ORDER SAURIA. 191 



river. M. GeofFroy St. Hilaire found a head of this em- 

 balmed in the caverns of Thebes. It is a little flatter and 

 more elongated than that of the common crocodile. Two 

 entire individuals and two heads of the same form are in the 

 museum of Paris. One of the first was presented by Adam- 

 son, who calls it the green crocodile of the Niger. 



We have already noticed ihe superstitious veneration of 

 the old Egyptians for this ferocious reptile. At Memphis 

 the sacred individual was reared with the greatest care, and 

 nourished with abundant food. Sacrifices and offerings were 

 presented to him ; he was adorned with trinkets, and lodged 

 in a lake or basin in the midst of the temple : thus treated, 

 the crocodile lost its ferocity, and became so tame as to be 

 led about in religious processions and ceremonies. 



In that country, so vaunted for wisdom, persons have 

 been known sufficiently foolish and infatuated, as to rejoice 

 when any of their children were devoured by the crocodile. 

 But in some districts of Egypt, these animals were held in 

 abhorrence, and hunted and killed, also through a sentiment 

 of religion ; because they believed that Typhon, the mur- 

 derer of 0?iris and the genius of evil, had transformed him- 

 self into a crocodile. 



Herodotus informs us that there was a law obliging the 

 people of ApoUonopolis to eat these animals, because the 

 daughter of King Psammeticus had been devoured by one of 

 them. In the city of Heraclea divine honours were paid to 

 the ichneumon, because that animal was regarded as the sworn 

 enemy of the crocodile. 



Presages were also drawn from the sacred crocodiles. If 

 the animal received favourably the elements presented to him, 

 it was considered an happy omen — but if he refused to eat, 

 it was regarded as an inauspicious augury. 



Diderot remarks, that it is only necessary to set in motion 

 the imaginations of men, to make them yield credit to tlie 



