Ohfervations in Egypt. 4.27 



Symbolical Rods and Sceptres, and carried about, inthatMan- 

 ner, in their folemn Proceflions. 



Now ot fuch Things as relate to the Natural Hiftory ^^^fP^J°Z 

 Egypt, the Nile is without Doubt the moil worthy of our No- J'.^';^^^ ^^2 

 tice. For in a Country like this, which is annually overflowed, ^«"«■''>• 

 it cannot be expedled, that there Ihould be any great Variety 

 either of Plants or Animals. However Trojper ^Iptmi-s, Bello- 

 n'lus, and other Authors of great Reputation, have been very 

 copious upon both thefe Subje6ts; though, it maybe prefumed, 

 if the aquatick Plants and Animals are excepted, there are few 

 other Branches of the Natural Hiftory, that are coeval with 

 Egypt. The Mufa, the Date Tree, the Caffia Rftula , the^Xll"" 

 Sycamore, nay even the Leek and the Onion, may be fuppofed ^^^,'„J"^ 

 to have been orisinally as sreat Strangers to it, as the Camel, t^ro^gh ['-'"'' 

 the Buhalus, the Gazel and the Camelopardalis. For it is 

 highly probable , as will appear by and by, that the Soil of 

 Egypt cannot claim the fame Antiquity with That of other 

 Countries, but, being made in Procefs of Time ', all thefe 

 Animals and vegetable Produdions, muft have been by Degrees 

 tranfplanted into it. 



Yet even fome of thofe Plants and Animals, that mav be^^^^P^"' 



-' alynoji de- 



reckoned among the Indigentey or to be, at leaft, of great Ant iquity,A'^7^'^• 

 are now either very fcarce or altogether wanting to this Coun- 

 try. For the more indigent Sort of People have left us very- 

 little of the Tapyrus, by continually digging up the Roots of 

 it for Fuel. The Terfea' too, that had formerly a Place in.^^J;?";^ 

 moft Pieces of their Symbolical Writing, is either loft at pre-^'''• 

 fent, or the Defcriptions of it do not accord with any of the 

 Eg)'ptian Plants, that are known at this Time. It cannot cer- 

 tainly be the {Terftca or) Peach Tree, as it is commonly ren- 

 dred, becaufe the Leaves of it are perennial , and fall not^ 

 like Thefe, every Year. , i ; 



And then, among the Animals, the Hippopotamus, is what the^;j-;'^^jpp°- 

 prefent Race oi Egyptians are not at all acquainted with. Nay ^'ji^odik, 

 the very Crocodile, or [^^-^^] Timfah \ as they call it, fo rare-'^^"^'-• 

 ly appears below the Catarads, that the Sight of it, is as great 

 a Curiofity to Them, as to the Europeans. In like Manner the 



I Debet y%^/>faiM/o non tantum fertilitatem terrarum, fed ipfas. Senec. Qusft. Nar. I.4. 

 cap. 2. 2 Vid. Qluf. Hift. Plant. I.i. p.2. 3 This Name hath nearly the lame Sound with 

 Ckampfa, as it is called by Herodotus. KaMovira Λ" « xfi»u<f^\<ii, ά>λά xa.uj*'• E"f• 5• <^9• 



PppppZ ^^^>, 



