. Discovery. Science. DISCOVERY 157 similar practice from the Congo region, the mother, as we have seen, expressly requesting the spirit of her dead child to enter her in order to be reborn. Possibly in Egypt the people may have no concrete ideas on this point. The custom may have had its origin in an early and definite belief in rebirth, the ceremony being continued at the present day because it has become the custom and is one of the recognised devices resorted to as a cure for barrenness, while the belief which gave it birth no longer consciously exists in the minds of the people who practi
. Discovery. Science. DISCOVERY 157 similar practice from the Congo region, the mother, as we have seen, expressly requesting the spirit of her dead child to enter her in order to be reborn. Possibly in Egypt the people may have no concrete ideas on this point. The custom may have had its origin in an early and definite belief in rebirth, the ceremony being continued at the present day because it has become the custom and is one of the recognised devices resorted to as a cure for barrenness, while the belief which gave it birth no longer consciously exists in the minds of the people who practise the rite. There is a belief in the Fayum Province, and it ma\- prevail in other parts of Egypt, that if a woman who has lately become a mother goes to see another woman who has recently given birth to a child which has died, thr latter will not conceive again. Such a visit should not be paid till the child has been dead for fifteen days. Should such a meeting take place accidentally, the mother of the dead child must counteract this evil influence by visiting the child's tomb as described above. Sometimes, if a woman has no children, her friends will take her to the railway and make her lie down be- tween the lines in order that the train may pass over her. Again, a friend will bring a large lizard of the kind called waran for a childless woman to step over three, five or seven times. Yet again, the pollen of the male palm is mixed in water, which is then given to a childless woman to drink. All these are effective methods, it is believed, of inducing conception. Particular stones, either those covering the body of a dead Sheikh, or those of large size or peculiar shape, are also visited by childless women. There is a stone in the centre of a field, just outside the village of EI- Habalsa in AsyQt Province, which is frequented bj* the women for various reasons, one of them being for the purpose of securing offspring. The stone, which is roughly conical in shape and is of sma
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