^36 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



scruples were forbidden to eat its flesh, were not 

 thereby deprived of a delicacy of the table. 



I have mentioned* the fable of the trochilus and 

 the crocodile, and the animosity said to subsist be- 

 tween the latter and the ichneumon t, as well as 

 the supposed security against the crocodile to those 

 who used a boat made of the papyrus, t 



Herodotus says§, " Of all animals, none that we 

 know of becomes so large, after having been so 

 small : its eggs|| are scarcely larger than those of 

 the goose, but by degrees it reaches 17 cubits (25^ 

 feet) in length, and even more." Plutarch^ re- 

 lates other tales of this oviparous animal, to which 

 he attributes a plausible reason for paying it divine 

 honours. " It has no tongue, and is therefore 

 looked upon as an image of the Deity himself ; the 

 Divinereason needing notspeech, butgoing through 

 still and silent paths, whilst it administers the 

 world with justice." "Another peculiar property of 

 the crocodile is, that though in the water its eyes 

 are covered by a thin pellucid membrane, which 

 comes down from the forehead **, yet it is able to 

 see, at the same time that it cannot be perceived 

 to do so ; in which respect likewise it bears some 

 resemblance to the first God. It is further re- 

 marked, that in whatever part of the country the 

 female lays her eggs, so far will be the extent 

 of the inundation for that season, .... showing 



* \o\. ]U. p. 7'.), so.; iind .supra, p. 220. Ilcrodot. ii. 68. JEUan, 

 iii, 11. viii. 25. Plin. viii. 25. Aniiiiian. xxii. p. ;J3G. 



f Supra, p. 150. f Vol. III. p. 185. 



(J Ilcrodot. ii. 68. 



II I'idr Macrob. Saturn, lib. vii. c. IG., on the Egj^s of Crocodiles. 



H Pint, de Is. S.75. 



**■ From the side; the nictating, or nictitating, uicinbrane. 



