12 The 'Book of the Goat. 



in the hilly parts of Ass\ ria and the adjacent countries. 

 The Capra agagrus also occurs wild, and doubtless was 

 known to and hunte'd by the Assyrian kings and nobles. 

 The ancient Egyptians seem to have possessed large 

 flocks of goats and sheep from very early times ; for if 

 Manetho, in the dynasties of Egyptian monarchs as quoted 

 by Africanus and Eusebius, be correct, the goat was well 

 known during the second dynasty. It was the second king 

 of this dynasty who is said to have introduced and insti- 

 tuted the worship of animals which at a later period of 

 Egyptian history so extensively prevailed. This 

 monarch's name was Kakau, or Khaiechos ; he reigned 

 thirty-nine years ; by him the bulls Apis in Memphis and 

 Mnevis in Heliopolis and the goat of Mendes were 

 appointed to be gods. If we date the beginning of the 

 first dynasty in the time of Menes, the first monarch of 

 the country, at about 3000 B.C., or, according to Brugsch, 

 at 4400 B.C., and deduct from the first number 263 years 

 as the total number of years required for the eight kings 

 of the first dynasty, and thirty-eight years for the reign 

 of Butau (or Boethos of the Greeks), the first king of the 

 second dynasty, we find that King Kakau would come to 

 the throne about 2700 B.C. He it was who some time 

 during his life instituted animal worship, the goat Baen- 

 tattu being venerated at Mendes. Hence, if Manetho is 

 to be trusted, goats were known to and worshipped by the 

 ancient Egyptians from so remote a period as nearly 2700 

 years B.C. We learn from Herodotus (ii. 46) that the 

 goat was sacred in the Mendesian nome, or canton, where 

 great honours were paid to it, especially to the male; 

 but the goat was not universally held sacred in Egypt,, 

 for by some of the inhabitants of Upper Egypt it was 

 sacrificed. When a he-goat died the whole Mendesian 

 nome went into mourning. According to Strabo and 

 Diodorus this animal was held sacred in some parts of 



