LATES. 457 



sized Lates were caught and one monster who measured in a straight line from point 

 of lower jaw to end of tail-fin 48 inches (1*219 metres) and weighed 55 lbs. (25 kilos.)." 



List of native names, as noted by Mr. Loat : — " Homar " ( y U^) or " komar-el-bakr " 

 ( ys^il ^U^), near Lake Menzaleh; " skiff a" (U^), at Samannud, Beni-Souef ; " skiff a g " 

 (j- 1 ^) and " latis " ((K^), at Assiut ; " leffask " (^U!) for big specimens, and " cece " 

 {^^) for small specimens, in the Fayum ; " iskr " ( j£j)) 9 at Kafr-el-Zayat, Cairo, 

 Barrage N. of Cairo; " farfck iskr" ( ; ^>\ - J), at Cairo; " samoose" (^^U), 

 at Assuan; " guUberr" or "bulbar" (J+i) ("lark"), at Kosheh ; "aigle" (*ls^), at 

 Omdurman. 



This is the fish for which the ancient Egyptians had the greatest veneration, and 

 numerous are the mummified remains which have been found, especially at Esneh, 

 where the fish was worshipped, for which reason that city received during the 

 Grseco-Boman occupation the name of Latopolis. The method used in preparing these 

 mummies has been described by Lortet and Gaillard *. It is curious that neither the 

 authors of the great Napoleonic work 'Description de l'Egypte ' nor Cuvier were 

 aware of the existence of mummies of Lates ; nor did Sonnini, when first pointing out 

 the connection between this fish and the name Latopolis, allude to any preserved 

 remains. However, a great many have since been found at Esneh, and described 1by 

 Lortet and Gaillard and Gaillard and Duressy t, and I have seen quite a number, 

 small and large, in the possession of Mr. R. de Rustafjaell. Two specimens, from 

 Thebes, are preserved in the private collection of Mr. Hilton Price J. 



Numerous specimens, measuring up to 5J feet, were exhumed by Mr. Loat § from 

 the animal cemetery of Medinet Gurob, on the border of the Province of the Fayum, 

 in 1903. Mr. Loat observes : — 



" The portion of the cemetery devoted to fish burials differed in several points from 

 that in which the oxen and goats were buried. For one thing the pits were more 

 carefully dug, many being occupied by a single fish, and in those cases in which two 

 or more were buried together, a certain arrangement was observed ; they were either 

 side by side, or in layers, and sometimes head to tail. Another point of difference 

 lies in the fact that in nearly every case where fish were concerned a packing of fine 

 grass ashes, probably ' halfa,' was used as a preservative. 



" The fish was placed on a thick layer of this, and covered up with the same material ; 

 while in the case of large specimens the mouth and openings behind the gill-covers 

 were packed with the same. 



* Arch. Mus. Lyon, viii. 1903, p. 185, figs. 



f Catal. Gen. des Antiquites Egyptiennes du Musee du Caire (Cairo, 1905, 4to), no. 29501, &c. 



% Cf. his Catalogue of Egyptian Antiquities, 1897, p. 230. 



§ L. Loat, Gurob, Egyptian Research Account, x. 1904, p. 3. 



