may, I think, be proved from Martianus Capella;
and, moreover, that it was a seminary well known, where the youth of Upper
Egypt were educated. For, in describing the sciences, under different
personages, he gives this remarkable account of Dialectica upon introducing
her before his audience. [57]Haec se educatam dicebat in _AEgyptiorum Rupe;_
atque in Parmenidis exinde gymnasium, atque Atticam demeasse. And Johannes
Sarisburiensis seems to intimate that Parmenides obtained his knowledge
from the same quarter, when he mentions [58]"_in Rupe_ vitam egisse. In
this short detail we have no unpleasing account of the birth of science in
Egypt, and of its progress thence to Attica. It is plain that this Rupes
AEgyptiaca could be nothing else but a seminary, either the same, or at
least similar to that, which I have before been describing. As the
Cunocephali are said to have been sacred to Hermes, this college and temple
were probably in the nome of Hermopolis. Hermes was the patron of Science,
and particularly styled Cahen, or [59]Canis: and the Cunocephali are said
to have been worshipped by the people of that [60]place. They were
certainly there reverenced: and this history points out very plainly the
particular spot alluded to. Hermopolis was in the upper region styled
Thebais: and there was in this district a tower, such as has been
[61]mentioned. It was in aftertimes made use of for a repository, where
they laid up the tribute. This may have been the Rupes AEgyptiaca, so famed
of old for science; and which was the seat of the Chancephalim, or
Cunocephalians.

It is said of the Cunocephali, that when one part was dead and buried, the
other still survived. This can relate to nothing else but a society, or
body politic, where there is a continual decrement, yet part still remains;
and the whole is kept up by succession. It is an enigma, which particularly
relates to the priesthood in Egypt: for the sacred office there was
hereditary, being vested in certain families; and when part was dead, a
residue still [62]survived, who admitted others in the room of the
deceased. [63][Greek: Epean de tis apothanei, toutou ho pais
antikatistatai.] The sons, we find, supplied the place of their fathers:
hence the body itself never became extinct, being kept up by a regular
succession. As to the Cunocephali giving to Hermes the first hint of
dividing the day into twelve parts from the exactness, which was observed
in their [64]evacuations,