CHAP. XIV. IBIS GREATLY REVERED. 217 



it was adopted by Hermes Trismegistus, as well 

 as some other Deities ; and it was worn by the 

 soldiery and the priests on certain religious fes- 

 tivals. Ostrich eggs were highly prized by the 

 Egyptians, and were part of the tribute paid to 

 them by foreigners whose countries it inhabited ; 

 and it is possible, as I have already observed*, 

 that they were considered, as at the present day, 

 the emblems of some divine attribute, and sus- 

 pended in their temples, as they still are in the 

 churches of the Copts. 



The Ibis, the Heron, and other Wading 

 Birds. 



The Ibis was sacred to Thotht, who was fa- 

 bulously reported to have eluded the pursuit of 

 Typho under the form of this bird. It was greatly 

 revered in every part of Egypt ; and at Her- 

 mopolis, the city of Thoth, it was worshipped with 

 peculiar honours, as the emblem of the Deity of 

 the place. It was on this account considered, as 

 Clemens and ^Hanl: tells us, typical of the Moon, 

 or the Hermes of Egypt. Its Egyptian name was 

 Hip ; from which Champollion supposes the town 

 of Nibis to have been called, being a corruption of 

 Ma-h-hip, or n-hip, " the place of the Ibis." This 

 name was applied to Ibeum, where it received the 

 same honours as at the city of Thoth. 



* Supra, Vol. II. pp. 6. and 20. 



-|- Plato in PliEedro. Vide sivpra, p. 7. ^lian, Nat. An. x. 29. Ho- 

 rapoUo, i. 10. and 36. 



X Clem. Strom, lib. v. p. 242. iElian, Nat. An. ii. 38. 



