Living Allusions by Mary Gilliland, Ithaca, NY —for Barbara Hartford, IONS Travel Associate, Egypt '96

One tour god creates words about stones, words over stones, words around stones,
words before stones, words after stones.
One tour god coughs up space and warmth enough
to ceremonialize the knowledge in our hearts.
One tour god works the sticky clay of managing connections
with the drivers and the captains and the ticket sellers.
What, though, is there to say about the hidden tour god?
Her temple hasn't clean lines or small dimensions;
it is large and messy and multiple.
She cleans up.
She fills in.
She updates the address list.
She sacrifices her bag at the airport so that no others be sacrificed.
No matter what anyone else is doing she has to keep track of the time.
She helps the lame to walk.
She gives us her water bottle in the desert.
She lays her black fleecy jacket beneath the heads of the sick on the bus.
She keeps us from putting our fingers over the edge and getting them crushed between boats.
She makes sure that no one buys a camel.
Though if we had room for a camel she surely would help us buy one.
There is something awe-ful about the hidden tour god.
On the Western bank, across from the great and messy temple at the side of the Nile,
she finds she is flowing.
As she walks from one holy spot to another the tears are astonishing her:
A pilgrim herself among the pilgrims she guides.
It is so mysterious, this human godness behind the scenes.
Thus she is called the hidden tour god.

Note: The allusions here are to several of the rich and varied ways of creation in the Egyptian heritage: speaking (at Memphis), expectorating (at Heliopolis), spinning a potter's wheel (at Esna). But little can be summarized about the divine triad (Amon/Mut/Khonsu) worshipped at Karnak. They have multiple attributes and their creation methods have not been determined.