AND LOWER EGYPT. JOJ 



smartly enough to work a cure, had he lived to 

 see his work *. 



When a man has fallen into repeated mistakes, 

 it excites a suspicion that he is frequently wrong. 

 BufFon would not rely on the authority of Hassel- 

 quitz, when he says, that the Arabic name of the 

 mangouste, in Egypt, is nems, and has given the 

 preference to Dr. Shaw's testimony, who assures us 

 that, in Barbary, nems is the appellation given to the 

 weasel, and tezer-dea to the mangouste -f-. Never- 

 theless, it is indubitably certain, that the Egyptians 

 of to-day, who, to mention it by the way, have no 

 more consideration for the mangouste than we 

 have for pole-cats, call it nems, and the weasel they 

 denominate herse. I have even had opportunity to 

 ascertain that the two live animals which M. de 

 Vergennes, ambassador of France at the Ottoman 

 Porte, had given orders to have sent to him from 

 Alexandria to Constantinople, to be forwarded to 

 Buffon, and which actually reached him, were 

 nems, the mangouste of Egypt. But this difference 

 of names, in different countries, has nothing extra- 

 ordinary in it. Though the Arabic language be 

 equally diffused over Egypt and Barbary, the dia- 

 lects have so little resemblance, that the Barba- 

 resque and the Egyptian find it extremely difficult 

 to understand each other. 



* Natural History of the Mangouste, in a note. 

 f Shaw's Travels, the place already quoted. 



