DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11637#0172
A\ND LOWER EGYPT. I57
scmble in herds in the environs of the lakes of na-
tron. The two that 1 saw were separate: they
carried their head low, and their pace was a sort
of trot.
The Mahometans and Cophts refrain from the
flesh of the wild boar, as they do from that of the
hog ; and holding both these animals in abhor-
rence, it was impossible for me to procure a wild
boar in Egypt, unless 1 had gone to the desert
for it myself. As this escaped Hussein's ball, I
lost the only opportunity I had of verifying my
conjectures respecting the breed of these boars,
which I cannot conceive to be the same with
those of Europe. It is in this sense, perhaps, that
we must understand those passages of Aristotle *
and Pliny-f-, where they have written, that there
are no wild boars in Africa.
The travellers that have gone before me, have
not been more fortunate than myself: or if some
of them have had an opportunity of examining a
haitxire, they have done it only in a very super-
ficial way. What information, for instance, can
we acquire from the words of Maillet ? " If a few
" wild hoars may be met with in Egypt, they are
" more gentle than our tame pigs ; and it would
* Hist. Kn. lib. 8. cap. 24.
f Hist. Nat. lib. 8. cap. 35.
ft eVcn
scmble in herds in the environs of the lakes of na-
tron. The two that 1 saw were separate: they
carried their head low, and their pace was a sort
of trot.
The Mahometans and Cophts refrain from the
flesh of the wild boar, as they do from that of the
hog ; and holding both these animals in abhor-
rence, it was impossible for me to procure a wild
boar in Egypt, unless 1 had gone to the desert
for it myself. As this escaped Hussein's ball, I
lost the only opportunity I had of verifying my
conjectures respecting the breed of these boars,
which I cannot conceive to be the same with
those of Europe. It is in this sense, perhaps, that
we must understand those passages of Aristotle *
and Pliny-f-, where they have written, that there
are no wild boars in Africa.
The travellers that have gone before me, have
not been more fortunate than myself: or if some
of them have had an opportunity of examining a
haitxire, they have done it only in a very super-
ficial way. What information, for instance, can
we acquire from the words of Maillet ? " If a few
" wild hoars may be met with in Egypt, they are
" more gentle than our tame pigs ; and it would
* Hist. Kn. lib. 8. cap. 24.
f Hist. Nat. lib. 8. cap. 35.
ft eVcn