102 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



The same author* says, "When a bull or a 

 heifer dies, the latter is thrown into the river, 

 and the former buried in the suburbs, with one 

 or both of its horns above the ground, to mark 

 the spot. Here the body remains till it is de- 

 composed, and a boat despatched from the Isle 

 of Prosopitis comes round to each town, at a par- 

 ticular period. This Prosopitis is an island in the 

 Delta, nine schcenes in circumference, containing 

 several towns, — one of which, called Atarbechis, 

 sends the boats destined to collect the bones, and 

 employs several persons to go from town to town, 

 to exhumate them, and take them to the particular 

 spot, where they are buried. They inter in like 

 manner all other cattle that die;" but it maybe 

 doubted, if the Egyptians defiled their sacred 

 stream, by throwing into it the body of any animal 

 that had been found dead, unless it were in those 

 places where the crocodiles were fed. The dis- 

 covery of the bodies of cows or heifers embalmed 

 and buried in the tombs, disproves this statement ; 

 and the remark above made, respecting the in- 

 terment of animals in the place where they died, 

 applies equally to bulls, whose embalmed bodies are 

 discovered in the sepulchres of Thebes and other 

 places. 



The law which obliged them to bury the bodies 

 of animals when found dead in the field, or else- 

 where, owed its origin to a wise sanatory pre- 

 caution ) and the respect i)aid to certain birds 



* Ilcroilot. ii. 11. 



