CHAP. XIV. PENALTY FOR KILLING THEM. 9<5 



tances as tended to preserve it, and was deposited 

 in a sacred tomb. 



The respect paid to the sacred animals v^as not 

 confined to the outward ceremony of their funeral, 

 nor to the external marks of grief the mourners 

 voluntarily imposed upon themselves, by shaving 

 their eye-brows on the death of a cat, and their 

 whole body for the loss of a dog ; all the provisions, 

 which happened to be in the house at the time, 

 were looked upon as unlawful food, and were for- 

 bidden to be applied to any use. * And so remark- 

 able was the feeling of veneration in which they 

 were held by the Egyptians, that, in time of severe 

 famine, when hunger compelled them to eat human 

 flesh, no one was ever known to touch the meat of 

 any of them, even on the plea of preserving life. To 

 destroy one voluntarily, subjected the offender to 

 the penalty of death : but if any person even unin- 

 tentionally killed an ibis or a catt, it infallibly cost 

 him his life; the multitude immediately collecting, 

 and tearing him in pieces, often without any form 

 of trial. For fear of such a calamity, if any person 

 found one of those animals dead, he stood at a 

 distance, and, calling out with a loud voice, made 

 every demonstration of grief, and protested that it 

 was found lifeless. 



"This superstitious regard to the sacred animals," 

 observes Diodorus, *' is thoroughly rooted in their 

 minds, and every Egyptian has his passions strongly 

 bent upon their honour. For at the time when 

 Ptolemy had not yet been called a King by the 

 Romans, and the people were using every possible 



* Diodor. i. Si. f Diodor. i. 83. 



