to have spoken with a human voice. Before she had thus accomplished herself, her voice might appear like that of a dove. It certainly cannot be supposed that a dove should speak with a human voice; and the circumstance of her being black, explains to us her Egyptian origin. LVIII. The two oracles of Egyptian Thebes and of Dodona have an entire resemblance to each other. The art of divination, as now practised in our temples, is thus derived from Egypt; at least the Egyptians were the first who introduced the sacred festivals, processions, and supplications, and from them the Greeks were instructed. Of this it is to me a sufficient testimony, that these religious ceremonies are in Greece but of modern date, whereas in Egypt they have been in use from the remotest antiquity. LIX. In the course of the year the Egyptians celebrate various public festivals; but the festival in honour of Diana, at the city of Bubastos, is the first in dignity and importance. The second is held in honour of Isis, at the city Busiris, which is situated in the middle of the Delta, and contains the largest temple of that goddess. Isis is called in the Greek tongue, Demeter or Ceres. The solemnities of Minerva, observed at Sais," are the third in consequence; the fourth are Heliopolis, and sacred to the sun; the fifth are those of Latona, at Butos; the next those of Mars, solemnized at Papremis. playing on flutes. The rest of both sexes clap their hands, and join in chorus. Whatever city they approach, the vessels are brought to shore of the women some continue their instrumental music, others call aloud to the females of the place, provoke them by injurious language, dance about, and indecently throw aside their garments. This they do at every place near which they pass. On their arrival at Bubastos, the feast commences, by the sacrifice of many victims, and upon this occasion a greater quantity of wine is consumed than in all the rest of the year. The natives report, that at this solemnity seven hundred thousand “ men and women assemble, not to mention children. 7 LXI. I have before related in what manner the rites of Isis are celebrated at Busiris. After the ceremonies of sacrifice the whole assembly, to the amount of many thousands, flagellate themselves; but in whose honour they do this I am not at liberty to disclose. The Carians of Egypt treat themselves at this solemnity with unparelleled severity: they cut themselves in the face with swords, and by this distinguish themselves from the Egyptian natives. LXII. At the sacrifice solemnized at Sais, the assembly is held by night; they suspend before their houses in the open air, lamps which are filled with oil mixed with salt;" a wick floats at the top, which will burn all night; the feast itself is called the feast of lamps. 10 Such of the vine, to distinguish it from beer, which he calls barley5 Quantity of wine.]—In the Greek it is wine of the wine.-Larcher. Whoever has not seen a witty and humorous dissertation on over zeilives, or barley-wine, published at Oxford in 1750 may promise himself much entertainment from its perusal. 6 Seven hundred thousand.]-For seven hundred thousand, some read only seventy thousand.-T. 7 Flagellate themselves.]—The manner in which Voltaire has translated this passage is too singular to he omitted-"On frappe, dans la ville de Busiris, dit Hero 2 Sais.]-This place is by some supposed to be the Sin dote, les hommes et les femmes apres le sacrifice, mais of the scriptures.-T. 3 Bubastos.]-Savary has translated this passage in his Letters on Egypt. From a comparison of his version with mine, it is painful to observe he has given to Herodotus what the historian never imagined.-Larcher. 4 The women.]-These no doubt, are the Almai, which were not then more decent than now. The Egyptians since Herodotus have been governed by various nations, and at length are sunk deep in ignorance and slavery, but their true character has undergone no change. The frantic ceremonies the pagan religion authorized are now renewed around the sepulchres of Santons, before the churches of the Copts, and in the fairs I mentioned.-Savary. de dire ou on les frappe, c'est ce qui ne m'est pas permis." Questions sur l' Encyclopedie. 8 Xenophanes, the physician, seeing the Egyptians lament and beat themselves at their festivals, says to them, sensibly enough, "If your gods be gods in reality, cease to lament them; but if they are mortals, forbear to sacrifice to them "-Plutarch. 9 Salt.]-Salt was constantly used at all entertainments, both of the gods and men, whence a particular sanctity was believed to be lodged in it: it is hence called fuos más, divine salt, by Homer.-Potter. 