142 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



the edge of the stream, and, licking the water as 

 they pass, they may be said to snatch, or even to 

 steal, a draught, before their enemy lurking beneath 

 the surface can rise to the attack."* But this is 

 not the only remarkable peculiarity mentioned by 

 Pliant, who had heard (for the naturalist always 

 defends himself with the word axouco') that Socialism 

 already existed among the dogs of Memphis, who, 

 depositing all they stole in one place, met together 

 to enjoy a common repast. 



I now proceed to notice an error which has been 

 repeated by ancient Greek and Roman writers, 

 respecting the God Anubis, who is universally 

 represented by them with the head of a dog. t 

 It would be tedious to enumerate the names of 

 those who have repeated this fable. The dog was 

 universally believed by all but the Egyptians them- 

 selves to be the peculiar type of Anubis. Roman 

 sculptors went so far as to represent him with the 

 dog's head they thought he bore in the temples of 

 the Nile ; and the ignorance of poets and others 

 who persisted in describing Anubis as a dog-headed 

 God, is only equalled by that which led them to 

 give a female character to the Sphinx. 



It was the jackal, and not the dog, which was 

 the emblem of Anubis ; and if this God was really 

 worshipped as the presiding Deity of Cynopo- 

 lis, as some have maintained §, it was probably in 

 consequence of the jackal and the dog having 



* ^lian. Nat. An. vi. 53. f Lilian, vii. 19. 



j^ Vidr also siiprfi, Vol. I. (2cl Series) p. 410. 

 § Straho, xvii. p. 558. 



