920" (The reader is forgiven for a bit of laughter at this point) Thee Bible has not escaped his pursuit. A prominent Assyriologist of the last century insisted that the total of the years recounted Joseph Campbell discerns the secret in the date set for the coming of Patrick to Ireland. Myth-gives this date-as.- the interest- Whatever one may think-of some of these number coincidences, it becomes. difficult to escape the suspicion that many signs (number and otherwise) -indicate that early man observed the results.. of the movement of Precession . and that the-.transmission of this information was .considered of prime importance. 'With the awareness of the phenomenon, observers would certainly have tried for its measure, and such an endeavour would But one last word about mankind's romance with number coincidences.The antagonist in John Updike's novel, Roger's Version, is a computer hacker, who, convinced.,that scientific evidence of God's existence is accumulating, endeavours to prove it by feeding -all the available scientific information. into a comuter. In his search for God 'breaking, through', he has become fascinated by certain numbers that have continually been cropping up. He explains them excitedly as 'the terms of Creation': "...after a while I noticed that all over the sheet there seemed to hit these twenty-fours Jumping out at me. Two four; two,four.Planck time, for instance, divided by the radiation constant yields a figure near eight times ten again to the negative twenty-fourth, and the permittivity of free space, or electric constant, into the Bohr radiusekla almost exactly six times ten to the negative twenty-fourth. On positive side, the electromagnetic line-structure constant times Hubble radius - that is, the size of the universe as we now perceive it gives us something quite close to ten to the twenty-fourth, and the
strong-force constant times the charge on the proton produces two point four times ten to the negative eighteenth, for another I began to circle twenty-four wherever it appeared on the Printout here' - he held it up. his piece of striped and striped wallpaper, decorated / Page 209 /
with a number of scarlet circles - 'you can see it's more than random.'19 So much for any scorn directed to ancient man's fascination with number coincidences. That fascination is alive and well, Just a bit more incomprehensible"
OF TIME AND STARS Arthur C. Clarke 1972 FOREWORD "'Into the Comet' and 'The Nine Billion Names of God' both involve computers and the troubles they may cause us. While writing this preface, I had occasion to call upon my own HP 9100A computer, Hal Junior, to answer an interesting question. Looking at my records, I find that I have now written just about one hundred short stories. This volume contains eighteen of them: therefore, how many possible 18-story collections will I be able to put together? The answer as I am sure will be instantly obvious to you - is 100 x 99. . . x 84 x 83 divided by 18 x 17 x 16 ... x .2 x 1. This is an impressive number - Hal Junior tells me that it is approximately 20,772,733,124,605,000,000.
Page 15 The Nine Billion Names of God 'This is a slightly unusual request,' said Dr Wagner, with what he hoped was commendable restraint. 'As far as I know, it's the first time anyone's been asked to supply a Tibetan monastery with an Automatic Sequence Computer. I don't wish to be inquisitive, but I should hardly have thought that your - ah - establishment had much use for such a machine. Could you explain just what you intend to do with it?' Page16 'We have reason to believe,' continued the lama imperturbably, 'that all such names can be written with not more than nine letters in an alphabet we have devised.' Page 68 Into the Comet
I SAY THREAD THAT THREAD THREAD READ DEATH DEATH READ THREAD THREAD R DEATH DEATH R THREAD THREAD READ DEAR THREAD
THE NEW ELIZABETHAN REFERENCE DICTIONARY An up-to-date vocabulary of the living English language Circa 1900 FOURTH EDITION Page 1472 thread (thred) [A.-S. thraed, from thrawan, to THROW (cp. Dut. draad, G. draht, Icel. thrathr)], n. A slender cord consisting of two or more yarns doubled or twisted ; a single filament of cotton, silk, wool, etc., esp. Lisle thread ; anything resembling this ; a fine line of colour etc. ; a thin seam or vein ; the spiral on a screw ; (fig.) a continuous course (of life etc.). v.t. To pass a thread through the eye or aperture of ; to string (beads etc.) on a thread ; (fig.) to pick (one's way) or to go through an intricate or crowded place, etc. ; to streak (the hair) with grey etc. ; to cut a thread on (a screw). thread and thrum : Good and bad together, all alike. threadbare, a. Worn so that the thread is visible, having the nap worn off ; (fig.) worn, trite, hackneyed. threadbareness, n. thread-mark, n. A mark produced by coloured silk fibres in banknotes to prevent counterfeiting. thread-paper, n. Soft paper for wrapping up thread, thread-worm, n. A thread-like nematode worm, esp. one infesting the rectum of children. threader, n. threadlike, a. and adv. thready, a. threadiness, n.
