RAZOR-CLAM. An edible bivalved mollusk of the family Solenitke, whose elongated shell, gaping at each end, suggests the handle of a razor. (See Colored Plate of CLAMS.) The spe cies are numerous, and the sands of all shores except in the coldest parts of the world. The common species of the eastern coast of the United States is Easetella Americana, which is an inhabitant of sand flats and bars where the water is pure. They live in holes which run down vertically, two or three feet. and into which they retreat when alarmed. It is useless to attempt to dig them out, as they burrow so rap idly that they are soon beyond the reach of the spade. This species is five or six inches long, about an inch broad, and handsomely colored.
a (less correctly RA). The name by which the sun-god was most generally known in ancient Egypt. According to the Egyptian myths, Re appeared upon the surface of the primeval ocean and, overcoming the powers of darkness, brought order out of chaos, and assumed the government of the world. He reigned for a long period, but finally grew old, the gods became unruly, and the great goddess Isis, who was profoundly versed in magical lore. took advan tage of his failing strength to wrest from him by a stratagem his secret name, the source of his power. Even men rebelled against him, and in his anger he sent down the goddess Hathor to destroy them, but he relented at the sight of the terrible slaughter and turned the goddess from her purpose. Wearied at length with the strug gle, Re gave up the government of the world and retired to rest in heaven upon the back of the celestial cow. With the spread of the solar religion throughout Egypt, Re was identified with a number of local deities who were re garded as special manifestions or phases of the same god. Horns of Edfu, for example, was the morning sun rising upon the horizon or the sun of spring coming forth in renewed activity after gloom of winter. Tum or Atm of
Heliopolis, the great centre of solar worship, was the sun setting in the west, and Osiris rep resented the same phase. The identification was gradually extended to divinities like Ammon of Thebes and Alin of Kontos, who originally pos sessed no solar character whatever, and in course of time nearly every divinity in the Egyptian pantheon came to be identified with Re. Ameno phis 1V., of the Eighteenth Dynasty, carrying this theological tendency to its logical conclu sion, endeavored to establish a species of mono theism based upon the worship of R. under the new name of Aten or the solar disk, as the universal source of life, but the reformed re ligion died with its founder. Re is usually represented as a hawk-headed man bolding in one band the symbol of life and in the other the royal sceptre. Upon his head is the solar disk in the coil of the itrus serpent. In the Book of the Dead (q.v.) the god is conceived as sailing through the heavens during the day in his bark, giving light to the world, and as con tinuing his voyage at night through the lower world, to rise again the following. day. As he advances, his brilliant rays overwhelm the fiends who would impede his progress. The Egyptian Pharaohs were believed to be the direct descend ants of the god, and from the time of the Fifth Dynasty the title 'Son of Re' formed an essential part of the royal titulary. Consult: Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt (London, 1894) ; Wiede mann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians (New York, 1897). See also EGYPT, section on the re ligion of ancient Egypt.