CHAPTER X 

 A FLOCK OF FABULOUS FOWLS 



WE are pretty sure to hear of the phenix every 

 time a tailor or soap-maker announces that he 

 will rebuild his shop after it has been burned; 

 and its picture is a favorite with the advertising de- 

 partment of fire-insurance companies. The world first 

 learned of this remarkable fowl when Herodotus brought 

 back to Greece his wonder-tales from Egypt, some 400 

 years before Cleopatra made so much trouble by mixing 

 love and politics. It will be well to quote in full the 

 account by the great Greek traveller as it is found in the 

 translation by Laurent: 



There is another sacred bird, called the "phenix," which I 

 myself never saw except in a picture, for it seldom makes its 

 appearance among the Egyptians — only every five-hundred 

 years, according to the people of Heliopolis. They state that 

 he comes on the death of his sire. If at all like his picture, 

 this bird may be thus described in size and shape. Some of 

 his feathers are of the color of gold; others are red. In out- 

 line he is exceedingly similar to the eagle, and in size also. 

 This bird is said to display an ingenuity which to me does not 

 appear credible: he is represented as coming out of Arabia, 

 and bringing with him his father to the temple of the Sun, 

 embalmed in myrrh, and there burying him. The manner in 

 which this is done is as follows: In the first place he sticks to- 

 gether an egg of myrrh, as much as he can carry, and then 

 tries if he can bear the burden. This experiment achieved, he 

 accordingly scoops out the egg sufficiently to deposit his sire 

 within. He next fills with fresh myrrh the opening in the egg 

 by which the body was inclosed; thus the whole mass contain- 



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