Four sons of Horus Thoth, the god of wisdom and knowledge, and also the baboons which chatter when the sun rises raising their hands as if in worship. The jackal (or possibly dog) is linked to Anubis and the act of embalming and also Wepwawet the "opener of the ways" who seeks out the paths of the dead. The hawk is associated with Horus himself and also Seker the mummified necropolis god. Imseti, the human, may be linked to Osiris himself or Onuris the hunter. The Egyptians themselves linked them with the ancient kings of Lower and Upper Egypt, the Souls of Pe and
The Brief History of the Dead describes is a sort of purgatory where souls not ready to accept heaven await the return of Jesus Christ, The City in this novel is a form of limbo dependent on the memories of the living. Many ancient cultures believe that birds are harbingers of death or foreshadow the coming of a deity. Birds are used symbolically in the novel and feature prominently in the symbolic nether world of The City. Also, the main living protagonist of the novel is named Laura Byrd, the reference to birds and their portents made more explicit by the naming of the birds in