On Vessels made of the Papyrus, 8®>7 



according to Plutarch ; which kind, on the testimony of Hero- 

 dotus, was used in their sacred rites." * It is frequently re^ 

 presented carrying the sacred ox, or Osiris, on board f ; and 

 there was an annual festival among the Egyptians, in honour 

 of the ship of Isis. 



Likewise, Diodorus Siculus has recorded that " river boats 

 were built of reed J ; but we would conclude that this reed 

 (x«Aaju,o^) signifies more correctly the reed papyrus, because 

 the ^rundo Z)onax ^, generally intended by xaAajxo?, is not so 

 suitable a plant to construct vessels with, since it is too liable 

 to split, and is of too brittle a nature. 



Strabo, mentioning the marshes and the beds of reeds near 

 the Euphrates, observes : " From their reeds all sorts of ves- 

 sels are formed ; those which are fit to receive water are daubed 

 over with pitch (bitumen), but others are used without any ; 

 they also make sails of reeds, after the manner of mats or 

 hurdles," || 



Now, the ark of the child Moses was a small vessel of this 

 kind, " an ark of bulrushes, and daubed with slime and with 

 pitch." (Exod-t chap. ii. v. 3.) Clemens. Alexand. {Strom., i. 

 343.) properly interprets this ark to have been " a vessel of 

 the indigenous paper reed" (Ix /3/^Xoy tqv siri^ooplov <rxsvo§). 



Again, Strabo (Geogr., lib. 16.) says that " rafts made of 

 reeds " (crp^sS/aj y,ciKoLiJ.iycis) were used on the Lake Sirbonis ; 

 and Isaac Casaubon remarks that Diodorus calls these 

 " bundles of reeds " [U(r[^ot$ jcukoii^oiiv). 



We learn from Denon that mere bundles of reeds are at 

 this day in use amongst the people of Upper Egypt, see fig. 89. 

 which is explained in the following words : — " The manner 

 of passing the Nile, sitting upon a double bundle of straw, 

 with a short and double paddle, the legs serving for oars. 

 The inhabitants of Upper Egypt make their voyages in this 

 way, going up and down the Nile ; they keep it in the water 



* Navis haec celeberrima uEgyptiorum Baris, est navigii papyracei, teste 

 Plutarclio, genus quo in sacris, Herodoto teste, utuntur. {(Edip. JEgypt.f 

 vol. iii. cap. 5. p. 138.) 



t There is a remarkable coincidence between this religious custom of the 

 Egyptians and that of the Mexican Americans. The great god and leader 

 of the Mexicans, called Mexitli, or Vitzliputzli, was carried about in a sacred 

 ark made of reeds. Compare Faber's Origin of Pagan Idol,, vol. ii. p. 311,, 

 and Tol. iii. p. 120. 305. 



\ 'Ek tov KaXdfiov KareffKevaas TrXoTa Trorafiia. (Bib. Hist.y lib. ii. cap. 17.) 



§ According to Dr. Sibthorp, the Jrundo Z)6nax is still called, in modern 

 Greece, only KuXafio ; and Theophrastus says it was the most common of 

 the KaXdixoi. 



II 'E^ (Lv KoXdfiiva TrXsKerai Travroia (TKfvri, to. fiiv vypov deKTiKoi, ry da^aX- 

 ry 7repiaXei<j>6vT(oVf toXq d' dXXoig tpiXCiQ ;)(;jOw^£vw v Kai tori'a dk Tcoiovvrai KaXa- 

 ftiva, j^tdGoif, i) jot^t 7rrt|oa7rX^<rta. (Geogr., lib. x\i,) 



