Q3i< THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



crocodiles, to be all situated on canals at some 

 distance from the Nile. Thus, by the least negli- 

 gence, in allowing the ditches to be filled up, those 

 animals, from being incapable of going flir on dry 

 land, could never have arriv^ed at the very places 

 where they were considered as the symbols of pure 

 water. For, as we learn from ^lian, and more 

 particularly from a passage in Eusebius *, the cro- 

 codile signified water fit for drinking, and irrigating 

 the lands. As long as their worship was in vogue, 

 the government felt assured that the superstitious 

 would not neglect to repair the canals with the 

 greatest exactness." Thus was their object gained 

 by this religious artifice, 



I also avail myself of this opportunity of intro- 

 ducing an ingenious suggestion of Mr. Salt, that 

 in Juvenal's account of the dispute between Ombos 

 and Tentyris, Coptost should be substituted for the 

 former ; this town being much nearer, and conse- 

 quently more likely to be engaged in a feud, caused 

 by the injuries done to an animal it held sacred, 

 in common with the more distant Ombos. 



The towns, where it was looked upon with par- 

 ticular execration, were Tentyris t, Apollinopolis, 

 Heracleopolis, and the island of Elephantine ; and 

 the same aversion was connnon to all places where 

 the Evil Being was ty})ified by the crocodile. § 



* Eiiscb. Prrcparat. Evangel, iii. II. " Crocodiluin (significarc) 

 aqiiam [)otiii ojitam." 



f " Barbara hrec Coptos." 



j Vide Plin. viii. 25. Of tlic skill of the Tentyrites in catching tiiis 

 animal, vidr Vol. III. p. 77. iElian, x. 24, 



§ Vide Slip) a, [). 206. 



