OS Tlil CH FEA THEIiS. 



229 



mentioned in far more remote ages, appearing on the Egyptian hieroglyphical monuments, where they 

 are spoken of as shoo, and they were used by the Egyptians as emblems of justice, from the webs being 

 equally balanced and of equal width on each side of the shaft. " Warriors," says Mr. Harting, " wore 

 Ostrich plumes in their helmets from a very early date. In the comedy of ' Acharnenses,' which was 



represented in the Theatre of Bacchus at Athens (B.C. 425), Aristophanes depicted a general called 

 Lamachoo, who carried two beautiful white Ostrich feathers in his helmet ; while both the Greek 

 Theophrastes (Hist. Plant, iv., 5) and the Roman Pliny clearly indicate that Ostrich feathers were 

 thus used in their day." The noble Roman ladies are said to have kept domesticated birds for the 

 purpose of riding, and still earlier the Egyptian Queen Arsinoe, who lived some time before the cele- 

 brated Cleopatra, had her statue erected on Helicon, in which she was represented as riding on an 

 172 



