There are eighteen to twenty species of the Ibis, of which three only merit our attention. These are the Sacred Ibis, the Green Ibis, and the Scarlet Ibis.
The Sacred Ibis (Ibis religiosa) is about the size of a Fowl. Its plumage is white, with black at the extremity of the wings and on the rump. It has enjoyed celebrity from ancient times, on account of the veneration of which it was the object by the Egyptians. They set it up in their temples as a divinity, and allowed it to multiply in their cities to such an extent that, if we can believe Herodotus and Strabo, it actually impeded the traffic. Whoever killed an Ibis, even by accident, at once became the victim of a mad crowd, who stoned him pitilessly; and the dead bird was embalmed with the greatest care, and then placed in earthen pots hermetically sealed, which were ranged in special catacombs. A large number of mummies of the Ibis have been found in the nécropoles of Thebes and Memphis, and several specimens of them are to be seen in the Museum of Natural History at Paris.
Fig. 135.—Sacred Ibis (Ibis religiosa, Cuv.).
The Egyptian worship of the Ibis is a certain and incontestable fact. Less certain, however, is the origin of these honours. Herodotus has given an explanation, obscure enough, it is true, but which, however, was adopted by his successors, and for a long time accepted by our savants.
"The Arabians assure us," says Herodotus, "that the great veneration which the Egyptians render to the Ibis is caused by the gratitude which they feel towards them for ridding the country of winged serpents."
According to tradition, these "winged serpents" came into Egypt from Arabia at the commencement of spring. They always followed the same route, and invariably passed through a certain defile, where the Ibis waited for them and destroyed them. Herodotus adds that, having gone to Arabia to obtain some certain information about these "winged serpents," he saw, lying on the ground near the city of Buto, "an immense quantity of bones and vertebræ unmistakably those of the winged plagues."
Since the time of Herodotus, a great many authors, probably on his authority, have reproduced this fable, and enriched it with variations more or less fanciful. Cicero, Pomponius Mela, Solinus, Ammianus, and Ælian have mentioned it. According to the last writer, the Ibis inspired the serpents with so much dread, that the very sight of its plumage was sufficient to drive them away, and a mere touch killed them at once, or at least stupefied them.
Let it suffice that all these naturalists admit that the Egyptians venerated the Ibis for the service which it rendered by destroying numbers of venomous serpents. In the narrative of Herodotus, as we have seen, the expression "winged serpents" is used for venomous ones. The translation is rather a free one, it must be confessed. Moreover, it is the opinion of M. Bourlet, who has written a memoir on the subject, that by the term "winged serpents" Herodotus intended to describe locusts, innumerable swarms of which were wont to traverse Egypt and the adjacent countries, destroying everything as they pass. This explanation appears to us better than the former, for it is a fact that the Ibis cannot attack serpents, its bill being too weak for such a purpose.
Having quoted M. Bourlet's opinion, we may as well give that of Savigny, the naturalist, whose studies on the subject have been published in the "Histoire Mythologique de l'Ibis."