CHAP. XIV. THE WOLF. 14^ 



Wolf. 



The name of this animal, in Coptic ouonsh, 

 is satisfactorily shown from the hieroglyphics to 

 have been the same in olden times ; the figure of 

 the wolf, like the other wild beasts, being accom- 

 panied by its phonetic name* in the paintings of 

 Beni Hassan. It was peculiarly sacred at Lyco- 

 polist in Upper Egypt; where wolf mummies are 

 found in small excavated chambers in the rock, 

 behind the modern town of E'Sioot ; and the coins 

 of the Lycopolite nome, in the time of the Empire, 

 bear on their reverse a wolf, with the word Lyco. 

 *' In that nome alone of all Egypt," says Plutarch t, 

 " the people eat sheep, because the wolf does, 

 whom they revere as a God ; " and Diodorus § in- 

 cludes the wolf among the animals which after 

 death were treated with the same respect as during 

 their lifetime, like the cat, Ichneumon, dog, hawk. 

 Ibis, crocodile, and others. 



Herodotus 11 observes that the wolves of Egypt 

 were scarcely larger than foxes; Aristotle^ con- 

 siders them inferior in size to those of Greece; 

 and Pliny** says they were small and inactive; 

 which is fully proved by modern experience. In 

 their habits they are also unlike the wolves of 

 Europe, as they never range in packs, but gene- 

 rally prowl about singly ; nor do I ever remember 



* Vide Vol. in. p. 19. Woodcut, No. 328. fig. 13. 

 t Strabo, xvii. p. 559. J Plut. cle Is. s. 72. 



§ Diodor. i. 83. || Herodot. ii. 67. 



H Aristot. Hist.Anim. lib. viii, 28. ** Pliny, viii. 22. 



VOL. II. — Second Serifs. L 



