DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49271#0420
324
Editorial Notes
The fact that the bamboo stick with fantastic head is regarded as a serpent by the
Huichol at least makes it plain that such sticks could be conceived as animals: whether
such a conception ever obtained in the Nile Valley regarding sticks of the Sennar type
cannot definitely be said. But the possibility is interesting because of the likeness of the
modern heads to the head of the animal of Set. The arrow-tail of the latter has been
regarded as a whimsical conceit suggested by the fact that the word st signified both the
god and an “arrow”. The conceit, if it is such, goes back to late predynastic times, and
had an extraordinary degree of strength if, at a much later period, it was the cause of
Set’s being associated with archery. The paronomasia would have to give way to a far
more significant connection between the animal, the god, and the art of the bowman, if it
should appear that the god was in his origin a sacred arrow-plant.
Editorial Notes
The fact that the bamboo stick with fantastic head is regarded as a serpent by the
Huichol at least makes it plain that such sticks could be conceived as animals: whether
such a conception ever obtained in the Nile Valley regarding sticks of the Sennar type
cannot definitely be said. But the possibility is interesting because of the likeness of the
modern heads to the head of the animal of Set. The arrow-tail of the latter has been
regarded as a whimsical conceit suggested by the fact that the word st signified both the
god and an “arrow”. The conceit, if it is such, goes back to late predynastic times, and
had an extraordinary degree of strength if, at a much later period, it was the cause of
Set’s being associated with archery. The paronomasia would have to give way to a far
more significant connection between the animal, the god, and the art of the bowman, if it
should appear that the god was in his origin a sacred arrow-plant.