iy6 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



elegantly variegated, and with a form smooth and 

 slender, have addicted themselves to cruelty and 

 the dreadful thirst for blood, do not often appear 

 there ; and the lion, whose speeies is every where 

 decreasing, is also very rarely to be found in the 

 vicinity of Egypt ; he is afraid to penetrate there, 

 or, if he attempts it, his stay is of short duration. 

 The Egyptians call him sabbc. 



Lions and parti-colourcd quadrupeds are not the 

 only animals whose racehas diminished successively, 

 andat length entirely disappeared out of the land of 

 Egypt. Thehippopotamus* wasanciently very com- 

 mon about that part of theNile which washes Egypt. 

 *' Those,'* says Herodotus, " which are found in 

 " the district of Papremis are sacred, but in other 

 " parts of Egypt they are not considered in the 

 " same light -f ." They laid waste whole countries 

 by ravages as fearful as their size was enormous, and 

 they were equally formidable to man with the 

 crocodile J. From the terror which they inspired, 

 they were generally looked upon as the symbol of 

 Typhon, that giant who had spread death and de- 

 struction among the deities which were worshipped 



* Hippopcitamus amph'ihius, Lin. 



f Book 2. § 71. Translation of Citizen Larcher. 



* " A species of sea-horse inhabits the Nile, which is fully 

 ** as mischievous as the crocodile." Pausanias, translation of 

 Gedoyn, book 4. Voyage into Mysenia, p, 400. 



in 



