(487) Lion and Baboon 2 [調べる]
Lion and Baboon 2
Question:
Why had the baboon fixed some plates, round glistening plates, on the back of his head?
Answer:
This was the Hottentot way of depicting the hindward image of the baboon.
Thoth
Pic. Thoth ibis
Thoth (/ˈθoʊθ/ or /ˈtoʊt/; from Greek Θώθ thṓth; derived from Egyptian ḏḥw.ty) was one of the deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him.
pic. Thoth baboon
He also appears as a dog-faced baboon or a man with the head of a baboon when he is A'an (Aan baboon), the god of equilibrium.
Lion and baboon
Pic. Lion and baboon
The AAN baboon was the type of the moon in the hind-quarter of the heaven, and imaged the hiderward phase or face of the moon, and in one of these fables it is narrated how the baboon once worked bamboos, sitting on the edge of a precipice. Up came the lion to steal upon the baboon. But the baboon had fixed some plates, round glistening plates, on the back of his head. Seeing these dazzling plates the lion supposed they were the face and eyes of the animal. So that when the baboon turned round to look, the lion thought that the real face was the hindward part. This gave the baboon the advantage; he could watch the lion advance, and when the lion made his leap, the ape bent forward, and the lion went over both the baboon and precipice.
--------A Book of the Beginnings
XXIII Roots IN AFRICA BEYOND EGYPT
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