The histories of Herodotus;

66-68] CUSTOMS OF THE EGYPTIANS 109
numerous were it not for the following accidents which befall
the females have littered, they no longer seek
the cats : When
the company of the males, and they, being desirous of having
intercourse with them, are not able to do so ; wherefore they
have recourse to the following artifice: having taken the
young from the females, and carried them away secretly, they
kill them; though when they have killed them they do not
eat them. The females being deprived of their young, and
desirous of others, again seek the company of the males ; for
this animal is very fond of its young. When a conflagration >
takes place, a supernatural impulse seizes on the cats. For
the Egyptians, standing at a distance, take care of the cats,
and neglect to put out the fire; but the cats, making their
escape, and leaping over the men, throw themselves into the
fire; and when this happens great lamentations are made
among the Egyptians. In whatever house a cat dies of a natural
death, all the family shave their eyebrows only; but if a
dog die, they shave the whole body and the .head. All cats
that die are carried to certain sacred houses, where, being
first embalmed, they are buried in the city of Bubastis. All
persons bury their dogs in sacred vaults within their own city
and ichneumons are buried in the same manner as the dogs
but field-mice and hawks they carry to the city of Buto; the
ibis to Hermopolis ; the bears, which are few in number, and
the wolves, which are not much larger than foxes, they bury
wherever they are found lying.
The following is the nature of the crocodile : During the
four coldest months it eats nothing, and though it has four
feet, it is amphibious. It lays its eggs on land, and there
hatches them. It spends the greater part of the day on the
dry ground, but the whole night in the river ; for the water
is then warmer than the air and dew. Of all living things
with which we are acquainted, this, from the least beginning,
grows to be the largest. For it lays eggs little larger than
those of a goose, and the young is at first in proportion to
the egg ; but when grown up it reaches to the length of seventeen
cubits, and even more. It has the eyes of a pig, large
teeth, and projecting tusks, in proportion to the body: it is
the only animal that has no tongue : it does not move the
lower jaw, but is the only animal that brings down its upper
jaw to the under one. It has strong claws, and a skin covered
with scales, that can not be broken on the back. It is blind
in the water, but very quick-sighted on land ; and because it
lives for the most part in the water, its mouth is filled with
leeches. All other birds and beasts avoid him, but he is at
; :
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