CHAP. XIV. ANIMALS WHERE IJUllIED. lOl 



their worship was not particularly regarded, and 

 probably only from towns or villages in the vicinity. 

 And when Herodotus* says, "They carry the 

 cats which die, to certain holy places, where they 

 are embalmed, and thence removed to Bubastls," 

 we may infer that the historian only alludes to 

 those, that died in places where the cat and the 

 Goddess Bubastis did not enjoy any conspicuous 

 share of the honours of the sanctuary. The same 

 applies to his observations respecting other sacred 

 animals of Egypt, as "the shrewmouse, the hawk, 

 and the Ibis," though he says '• the two former t 

 were transported to the city of Buto, and the 

 latter to Hermopolis." 



The fact of the sacred animals having been em- 

 balmed and buried in the tombs at Thebes, shows 

 that Plutarcht is wrong in stating, that the in- 

 habitants of the Thebai'd were exempt from the 

 taxes levied throughout the country, for the main- 

 tenance of the sacred animals; and we can only 

 explain this by supposing the Thebans to have had 

 the privilege of providing ,';eparatel^ for the animals 

 they kept, without contributing to the common 

 fund levied for that purpose on the rest of the 

 Egyptians. 



"Dogs were buried in their own town, being- 

 deposited in sacred coffins;" and " bears (which" 

 Herodotus states to have been "r<7re§ in Egypt), 

 and wolves, were interred in the place where they 

 were found dead." 



* Heroilot. ii. G7. 



f This must be an error: the hawk being sacred to Re, not to Biito. 

 i Plut. cle Is. s. 2). § Vide Vol. III. p. 2G. 



H 3 



