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Hieroglyphics of Horapollo, tr. Alexander Turner Cory, [1840], at sacred-texts.com

L. HOW A DISAPPEARANCE.

To denote a disappearance, they delineate a MOUSE 1, because

p. 72

it pollutes and spoils all things by nibbling them. They also make use of the same symbol when they would denote discernment, for when many different sorts of bread lie before him, the mouse selects the purest from among them and eats it. And hence the selection by the bakers is guided by mice.

Footnotes

71:1

No hieroglyphic of a mouse has yet been found. But Herodotus states, that when Sennacherib approached Egypt, the bowstrings of his army were destroyed by mice during the night, in consequence of which, he was defeated by Sethos, king of Egypt, to whom was erected a statue with a mouse in his hand, as an emblem of DESTRUCTION.

Next: LI. How Impudence