THE IBIS. 



349 



Egyptians. They set it up in their temples as a divinity, and 

 allowed it to multiply in their cities to such an extent that, if 

 we can believe Herodotus and Strabo, it actually impeded the 

 traffic. Whoever killed an Ibis, even by accident, at once be- 

 came the victim of a mad crowd, who stoned him pitilessly ; 

 and the dead bird was embalmed with the' greatest care, and 

 then placed in earthen pots 

 hermetically sealed, which were 

 ranged in special catacombs. 

 A large number of mummies 

 of the Ibis have been found 

 in the necroj)oles of Thebes 

 and Memphis, and several 

 specimens of them are to be 

 seen in the Museum of Natural 

 Historj^ at Paris. 



The Egyptian worship of 

 the Ibis is a certain and in- 

 contestable fact. Less cer- 

 tain, however, is the origin of 

 these honours. Herodotus has 

 given an explanation, obscure 

 enough, it is true, but which, however, was adopted by his suc- 

 cessors, and for a long time accepted by our savants. 



" The Arabians assure us," says Herodotus, " that the great 

 veneration which the Egyptians render to the Ibis is caused by 

 the gratitude which they feel towards them for ridding the country 

 of mimjecl serpents.''^ 



According to tradition, these "winged serpents" came into 

 Egypt from Arabia at the commencement of spring. They 

 always followed the same route, and invariably passed through a 

 certain defile, where the Ibis waited for them and destroyed them. 

 Herodotus adds that, having gone to Arabia to obtain some certain 

 information about these "winged serpents," he saw, lying on the 

 ground near the city of Buto, " an immense quantity of bones 

 and vertebrae unmistakably those of the winged plagues." 



Since the time of Heiodotus, a great many authors, probably on 



Fig. 136. — Sacred Ibis {Jbis religiusa, Cuv.). 



