Baboons, we have already shewn, were known to the Egyptians, and cannot well have escaped observation among the people of Palestine, since they resided close upon the great caravan-routes, which, as is well known, were frequented from the earliest antiquity by showmen exhibiting wild beasts. In Egypt, however, a baboon was the type.of some abstract power in nature or in meta physics ; as such the animal was idolized, and figures of a cynocephalus were invariably placed on the summit of weighing-scales, where they still appear on the monuments.
If there be truth, as the following authorities show, in the existence of a large ape or baboon in Yemen, and even in Mesopotamia, the untractable and brutal character of the whole genus would be sufficient to sanction the Arabic name Saadan, and the Hebrew 13411'.,, Sadim; which indicate the satyrs of the desert, noticed in Mr. Rich's Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon, p. 3o, where they are de nominated Sled Assad, and described as found in woody places near Sernana, on the Euphrates. Thus we.have the 1:1411,V, Sarin', or hairy ones' of Lev. xvii. 7, in accordance with Pliny, who conceived satyrs to be large apes. In the Prx nestine mosaic, before quoted, a baboon is figured which, we are assured, had the name CATYPOC, or Satyrus, by its side.* The only species of ape of the baboon form known in Arabia is the Mocko of Edwards, noticed in our illustrated series of drawings as Macacus Arabicus, a species nearly allied to Cynocephalus Hamadryas on the one hand, and to Mac. Silenus on the other—all tbree powerful, fierce, and libidinous animals. Mac. Ambicus may ultimately prove to be a true baboon, and the same as Simia cynomolgus of Hasselquist. It is a remarkable species for stature and aspect, having the dog-like nose and approximating eyes of baboons ; the skin of the face of a reddish colour ; the snout, lips, and chin black ; the fore head low, and the sides of the head funtished with bushy, long, white hair ; the breast, arms, and shoulders similarly covered, but the loins and lower extremities of a fine chestnut ; the tail of the same colour, of no great length, tufted at the end, and all the hands black. It is found from the straits of Bab
el-Mandeb, through Southern Arabia to the Eu phrates, and even beyond the junction of that river with the Tigris. Like otber large and formidable Simiaclw, it is less solicitous about the vicinity of trees, because it is armed with powerful canines ; holds its enemy firmly grasped, and fights, not singly, but assisted by the whole troop : it frequents scrubby underwood near water, but becomes more rare eastward of Yemen.-1- Comparing the chamc ters of this species, we find it by configuration, colours, and manners, peculiarly adapted to the pur poses of idolatry in its grossest and most debasing aspect. The Hebrew people, already familiar with a similar worship in Egypt, may have copied the native tribes in the wiklerness, and thus dmwn upon themselves the remonstance in Lev. xvii. 7, where the allusion to these animals is very de scriptive, as is that in Is. xiii. 21 ; and again, xxxiv. 14, where the image is perfect, when we pic ture to causelves the hairy ones' lurking abottt the river in the juniper and liquorice jungle, as described by Mr. Rich.
It is not unlikely that the baboon idol may have had goat's horns, since we find the same attribute on rams' heads in Egypt ; on lions' heads on coins of Tarsus and on horses' and elephants' heads on medals of'Syrian kings. The Greek mythologists, ignorant of the baboon figure, may have preferred an imaginary compound of man and goat to that of the cynocephalus, which they confounded with the hymna, or, in their love of ideal beauty, may have considered it too disgusting even for an idol. Perhaps tbe most ancient form of the Arabian Urolalt was that of a baboon, male or female, the name apparently having some reference to red, and to the Indian monkey-worship (see Gesner, v.
• Hymna'). Urolalt and monkey-worship are con nected with a solar mythus.—C. H. S.