ON INTRODUCED ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 17 



Twelfth Dynasty. The paintings on the walls represent a vast variety 

 of subjects: including, most unexpectedly, the greater part of the 

 arts and trades practised among civilized nations at the present day ; 

 also, birds, quadrupeds, fishes, and insects, amounting to an extended 

 treatise on zoology, well deserving the attention of naturalists. The 

 date accompanying these representations, has been astronomically de- 

 termined by Biot at about B. C. 2200* (Cbampollion-Figeac, Egyp. 

 Anc.) ; and Lepsius' chronological computation corresponds. 



The tomb dated in the reign of King Sesurtesen II., contains the 

 earliest record hitherto discovered, of the introduction of a body of 

 foreigners into Egypt. The strangers belong to the White Race ; are 

 termed " captives," a point of agreement with the Hyksos of Manetho 

 (Josephus, C. Apion. i. 14); use the javelin; and, unlike the Egyp- 

 tians, wear variegated garments. 



In an adjoining tomb (Champollion, PL 396), a kindred nation, wear- 

 ing only the cincture, and therefore inhabiting a warm climate, is repre- 

 sented fighting the EgjqDtians. The siege of a fortified place is also 

 represented. And Lepsius (Briefe aus Aegyp. p. 367) observed one 

 of these foreigners in the state of servitude among the Egyptians. — In 

 a royal tomb of the Nineteenth Dynasty, the same foreign nation wears 

 the Bedouin fillet. 



The scarlet portion of the variegated garments may have been dyed 

 with kermes (Coccus ilicis) ; an insect production, obtained around the 

 northern shores of the Mediterranean. — The use of kermes is mentioned 

 in Genesis xxxviii. 28 ; Exodus xxv. 4 ; Leviticus xiv. 4 ; Proverbs 

 xxxi. 21 ; Isaiah i. 18 ; and also by Ctesias, Theophrastus, and Pliny. 



The domestic and useful animals and plants of the anterior monu- 

 ments, again make their appearance at Benihassan ; figured too in the 

 same peculiar varieties ; and, notwithstanding the lapse of time, addi- 

 tional kinds are surprisingly few. I met with only the four following: 



Among the various species of ducks, a flock possibly of the domesti- 

 cated bird. — Ducks, apparently, are swimming in artificial pools in 

 a garden-plan of the time of the Seventeenth or Eighteenth Dy- 

 nasty (Rosselini, II. PL 69); and tame ducks are mentioned by 

 Aristophanes, Plautus, and Varro. 



Perhaps, the Indian bullock (Rosselini, Monum. Civil. PL 20). — 



* The astronomical observations procured at Babylon, and sent by Calisthenes to Aris- 

 totle, went back to B. C. 2233 (Clinton, Fast. Helien. I. pp. 281 and 368). The Chi- 

 nese are said to possess records of equal antiquity. 



