Wand

Wand


 * Egyptian Name:**

//Meqer//

Made from the tusks of a male hippopotamus, ancient Egyptian wands resembled the ceremonial flint knife. The purpose of these wands was not only to provide protection against the dangers of everyday existence, such as scorpions and poisonous snakes, but also to protect against illness and accidents, difficult births, nightmares, and the fear of the unknown. Most of them, it seems, belonged to women and children. The ends of the wands are often worn away, as if they had been employed to mark magically safe places. Some wands had holes on one end for hanging over a doorway or on a belt. On occasion wands were made of bone or steatite rather than ivory.

These magical wands were heavily decorated with various animals such as lions, snakes, baboons, vultures, turtles, leopards, frogs, scarabs, crocodiles, flies, and cats, as well as mythological animals such as griffins, sphinxes, and serpopards. Images of the deities Bes, Taweret, and Heket and symbols such as the Sa sign and Was Scepter were also popular.

The same parade of protective animals and deities are also present on an infant feeding-cup found at el-Lisht. Occasionally the wands bore inscriptions. A wand in the Berlin Museum states: "The many protectors say: 'I have come to bring protection to Sene, daughter of Seneseme, repeating life.'"

Magical Objects