296 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



be read with infinitely greater pleasure in the work 

 oJ the sublime painter of nature. But as I had it 

 in my power to observe the mangouste in its na- 

 tive country, and in its state of liberty, I will give 

 the anal) >is of my remarks upon this quadruped, 

 and J will endeavour to establish the opinion 

 which ought to be formed of its utility, by ie- 

 duci.:^ 10 their just estimate services vvhich have 

 been much boasted of, and still more exaggerated*. 



With very great dispositions to familiarity, the 

 mangou>tcs arc* not ai together domestic in Egypt. 

 Not only do they now rear none in their habita- 

 tions, bus the inhabitants have not even the recol- 

 lection that their ancestors reared any. Most pro- 

 bably, then, those vvhich jBellonius-|~and Prosper 

 Alpinus £ assert that they had seen domesticated., 

 were merely a few individuals preserved rather as 

 objects of curiosity than for any useful purpose; 

 for if they hunt away rats and mice, they likewise 

 seize upon the poultry, and this appetite would 

 more than overbalance the good which they could 

 do, in purging the houses of noxious animals, 

 which cats would destroy more certainly, and 

 with les,s inconvenience. 



* These remarks on the mangouste, or ichneumon of Egyjit, have 

 been already printed m the Journal de Physique, for the month of 

 May 1785. 



f Observ. liv. ii. chap. 22. 



I Descrip. d'Egypte, lib. iv, 



Having 



