AND LOWER EGYPT. 1^1 



food; and the Cophts. who have adopted almost 

 all the customs of their tyrants, likewise abstain 

 from it. 



It has been affirmed that the cows of Egypt 

 produce twins at a birth*. This happens some- 

 times, no doubt ; but though less rare perhaps 

 than in Europe, this degree of fecundity by no 

 mrans passes for an ordinary thing. It was natural 

 that, after having endeavoured to establish the 

 superiority of the Egyptian bull, Maillet should 

 talk in the same tone of exaggeration of the cow ; 

 accordingly, he was not satisfied with allowing 

 her two calves at a birth, and boldly asserts that 

 cows have been known to produce four at once-j~. 

 Such hasty observations, which disgrace a narra- 

 tive of facts, would undoubtedly have had no place 

 in that of Maillet, if death had allowed him time 

 to digest, himself, the memoirs which he had 

 collected, and of which the greatest part belonged 

 to him only because he had been furnished with 

 them. I have read a very long one, deposited in 

 the chancery of France, at Rossetta, composed for 

 M. Muilldt, by a French merchant residing there, 

 and I have found it again, printed at full length, 

 in the work of the consul. It is very difficult, 



* Cornelius Le Bruyn's Voyage, vol. ii. p. 101, note ».— 

 Paul Luca \ Voyage, &c. &c. &c. 

 t Description of Egypt, part ii. p. 5. 



when 



