DYNASTIC BUTTERFLIES 
395 
desert will always be associated with the name of King, and his 
monumental work. 1 
The wonderful paintings, still so marvellously preserved in 
many a temple and tomb, tell us that three thousand years ago, as 
to-day, the wheat cultivated by the Egyptians was of the bearded 
variety, which, as seen at a distance, makes the ripe cornfields 
look “ white to harvest/’ in place of golden, as in other lands. 
From these same paintings it may safely be inferred that many 
plants and animals, now to be found only in the far Sftdan, were 
then familiar objects in both Lower and Upper Egypt. Even a 
butterfly caught the observant eye of those old-time artists, and 
portraits of it have been handed down. One of these entomological 
illustrations adorns a tomb at Beni-Hasan; this tomb bears a date 
showing that it belongs to the Twelfth Dynasty, earlier, that is, 
than 2000 b.c. Other insects are represented on the painted pave¬ 
ments of the Eighteenth Dynasty at Tell al-Amarna, say 1500 B.c., 
but perhaps the most perfect representation, from a tomb at Thebes, 
is now in the British Museum at Bloomsbury. This tomb is said to 
be that of a Scribe of the Royal Granaries of the time of Seti I., say 
1400 B.c. Besides a celebrated cat and many birds, no less than 
seven butterflies are figured, all evidently belonging to one species. 2 
Unfortunately these paintings are not sufficiently well executed, or, 
it may be, not sufficiently well preserved, for it to be possible to 
dogmatize as to the specific identity of the insect represented, but it 
would, I think, be safe to hazard the conjecture that it is Danaida 
chrysippus (or possibly its variety dorippus )—-indeed it would appear 
to be mid-way in colouring between the type and the variety. It 
may be confidently asserted that the model before the painter was 
not T). alcippus, since the white hind-wings of that form must have 
riveted the attention of a far less careful draughtsman. The body 
bears conspicuous white spots, but the transverse white bar seems to 
be broken up into spots; the black marks on the hind-wing are 
clearly indicated. One of the butterflies appears to have six func¬ 
tional legs, but the artist might have allowed his knowledge of the 
general hexapod character of the Insecta to direct his brush. 
A visitor to Egypt will soon notice that the wind usually blows 
from the north, and this is a circumstance of the weightiest 
economical and even political importance, since it is thereby possible 
1 “ Symbolae Physicae Insectorum,” Klug and Ebrenberg, 1830-1845. 
2 A good “process ” reproduction of this painting will be found in “ A History of 
Egypt,” by J. H. Breasted, Fig. 156. 
