This misconception arose from the statement of Herodotus, who has confounded the canal with the lake Moris; and I believe the real position of this celebrated edifice will prove to be in the spot already indicated by me, close to the pyramid of Howara. Here remains of granite and limestone mark its site; and they sufficiently accord, both from their appearance, and from the locality, with the accounts of Pliny, Strabot, and Diodorus. ‡ THE HYENA VULGARIS AND CROCUTA. The only representations of the hyæna in the paintings of Thebes show it to have been looked upon as an enemy to the flocks and fields, and to have been hunted by the peasants, who either shot it with arrows, or caught it in traps. sculpture in the temples, and no emblem in the tombs, furnish the least authority for supposing it sacred, though some have thought it was dedicated to the Egyptian Mars. Νο It is very common throughout Egypt; and the paintings of Thebes, Beni Hassan, and the tombs near the pyramids, show it to have frequented the upper and lower country in ancient times as at the present day. Its Coptic name is 2,0rTe, and the same by which the hieroglyphics prove it to have been known in the ancient Egyptian language. The favourite food of this animal seems to be the *Vide Egypt and Thebes, p. 355. + Strabo, xvii. p. 557. Η Diodor. i. 66. “ Παρα τον εισπλουν τον εις την Μοιρίδος λίμνην.” ass. It sometimes attacks cattle and men, and is particularly dreaded by the modern peasants; but I never found one which ventured to attack a man who fearlessly advanced towards it, except when rendered savage by a wound, or by the desire natural to all animals of defending its young. On these occasions it is a rude and dangerous antagonist. Its general mode of attacking a man is by rushing furiously against him, and throwing him down by a blow of its large bony head; and in a sandy place it is said first to throw up a cloud of dust with its hind legs, and then to close with its opponent, while disconcerted by this wily artifice. The Abyssinians have an extraordinary fancy respecting the hyæna. They affirm that a race of people who inhabit their country, and who usually follow the trade of blacksmiths, have the power of changing their form at pleasure, and assuming that of the hyæna. I had often heard this tale from natives of Abyssinia living in Egypt, and having been told many equally extravagant I was not surprised at their credulity. Meeting accidentally with an Englishman who had lived about thirty years there, and who on his way to Europe was staying a few days at Cairo, I mentioned, in the course of conversation, this singular notion, with an evident demonstration of my own disbelief, and with an inquiry whether it was generally credited. Looking at me with an unequivocal expression of pity for my ignorance, he answered that no Abyssinian ever doubted it, and that no one at all ac quainted with that country would think of asking such a question. "Every one," he added, "knows that those blacksmiths have the power of assuming the form of a hyæna, which as naturally belongs to them as that of a man. I had a proof of it a few days before I left Abyssinia. For while walking and conversing with one of them, I happened to turn my head aside for a few instants, and on looking round again I found that he had changed himself, and was trotting away at a little distance from me under his new form." The hyæna crocuta, or spotted hyæna*, differs from the former in its form and colour, as well as its habits, which are gregarious. It appears to answer to the Chaus of Pliny †, which Linnæus places in the Felis tribe. It is the Crocuta of Strabo, which he considers a hybrid of the wolf and the dog. Large packs of them infest the country in many parts of Upper Ethiopia, but they do not extend their visits to Nubia or Egypt; and in former times also they seem to have been unknown in Egypt. For the sculptured representations of them show that they were only brought out of curiosity as presents to the Pharaohs, to be placed among the strange animals of foreign countries in the vivaria, or zoological gardens, of the royal domain. Nor is there any probability of their having held a place amongst the sacred animals either of Egypt or Ethiopia. *The Marafeen or Marafeeb of Berber and Sennaar. THE CAT. The respect with which the Cat was treated in Egypt, was such as few of the sacred animals enjoyed. Its worship was universally acknowledged throughout the country*; and though, in some districts, the honours paid to it were less marked than in the immediate neighbourhood of Bubastis, its sanctity was nowhere denied; and the privileges accorded to the emblem of the Egyptian Diana, were as scrupulously maintained in the Thebaïd, as in Lower Egypt. "Never," says Cicerot, "did any one hear tell of a cat having been killed by an Egyptian ;" and so bigoted were they in their veneration for this animal, that neither the influence of their own magistrates, nor the dread of the Roman name, could prevent the populace from sacrificing to their vengeance an unfortunate Roman who had accidentally killed a cat. ‡ When one of them died a natural death, all the inmates of the house shaved their eyebrows in token of mourning, and having embalmed the body, they buried it with great pomp; so that, as Diodorus § observes, “ they not only respected some animals, as cats, ichneumons, dogs, and hawks, during their lifetime, but extended the same honours to them after death." All writers seem to agree about the respect * Strabo, xvii. p. 559. Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 29. "Ne fando quidem auditum est, cro codilum, aut ibim, aut felem violatum ab Ægyptio." Diodor. i. 83. Vide suprà, p. 95. § Diodor. i. 83. shown to the Cat throughout the country; we can therefore with difficulty credit the assertion of a late author*, who states, "that in Alexandria, one of these animals was sacrificed to Horus,” even though the city was inhabited by a mixed population, in great part composed of Greeks. Those which died in the vicinity of Bubastist, were sent to that city, to repose within the precincts of the place particularly devoted to their worship. Others were deposited in certain consecrated spots set apart for the purpose, near the town where they had lived. In all cases, the expense of the funeral rites depended on the donations of pious individuals, or on the peculiar honours paid to the Goddess of whom they were the emblem. Many were, no doubt, sent by their devout masters to Bubastis itself, from an impression that they would repose in greater security near the abode of their patron; and to the same feeling which induced their removal to a choice place of burial, may be attributed the abundance of Cat mummies in the vicinity of Shekh Hassan, where a small rock temple marks the site of the Speos Artemidos. ‡ Those cats, which during their lifetime had been worshipped in the temple of Pasht§, as the living types of that Goddess, were doubtless treated after death with additional honours, and buried in a far more sumptuous manner. This distinguished post Sextus Empiricus, Pyrrhon. Hypotyp. iii. 24., quoted by Larcher. Herodot. ii. 301. + Herodot. ii. 67. Vide my Egypt and Thebes, p. 379. Of this Goddess, and her temple at Bubastis, vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 277. |