Both the _Phagrus_ and the Crocodile possessed foreknowledge as to the rise of the river, the first as to time, the latter as to extent, for “in what place soever the female lays her eggs, that may be concluded to be the utmost extent to which the Nile will spread that year.”[852] Blackman[853] praises the art of a scene, as (although the crocodile is but roughly blocked out) one ranking with the finest specimens of ancient Egyptian bas-reliefs: “not even the Old Kingdom mastabas at Sakhara can produce anything to surpass it for vigour and beauty of technique.”[854] FOOTNOTES: [833] Ahmed Bey Kamal, _Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte_, 1908, IX. 23 f., Pl. 1. [834] _Actes du IV^e Congrès International d’Histoire des Religions_, 1913, p. 97 f. [835] II. 72. [836] For a description, not a _definition_ of Totemism, see Robertson Smith, _loc. cit._, or J. G. Frazer’s four volumes on _Totemism and Exogamy_. The _Oxford Dictionary_ for once is not very helpful in, “Totemism, the use of Totems, with a clan division, and the social, marriage, and religious customs connected with it.” [837] _Op. cit._, p. 37. [838] The Mormyri, which number some 100 species, are peculiar to Africa. [839] _De Iside et Osiride_, 18. [840] Plut., 8. [841] _N. H._, X. 46. [842] The _Mormyri_, to which the _Oxyrhynchus_ belongs, figure on the walls, and in bronzes, _O. kannum_ and _O. caschive_ being most frequent; but the _Bana_ (_Petrociphalus bane_) and _Grathonemus aprinoides_ also occur. The best delineations are found in the tombs of Ti and of Gizeh.—G. A. Boulenger, _Fishes of the Nile_, London, 1907. [843] Plut., _Ibid._, ch. 72. [844] The banishment is disputed by Franke and others. Cf., however, _Sat._, XV. 45. “Aegyptus, sed luxuria, _quantum ipse notavi_.” [845] From Gifford’s _Translation_. [846] Cf. Athenæus, VII. 55, for the jests of Antiphanes, etc. [847] _N. H._, X. 19. [848] _Op. cit._, 7. [849] Plato bears witness to the skill of the Egyptians in taming fish, and animals, even the shy wild gazelle. _Polit._ 532. [850] Herodotus, II. 69, 70. _Rawlinson’s Trans._ [851] The story of the _trochilus_, with which alone out of all birds and beasts our author states the crocodile lives in amity, because the little bird enters its mouth (when on land) and frees it from myriads of devouring leeches, is too well known for reference, were it not for the dispute (_a_) as to whether the bird—_Pluvianus egyptius_—performs any service except uttering a shrill cry on the approach of man and thus warning the crocodile, and (_b_) whether for leeches, we should not substitute gnats. Cf. W. Houghton, _N. H. of the Ancients_ (London), pp. 238-244. The account of the connection between the bird and the beast given by Plutarch is far prettier and more spirited than that of Herodotus.