146 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



having seen more than two together, either in the 

 desert or in the valley of the Nile. Sonnini's erro- 

 neous assertion that the wolf and fox are not found 

 in Egypt, I have already noticed*; and, as the 

 learned Larcher justly observes, the historian of 

 Halicarnassus, " an Asiatic by birth, must have 

 known the jackal, which was common to all Asia 

 Minor, as well as the wolf; and if he knew them 

 both, it was impossible for him to have mistaken 

 a jackal for a wolf." 



Herodotus mentions t a festival, which still con- 

 tinued to be celebrated during his visit to Egypt, 

 and was reported to have been instituted to com- 

 memorate the descent of King Rhampsinitus to 

 the lower regions, where he played at dice with 

 Ceres. " On this occasion," says the historian, 

 " one of the priests being clad in a cloak of tissued 

 stuff, made on the very day of the ceremony, and 

 having his eyes covered, is conducted to the road 

 leading to the temple of Ceres, and there left. 

 Two wolves then take him to the temple of the 

 Goddess, distant about 20 stades (2^ miles) from 

 the city, and afterwards bring him back to the 

 same spot." Herodotus very natiu'ally treats this 

 idle story as it deserves. But we may infer, from 

 the wolf being mentioned with the Goddess Ceres, 

 that tlie animal was connected with some of the 

 rites of Isis ; and Eusebiust states that tlie wolf 

 was honoured in Egypt, because Isis with her son 

 Horus being on tlie point of encountering Typho, 

 was assisted by Osiris under the form of a wolf. 



* Vol. III. p. 27. t Herodot. ii. 122. 



J Eiiscb. Pi-fEpar. Evang. ii. 1. 