10 Feast of lamps. ]-This feast, which much resembles the feast of lamps observed from time immemorial in China, seems to confirm the opinion of M. de Guignes, Egyptians as do not attend the ceremony think | was ever after practised on the festival of Mars: themselves obliged to observe the evening of and these people were also the first who make the festival, and in like manner burn lamps be- it a point of religion not to communicate carfore their houses: thus on this night not Sais nally with a woman " in a temple, nor enter any only, but all Egypt is illuminated. A religious consecrated place after the venereal act, without motive is assigned for the festival itself, and for having first washed. Except the Egyptians and the illuminations by which it is distinguished. the Greeks, all other nations without scruple LXIII. At Heliopolis and Butos," sacrifices connect themselves with women in their temalone are offered, but at Papremis, as at other ples, nor think it necessary to wash themselves places, in addition to the offering of victims, after such connection, previous to their paying other religious ceremonies are observed. At their devotions. In this instance they rank man the close of the day a small number of priests indiscriminately with other animals; for obare in immediate attendance upon the statue of serving that birds as well as beasts copulate in Mars; a greater number, armed with clubs, shrines and temples, they conclude that it canplace themselves at the entrance of the temple; not be offensive to the deity. Such a mode of opposite to these may be seen more than a reasoning does not by any means obtain my thousand men tumultuously assembled, with approbation. clubs also in their hands, to perform their religious vows. The day before the festival they remove the statue of the god, which is kept in a small case decorated with gold, to a different apartment. The priests attendant upon the statue place it, together with its case, on a fourwheeled carriage, and begin to draw it along. Those at the entrance of the temple endeavour to prevent its admission: but the votaries above mentioned come to the succour of the god, and a combat ensues between the two parties, in which many heads are broken, and I should suppose many lives lost, though this the Egyptians positively deny. LXIV. The motive for this ceremony is thus explained by the natives of the country:This temple, they say, was the residence of the mother of Mars: the god himself, who had been brought up at a distance from his parent, on his arrival at man's estate came hither to visit his mother. The attendants, who had never seen him before, not only refused to admit him, but roughly drove him from the place. Obtaining proper assistance, he returned, severely chastised those who had opposed him, and obtained admission to his parent. From this circumstance the above mode of fighting who has been the first to intimate that China was a colony from Egypt.-Larcher. In Egypt there is no rejoicing, no festival of any consideration at all, unaccompanied with illumination. For this -purpose they make use of earthen lamps, which they put into very deep vessels of glass, in such a manner as that the glass is two thirds, or at least one half of its height, higher than the lamp, in order to preserve the light, and prevent its extinction by the wind. The Egyptians have carried this art to the highest perfection, &c.-Maillet. 11 Butos.]-This is indifferently written Butos, Butis, and Buto.-T. LXV. The superstition of the Egyptians is conspicuous in various instances, but in this more particularly: notwithstanding the vicinity of their country to Africa, the number of beasts is comparatively small, but all of them, both those which are wild and those which are domestic, are regarded as sacred. If I were to explain the reason of this prejudice, I should be led to the discussion of those sacred subjects, which I particularly wish to avoid," and which but from necessity I should not have discussed so fully as I have. Their laws compel them to cherish animals, a certain number of men and women are appointed to this office, which is esteemed so honourable," that it descends in 12 Communicate carnally with a woman.]—Mention is made of the Mossyri, called by Apollonius Rhodius, Mossyræci, who copulated in the public streets. See Xenophon, Diodorus Siculus, and others, Next by the sacred hill their oars impel Fawkes Apollonius Rhod. Quid ego de Cynicis loquar, quibus in propatulo coire cum conjugibus mos fuit. Lactantius.-See also what Diogenes Laertius says of Crates and Hipparchia. See Bayle on the Adamites and Picards, and also " A Dialogue concerning Decency." See also Herodotus, book i.—7. 