the cats, not taking any care to extinguish the fire, the cats slipping
through or leaping over the men, jump into the fire; and when this
happens, great mourning comes upon the Egyptians. And in whatever houses
a cat has died by a natural death, all those who dwell in this house
shave their eyebrows only, but those in which a dog has died shave their
whole body and also their head. The cats when they are dead are carried
away to sacred buildings in the city of Bubastis, where after being
embalmed they are buried; but the dogs they bury each people in their
own city in sacred tombs; and the ichneumons are buried just in the same
way as the dogs. The shrewmice however and the hawks they carry away to
the city of Buto, and the ibises to Hermopolis; the bears (which are not
commonly seen) and the wolves, not much larger in size than foxes, they
bury on the spot where they are found lying.

Of the crocodile the nature is as follows:--during the four most wintry
months this creature eats nothing: she has four feet and is an animal
belonging to the land and the water both; for she produces and hatches
eggs on the land, and the most part of the day she remains upon dry
land, but the whole of the night in the river, for the water in truth
is warmer than the unclouded open air and the dew. Of all the mortal
creatures of which we have knowledge this grows to the greatest bulk
from the smallest beginning; for the eggs which she produces are not
much larger than those of geese and the newly-hatched young one is in
proportion to the egg, but as he grows he becomes as much as seventeen
cubits long and sometimes yet larger. He has eyes like those of a pig
and teeth large and tusky, in proportion to the size of his body; but
unlike all other beasts he grows no tongue, neither does he move his
lower jaw, but brings the upper jaw towards the lower, being in this too
unlike all other beasts. He has moreover strong claws and a scaly hide
upon his back which cannot be pierced; and he is blind in the water, but