180 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



a temple at Diospolis ; and Horapollo * assigns to 

 the claws of the hippopotamus the signification of 

 "injustice and ingratitude," as to the whole animal 

 the force of "time,'* or '* an hour." 



The injury done by this animal to the cornt 

 fields might suffice to exclude it from the respect 

 of the agricultural population ; and the Egyptian 

 peasants were probably called upon to frighten it 

 out of their fields on many occasions with brass 

 saucepans and other utensils, in the same manner 

 as the modern Ethiopians. But it probably never 

 abounded in that part of the Nile south of the first 

 cataract ; and its worship was confined to places 

 beyond the reach of its intrusion. 



The hippopotamus was also said to have been t 

 a symbol of the Western pole, or the region of 

 darkness, — distinct, of course, from that primeval 

 darkness which covered the deep, and from which 

 sprang the light, supposed to have been typified by 

 the Mygale, the emblem of Buto. I have already § 

 explained the opinions of the Egyptians on this 

 point ; and on the supposed analogy of the West, 

 which buried the Sun in darkness ||, and the gloomy 

 mansions of the dead ; the former being termed 

 Ement, and the latter Amenti. I have also noticed 

 the resemblance between JSreb (or Gharh), the 

 West, of the Hebrews, and the Erebus of Greece.^ 



* Horapollo, i. 56. and ii. 20. f MWan, v. 5.3. 



J F/V/c Euseb. Pracp. Evang. Hi. 12. 



I Vide supra. Vol. I. (2d Scries) p. 273, 274. 



II Vide siiprd, p. 50.; and Vol. I. (2d Scries) p. 388. 

 i[ Vide supra, [i. 74. 