THE NEW ELIZABETHAN REFERENCE DICTIONARY An up-to-date vocabulary of the living English language FOURTH EDITION Circa 1900 Page 1472 thread (thred) [A.-S. thraed, from thrawan, to THROW (cp. Dut. draad, G. draht, Icel. thrathr)], n. A slender cord consisting of two or more yarns doubled or twisted ; a single filament of cotton, silk, wool, etc., esp. Lisle thread ; anything resembling this ; a fine line of colour etc. ; a thin seam or vein ; the spiral on a screw ; (fig.) a continuous course (of life etc.). v.t. To pass a thread through the eye or aperture of ; to string (beads etc.) on a thread ; (fig.) to pick (one's way) or to go through an intricate or crowded place, etc. ; to streak (the hair) with grey etc. ; to cut a thread on (a screw). thread and thrum : Good and bad together, all alike. threadbare, a. Worn so that the thread is visible, having the nap worn off ; (fig.) worn, trite, hackneyed. threadbareness, n. thread-mark, n. A mark produced by coloured silk fibres in banknotes to prevent counterfeiting. thread-paper, n. Soft paper for wrapping up thread, thread-worm, n. A thread-like nematode worm, esp. one infesting the rectum of children. threader, n. threadlike, a. and adv. thready, a. threadiness, n.
lisle thread: lisle thread A strong tightly twisted cotton thread (usually made of long-staple cotton) - lisle. Derived forms: lisle threads. Type of: cotton. Nearest ... www.wordwebonline.com/en/LISLETHREAD
Definition - of Lisle from Dictionary.net Lisle thread, a hard twisted cotton thread, originally produced at Lisle. Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) ... www.dictionary.net/lisle -
CASSELL'S ENGLISH DICTIONARY 1974 Lisle thread (lil thred) [ town in France, now Lille], n, A fine, hard thread orig. made at Lille.
LIFE HANGING BY A THREAD
THE LIGHT IS RISING RISING IS THE LIGHT
I ME YOU ME CREATORS GODS CREATORS THOU ART THAT THAT ART THOU GOD SPIRIT ART THOU THOU ART GOD SPIRIT MIND MATTER SPIRIT GOD SPIRIT MATTER MIND THOU ART UNIVERSAL MIND GODS UNIVERSAL MIND ART THOU
ADVENT 899 ADVENT
THAT GAIA THAT LIVING WORLD WORLD LIVING AZ I ME I ZA LIVING FORM GODS FORM LIVING
WHAT PROVES OF PROOFS PROOFS OF PROVES DOES SUCH AN INTELLIGENCE AZ THINE OF MINE DEMAND
I DEATH THE PRICE FOR BEING ALIVE FOREVER AND EVER EVER AND FOREVER CONSCIOUSLY THREADED THREADED CONSCIOUSLY FOREVER AND EVER EVER AND FOREVER AMEN
I DEATH THE PRIZE FOR BEING ALIVE FOREVER ALIVE OR DEAD DEAD OR ALIVE CONSCIOUSLY BEING ALIVE ALIVE BEING CONSCIOUSLY FOREVER ALWAYS IS THAT THAT THAT IS ALWAYS
THAT I THAT ME THAT I U R THAT I ME I ME I THAT R U HERE THEE HEARETH THAT ALARM THAT ALARM HEARETH THEE HERE I THAT AM THAT I THAT AM THAT I NAMASTE THE NAME AS
THE I ME LOVE R EVOLUTION EVOLUTION R LOVE
THE TEARS THAT TEARS BALANCING ALWAYS BALANCING TEARS THAT TEARS CREATIVE LIFE THAT RED RIVER GODS RIVER RED THAT LIFE CREATIVE
I ME I SAY ISIS SAY I I SAY OSIRIS SAY I I SAY CHRIST SAY I I SAY KRISHNA SAY I I SAY RISHI ISHI ISHI RISHI SAY I I SAY VISHNU SHIVA SHIVA VISHNU SAY I ARISES THAT SUN SETS THAT SUN SETS THAT SUN ARISES THAT SUN OSIRIS THAT SON SETS THAT SON SETS THAT SON OSIRIS THAT SON
THAT SUN IS RISING RISING IS THAT SON THAT SON IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED
WISDOM OF THE EAST by Hari Prasad Shastri 1948 Page 8 "There is no such word in Sanscrita as 'Creation' applied to the universe. The Sanscrita word for Creation is Shristi, which means 'projection' Creation means to bring something into being out /Page 9/ of nothing, to create, as a novelist creates a character. There was no Miranda, for example, until Shakespeare created her. Similarly the ancient Indians (this term is innacurately used as there was no India at that time). who were our ancestors long, long ago. used a word for creation that means 'projection'.
