350 GBALLATOEES, OB WADING BIEDS. 



his authority, have reproduced this fable, and enriched it with 

 variations more or less fanciful. Cicero, Pomponius Mela, Solinus, 

 Atnmianus, and ^lian have mentioned it. According to the 

 last writer, the Ibis inspired the serpents with so much dread, 

 that the very sight of its plumage was sufficient to drive them 

 away, and a mere touch kiUed them at once, or at least stupefied 

 them. 



Let it suffice that all these naturalists admit that the Egyp- 

 tians venerated the Ibis for the service which it rendered by 

 destroying numbers of venomous serpents. In the narrative 

 of Herodotus, as we have seen, the expression " winged serpents " 

 is used for venomous ones. The translation is rather a free 

 one, it must be confessed. Moreover, it is the opiaion of M. 

 Bourlet, who has written a memoir on the subject, that by 

 the term " winged serpents " Herodotus intended to describe 

 locusts, innumerable swarms of which were wont to traverse 

 Egypt and the adjacent countries, destroying everything as they 

 pass. This explanation appears to us better than the former, for 

 it is a fact that the Ibis cannot attack serpents, its bill being too 

 weak for such a purpose. 



Having quoted M. Bourlet's opinion, we may as well give that 

 of Savigny, the naturalist, whose studies on the subject have been 

 published in the " Histoire Mythologique de I'lbis." 



" Between aridity and contagion, the two scourges which in all 

 ages have been so dreaded by the Egyptians," says the author, 

 " it was soon perceived that when a district was rendered fertile 

 and healthy by pure and fresh water, it was immediately fre- 

 quented by the Ibis, so that the presence of the one always 

 indicated that of the other, just as if the two were inseparable ; 

 they therefore believed that the two had a simultaneous existence, 

 and fancied some supernatural and secret relations existed between 

 them. This idea, being so intimately connected with the pheno- 

 mena on which their existence depended — I mean the periodical 

 overflowing of their river — was the first motive for their venera- 

 tion of the Ibis, and became the basis of the homage which 

 ultimately developed into the worship of the bird." 



Thus, according to Savigny, the Ibis was venerated by the 



