l6o TRAVELS IN UPPER 



lapwing, and the crescent of the moon. The second 

 figure, with a tail, presenting to Osiris a mutilated 

 cylinder, in which is another small figure, cannot 

 be explained, no other monument having hitherto 

 presented any thing bearing a resemblance to it. 



Thehead-dressof the personage of plateXXXIlI. 

 is observable on several figures in the Isiac table. 

 It is probably an Egyptian priest. He holds in his 

 hand a branch of a tree on which a bird is perched. 

 It is not easy to determine to what species of tree 

 the branch belongs. We may believe, with great 

 appearance of truth, that it is the sycamore* which 

 was intended to be represented. This tree, very 

 useful among the Egyptians, is, as has been seen, 

 that which they employ in making the cases for 

 mummies. The bird having neither the form of 

 the ibis nor of the sparrow-hawk, appears to be the 

 irocliilus^ equally sacred among the Egyptians. This 

 little bird, the species of which has not yet been 

 exactly determined, cannot be the wren, as has 

 been imagined, because it is white, and it takes 

 pleasure in the brink of marshes, of lakes, and of 

 rivers >i~. This was, according to the ancients, 

 the only bird which durst approach the crocodile, 



* Ficus sycomorus. Lin, 



f Marmol, Africa, vol. iii. Plutarch, de Solertia Animalium, 

 page 980. See the transl. of Herodotus, by Citizen Larcher, 

 book ii. note 231, on § 68, 



an4 