Daily Mail. Thursday, June 27, 2013 Page 68 ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS QUESTION Tyne is thought to be a Celtic word for ‘river’, so ‘River Tyne’ is a tautology. Are there any other tautological place names? TWO of my favourite examples of tautologies come from the U.S., and specifically from California where the frequent admixture of Spanish and English can result in some blatant redundancies. A second example involves the name of the Major League baseball team known as the Los Angeles Angels. Since Los Angeles means ‘the angels’ in Spanish, the team is therefore the the Angels Angels. I ONCE worked for CEL Electronics Limited in Saffron Walden. However, CEL stood for Chroma Electronics Limited, making the full company name Chroma Electronics Limited Electronics Limited.
Angles & Angels Page 5
Daily Mail. Thursday, June 27, 2013 Page 68
Quotes for "I AM A RIVER TO MY PEOPLE"
Irrawaddy River - National Geographic Magazine ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2006/05/irrawaddy-river/salak-text Mynamar's River of Spirits I've always believed the best way to know a river is to paddle it, to feel its undercurrents and speed, to take in the changing nature of its banks. I wanted to explore the romance of Myanmar's Irrawaddy River, which has stirred the imagination of some of the world's greatest writers, such as Kipling and Orwell. The name "Irrawaddy" is an English corruption of Ayerawaddy Myit, which some scholars translate as "river that brings blessings to the people." But it's less a river than a test of faith, receding during the country's dry season until its banks sit exposed and cracking in the sun, only to return each spring with the monsoon, coming to life, flooding fields, replenishing the country with water, fish, and fertile soil. The Irrawaddy has never disappointed the Burmese. It is where they wash, what they drink, how they travel. Inseparable from their spiritual life, it is their hope.
Daily Mail. Thursday, June 27, 2013 Page 68 ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS QUESTION Tyne is thought to be a Celtic word for ‘river’, so ‘River Tyne’ is a tautology. Are there any other tautological place names?
QI - Series C - Cleve Crudgington - British Comedy Guide - Torpenhow Hill is twice as interesting a Mount Fuji, because "Torpenhow Hill" means "Hill Hill Hill Hill", whilst "Mount Fuji" is just "Hill Hill". They are tautological place names. Other examples include the River Tyne (River River) Paraguay River (River River River) and Sahara Desert (Desert Desert). "Boutros Boutros-Ghali" means "Peter Peter-Expensive". Correction: The hill in question is just "Torpenhow", not "Torpenhow Hill". Therefore, it is "Hill Hill Hill".
Nothingness « Everybody lies…
Everybody lies…
River Paraguay - TheBestLinks.com - Paraguay River, Argentina ...
RIVER RIVER RIVER PARAGUAY
Redundancies > Redundant etymology
Rivers Called River Paraguay River – This is a triple redundancy. Both para and guay derive from terms meaning river. So to say Paraguay River is essentially to say river river! Yenisei River – The same is true of this name. Yene means big river and ses also means river. Thus we have an expression that literally translates as big river river river.
Daily Mail. Thursday, June 27, 2013 Page 68 ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS QUESTION Tyne is thought to be a Celtic word for ‘river’, so ‘River Tyne’ is a tautology. Are there any other tautological place names?
LINE OF NILE
THE SPLENDOUR THAT WAS EGYPT Margaret A. Murray Appendix 4 The New Year of God Cornhill Magazine 1934 Page 231/233 "Three o'clock and a still starlight night in mid-September in Upper Egypt. At this hour the village is usually asleep, but to-night it is a stir for this is Nauruz Allah, the New Year of God, and the narrow streets are full of the soft sound of bare feet moving towards the Nile. The village lies on a strip of ground; one one side is the river, now swollen to its height, on the other are the floods of the inundation spread in a vast sheet of water to the edge of the desert. On a windy night the lapping of wavelets is audible on every hand; but to-night the air is calm and still, there is no sound but the muffled tread of unshod feet in the dust and the murmur of voices subdued in the silence of the night. In ancient times throughout the whole of Egypt the night of High Nile was a night of prayer and thanks giving to the great god , the Ruler of the river, Osiris himself. Now it is only in this Coptic village that the ancient rite is preserved, and here the festival is still one of prayer and thanksgiving. In the great cities the New Year is a time of feasting and processions, as blatant and uninteresting as a Lord Mayor's Show, with that additional note of piercing vulgarity peculiar to the East. In this village, far from all great cities, and-as a Coptic community-isolated from and therefore uninfluenced either by its Moslem neighbours or by foreigners, the festival is one of simplicity and piety. The people pray as of old to the Ruler of the river, no longer Osiris, but Christ; and as of old they pray for a blessing upon their children and their homes. There are four appointed places on the river bank to which the village women go daily to fill their water-jars and to water their animals. To