ON THE IBIS. 327 



cross- ways of Alexandria were so filled with them, 

 that they proved a great inconvenience ; but he 

 must have spoken of it from memory. His tes- 

 timony cannot he received when he contradicts all 

 the rest, and especially when the bird itself is 

 there to refute him. 



In like manner, I shall not trouble myself 

 about the passage where Mlian * relates, accord- 

 ing to the Egyptian embalmers, that the intes- 

 tines of the ibis are eighty-six cubits long. The 

 Egyptian priests of all classes have been guilty of 

 so many extravagancies with regard to Natural 

 History, that no great importance can be attribu- 

 ted to wh? t one of their lowest classes might aver. 

 An objection might still be drawn against my 

 opinion from the long attenuated and black fea- 

 thers which cover the rump of our bird, and of 

 which some traces also are seen in Bruce's figure 

 of the Ahou-Hannes. The ancients, it might be 

 said, do not speak of them in their descriptions, 

 and their figures do not exhibit them. But I 

 have more on my side, in respect to this matter, 

 than a written testimony or a figured representa- 

 tion. I have found precisely the same feathers 

 in one of the Saccara mummies ; I kept them 

 carefully as being at once a singular monument 



* -Elian, Anim. lib. x, cap, xxix, 



