301 TUAVELS IN UPPER 



herself be blamed for this curtailed propagation, 

 which, prompted by her appetite for eggs, may de- 

 stroy those which the tortoises, as well as the cro- 

 codiles, hide in the sand ? She would, in this case, 

 be friendly to the crocodile, instead of his impla- 

 cable enemy, as has been pretended. 



The name of mangouste, and that of ichneumon, 

 are, at present, unknown in Egypt; as little do we 

 meet with the denomination of Pharaoh's rat, 

 which Hasselquitz has very erroneously alleged to 

 have been imagined by the French. With a little 

 reflection, or rather, with less partiality, he might 

 have seen that the Italian Pietro della Valle *,that 

 Cornelius Le Briiyn, a Dutchman -}~, had employed 

 it; that Klein, who was not a Frenchman, had 

 given it besides to the Indian-pig J, &c. he. If 

 this traveller had been less precipitate in forming 

 his judgment, he would have comprehended, that 

 a vulgar denomination ought not to be rigorously 

 discussed, especially when it is not improper; and 

 the one in question is not so whimsical as a thou- 

 sand phrases of nomenclature which he had got by 

 heart. But he had the mania of criticizing our na- 

 tion, a mania for which BufFon has reproved him 



* Voyages, Paris, 1670, vol. i. p. 239. 

 f Voyages to the Levant, new edit. 1725, vol. ii. p. 7a. 

 Note a by the Editor. 



% Klein de Quadrupcdibuu 



smartly 



