CHAP. XIV. THE LABYRINTH. 157 



hyaena (or Marafeen of Ethiopia), it originated in 

 a peculiarity common to both those animals ; and 

 the ludicrous statement afterwards given by the 

 naturalist was supplied by a misguided imagin- 

 ation. 



The vicinity of the Heracleopolite and Arsinoite 

 nomes, where two animals the most hostile to 

 one another were revered, seems to have led to 

 serious and repeated disputes. And to such a point 

 was their animosity carried, that even the respect, 

 with which the national vanity of an Egyptian 

 might be expected to regard a monument so uni- 

 versally celebrated as the Labyrinth, was not suf- 

 ficient to restrain the fanaticism of the Heracle- 

 opolites in maintaining the cause of their favourite 

 animal. It is to the repeated injuries done by them 

 to that building that we may attribute its early di- 

 lapidation*, and the difficulty now experienced in 

 ascertaining its real position or its plan. 



Though 1 do not propose here to enter into an 

 inquiry respecting the site of the Labyrinth, it may 

 not be altogether irrelevant to remark, that the fact 

 of Pliny's placing it in the Heracleopolite nomet, 

 and the circumstance above alluded to, of the peo- 

 ple of that province having repeatedly injured the 

 building, sufficiently prove it to have been very 

 near the eastern confines of the Arsinoite district. 

 Hence also we perceive that it was not in the vi- 

 cinity of the lake Mceris, the modern Birket el Korn. 



* Pliny, xxxvi. 13. , 



-f- Plin. xxxvi. 13. " Durat (labyriiithus) etiam nunc in Heracleote 

 nomo." 



