Archaeology, Hieroglyphic Studies, Etc.

33

Natural History and Science.

Durst and Gaillard. A long and important paper on the Egyptian
domestic sheep. The old race is not derived from ammotragus, as has
lately been held (Arch. Report, 1899-1900, page 32). It is a variety of
the long-footed sheep, and the authors propose to name it Ovis longipes
palaeoaegyptius; the longipes is probably derived from the Indian Ovis
Vignei. The ram of Mendes was originally of this kind, but probably the
goat Hircus mambricus was substituted for it when the old breed of sheep
became extinct. The four-horned sheep figured in later times as emblems
of divinities may possibly be from four-horned crosses of the older and later
races of sheep. Finally the authors appeal to archaeologists to provide
them with the material for study of domestic animals by preserving the
bones found in excavations. Bee. xxiv. 44.

Beni Hasan iv. is reviewed by Loret, especially discussing the birds
represented, Sphinx, v. 227.

Lefebure questions whether the horse did not exist early in Egypt,.
Sphinx, v. 97.

Wiedemann on the animal sacred to Set, suggests its having been;
originally the Okapi, 0. L. Z. v. 220.

Medicine, etc.—Oefele continuing his Studien uber alt-Aegyptischen
Parasitologic, writes on the internal parasites of Egypt, dealing also with
the zoological divisions of the Egyptians, Archiv. fur Parasitologic, v.
461. The same writer illustrates the use of snake-oil for the Lair, pre-
scribed in the Ebers Papyrus, from an Arabic source, A. Z. xxxix. 84.

See also the important articles of Wilcken, G-unkel, and Wendland
on circumcision in Egypt in Archiv fiir pap. ii. 4 (below, p. 42).

Berthelot publisbes analyses of Egyptian gold and other materials,
Ann. ii. 157.

Astronomy.—Daressy describes a marble plaque with Greek and
Egyptian zodiacs, Bee. xxiii. 126.

See also under the heading Demotic the astronomical texts published
by Spiegelberg from ostraca and the papyri of Berlin (above, p. 22).

Metrology.—Weigall figures a large number of interesting weights,
mostly unpublished, from the collection of Prof. Petrie, giving tables
of their original weights, standards, etc., P. S. B. A. xxiii. 378.

Hultsch writes on Egyptian metrology, Archiv. f. pap. ii. 87; and
comments on the metrology of a Berlin Greek papyrus in Kalbfleisch,
Bap. Grace. Mus. Britann. et Mus. Berolinensis.

Max Muller describes a duck-weight from Thebes, 0. L. Z. v. 360.

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