154 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



whoever kills one of these birds should suffer 

 banishment." '* The asp, the weasel, and the 

 beetle, on the other hand, are worshipped on ac- 

 count of certain resemblances, (obscure as they 

 are,) which those creatures are thought to present 

 to the operations of the Divine power." 



Herodotus says little respecting the Ichneu- 

 mon *, except that it received the same honours of 

 sepulture as the domestic animals. But Pliant 

 tells us that it destroyed the eggs of the asp, and 

 fought against that poisonous reptile, which ap- 

 pears the most plausible reason for the veneration 

 in which it was held by the Egyptians. Pliny t, 

 Strabo, and ^lian§ relate the manner in which it 

 attacked the asp, and was protected from the effect 

 of its poisonous bite. ^Elian says it covered itself 

 with a coat of mud, which rendered its body proof 

 against the fangs of its enemy ; or if no mud was 

 near, it wetted its body with w^ater and rolled itself 

 in the sand. Its nose, which alone remained ex- 

 posed, was then enveloped in several folds of its 

 tail, and it thus commenced the attack. If bitten, 

 its death was inevitable || ; but all the efforts of the 

 asp were unavailable against its artificial coat of 

 mail, and the Ichneumon, attacking it on a sudden, 

 seized it by the throat and immediately killed it. 



Strabo^ gives a similar account of its covering 

 itself with mud .in order to attack the crocodile; 



* Hcrodot. ii. 77. f ^lian, Nat. An. vi. c. 38. 



% Plin. viii. c. 24. $i iElian, iii. 22. 



II Contrary to tlic common story of its eating a particular hcrl) as 

 an antidote, lil<c the wurati mentioned in tiie next l)age. 

 1 Strabo, xvii. p. 558. 