13 Wish to avoid. ]--The ancients were remarkably scrupulous in every thing which regarded religion; but in the time of Diodorus Siculus strangers did not pay the same reverence to the religious rites of the Egyptians. This historian was not afraid to acquaint us with the motives which induced the Egyptians to pay divine honours to animals.-Larcher. See Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. 21. 14 Esteemed so honourable.]-So far from refusing this employ, or being ashamed publicly to exercise it, they M succession from father to son. In the presence | frustrated-The female cats, when delivered of these animals the inhabitants of the cities perform their vows. They address themselves as supplicants to the divinity, who is supposed to be represented by the animal in whose presence they are; they then cut off their children's hair, sometimes the whole of it, sometimes half, at other times only a third part; this they weigh in a balance against a piece of silver; as soon as the silver preponderates, they give it to the woman who keeps the beast, she in return feeds the beast with pieces of fish, which is their constant food. It is a capital offence designedly to kill any one of these animals; to destroy one accidentally is punished by a fine, determined by the priests; but whoever, however involuntarily, kills an ibis or an hawk cannot by any means escape death. 3 LXVI. The number of domestic animals in Egypt is very great, and would be much greater if the increase of cats were not thus make a vain display of it, as if they participated the greatest honours of the gods. When they travel through the cities, or the country, they make known, by certain marks which they exhibit, the particular animal of which they have the care. They who meet them as they journey respect and worship these.-Diodorus Siculus. 1 To kill any one of these.]-The cat was also held in the extremest veneration by the ancient Egyptians; and Diodorus Siculus relates, that a Roman having by accident killed a cat, the common people instantly surrounded his house with every demonstration of fury. The king's guards were instantly despatched to rescue him from their rage, but in vain; his authority and the Roman name were equally ineffectual.-In the most extreme necessities of famine, they rather chose to feed on human flesh than on these animals.-T. 2 Ibis.]-The Egyptians thus venerated the ibis, because they were supposed to devour the serpents which bred in the ground after the ebbing of the Nile. -T. 3 Hawk.]-They have a kind of domestic large brown hawk, with a fine eye. One may see the pigeons and hawks standing close to one another. The Turks never kill them, and seem to have a sort of veneration for these birds, and for cats, as well as their ancestors. The ancient Egyptians in this animal, worshipped the sun or Osiris, of which the brightness of its eyes was an emblem.-Pococke. of their young, carefully avoid the company of the males, who to obtain a second commerce with them contrive and execute this stratagem ; they steal the young from the mother, which they destroy, but do not eat. This animal, which is very fond of its young, from its desire to have more, again covets the company of the male. In every accident of fire, the cats seem to be actuated by some supernatural impulse; for the Egyptians surrounding the place which is burning appear to be occupied with no thought but that of preserving their cats. These, however, by stealing between the legs of the spectators, or by leaping over their heads, endeavour to dart into the flames. This circumstance, whenever it happens, diffuses universal sorrow." In whatever family a cat by accident happens to die, every individual cuts off his eye-brows but on the death of a dog s policy, foreseeing such dangerous consequences, reserved all their worship for the full-grown divinities, and used the freedom to drown the holy spawn, or little sucking gods, without any scruple or remorse. And thus the practice of warping the tenets of religion, in order to serve temporal interests, is not by any means to be regarded as an invention of these later ages.-Hume. 7 5 Supernatural]-It is astonishing that Herodotus should see this as a prodigy. The cat is a timid animal, fire makes it more so: the precautions taken to prevent its perishing, frighten it still more, and deprive it of its sagacity.-Larcher. 6 Universal sorrow.]-One method of mourning prevalent in the east, was to assemble in multitudes, and bewail aloud. In a manuscript of Sir John Chardin, part of which has been given in the work of Mr Harmer, we have this remark, "It is the genius of the people of Asia to express their sentiments of joy and grief aloud. These their transports are ungoverned, excessive, and truly outrageous." See Harmer, vol. ii. p. 136. 