and it is more likely that the Ichneumon should be mistaken for an otter than the monitor of the Nile. Since writing the above, I find my last opinion fully confirmed by Ammianus Marcellinus*, who says it is "the Hydrus, a kind of Ichneumon," which attacks the crocodile; and the name of Enhydrus, given it by Solinus and Isidorus, added to the observation of Hesychius, who describes" the Enhydrus as an amphibious animal, like the beaver," may suffice to show that the Enhydris (vuòpis) of Herodotus is no other than the Ichneumon. THE DOG. The dog was held in great veneration in many parts of Egypt, particularly at the city of Cynopolis, where it was treated with divine honours. Strabo tells us a stated quantity of provisions was always supplied by the inhabitants of that city for the maintenance of their favourite animals; and so tenacious were they of the respect due to them, that a civil war raged for some time between them and the people of Oxyrhinchus, in consequence of the latter having killed and eaten them. This had been done in revenge for an insult they had received from the Cynopolites, who had brought to table their sacred fish. † "In ancient times," says Plutarch ‡, "the Egyptians paid the greatest reverence and honour to the *Amm. Marc. xxii. 14. p. 336. + Plut. de Is. s. 72. Strabo says the Oxyrhinchus fish was sacred in all Egypt (xvii. p. 559.). Plut. de Is. s. 44. dog; but by reason of his eating of the flesh of Apis, after Cambyses had slain it and thrown it out, when no other animal would taste or even come near it, he lost the first rank he had hitherto held amongst the sacred animals." Such is the opinion of Plutarch; but it may be doubted if the dog ever enjoyed the same exalted rank among the sacred animals as the cat and many others, however much it was esteemed by the Egyptians for its fidelity. It was sacred*, but not universally worshipped. It was not held in the same repute in every part of Egypt, as we have already seen from the disputes between the Cynopolites and Oxyrhinchites; nor was it looked upon as one of those "which were worshipped by the whole nation, as were the Ibis, the hawk, the Cynocephalus, and the Apis."† The assertion of Plutarch respecting the disgrace into which the dog fell may be justly doubted; and Herodotus, whose authority is to be preferred, in his account of Apis's death, and the care taken by the priests to bury its body, disproves his statement, and stamps it with the fabulous character which belongs to so many of the stories contained in the treatise of Isis and Osiris. Indeed, the idea seems so nearly connected with the group of the God Mithras, where the dog is represented feeding on the blood of the slaughtered ox, that there is reason to believe the story derived its origin from the Persian idol. * Plato (Gorgias. p. 398. transl.) calls it "one of the Deities of Egypt." Vide Plut. s. 72. 75. Among those who acknowledged the sacred character of the dog, the respect it received was very remarkable; for whenever one of those animals died a natural death, all the inmates of the house shaved their heads and their whole body; and if any food, whether wine, corn, or any thing else, happened to be in the house at the time, it was forbidden to be applied to any use. According to some ancient authors, the dog was fabled to have been the guard of Isis and Osiris, and to have been revered on account of its assisting Isis in her search after the dead body of her husband; "for which reason," they add †, “dogs are made to head the procession in the ceremonies of Isis, as if to record their utility on that occasion." Herodotus does not confine the burying-place of the dog to any particular district. "Every one," he says, "inters them in their own town, where they are deposited in sacred chests ;" and if their funeral rites were performed with greater honour in the Cynopolite nome, it is evident, from the mummies found in different parts of the country, that great care was taken in the mode of embalming them in other places. We are told § that, having been properly prepared by the embalmers of animals, and wrapped in linen, they were deposited in the tombs allotted to them, the bystanders beating themselves in token of grief, and uttering lamentations in their honour. According to Clemens of Alexandria ||, two *Herodot. ii. 66. Diod. i. 84. + Diod. i. 87. Diod. i. 84. Herodot. ii. 77. || Clemens, Strom. lib. v. dogs were the emblem of the two hemispheres. Horapollo pretends that the dog represents "a scribe t, a prophet (pontiff), laughter, the spleen,” and other things equally improbable; and Iamblichus supposes a certain physical analogy in the dog, as well as the Cynocephalus and the weasel, with the Moon. But the latter evidently confounds the Moon or Thoth with the other Mercury Anubis, to whom the dog was thought to be sacred. The greatest number of dog mummies that I met with in Egypt were at the small town of El Hareíb, a little below the modern Manfaloot, at Thebes, and in the vicinity of Sharóna. But it is probable that every town had a place of interment set apart for them, as for other animals that died and were buried at the public expense, which having accidentally escaped the researches of modern excavators, remain unknown. The different breeds of dogs in Egypt I have § already mentioned, which were kept by chasseurs and others for the same purposes as at the present day. According to Elian, they were the most fleet in pursuit of game; and the same quickness seems to have taught them a mode of avoiding the crocodile while drinking at the Nile. "For, fearing to stop in one spot, lest they should be carried off by one of those animals, they run by *Horapollo, i. 39, 40., and ii. 22. + Perhaps a mistake arising from the Cynocephalus being the symbol of Thoth and of letters. Iambl. de Myst. sect. v. c. 8. § Vol. III. p. 32. the edge of the stream, and, licking the water as they pass, they may be said to snatch, or even to steal, a draught, before their enemy lurking beneath the surface can rise to the attack." But this is not the only remarkable peculiarity mentioned by Æliant, who had heard (for the naturalist always defends himself with the word axovw) that Socialism already existed among the dogs of Memphis, who, depositing all they stole in one place, met together to enjoy a common repast. I now proceed to notice an error which has been repeated by ancient Greek and Roman writers, respecting the God Anubis, who is universally represented by them with the head of a dog. ‡ It would be tedious to enumerate the names of those who have repeated this fable. The dog was universally believed by all but the Egyptians themselves to be the peculiar type of Anubis. Roman sculptors went so far as to represent him with the dog's head they thought he bore in the temples of the Nile; and the ignorance of poets and others who persisted in describing Anubis as a dog-headed God, is only equalled by that which led them to give a female character to the Sphinx. It was the jackal, and not the dog, which was the emblem of Anubis ; and if this God was really worshipped as the presiding Deity of Cynopolis, as some have maintained §, it was probably in consequence of the jackal and the dog having *Elian. Nat. An. vi, 53. + Ælian, vii. 19. |
