Ohfervations in Egypt. 4.27 



Symbolical Rods and Sceptres, and carried about, in tliat Man- 

 ner, in their folemn Proceffions. 



New of fuch Things as relate to the Natural Hiftorv ofJ'gypf '''>" 



. . . ^ ■^ not much a- 



Ezypt-^ the JSile is without Doubt the molt worthy of our No-^"""^ '^"^ 

 • 111- 1 • 1 • 11 ^'""'^ "^'^ 



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



it cannot be expe(5led, that there Ihould be any great Variety 



either o^ Plants or Animals. However Pro^^r ^/^/w/^, Bello- 



nius, and other Authors of great Reputation, have been very 



copious upon both thefe Subjects; though, it maybe prcfumed, 



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



other Branches of the Natural Hiftorv, that are coeval with 



Egypt. The Mufa, the Date Tree, the CaJ/ia FiJIula , the^^'ff,'''- 



Sycamore, nay even the Leek and the Onion, may be fuppofed ^^"'■"^ j""^ 



to have been originally as great Strangers to it, as the Camel i-'O^'gi^^ from 



othcT Pl/JCCS » 



the Biihalus, 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 Produ6lions, muft have been bv Degrees 

 tranfplanted into it. 



Yet even fome of thofe Plants and Animals, that may be ^'^^ ^^p>'^"' 

 reckoned among the Indigence, or to be, at leaft, of great AntiquityjA^r^^- 

 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,?;X'pS/, 

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

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

 Egyptian Plants, that are known at this Time. It cannot cer- 

 tainly be the {Terfica or) Peach Tree, as it is commonlv ren- 

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

 like Thefe, every Year. 



And then, among the Animals, the Hippopotamus, is what the^''^^ ^'?t''- 

 prefent Race oi Egyptians are not at all acquainted with. Nay &°roS4 

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

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

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



I T)QhQt JEgyptiisNUo non tantum fcrtilitatcm terrarum, fed ipfas. &kcc. QKefb. Nat. 1. 4. 

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

 Cbiimpja, as it is called hy Herodotus. K^AeovTw Ji « xfoKoJkKoi^ a.»^ Xct;/4a'. Etit. 5- <Sj>. 



Pppppx //^^, 



