130 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
companies who not only stand “ centinelle,” but instil good discipline into the younger members of 
the family. 
But long before John Leo lived, these Bobu ini had been noticed and critically observed by Greek 
and Roman naturalists, and had received, on account of their especial character — their dog-shaped muzzle 
and head —the name Oynocephali, or Dog-headed Apes. The word comes from the Greek icvvo-utyuKos, 
which was applied to Dog-headed people as well as Apes, and it is very applicable, for the whole 
aspect of the head, and especially of the prolonged snout, cut short at the end in the Ape, greatly 
resembles that of some Dogs. Earlier still, the ancient Egyptians engraved its figure in stone, made 
metal images of it, drew it on papyrus, and even made mummies of their dead bodies. Hermopolis 
was especially the city devoted to the worship of the Dog-headed, for in those early days such was 
their grandeur in Egyptian eyes, and such the folly of mankind. Symbolism was carried to an 
excess, its foundations being as mysterious as meaningless, and it therefore came to pass that the Dog- 
headed were mixed up with literature and astronomy. 
That admirable investigator and popular exponent of tlie sculptures and hieroglyphics of the 
ancient Egyptians, Sir Gardner Wilkinson, writes that “The Cynocephalus Ape, which was particu- 
larly sacred to Tlioth, held a conspicuous place among the sacred animals of Egypt, being worshipped 
as the type of the god of letters, and of the moon, which was one of the characters of Tlioth. It 
was even introduced into the sculptures as the god himself, with ‘ Tlioth, Lord of Letters,’ and other 
legends inscribed over it ; and in astronomical subjects two Cynocepliali are frequently represented 
standing in a boat before the sun, in ail attitude of prayer, as emblems of the moon. Their presence 
in a similar boat with a Pig probably refers to them as types of the divinity, in whose honour that 
animal was sacrificial ; the moon and Bacchus, according to Herodotus, being the sole deities to whom 
it was lawful to immolate Swine, and that only at the full moon. But the presence of Cynocepliali 
was not confined to Tlioth or the moon. On two sides of the pedestals of the obelisks of Luxor four 
Cynocepliali stand in the same attitude, as if in adoration of the deity to whom those monuments 
were dedicated ; a balustrade over the centre doorway of the temple of Amnn at Medeeret Haboo, is 
ornamented with the figures of these animals ; and a row of them forms the cornice of the exterior of 
the great temple dedicated to Ha at Aboomubel. Sometimes a (Jynocephalus placed on a throne as a 
god holds a sacred Ibis in its hand ; and in the judgment- scenes of the dead it frequently occurs 
seated on the summit of the balance as the emblem of Tlioth, who had an important office on 
that occasion, and registered the account of the actions of the deceased. The place where this animal 
was particularly sacred was Hermopolis, the city of Thotli. Thebes and the other towns also treated it 
with tlie respect due to the representative of the Egyptian Hermes, and in the necropolis of the 
capital of Upper Egypt, a particular spot was set apart as the cemetery of the sacred Apes. 
Mummies of the Cynocephalus were put up in a sitting posture, which is usually that given to the 
animals in the sculptures when representing the god Thotli ; and its head forms one of the covers of 
the four sepulchral vases deposited in the tombs of the dead. It was then the type of the god Ifopi, 
one of the four genii of Amenti, who was always figured with the head of a Cynocephalus. Many of 
this species of Ape were tamed and kept by the Egyptians, and tlie paintings show that they were 
even housed for useful purposes.” 
Elsewhere the same author informs us that “ the Cynocephalus is synonymous with the hiero- 
glyphic of letters ; and we even find it holding the titles and fulfilling the office of Tlioth, which 
shows that it was not only the emblem, but also the representative of the deity.” “Thotli in one of 
his characters corresponded to the moon, and in the other to Mercury. In the former, lie was the 
beneficent property of that luminary, the regulator and supervisor of time, who presided over the fate 
of man and the. events of his life; in the latter the god of letters and the patron of learning, and its 
way of communication between gods arid men. It was through him that all mental gifts were 
imparted to man. He was, in short, a deification of the abstract idea of the intellect, or a personifica- 
tion of the intellect of the deity.” 
The judgment-scenes found in the tombs and on the papyri show that the good actions of the 
deceased are placed in a row on one side of the balance, and the figure or emblem of Truth on the 
other. Anubis, the director of the weight, proceeds to ascertain the claims for admission into the 
region of Amenti, and if on being weighed he is found wanting, he is rejected, and Osiris, the 
