Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

XIV INTRODUCTION.
Bk. I. chap. 5, and although I have not been able
to find any similar example in Egyptian papyri,
there are certain things mentioned which shew
that the Egyptians held the same views. When
Nectanebus wished Olympias to believe that the
god Ammon had visited her during the night, he
decided to send her a dream in which she should
Waxen fi- havc this vision. To effect this he went out from
o"ympias.° her preseuce and gathered a number of herbs
which had the power of causing dreams, and
pressed out the juice from them. He then fash-
ioned a female figure in the form of Olympias,
and inscribed upon it the name of Olympias, and
having made the model of a bed he laid the figure
thereon.' Nectanebus next lit a lamp and, pouring
out the juice of the herbs over the waxen figure,
he recited the words of power which would compel
the demons to send Olympias a dream; and at
the moment of the performance of these acts
Olympias dreamed that she was in the arms of
the orod Ammon. The idea of inscribing the fio-ure
with a name finds its parallel in a rubric to a
papyrus which orders that the waxen figure of
Apepi, the demon of mist and rain, which had
been burnt in a grass fire was to have "his accursed
name cut and inscribed upon it in green colour."^
' Eique nomen reginae adscribens lectulum ei fabricatur, cui
ilia effigies supra ponitur; see Miiller, Pseudo- Callisthenes, p. 6.
(S D D ji .Mir/www AMI IX Iff^D (S c
"(](j°
J
(col. xxiii. I. 6).