248 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



FABULOUS REPTILES. 

 Tliese mostly consist of snakes, with the head of 

 a man, a hon, or a hawk, frequently with legs, or 

 with wings ; and the head of a snake is sometimes 

 attached to the body of a lion, or a vulture. 



FISH. 



OXYRHINCHUS, PhAGRUS, AND LePIDOTUS. 



Of the sacred fish * the most noted were the Oxy- 

 rhinchus, the Phagrus, and the Lepidotus. They, 

 however, appear not to have been worshipped 

 throughout the country, if we may judge from the 

 war between the Oxyrhinchites and the people of 

 Cynopolis. t Plutarch t tells us these three fish were 

 unlawful food to the Egyptians, in consequence of 

 their having devoured a part of the body of Osiris, 

 which Isis was unable to recover, when she col- 

 lected the scattered members of her husband. 

 They were therefore particularly avoided. In 

 another place he says, " The Egyptians, in gene- 

 ral, do not abstain from all fish, but some from one 

 sort and some from another. Thus, for instance, 

 the Oxyrhinchites will not touch any taken by a 

 hook ; for as they pay an especial reverence to the 

 Oxyrhinchus, from which they borrow their name, 

 they are afraid the hook may be defiled by having, 

 at some time or other, been employed in catching 

 their favourite fish. The people of Syene, in like 

 manner, abstain from the Phagrus ; for, as it is ob- 



* Of the fish of the Nile, vide Strabo, xvii. p. .'jG(i. 



f Vide siiprd, p. 138. Pint, dc Is. s. ''(2. % Pint. s. 18. 