these four places the villagers are now making their way, there to keep the New Year of God. The river gleams coldly pale and grey; Sirius blazing in the eastern sky casts a narrow path of light across the mile-wide waters. A faint glow low on the horizon shows where the moon will rise, a dying moon on the last day of the last quarter. The glow gradually spreads and brightens till the thin crescent, like a fine silver wire, rises above the distant palms. Even in that attenuated form the moonlight eclipses the stars and the glory of Sirius is dimmed. The water turns to the colour of tarnished silver, smooth and glassy; the palm-trees close at hand stand black against the sky, and the distant shore is faintly visible. The river runs silently and without a ripple in the windless calm; the palm fronds, so sensitive to the least movement of the air, hang motionless and still; all Nature seems to rest upon this holy night. The women enter the river and stand knee-deep in the running stream praying; they drink nine times, wash the face and hands, and dip themselves in the water. Here is a mother carrying a tiny wailing baby; she enters the river and gently pours the water nine times over the little head. The wailing ceases as the water cools the little hot face. Two anxious women hasten down the steep bank, a young boy between them; they hurriedly enter the water and the boy squats down in the river up to his neck, while the mother pours the water nine times with her hands over his face and shaven head. There is the sound of a little gasp at the first shock of coolness, and the mother laughs, a little tender laugh, and the grandmother says something under her breath, at which they all laugh softly together. After the ninth washing the boy stands up, then squats down again and is again washed nine times, and yet a third nine times; then the grandmother takes her turn and she also washes him nine times. Evidently he is very precious to the hearts of those two women, perhaps the mother's last surviving child. Another sturdy urchin refuses to sit down in the water, frightened perhaps, for a woman's voice speaks encouragingly, and presently a faint splashing and a little gurgle of childish laughter shows that he too is receiving the blessing of the Nauruz of God. A woman stands alone, her slim young figure in its wet clinging garments silhouetted against the steel-grey water. Solitary she stands, apart from the happy groups of parents and children; then, stooping , she drinks from her once, pauses and drinks again; and so drinks nine times with a short pause between every drink and a longer pause between every three. Except for the movement of her hand as she lifts the water to her lips, she stands absolutely still, her body tense with the earnestness of her prayer, the very atmosphere round her charged with the agony of her supplication. Throughout the whole world there is only one thing which causes a woman to pray with such intensity, and that one thing is children. " This may be a childless woman praying for a child, or it may be that, in this land where Nature is as careless and wasteful of infant life as of all else, this a mother praying for the last of her little brood, feeling assured that on this festival of mothers and children her prayers must perforce be heard. At last she straightens herself, beats the water nine times with the corner of her garment, goes softly up the bank, and disappears in the darkness. Little family parties come down to the river, a small child usually riding proudly on her father's shoulder. The men often affect to despise the festival as a woman's affair, but with memories in their hearts of their own mothers and their own childhood they sit quietly by the river and drink nine times. A few of the rougher young men fling themselves into the water and swim boisterously past, but public feeling is against them, for the atmosphere is one of peace and prayer enhanced by the calm and silence of the night. Page 232 and 233 Continued. For thousands of years on the night of High Nile the mothers of Egypt have stood in the great river to implore from the God of the Nile a blessing upon their children; formerly from a God who Himself has memories of childhood and a Mother. Now, as then, the stream bears on its broad surface the echo of countless prayers, the hopes and fears of human hearts; and in my memory remains a vision of the darkly flowing river, the soft murmur of prayer, the peace and calm of the New Year of God. Abu Nauruz hallal.
THE WORD "NINE" OCCURS x 9 AND "NINTH" x 1
Page 231/233 "Three o'clock and a still starlight night in mid-September in Upper Egypt. At this hour the village is usually asleep, but to-night it is a stir for this is Nauruz Allah, the New Year of God
THE LIGHT IS RISING NOW RISING IS THE LIGHT
AWAIT AND ENTERS WATER GODS GODS WATER ENTERS AND AWAIT THE WATERS OF LIFE O LIFE OF THE WATERS
SEE THAT SEA THAT SEA SEE THAT SCENE THE UNSEEN SEEN OF THE SCENE UNSEEN THAT I THAT ME THAT I AM THAT I SEE C SEE I THAT AM I THAT ME THAT I THAT IN SIGHT LIGHT SEE C SEE LIGHT SIGHT IN ART THOU READING ME DREAMER OF DREAMS THAT THAT THAT ISISIS THAT SEA OF CONSCIOUSNESS SEE C THAT I THAT I THAT C SEE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SEA THAT
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