242 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



mostly live in gardens during the warm weather*, 

 where they are of great use : the reason, probably, 

 of their having been chosen in ancient times as a 

 protecting emblem, f In the winter they retire to 

 their holes, and remain in a torpid state, being in- 

 capable of bearing cold, as I had reason to observe 

 with two 1 kept in the house at Cairo, which died 

 in one night, though wrapped up in a skin and 

 protected from the air. 



The size of the asp necessarily suggests the ques- 

 tion, why should Cleopatra have chosen so incon- 

 venient a serpent ? It is, however, probable that 

 this name was sometimes applied, like our term 

 viper, to many venemous serpents of different spe- 

 cies; and another kind of poisonous snake of a much 

 more convenient and portable size, common in 

 Lower Egypt t, may have been the one used by 

 her, and have been miscalled by the Greeks an 

 asp. 



Mummies of the asp are discovered in the Ne- 

 cropolis of Thebes. 



The House Snake. 



This harmless serpent, from its destroying mice 

 and various reptiles in their dwellings and out- 

 houses, was looked upon with great respect by the 

 Egyptians. Though used to represent Eternity, 



* C.nf. yElian, v. .02. 



f Amniiamis (xxii. 15. p. 338.) says, "the asp exceeds all others in 

 size and beauty." His aconlin is perhaps the tijnr, ''flyer" of modern 

 Egypt. V'ulc T'lin. viii. 23. " Jaculuiri ex arborum ramis vibrari." 



\ The Echis puvo. 



