THE EGYPTIAN MANGOUSTE. 201 



and ranking it among those deities which were most propitious 

 to them. With the modern Egyptians it is quite as domes- 

 ticated as our cat, and they keep it to rid their houses of rats 

 and mice. It frequently sits up like a squirrel when feeding, 

 and will catch with dexterity any thing thrown to it. Its voice 

 is a soft murmur, which, however, it seldom emits except when 

 irritated. 



M. D'Obsonville's anecdote of a mangouste has been so re- 

 peatedly published that it might well be omitted here, if it were 

 not for its being valuable in a philosophic point of view, which 

 is rarely the case with the more popular anecdotes. This one, 

 however, may serve to show how what is termed the natural 

 instinct of an animal may lie dormant, till example or 

 practice has elicited it, and be called into repeated action after 

 it has been once exercised. I shall not quote his very words, 

 because they somewhat conceal the more important features, 

 and the anecdote, as originally reported, is probably accessible 

 to most readers j but will give a true digest of it. Having 

 obtained a very young mangouste, he reared it, feeding it 

 at first with milk, and afterwards with baked meat, mixed with 

 rice. It soon became even tamer than a cat -, for it not only 

 came when called, but followed him about in the country. One 

 day his master presented him with a small live water- serpent, 

 being desirous to know how far the instinct of the mangouste 

 would avail it against a creature with which it was hitherto 

 totally unacquainted. Its first emotion seemed to be astonishment, 

 mixed with anger, for its hair became erect ; but in an instant 

 after, it slipped behind the reptile, and with remarkable swift- 

 ness and agility, leaped upon its head, seized it, and crushed 

 it between its teeth. This onset and new aliment taught it that 

 a destructive voracity was more agreeable and congenial to its 

 temperament and organization, than that gentle and passive 

 state which it had contracted from having lived in ignorance of 

 the existence of such a description of reptile. M. D'Obsonville 

 had about his house several curious birds, among which the 

 mangouste had been reared, and which, till then, it had suffered 