7 Cuts off his eye-brows.]-The custom of cutting off the hair in mourning appears to have obtained in the east in the prophetic times. Among the ancient Greeks it was sometimes laid upon the dead body, sometimes cast into the funeral pile, and sometimes placed upon the grave. Women in the deep mourning of captivity, shaved off their hair. "Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails." Deut. xxi. 12. Maillet says, that in the east the women that attend a Osiris was worshipped at Phile, under the figure of corpse to the grave generally have their hair hanging the Ethiopian hawk.-T. 4 If the increase of cats, &c.]-There occurs, I own, a difficulty in the Egyptian system of theology. It is evident from their method of propagation, that a couple of cats in fifty years would stock a whole kingdom. If religious veneration were paid them, it would in twenty more not only be easier in Egypt to find a god than a man, (which Petronius says was the case in some parts of Italy) but the gods must at last entirely starve the men, and leave themselves neither priests nor votaries remaining. It is probable, therefore, that this wise nation, the most celebrated in antiquity for prudence and sound loose about their ears. 8 Death of a dog.]-In this respect Plutarch differs from Herodotus. He allows that these animals were at one time esteemed holy, but it was before the time of Cambyses. From the era of his reign they were held in another light; for when this king killed the sacred Apis, the dogs fed so liberally upon his entrails, without making a proper distinction, that they lost all their sanctity. But they were certainly of old looked upon as sacred; and it was perhaps with a view to this, and to prevent the Israelites retaining any notion of this nature, that a dog was not suffered to come within the precincts of the they shave their heads and every part of their bodies. LXVII. The cats when dead are carried to sacred buildings, and after being salted" are buried in the city Bubastis. Of the canine species, the females are buried in consecrated chests, wherever they may happen to die, which ceremony is also observed with respect to the ichneumons. 10 The shrew-mice and hawks are always removed to Butos; the ibis to Hermopolis;" the bears, an animal rarely seen in Egypt, and the wolves, which are not much bigger than foxes, are buried in whatever place they die. temple of Jerusalem. In the Mosaic law, the price of a dog, and the hire of a harlot are put upon the same level. See Deuteronomy, xxiii. 18. "Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore nor the price of a dog into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow, for both these are an abomination to the Lord thy God."-Bryant. It is because the dog was consecrated to Anubis, that he was represented with a dog's head. Virgil and Ovid call him Latrator Anubis; Propertius and Prudentius, Latrans Anubis.-Larcher. At the present day dogs are considered in the east as defiling they do not suffer them in their houses, and ever with care avoid touching them in the streets. By the ancient Jews, as remarked before, they were considered in a disagreeable light. "Am I a dog?" says the Philistine to David. "What, is thy servant a dog?" 220. It may p. says Hazael, &c. See Harmer, vol. i. indeed be observed, that in most countries and languages the word dog is a term of contempt. "I took by the throat the uncircumcised dog."-T. 9 After being salted.]-Diodorus Siculus says the same thing, and he also describes the process used on the occasion.-T. 10 Ichneumon]-is found both in Upper and Lower Egypt. It creeps slowly along, as if ready to seize its prey; it feeds on plants, eggs, and fowls. In Upper Egypt it searches for the eggs of the crocodile, which lie hid in the sand, and eats them, thereby preventing the increase of that animal. It may be easily tamed, and goes about the houses like a cat. It makes a growling noise and barks when it is very angry. The French in Egypt have called this Rat de Pharaon. Alpinus and Bellonius, following this, have called it Mus Pharaonis. The resemblance it has to a mouse in colour and hair, might have induced people ignorant of natural history to call it a mouse, but why Pharaoh's mouse? The Egyp tians were in the time of Pharaoh too intelligent to call it a mouse: nor is it at this day called phar by the Arabs, which is the name for mouse; they call it nems. What is related concerning its entering the jaws of the crocodile is fabulous.-Hasselquist. 11 Hermopolis.]-There were in Egypt two places of this name, Wesseling supposes Herodotus to speak of that in the Thebiad.-T. 12 Wolves.]