DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1035#0282
244 ANIMALS. [Chap.V,
Animals.—Though the camel is not met with in
the sculptures or hieroglyphics, it is not the less
certain that this animal was known in Egypt,* from
the most remote period ; and we are informed that
they were among the presents made to Abraham by
the Egyptian monarch.f
Their cattle^ were numerous, of a short and long
horned breed, independent of the Indian or Ethio-
pian ox; and sheep, goats, swine, and even wild
goats and gazelles constituted their large herds.
But sheep were unlawful food to the inhabitants of
the Thebaid,§ goats were principally kept }| for their
milk,^[ and the flesh of swine was rarely eaten.
* Vide Genesis xi. 16. It is scarcely necessary to state that the
camel and dromedary are two varieties of the same species; and that
the one with two humps is not the dromedary but the Bactrian
camel. It is eaten by the Arabs, and its meat is very light and
good. It was forbidden to the Jews, as well as the hare. Levit. xi.
4,6. The "... aversus camelis" of Pliny is an error. Lib. x. 63.
t He was perhaps king Apappus or Aphoph. This word, in
Coptic, signifies " giant," and his name is translated " maximus."
% They marked their cattle with a hot iron.
§ Plutarch says, " the priests abstain from mutton and swine's
flesh." De Is. et Osir. s. 5. He adds, s. 72, " None of the
Egyptians, except the Lycopolites, eat sheep." They are not
seen in the sacrifices, or feasts of the tombs, and oxen and wild
animals are alone slaughtered in the Thebaid.
|| Though I do not find them slaughtered in the sculptures of
Thebes, I suppose they ate the meat of kids.
f It is considered a great disgrace among the Ababdeh and
people of Upper Ethiopia for women to milk goats or any animals;
and this prejudice is carried so far that I found some who were
nearly starving in the Ababdeh desert, and who would not even
then break through this rule. The men had gone to buy corn at
the Nile, and had it not been for our arrival, they would have
borne their sufferings much longer.
Animals.—Though the camel is not met with in
the sculptures or hieroglyphics, it is not the less
certain that this animal was known in Egypt,* from
the most remote period ; and we are informed that
they were among the presents made to Abraham by
the Egyptian monarch.f
Their cattle^ were numerous, of a short and long
horned breed, independent of the Indian or Ethio-
pian ox; and sheep, goats, swine, and even wild
goats and gazelles constituted their large herds.
But sheep were unlawful food to the inhabitants of
the Thebaid,§ goats were principally kept }| for their
milk,^[ and the flesh of swine was rarely eaten.
* Vide Genesis xi. 16. It is scarcely necessary to state that the
camel and dromedary are two varieties of the same species; and that
the one with two humps is not the dromedary but the Bactrian
camel. It is eaten by the Arabs, and its meat is very light and
good. It was forbidden to the Jews, as well as the hare. Levit. xi.
4,6. The "... aversus camelis" of Pliny is an error. Lib. x. 63.
t He was perhaps king Apappus or Aphoph. This word, in
Coptic, signifies " giant," and his name is translated " maximus."
% They marked their cattle with a hot iron.
§ Plutarch says, " the priests abstain from mutton and swine's
flesh." De Is. et Osir. s. 5. He adds, s. 72, " None of the
Egyptians, except the Lycopolites, eat sheep." They are not
seen in the sacrifices, or feasts of the tombs, and oxen and wild
animals are alone slaughtered in the Thebaid.
|| Though I do not find them slaughtered in the sculptures of
Thebes, I suppose they ate the meat of kids.
f It is considered a great disgrace among the Ababdeh and
people of Upper Ethiopia for women to milk goats or any animals;
and this prejudice is carried so far that I found some who were
nearly starving in the Ababdeh desert, and who would not even
then break through this rule. The men had gone to buy corn at
the Nile, and had it not been for our arrival, they would have
borne their sufferings much longer.