this^sentiment cshould ?even be-, carried to adoration. But why
grant such honours ;to the wild# harmless, • and apparently useless
Ih-ig ?? It tt perfectly yell proved at tlfis Ilay thaLthe Ibis is as
.ilseles's ■-as it is inröffe»'sice;>and' if the Egyptian prie&tS - who
: worshipped tire Beity in hts ereatteres declared li'pre-eminently
sacred ; if while the adoration <tf- other similar divinities., Was
eonfrned'jtp peculiar districts, that of the Ibis was universal 'over
Egypt; ifnt was said; that'should the Gods take mortal forms it
would be under that of tb$ Ibis that they would prefer to “appear
ö®-eaytfe, and so many things of the kind, we can assign ho other
reason than the fact of th eir appearing with the periodical rains,
coining dowft from the upper country when the freshening Ejbecian
winds begafh to blow, wh&n they were driven idpéard&r'öf a better
climate by the very rains that produce the inundation of the Nile;
doing Egypt sneb signal benefit, t The Ibis, whose appearance
aoc’ompanied those blessings, would disappear also at the season
when the south desert winds from the internal parts of jfefrica
brought desolation in their train, which could heiaverted' only Wf
the periodical return of th e ^etremnstances repfé&elèed bju ifc*
which seemed like Providence to control them, and was therefore
declared the real Providence óf Egypt, though merely the concomitant,
and by no means the cause of those blessings-, by which
theyprofited in tommon-with all. It thushecatne SO' identified
with the country as to be used as its. hieroglyphic representative,
and was said to he so attached to its native land that it would die
of grief if carried out of it, and it Was on account of its fidelity to
tfie soil that it was honoured as its emblem. So good a citizen
could not of* course from selfish motives migrate periodically, and
its absence must have' been, for its country’s sake \ Hence the
ridiculous tale current throughout antiquity, and strengthened by
the testimony of Herodotus, iElian, S©linUs; Marcellimfs,. copied
by Cicero, (who went so Mr as to assign to?1 the Ibis proper
bill,) by Pliny, and
others, a^d; credited ifrpur d#ys#®d:py#tain extent by Buffoh^Iwh#:
thusace®wiilied f o r I allude, to.the
story of tlieir attacking, and destroying periodically on the limits of
(Uvilizatioh»immense*ii@cks of*s^maM’'hu^ mostepersidfe
serpents generated by the Jferidentation: of marshes, whie'hi'withbut
thergeniCTOus proteetion lhife-^On!Mif eates©. tiie' utter
iminfOf Egyfhtft' |
■Still naore undcoountable- is it thattMatiiValisfs’ and! philosophers
should. have*he©%so long iir feWingmift the true meaning of- this
©rlentalHIgure. How could the« Ibis•Jwith^-'^i!^^ te:?bjLll, whose,
pressafre can be hardlyfelton West fMliCate?finger, and 'which
isoitly calculated'for probing in the mudWfter -Small moffluscaand
worms in place* just left bare after an ; foundation!, how ebuld
such a Weapon cut to,:piebefs and dfestf-Oy so many monsters if they
had existed.. How-could these-ldaroed men* (notwithstanding'that
Herodotus relate»- hiS seeing hfehps Of their bones-, or spines^.
Mil^#pfoir an instant in-th«?4esistencS of these winged serpents;
and why try to reconcile^, truth with? a barefaced falsehood, or
with expressions manifestly fignrkfrvfe'- thatdsome
modern.translators of Herodotus,.by forcing the Greek; Original to
meet thfeir own views, Have- attempted- to write'instead1 of“ winged
serpents, the word lovustse, Wljich insects are known to come in vast
swarms, causing periodically great devastation eve® in some parts
of Europe. But nothing Is gainediby this',plausible and;a;pparently
learned supposition, since the conformation *Of the Ibis would
prevent it from making any havoc among- these, enemies, whose
being winged would not moreover save their author from the
difficulty,"locusts h aving certain ly neither bones nor spines. The
figure intended is still plainer,! and Sa-Vigny; who first pointed
it out# could in my opidion* have saved himself many a page of his
classical dissertation, ahd'without any recourse to the idea of the