DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3720#0094
EGGS HATCHED ARTIFICIALLY. 77
vaunted love of the horse, where is that animal treated as at an
Arah's tent? "We are proud, of our horses, rather than fond
of them. A man shows the hunters that have carried him,
more impressed with their worth and excellence than with a
feeling of attachment to them. Few horses indeed know and
welcome their masters as they do in the Eas^t; and if the master
were to use that constant kindness which endears him to the
animal, his groom would scarcely fail to counteract the unusual
interference by vulgar violence.
Not only was the artificial hatching of eggs an invention of the
ancient Egyptians, but the treatment of sick animals is among
the subjects of their paintings, executed nearly 4000 years ago ;
and Cuvier found incontestable proof that the fractured bone
of an ibis had been set by them, while the bird was still alive.
Their cattle grazed in the fields ; and, when the inundation
was rising, great care was required lest, being left too long, a
sudden increase of the water might endanger their safety,
particularly in the low lands and in the Delta. This last
afforded the chief grazing country long before a part of it,
"the land of Goshen," was mentioned as the best place for
cattle; as it did when that district received the later name of
Bucolia; and as it does at the present day. Rescuing the
cattle from the water on those occasions is one of the subjects
represented at Beni Hassan ;* and the same scene is often now
witnessed in the Delta during the high Nile. "When intended
to be fattened, the cattle were taken up and fed in stalls,—a
custom which the mention of the "fatted calf" and the
' stalled ox " shows to have been common also with the Jews.
They consisted of several varieties, as in those modern countries
where the rearing of cattle has long been attended to; the
* See P. A. of Ancient Egj'ptians, vol. ii. p. C, 7 (woodcut 357, and
vignette), at the Lead of chapter viii.
vaunted love of the horse, where is that animal treated as at an
Arah's tent? "We are proud, of our horses, rather than fond
of them. A man shows the hunters that have carried him,
more impressed with their worth and excellence than with a
feeling of attachment to them. Few horses indeed know and
welcome their masters as they do in the Eas^t; and if the master
were to use that constant kindness which endears him to the
animal, his groom would scarcely fail to counteract the unusual
interference by vulgar violence.
Not only was the artificial hatching of eggs an invention of the
ancient Egyptians, but the treatment of sick animals is among
the subjects of their paintings, executed nearly 4000 years ago ;
and Cuvier found incontestable proof that the fractured bone
of an ibis had been set by them, while the bird was still alive.
Their cattle grazed in the fields ; and, when the inundation
was rising, great care was required lest, being left too long, a
sudden increase of the water might endanger their safety,
particularly in the low lands and in the Delta. This last
afforded the chief grazing country long before a part of it,
"the land of Goshen," was mentioned as the best place for
cattle; as it did when that district received the later name of
Bucolia; and as it does at the present day. Rescuing the
cattle from the water on those occasions is one of the subjects
represented at Beni Hassan ;* and the same scene is often now
witnessed in the Delta during the high Nile. "When intended
to be fattened, the cattle were taken up and fed in stalls,—a
custom which the mention of the "fatted calf" and the
' stalled ox " shows to have been common also with the Jews.
They consisted of several varieties, as in those modern countries
where the rearing of cattle has long been attended to; the
* See P. A. of Ancient Egj'ptians, vol. ii. p. C, 7 (woodcut 357, and
vignette), at the Lead of chapter viii.