ANCIENT EGYPT. II 



1,700. The pig was looked upon as an unclean animal in 

 ancient times, and is to-day only kept in Egypt by Copts and 

 Europeans. It appears in a picture of 'judgment by Osiris, 

 from the 17th chapter of the Book of the Dead (peri-en-hrti, 

 coming forth by day out of the nether world). A copy of the 

 vignette is before you. The heart of the departed is being 

 weighed, in the Hall of the Two Truths, by Anubis ; while 

 Toth, the recorder, notes down the deeds done in the body ; 

 and should the evil predominate, the soul is scourged from 

 the judgment hall in the body of a pig ; but punishment is not 

 eternal. Osiris, as judge of the dead, is assisted by a sort of 

 jury of forty-two good and evil genii. The Book of the Dead 

 is the most ancient in the world. Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson 

 copied a text in the 17th chapter from the sarcophagus of 

 a queen of the eleventh dynasty, chiseled more than 5000 

 years ago. A portion of the book may be seen in the library 

 of the Durham College of Science. 



Among the wild animals still to be found in the country 

 are the leopard, wolf, hyaena, jackal, lynx, and fox, the wild 

 boar, antelope ( Bekhar-el-wahsh), ibex, gazelle, the mufiflon 

 or maned sheep, the desert hare, coney, jerboa, and dor- 

 mouse. Bats and ichneumon are very common ; lizards, both 

 land and water varieties, abound, but the crocodile is now 

 seldom seen below the first cataract of the Nile ; while the 

 hippopotamus has long since been banished from Egypt. 

 Turtles, chameleon, and frogs are numerous. 



Among snakes is the horned viper (Cerastes), the asp of 

 the monuments. Its quantity in hieroglyphic is that of a 

 goddess. 



The Nile valley is a great thoroughfare for birds, and there 

 are about 350 species frequenting Egypt proper — aquatic 

 birds are especially varied and numerous. The sacred ibis 

 (I. cethiopica) is still to be found far up the Nile. The 

 Egyptian goose ( Chenalopex (Zgyptiacus) is mentioned on 

 the monuments as early as the eleventh dynasty, about B.C. 

 4500. This bird in hieroglyphics represents the primeval 



