The Cats When They
Are Dead Are Carried Away To Sacred Buildings In The City Of Bubastis,
Where After Being Embalmed They Are Buried; But The Dogs They Bury
Each People In Their Own City In Sacred Tombs; And The Ichneumons Are
Buried Just In The Same Way As The Dogs.
The shrewmice however and the
hawks they carry away to the city of Buto, and the ibises to
Hermopolis; the bears (which are not commonly seen) and the wolves,
not much larger in size than foxes, they bury on the spot where they
are found lying.
Of the crocodile the nature is as follows: - during the four most
wintry months this creature eats nothing: she has four feet and is an
animal belonging to the land and the water both; for she produces and
hatches eggs on the land, and the most part of the day she remains
upon dry land, but the whole of the night in the river, for the water
in truth is warmer than the unclouded open air and the dew. Of all the
mortal creatures of which we have knowledge this grows to the greatest
bulk from the smallest beginning; for the eggs which she produces are
not much larger than those of geese and the newly-hatched young one is
in proportion to the egg, but as he grows he becomes as much as
seventeen cubits long and sometimes yet larger. He has eyes like those
of a pig and teeth large and tusky, in proportion to the size of his
body; but unlike all other beasts he grows no tongue, neither does he
move his lower jaw, but brings the upper jaw towards the lower, being
in this too unlike all other beasts.
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