384 



PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



ties, and by the absence of all details relating to manners and to the 

 Mechanic arts. The Ptolemaic temples, are comparatively uninte- 

 resting ; yet, they are not devoid of arcliitectural taste; and their 

 walls, though chiefly devoted to mythological subjects and ostenta- 

 tious enumerations of conquests, contain genealogical tables, dates, 

 and astronomical records, that might be consulted to advantage. 



Few of the mummies hitherto discovered, are older than the Greek- 

 Egyptian Period. But the cases containing them, often belong to 

 the Pharaonic Ages. I have seen a Pharaonic inner mummy-case, 

 that remained unopened. 



One of the new deities, is figured as having- the head of the cat. And 

 in regard to the anterior ambiguous representations at Beni-Hassan ; 

 they appeared to me, on a careful examination, to be intended for 

 varieties of the dog. HerodotuS; seems to be the earliest writer who 

 mentions the cat; at least, I have found no notice of this animal, by 

 Homer or Hesiod, or in the Old Testament. 



According to Forskal, the Narcissus tazetta, is found in the gardens of 

 Egypt; where it is called ' nardjis.' The vapxirfrfo? of the Cyprian 

 Verses and of Theophrastus, may be compared. The description 

 of Pliny, however, seems to refer to the N. poeticus ; which species, 

 I have not found mentioned as existing in Egypt. 



Pythagoras, is said to have written on the medical properties of the 

 squill {^ciWo. raaritima); a plant, mentioned also by Theophrastus. 

 and Dioscorides. — The squill, is enumerated by Clot-Bey and Fi- 

 gari, among the plants indigenous to, or at least, long known in 

 Egypt. 



The ' brassica,' celebrated according to Pliny by Pythagoras, is consi- 

 dered to be the cabbage, (Brassica oleracea.) And according to the 

 modern Greek usage, the xpa,agy) of Nicander and of the Batracho- 

 myomachia, is the same plant. In Egypt, the cabbage, is called 

 'koroumb:' and an etymological interference, will here be per- 

 ceived, with the Greek words, xpajxlrj, xpojuifAua, and cupfj-aia. — ' Karna- 

 bid,' the current Egyptian name of the cauliflower, may also be 

 compared with the xapvagaOiov of the Lexicons, and with the x^vxttiJi 

 of the modern Greeks. 



The xoxxo(j.7]Xov of Hipponax ('born b. c. 540'), Aristophanes, and Theo- 

 phrastus, according to the received opinion, is the plum (Prunus 



