CHAP. XIV. REPTILES. TORTOISE, CROCODILE. 229 



REPTILES. 



Tortoise. 



A tortoise-headed God* occurs as one of the 

 Genii, in the tombs ; but it does not appear that 

 the tortoise held a rank among the sacred animals 

 of Egypt. 



The Crocodile. 



The crocodile, as has been already shown t, was 

 peculiarly sacred to the God Savak. Its worship 

 did not extend to every part of Egypt ; some 

 places considering it the representative of the Evil 

 Being, and bearing the most deadly animosity to 

 it, which led to serious feuds between neighbour- 

 ing towns. Such was the cause of the quarrel of 

 the Ombites and Tentyrites described by Juvenal t ; 

 and the same animal which was worshipped at 

 Ombos " was killed and eaten by the inhabitants of 

 Apollinopolis. Indeed, on a particular day, they 

 had a solemn chase of the crocodile §, when they 

 put to death as many as they could, and afterwards 

 threw their bodies before the temple of their God ; 

 assigning this reason, that it was in the shape of a 

 crocodile that Typho eluded the pursuit of Horus." 



It enjoyed great honours at Coptos, Ombos II, 

 and Athribis or Crocodilopolis, in the Thebaid. 



* Vide supra, p. 89. f Vide siiprd, p. 36. 



t Juv. Sat. xviii. 36. 



§> Plut. de Is. s. 50. Strabo, xvii. p. 562. 



II iElian, x. 24. 



Q 3 



