Mr. Ibis

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Mr. Ibis is one of the Old Gods, and a supporting character in American Gods. He runs Ibis and Jacquel Funeral Parlor with his partner, Mr. Jacquel.

Significance in Narrative

When Shadow first arrives in Cairo, IL, he meets a cat (Bast), a talking dog (Mr. Jacquel), and a man in gold-rimmed spectacles (Mr. Ibis) who take him to Ibis and Jacquel family funeral parlor. They let him stay with them and do some work for them, as they owe Wednesday a favor. Shadow has lunch with Ibis, who explains that most funeral homes are large corporations, because they make more profit. However, in order to appeal to the public, they keep the name and employees of the smaller funeral homes they purchase. Mr Ibis then reveals that he and Jacquel come from Ancient Egypt. He was brought over by the people of the Nile when they came up the Mississippi to trade, and left them behind. Ibis explains that advanced peoples from all over the world had been coming to America long before Columbus.

Shadow watches Mr. Jacquel as he performs an autopsy on a murdered young girl. He does it professionally and slowly, but eats small pieces of her heart, liver, and kidney as he is performing the procedure. Ibis asks Shadow if he minds sleeping under the same roof as corpses, and Shadow responds that it's fine as long as they stay dead. Ibis explains that it's very difficult to bring the dead back to life in their bodies, but that it used to be easier in ancient Egypt.

Ibis and Jacquel host a service for Lila Goodchild and they ask Shadow to pick up a body the police phoned about. When Shadow arrives at the site, he sees Mad Sweeney frozen with a twenty-dollar bottle of whiskey in his lap. Back at the funeral home, Mr. Goodchild continues to complain how his children won’t come to pay their respects, repeating “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”.

That night, Shadow, Ibis, and Jacquel set an extra place on the table and pour everyone expensive Irish whisky. Ibis tells Mad Sweeney's story: he was made to protect a precious stone in Ireland, and was brought to America by a young Irish girl looking for a place to make money. They all get drunk to the point that Sweeney starts adding to the conversation and Sweeney reminds Shadow how to do the coin trick: you take the coin out of nowhere, out of the hoard, and out of your mind.

Coming to America

Main article: Chapter Four

1721

Mr. Ibis writes in his journal about how many of the early immigrants to America were indentured servants and deported criminals. He recounts the tale of Essie Tregowan from Cornwall who was a con artist, thief, and prostitute and believed her good luck was from leaving a saucer of milk out for the piskies. She is eventually caught for her crimes and escapes hanging because she is pregnant and is transported to America instead.

In America, she marries the widowed father who bought her indenture, raising his daughter and her son and having another son together, all the while teaching them about the piskies and other myths of her old country. Eventually, her husband died, one of her sons killed the other and ran away, and she remained on the land with her daughter and grandchildren. One day, while she was shucking peas, "Cousin Jack" from the old world came to visit and she took his hand and passed away.

Physical Appearance

He is described as "a cranelike man with gold-rimmed spectacles" and is "well over six feet in height, with a cranelike stoop".

Significance in Mythology

Mr. Ibis is an incarnation of Thoth, the Ancient Egyptian God of writing, wisdom, and magic.

• Thoth