-Hasselquist did not meet with either of these animals in Egypt. Wolves were honoured in Egypt, says Eusebius, probably from their resemblance to the dog. Some relate, that the Ethiopians having made an expedition against Egypt, were put to flight by a vast number of wolves, which occasioned the place where the incident happened to be called Lycopolis. 13 LXVIII. I proceed now to describe the nature of the crocodile, " which during the four severer months in winter eats nothing: it is a quadruped, but amphibious; it is also oviparous, and deposits its eggs in the sand; the greater part of the day it spends on shore, but all the night in the water, as being warmer than the external air," whose cold is increased by the dew. No animal that I have seen or known, from being at first so remarkably diminutive grows to so vast a size. The eggs are not larger than those of geese: on leaving the shell the young is proportionably small, but when arrived at its full size it is sometimes more than seventeen cubits in length: it has eyes like a hog, 15 13 Of the crocodile.]-The general nature and proper. I shall ties of the crocodile are sufficiently known. therefore be contented with giving the reader, from dif. ferent authors, such particulars of this extraordinary animal as are less notorious. The circumstance of their eating nothing during the four severe winter months seems to be untrue. The excrements do not appear to pass through the anus, they pass through the gut into the ventricle, and are vomited up. Under the shoulder of the old crocodile is a folliculus containing a thick matter, which smells like musk, a perfume much esteemed in Egypt. When the male copulates with the female, he turns her with his snout on her back. The fat of the crocodile is used by the Egyptians against the rheumatism. The gall is thought good for the eyes, and for barrenness in women. The eyes are an aphro disiac, and as Hasselquist affirms, esteemed by the Arabs superior even to ambergris. When the ancient prophets in the Old Testament speak of a dragon, a crocodile is generally to be understood. "Am I a sea or a jannin?" See Job vii. 12; where, according to Harmer, a crocodile alone can be meant. The animal is of most extraordinary strength. "One of twelve feet," says Maillet, "after a long fast threw down with the stroke of his tail five or six men, and a bale of coffee." They sleep in the sun, but not soundly. They seldom descend below the Thebais, and never below Some have been seen fifty feet long. Grand Cairo. Herodotus says it has no tongue, but it has a fleshy substance like a tongue, which serves it to turn its meat: it is said to move only the upper jaw, and to lay fifty eggs. It is not a little remarkable, that the ancient name being champsa, the Egyptians now call it timsah.-T. 14 Warmer than the external air.]-Water exposed to violent heat during the day preserves its warmth in the night, and is then much less cold than the external air.— Larcher. From consulting modern travellers, we find the remarks of Herodotus on the crocodile, excepting only the particularities which we have pointed out, confirmed.-T. 15 Eyes like a hog.]-The leviathan of Job is variously understood by critics for the whale and the crocodile. Both these animals are remarkable for the smallness of their eyes, in proportion to the bulk of their bodies: those of the crocodile are said to be extremely piercing out of the water; in which sense, therefore, the poet's expression, "its eyes are like the eyelids of the morn Dr Young, in his paraing," can only be applicable. phrase on this part of Job, describing the crocodile as the and with other appointed food. While it lives they treat it with unceasing attention, and when it dies it is first embalmed, and afterwards deposited in a sacred chest. They who lived in or near Elephantine, so far from considering these beasts as sacred, make them an article of food: they call them not crocodiles, but champsæ. The name of crocodiles was first imposed by the Ionians, from their resemblance to lizards so named by them, which are produced in the hedges. teeth large and prominent, in proportion to the dimensions of its body; but, unlike all other animals, it has no tongue. It is further and most singularly distinguished by only moving its upper jaw. Its feet are armed with strong fangs; the skin is protected by hard scales regularly divided. In the open air its sight is remarkably acute, but it cannot see at all in the water; living in the water its throat is always full of leeches; beasts and birds universally avoid it, the trochilus alone excepted, which, from a sense of gratitude, it treats with kind- LXX. Among the various methods that are When