ON INTRODUCED ANIMALS AND PLANTS. H 



third blue Nymphaea in a drug shop at Mocha ; probably the N. stel- 

 lata of Hindostan. 



A figure among the offerings (Lepsius II. PI. 14, 36 and 68) seems 

 intended for the root of the Typha ; which is said to be esculent. — 

 Aeschylus (Ag. 1521) speaks of beds of rushes or rash-mats ; made, 

 according to Aristophanes (Acharn. 874, and Lys. 721) and the scho- 

 liast, of " psiathos ;" or, as would appear from the current Greek name, 

 of the leaves of T. latifolia. This species is unknown in Egypt ; but 

 the T. angustifolia was seen by Delile, growing spontaneously at 

 Rosetta. 



Further in regard to the habits of the Early Egyptians : Persons 

 are represented in these tombs, employed in curing fish : and the 

 mode of carrying burdens is, by the balance-beam on the shoulder ; as 

 among the Polynesians at the present day. 



A portrait of King Chufu, or Cheops, of the Fourth Dynasty, has 

 been found at Wadi Maghara ; in a tablet recording the military con- 

 quest of a long-bearded nation belonging to the White Race (Lepsius 

 II. PI. 2). His name occurs also at Gizeh, in the Great Pyramid, 

 admitted to be his tomb ; and in small tombs in the vicinity, apparently 

 constructed during his reign. 



The arrows of the Nubian archers, figured in one of these small 

 tombs (Lepsius II. PI. 19), may have been from the real (Arundo 

 donax). — On some early monuments, the Nubian and Egyptian arrows 

 are marked at regular intervals, like joints (Rosselini II. PI. 117 and 

 118) ; and the arrows of the foreigners at Benihassan, were doubtless 

 from the reed. In the time of Pliny, the reed appears to have been 

 extensively cultivated in Egypt ; and its rarity at the present day, 

 is partly to be attributed to the change in the mode of warfare. 



During the reign of Chufu, hieroglyphic writing was used generally, 

 and for common purposes ; as appears from quarry-marks in red chalk 

 still remaining on interior stones of the Great Pyramid. 



The chambers and internal passages of the Great Pyramid are in 

 part constructed of sienite ; floated down the Nile from the First 

 Cataract. 



The base of the Great Pyramid has been found to conform to an 

 exact meridian line : and other evidence of the advanced state of 

 astronomical science has been discovered. — Tables of the Constellations 

 were found by Champollion in tombs of the time of the Twentieth 

 Dynasty. 



