i6 4 APPENDIX. 



together, whereas this is in its feathers only black and white, 

 feparate from one another, and cannot be called variegated. 

 But I muft here obferve, that this is by no means a proper 

 interpretation of the Arabic word. Among many examples 

 I could give, I fhall adduce but one. There is a particular 

 kind of Iheep in Arabia Felix, whofe head and part of the 

 neck are black, and the reft of the beaft white ; it is chiefly- 

 found between Mocha and the Straits of Babelmandeb. This 

 in Arabic is called Rachama, for no other reafon but becaufe 

 it is marked black and white, which are precifely the two 

 colours which diftinguifli the bird before us. 



But I Hill am induced to believe the origin of this bird's 

 name has an older and more claffical derivation than that 

 which we have jull fpoken of. We know from Horus Apollo, 

 in his book upon Hieroglyphics, that the Rachma, or (he- 

 vulture, was facred to His, and that its feathers adorned the 

 ftatue of that goddefs. He fays it was the emblem of pa- 

 rental affection, and that the Egyptians, about to write an 

 affectionate mother, painted a fhe-vulture. He fays fur- 

 ther, that this female vulture, having hatched its young 

 ones, continues with them one hundred and twenty days* 

 providing them with all neceffaries ; and, when the flock 

 of food fails them, me tears off the fleffiy part of her 

 thigh, and feeds them with that and the blood which 

 flows from, the wound. Rachama, then, is good Hebrew, 

 it is from Rechem, female love, or attachment, from an 

 origin which it cannot have in men. In this fenfe we 

 fee it ufed with great propriety in the firft book of Kings *, 



in 



* Cha]j. iij. yer. z6. 



