THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



Roman, time, suffice to show the general belief re- 

 specting it ; and Cuvier actually found the skin 

 and scales of a snake, partly digested, in the in- 

 testines of one of these mummied birds. The food 

 of the common Ibis also consisted of beetles, and 

 other insects ; and in the body of one, now in the 

 possession of Sir Edwin Pearson, are several co- 

 leopterae, two of which have been ascertained by 

 Mr. Hope to be Pimelia pilosa*, and Akis reflexa 

 of Fabricius, common in Egypt at the present day. 

 Insects, snakes, and other reptiles, appear to have 

 been the food of both kinds of Ibis. 



Plutarch and Cicero pretend that the use it made 

 of its bill taught mankind an important secret in 

 medical treatment.! The form of the Ibis, when 

 crouched in a sitting position, with its head under 

 its feathers, or when in a mummied state, was sup- 

 posed to resemble the human heart t: " the space 

 between its legs, when parted asunder as it walks, 

 was observed to make an equilateral triangle §," 

 and numerous equally fanciful peculiarities were 

 discovered in this revered emblem of Thoth. 



Mr. Pettigrew says||, "The heart was looked 

 upon by the Egyptians as the seat of the intellect ; 

 and in this way it has been attempted to explain 



* M. Latreillc's genus Trachydcrma ; so named from their thick 

 elytra. 



-j- The l)ill is not a tube. The hrXvLojin'ijv Kat xn^^i<poinin]v j'0' tc(vri]i^ 

 is a mistake. Phit. s. 7.5. Cicero, Nat. Deor. lib. ii. ^lian, Nat. An. 

 ii. .'J.J. &c. 



t Ilorapollo, i. 10. 3G. ^.lian, x. 29. 



^ Pint. s. 75. lie sa3'S, ti] vt -koomv oiaQaan npoQ aWijXcvc Kai to 

 <I>^"/X"^ (TOTrXfj'poj' TTuui Tpiyonwv. The expression "and the beak" 

 is very unintelligible. 



II i^idc his valuable History of Egyptian Munuuics, p. 205. 



