was a Deity equally known to the Persians, Lydians, and Cappadocians; and worshipped under the same title. This legend about a crocodile was taken from some symbolical representation in the city of the same name; and hence it was supposed to have happened in Egypt. It was a sacred history, like that of Orus, and of Helius, upon a crocodile: for these were all titles, which at different times were conferred upon the same personage, and related to the same event. The crocodile had many names such as 84 Caimin, 35 Souchus, "Campsa. This last signified an ark, or receptacle, like Aren, Argus, Aagvak, Cibotus. Kaufa, Onxn, Campsa is an ark, or coffer, says Hesychius. From hence I think the purport of the hieroglyphic may be proved. The Tortoise was likewise admitted in their symbolical descriptions; and was represented as the support of the world. It is a notion at this day among the Brahmins of India that the earth rests upon the horns of an ox, or cow. And when they are asked, what it is that supports the cow, they say, that it stands upon the back of a tortoise. The Egyptians used to place this emblem upon the shrines of Venus:

85 Damascius in vitâ Isidori, apud Photium. p. 1048.

86 Herodotus. 1. 2. c. 69.

and the same Goddess was described by the people of Elis with her foot upon the 87 back of this animal, to denote her relation to the sea.

Most of the Aquatics of the Nile were esteemed sacred and among these the Faba Ægyptiaca. It was a species of bean, styled Colocasia; and was reverenced on account of its shape. Nothing can more resemble a boat, than the pod of the common bean and it is particularly like the Navis biprora, or sacred ship of Isis. The Faba Ægyptiaca had the like appearance; and this perhaps was the reason why Pythagoras abstained from beans; for his whole system seems to have been borrowed from Egypt. It was undoubtedly on account of this resemblance, that it was also called 88 Cuamon, and Cibotium, from Cibotus, Kißwros, a boat. Some suppose it to have been a species of Ciborium; of whose fruit they made cups to drink. A person in Athenæus, speaking of some particular cups, says, that they were called σxupia, or skiffs. And he adds, that they

87 Plutarch. Isis et Osiris. p. 381. Pausan. 1. 6. p. 515. Τῳ δὲ ἕτερῳ ποδί επι χελωνης βέβηκε.

vocant.

88 In Ægypto nobilissima est Colocasia, quam Cyamon aliqui Plin. l. 21. c. 20. p. 248. The term Cyamon or Cuamon, from whence the Greeks borrowed their vaμos, is a compound of Cu-Amon, the shrine of Amon: so Cu-bela was the house or shrine of Bela; Cu-baba, the house of Baba.

had probably this name from a vegetable in Egypt, called 2 Ciborium, whose fruit was like a boat. Above all others the Nymphæa seems to have been regarded; which is represented as the flower of the Lotus. It was esteemed a sacred ornament by the priests and we find it continually used for a kind of coronet upon the figures of Orus, when he is described on the Lotus. It is also to be seen upon the heads of 9° Isis and Osiris: and the ser, pents " Cnuphis and Thermuthis are generally

91

90

crowned with this flower. Orus is sometimes described erect, but swathed in bandages, like a person embalmed. In his hands he holds some implements of art: over his shoulder there seems to be the figure of a plough-share; and upon his head the Nymphæa.

If any means can be found out to obtain the latent purport of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, they must arise from considering these emblems singly, and observing their particular scope and destination. When we have ascertained the meaning of

89 Και ταχα αν είη τα λεγόμενα σκυφια δια το κατωθεν εις ςενον συνήχθαι, ὡς τα Αιγυπτια Κιβώρια. Athenæus. 1. 11. p. 477. See Dioscorides. 1. 2. p. 97. Strabo. 1. 17. p. 1178.

Κιβώριον, Αιγύπτιον ονομα επι ποτηρια. Hesych.

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9° See Spanheim de Usu et Præstant. Num. Antiq. vol. 1, p. 302, 303.

91 Ibid.