There is a notable similarity in their
productions, partly known to Pliny (v. 8), who notices "the
calamus, the papyrus, and the animals" of the Nigris and the
Nile. The black-maned lion and the leopard rule the wold; the
gorilla, the chimpanzee, and other troglodytes affect the thinner
forests; the giraffe, the zebra, and vast hosts of antelopes
scour the plains; the turtle swims the seas; and the
hippopotamus, the crocodile, and various siluridae, some of
gigantic size, haunt the lakes and rivers. The nymphaea, lotus or
water-lily, forms rafts of verdure; and the stream-banks bear the
calabash, the palmyra, the oil-palm, and the papyrus. Until late
years it was supposed that the water-lily, sacred to Isis, had
been introduced into Egypt from India, where it is also a
venerated vegetable, and that it had died out with the form of
Fetishism which fostered it. It has simply disappeared like the
crocodile from the Lower Nile. Finally, to conclude this rapidly
outlined sketch, all at the present moment happily share the same
fate; they are being robbed of their last mysteries; the veil of
Isis is fast yielding to the white man's grasp.
We can hardly as yet answer the question whether the Congo was
known to the ancients.
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