128 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



Some fabulous insects may also be cited, as well 

 as fabulous quadrupeds, which were chiefly em- 

 blems appropriated to particular Gods, or repre- 

 sentative of certain ideas connected with religion, 

 the most remarkable of which were scarabs with the 

 heads of hawks, rams, and cows. Of these, many 

 are found made of pottery, stone, and other mate- 

 rials, and the sculptures represent the beetle with a 

 human head. This change did not render them 

 less fit emblems of the Gods : the Scarabaeus of 

 the Sun appears with the head of a ram as well as 

 a hawk ; and the God Pthah was sometimes figured 

 with the body of a Scarabaeus, and the head and 

 legs of his usual human form. 



Having now stated the name of the Deity to 

 whom they were consecrated, and the town where 

 divine honours were particularly paid to them, it 

 remains to add a few remarks on the comparative 

 claims of each, in order to distinguish the animals 

 worshipped as Deities, those held sacred throughout 

 Egypt, those whose worship was confined to par- 

 ticular districts, and those which were revered 

 merely out of respect to the Gods of whom they 

 were emblems. 



Monkeys. 



The Cynocephalus Ape, which was particularly 

 sacred to Thoth, held a conspicuous place among 

 the sacred animals of Egyj)l, being worship])ed as 

 the type of the God of Letters, and of the Moon, 

 which was one of the characters of Thoth. It was 



