140 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



Among those who acknowledged the sacred cha- 

 racter of the dog, the respect it received was very 

 remarkable ; for whenever one of those animals 

 died a natural death, all the inmates of the house 

 shaved their heads and their whole body * ; and if 

 any food, whether wine, corn, or any thing else, 

 happened to be in the house at the time, it was for- 

 bidden to be applied to any use. 



According to some ancient authors, the dog was 

 fabled to have been the guard of Isis and Osiris, 

 and to have been revered on account of its assisting 

 Isis in her search after the dead body of her hus- 

 band ; *' for which reason," they addt, " dogs are 

 made to head the procession in the ceremonies of 

 Isis, as if to record their utility on that occasion." 



Herodotus does not confine the burying-place 

 of the dog to any particular district. " Every one," 

 he says, *' inters them in their own town, where 

 they are deposited in sacred chests +;" and if their 

 funeral rites were performed with greater honour 

 in tlie Cynopolite nome, it is evident, from the 

 mummies found in different parts of the country, 

 that great care was taken in the mode of embalming 

 them in otlier places. We are told§ that, having 

 been properly prepared by the embalmers of ani- 

 mals, and wrapped in linen, they were deposited in 

 the tombs allotted to them, the bystanders beating 

 themselves in token of grief, and uttering lament- 

 ations in their lionour. 



According to Clemens of Alexandria 11, two 



* Ilerodot. ii. (i(i. iJiud. i. 84. 



f Diod. i. 87. t Ilerodot. ii. 77. 



() Diod. i. S-t. II ( 'Icmcns, Strom, lib. v. 



