PART l] beasts in EGYPT AND LIBYA. 3
died in any house, all the inhabitants of that house shave their eyebrows only: when a dog has died, they shave the whole of the body and head. Dead cats are buried in sacred tombs in the town of Bubastis. They bury dead dogs, each one in his own city. They also worship mice, spiders, hawks, ibises, (and) ichneumons.
The hippopotamus.
8.Hippopotami are held sacred by some Egyptians, but not sacred by the rest. Their nature and appearance is as follows. (It is) a four-footed animal, with cloven foot, the hoof of an ox, snub nose, the mane of a horse, projecting teeth, the tail and voice of a horse : in size they resemble bulls.
The phoenix.
9.There is also a sacred bird, by name the phoenix. It visits Egypt very rarely, after an interval of five hundred years. Now it arrives on the death of its father. It is of the following size and description (lit. so great and such); the colour of the feathers, in some, is golden, in others, red; in look and size it closely resembles an eagle. The phoenix leaving Arabia, carries his father covered with myrrh to the temple of the Sun, and buries him in the temple of the Sun.
The winged serpents and the ibis.
10.At the commencement of spring winged serpents fly to Egypt. But the ibis birds meeting them, prevent them from approaching, and kill the serpents. For this reason they are highly valued by the Egyptians. Now the appearance of the ibis is as follows; it is a bird of a black colour, with the claws of a crane, and a curved bill. The shape of the snakes resembles the shape of water snakes. They have wings, not feathered, but resembling the wings of a bat.
Wonderful animals in Libya.
11.There are in Libya serpents of huge size ; there are in the same place lions, and elephants, and bears, and aspides, and homed asses. There are also human beings having the heads of
