CHAP. XIV. BEAR, WEASEL, AND OTTER. 1,37 



the operations of the Divine power, like the image of 

 the Sun seen in drops of rain. For there are many 

 who think, and are ready to assert, that the weasel 

 engenders at the ear, and brings forth her young 

 at the mouth, and they consequently look upon it 

 as a just symbol of the Divine reason." From his 

 having already mentioned the Ichneumon, it is 

 evident he does not allude to that animal ; and we 

 are therefore bound, on his authority, to give the 

 weasel a place among the sacred animals of Egypt. 

 Porphyry says, that "the weasel, the beetle, and 

 the crocodile were emblems of the Sun ; " and 

 lamblichus * considers "the dog, Cynocephalus, 

 and weasel common to the Moon." 



It is on the authority of Herodotus t that the 

 otter is mentioned amongst the animals of Egypt; 

 but I have already observed 1^ that it is unknov/n 

 in Egypt, and that he probably had in view the 

 large Lacerta Nilotica, or monitor of the Nile, — the 

 name svoopig, or " water animal," being too vague to 

 be exclusively applied to the otter. Whatever this 

 was, he asserts it to have been sacred ; and had he 

 not mentioned the Ichneumon §, we might feel 

 certain that he had taken it for the otter (if by 

 svuopig he meant to designate that particular in- 

 habitant of the water), and I have known the same 

 mistake to have been made by modern travellers. 

 Indeed, though Herodotus was aware of the ex- 

 istence of the Ichneumon in Egypt, he may have 

 been led into this error on seeing it in the river ; 



* Iambi, de Myster. sect. v. c. 8. f Hcrodot. ii. 7:^. 



X Vol. III. p. r27. $ Herodot. ii. 67. 



