CROCODILE WORSHIP. AND CATCHING 331 



The Phagrus had the distinction of being venerated in 

 Egypt and Greece, whose writers, bothered by none of our 

 scientific hesitation, regarded him not as one of the Mormyri, 

 but as the Eel. They scoffed ahke at his deification and his 

 devotees.! 



The Phagrus, and the Mceotes, which is Wilkinson's addition 

 to the four other sacred fish, were probably the same under 

 different names. ^Uan, indeed, states that the former, 

 worshipped at Syene, was called the Mceotes by the people of 

 Elephantine (quite close to Syene), and attributes its sanctity 

 to its annual appearance always heralding the rise of the 

 Nile, 2 a property of prescience transferred by Plutarch to the 

 Mceotes. ^ 



We know so little about the locus of the Lepidotus {Barbus 

 hynni) cult that Wilkinson's assertion, " its worship extended 

 over most parts of Egypt," needs confirmatory data. 



The Crocodile, hke the Lates, was worshipped here and there, 

 but elsewhere keenly hunted. Of the first Thebes and Lake 

 Mceris furnish types. Each place (according to Herodotus) 

 harboured one crocodile in particular, very tame and tractable.'* 

 They adorned his ears, as Antonina her MurcBna, " with earrings 

 of molten stone or gold, and put bracelets on his forepaws, 

 giving him daily a set portion of bread, with a certain number of 

 victims : when he dies, they embalm and bury him in a sacred 

 place." 5 



Of the various methods for catching the crocodile our 

 author sets forth one which we all must agree as " worthy of 

 mention." " They bait a hook with a chine of pork, and let 

 the meat be carried out into the middle of the stream, while 

 the hunter on the bank holds a living pig which he belabours. 

 The crocodile hears its cries and making for the sound en- 

 counters the pork, which he instantly swallows down. The 

 men on the shore haul and, when they have got him to land, 

 the first thing the hunter does is to plaster his eyes with mud. 



^ Cf. Athenaeus, VII. 55, for the jests of Antiphanes, etc. 



2 N. H., X. 19. 



3 Op. cit.. 7. 



* Plato bears witness to the skill of the Egyptians in taming fish, and 

 animals, even the shy wild gazelle. Polii. 532. 



* Herodotus, II. 69, 70. Rawlinson' s Trans. 



Z 