the crocodile leaves the water, used to take the crocodile, I shall only relate one it reclines itself on the sand, and generally to- which most deserves attention: they fix on a wards the west, with its mouth open: the tro-hook a piece of swine's flesh, and suffer it to chilus entering its throat destroys the leeches; float into the middle of the stream; on the in acknowledgment for which service it never banks they have a live hog, which they beat till does the trochilus injury. it cries out. The crocodile hearing the noise makes towards it, and in the way encounters and devours the bait. They then draw it on shore, and the first thing they do is to fill its eyes with clay; it is thus easily manageable, which it otherwise would not be. ness. LXIX. This animal, by many of the Egyptians, is esteemed sacred,' by others it is treated as an enemy. They who live near Thebes, and the lake Moris, hold the crocodile in religious veneration; they select one, which they render tame and docile, suspending golden ornaments from its ears, and sometimes gems of value; the fore feet are secured by a chain. They feed it with the flesh of the sacred victims, animal intended in the original, has given the image an Large is his front, and when his burnish'd eyes 1 Esteemed sacred.]—On this subject we have the following singular story in Maximus Tyrius. An Egyptian woman brought up the young one of a crocodile. The Egyptians esteemed her singularly fortunate, and revered her as the nurse of a deity. The woman had a son about the same age with the crocodile, and they grew up and played together. No harm ensued whilst the crocodile was gentle from being weak; but when it got its strength it devoured the child. The woman exulted in the death of her son, and considered his fate as blessed in the extreme, in thus becoming the victim of their domestic god.-T. 2 Treated as an enemy.]-These were the people of Tentyra in particular, now called Dandera, they were famous for their intrepidity as well as art in overcoming crocodiles. For a particular account of their manner of treating them, see Pliny, book viii. chap. 25.-T. 3 Ornaments from its ears.]-This seems to suppose, that the crocodile has ears externally, nevertheless those which the Sultan sent to Louis the Fourteenth, and which the academy of sciences dissected, had none. They found in them indeed apertures of the ears placed below the eyes, but concealed and covered with skin, which had the appearance of two eye-lids entirely closed. When the animal was alive, and out of the water, these lids probably opened. However this may be, it was, as may be presumed, to these membranes that the ear-rings were fixed.-Larcher. LXXI. The hippopotamus" is esteemed sa 4 Champs.]-The crocodile had many names, such as carmin, souchus, campsa. This last signified an ark or receptacle.-Bryant. 5 To take the crocodile.]-The most common way of killing the crocodile is by shooting it. The ball must be directed towards the belly, where the skin is soft, and not armed with scales like the back. Yet they give an account of a method of catching them something like that which Herodotus relates. They make some animal cry at a distance from the river, and when the crocodile comes out they thrust a spear into his body, to which a rope is tied: they then let him go into the water to spend himself; and afterwards drawing him out, run a pole into his mouth, and jumping on his back tie his jaws toge. ther.- Pococke. 6 The hippopotamus.]-It is to be observed, that the hippopotamus and crocodile were symbols of the same purport: both related to the deluge, and however the Greeks might sometimes represent them, they were both in different places reverenced by the ancient Egyptians. -Bryant, who refers his reader on this subject to the Isis and Osiris of Plutarch. The hippopotamus is generally supposed to be the behemoth of scripture. Maillet says his skin is two fingers thick; and that it is so much the more difficult to kill it as there is only a small place in its forehead where it is vulnerable. Hasselquist classes it not with the amphibia but quadrupeds. It as an inveterate enemy to the crocodile, and kills it wherever it meets it. It never appears below the cataracts. The hide is a load for a camel: Maillet speaks of one which would have been a heavy load for four camels. He does great injury to the Egyptians, destroying in a very short time an entire field of corn or clover. Their manner of destroying it is too curious to be omitted: they place in his way a great quantity of pease; the beast filling himself with these, they occa sion an intolerable thirst. Upon these he drinks large draughts of water, and the Egyptians afterwards find |