In no other land of the ancient world does the worship of the Cow play so important a part as in Egypt. The representations and inscriptions on the oldest monuments already contain copious references to the sacred Cow; but it is only from the monuments of later periods that scientific enquiry is first supplied with clearer information as to the origin of this worship and its connection with a goddess of the Egyptian Olympus of learned investigation. The following account, founded on mounmental records, comprises in one view everything that relates to the origin of this worship, and that is calculated to throw light on the nature of this peculiar veneration for the cow.

In the oldest representations, relating to the creation of the world, the cow, coming forth out of the primeval waters, appears on the territory of the Hermopolite nome in Upper Egypt as the mother of the young Sun-god. Clinging to the horns of his parent, the young god kindles the light of day, and the life of all creatures begins with him.

I have already shown that the site of the second city must have been deserted for a long time before it was again built upon. The new settlers began, as M. Burnouf remarks, “with levelling the débris upon the ruins of the Second City: they filled the cavities and ravines with stones and other material, in many places only with ashes or clay, interlaid with clay cakes (galettes).”

The great wall c on the view No. 144, which their predecessors had built on the south side, did not appear strong enough to them, because it sloped at an angle of 45°, and could, consequently, be very easily scaled. They therefore built just before it, on the south side, the large wall marked b on No. 144, which slopes to the south at an angle of 15° from the vertical line, whilst on the north side, where it faces the old wall c, it was built up vertically. In this manner there was formed between the two walls a great triangular hollow, which was filled up with earth. My excavations in this hollow have proved that it is pure earth, without any intermixture of débris. But, like the wall c, this second wall b does not consist altogether of solid masonry.

The Troad belongs in a botanical point of view to the least known countries of Asia-Minor. Though this country has been visited or wandered through by several of the most renowned botanical travellers, such as Forskål (1761) and Dumont d'Urville (1819), who merely visited the island of Tenedos, Olivier (1794 and 1798), Sibthorp (1794?), Barker Webb and Parolini (1819), Aucher-Eloy and Gust. Coquebert de Montbret (1833), who explored the Troad proper, yet these explorations did not lead to detailed communications on the plants of the regions visited, because some of the travellers named visited the Troad in an unfavourable season, midsummer or autumn, whilst others did not publish anything on their collections, of which only some species have here and there become known. At least as much, therefore, as to the botanists by profession, if indeed not more, are we indebted for our knowledge of the Trojan flora to travellers, who besides their principal archaeological, geological, or geographical objects of study, paid also attention to the ever-attractive children of Flora; such were Clarke (1801), Tchihatcheff (1849), Julius Schmidt (1864), and Rudolf Virchow (1879); supplementary information has also been received from Frank Calvert (1879 and 1880). The collections of the three last-named explorers are for the most part given here for the first time (that of J. Schmidt according to the communications of Th. von Heldreich).

The first mention of Thymbra is by Homer. Dolon, when he details to Ulysses the position of the Trojan army outside of Troy, places the Carians, Paeonians, Leleges, Caucones, and Pelasgi, towards the sea; the Lycians, Mysians, Phrygians, and Maeonians, towards Thymbra. This allocation, though it does not establish the geographical position of Thymbra, yet, taken with the more precise information given by Demetrius of Scepsis, is of value; it evidences that a direction opposite to the sea, that is, inland, was intended by the poet. The more modern author places the temple of Apollo Thymbraeus at fifty stadia from Ilium (Novum), at the junction of the river Thymbrius with the Seamander. Thymbra was identified by Hobhouse with Akshi Kioi (the present Thymbra Farm), and Barker Webb recognized the Thymbrius in the Kemar Su. My researches have led to the discovery of another ancient site at Hanaï Tepeh, separated from that of Akshi Kioi by an interval of about five hundred yards (see Map, No. 1538). At Akshi Kioi the remains are of later date than at Hanaï Tepeh. The Homeric site of Thymbra would appear not to be identical with the later town and temple of the Thymbrean Apollo of Demetrius; and subsequent ancient authors appear to have transferred it to Akshi Kioi from Hanaï Tepeh.