AND LOWER EGYPT. 297 



Having some resemblance, in their habits, to 

 weasels and pole c<»ts, they feed upon rats, birds, 

 and reptiles. They ramble about the habitations 

 of men, they even steal into them, in order to sur- 

 prise the poultry, and to devour their eggs. It is 

 this natural fondness for eggs which prompts them 

 frequently to scratch up the sand with the intention 

 of discovering those which the crocodiles deposit 

 there, and it is in this manner that they prevent, 

 in reality, the excessive propagation of these de- 

 testable animals. But it is absolutely impossible 

 to abstain from laughing, and not without reason, 

 when we read of their leaping into the extended 

 mouths of the crocodiles, of their sliding down into 

 their belly, and not returning till they have eaten 

 through their entrails *. If some mangoustes have 

 been seen springing with fury on little crocodiles 

 presented to them -j~, it was the effect of their ap- 

 petite for every species of reptiles, and not at all 

 that of a particular hatred, or of a law of nature, 

 in virtue of which they would have been specially 

 commi-sioned to check the multiplication of those 

 amphibious animals, as many people have ima- 

 gined \. It had been at least equally reasonable 



to 



* See almost all the ancient authors, and, among the moderns, 

 Maillct, Jauna, ai.d others. 



f Maillet, Descrip. de l'Egypte, partie ii. page 34. 



\ Maillet, in the part already quoted. See likewise the His- 

 tory of Cyprus, of Jerusalem, and of Egypt, by the Chevalier 



Dom, 



