162 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. 



is required to be whole in every part ; with you, it 

 appears, they are mutilated. If you see a cat in- 

 disposed, you weep ; I am delighted to kill it, and 

 take its skin : the mygale, with you, has great in- 

 fluence ; with us, none." Timocles *, also, in his 

 Egyptians, says, *' How could the ibis or the dog 

 have preserved me ? for when persons irreverent 

 towards those, who are really confessed to be Gods, 

 escape immediate punishment, whose offences shall 

 be visited by the Altar of a Cat?" 



The favourable opportunity of indulging in sa- 

 tire, presented by the superstitions of Egypt, could 

 not escape the severe lash of Juvenal, who thus 

 commences his Fifteenth Satire : — 



" Who knows not, Bithynian Volusius, what monsters 

 Mad Egypt can worship ? tliis place adores a crocodile ; 

 That fears an il)is saturated with ser|)ents. 

 A golden image of a sacred Ccrcopithecus shines 

 Where the magic chords resound from the half Mcmnon, 

 And ancient Thebes lies overthrown with its hundred gates. 

 There a sea-fish, here a river-fish, there 

 Whole towns worship a dog, nobody Diana. 



It is a sin to violate a leek or an onion, or to break them with a bite, 

 () holy nation, for whom are born in gardens 

 These Deities ! every table abstains from animals bearing 

 Wool ; it is there unlawful to kill the offspring of a she-goat. 

 But lawful to be fed with human flesh." f 



The animal worship of the Egyptians naturally 

 struck all people as a ludicrous and gross supersti- 

 tion ; but when Xenophanes and others deride their 

 religious ceremonies by observing, — If your Gods 

 are really Gods, weep not for them; if men, do not 

 offer them sacrifices, — the objection comes badly 



* Athen. loc. cit. 



-}• This is an exaggeration and a licence of satire. 



