tioning the existence of such a man as Anak, I think it not unlikely, that his name might be thus interpreted, and that the inhabitants of Tyre might claim kindred with their neighbours at Gaza. Titles as vain were often assumed by the Orientalists-Thus some called themselves Op-"sons of the East"-some more audaciously

sons of Amon, by * בני אמון sons of God, some * בני-אלהים

whom they probably meant the God of that name, without referring to their descent from Lot. Perhaps the true pronunciation of Beni-Anak is Beni-Oinak; and the euphonizing Greek would find Phornikes to be the nearest approach to the cacophonous barbarism that his tongue could utter. Still, however, we have not obtained the derivation of Φοίνιξ.

The Egyptians, from whom the Phoenicians seem to have obtained much of their knowledge, and from whom they probably sprang; the Egyptians, in following the usage of their own language, would frequently prefix the definite article before the naine of Anak, and would call him Phanak. ' But the same Egyptians could hardly fail to know from tradition the names of Henoch and Noach. It seems to me impossible to consider the rites performed in honour of Osiris and Adonis, or the fables told of those Gods, without seeing that they are founded upon the histories of the patriarchs. Now if the Egyptians preserved the names of Henoch and Noach, they would generally name them Phenoch, and Phinoach. The similarity of these names, and their resemblance to Phanak, might easily occasion them to be all finally mistaken for one.

The Egyptians, if they preserved any traditions of Henoch, must have remarked that he did not die, and that he abode on earth precisely as many years as there are days in the year-namely 365. Again, if they were acquainted with the history of Noach, they must have been aware, that the period from his birth to the time when he entered the ark, was 600 years, and that this period answered to the cycle called the Neros. These facts could scarcely fail to be embellished by such able mythological artificers as the Egyptians.

Their definite article was Pi, or Phi, or contracted P, or Ph. Thus they frequently wrote P'Ousiris, Pi-Or, and Pi-Amoun for Osiris or Ousiris, for Or (Horus) and for Amoun.

It is out of the traditions then, which remained to the Egyptians of the histories of Henoch and Noach, whose names were con founded with that of Anak, that I conceive the fables told of Phoenix, the son, or grandson, of Neptune, to have been formed. The palm-tree, having been chosen as a solar symbol, was named after Henoch or Phenoch, in whom the priests of Egypt recog nised the year personified; and the fabulous bird received, on a similar account, the same appellation.

There are several mythological persons who seem to me to have derived their imaginary existence from the histories of Henoch, Noach, and Anak, (or Phenoch, Phinoach, and Phanak,) confounded together and obscured by fables. Anax, the son of Coelus and Terra, was perhaps no other than Anak mistaken for the personitication of the solar orb. In Phanes, another symbol of the sun, we shall again, I think, meet with the same Anak, called Phanak by the Egyptians. Phoroneus, the son of Inachus, the son of Oceanus, seems to have had Noach for his prototype; and the same thing is probably true of Phineus, whose name is not very remote from Phinoach, since the guttural ch and the s, are, as Bochart would say, litteræ permutabiles. But the story of Phoenix, who, according to some, was the son of Neptune and Libya, who went with his brother Cadmus (p the East) in search of their sister Europa (727 the West), and who finally settled in Phoenicia, is clearly the work of the mythographers; nor can I doubt that this story was founded on some traditions concerning Noach, or Phinoach, confounded in Egyptian legend with Phenoch and Phanak. These persons were taken for the same; they were all considered as symbolical of the Sun; nor is it to be forgotten that the body of Osiris-Adonis was fabled to have been floated by the waves from the Nile to the shores of Phoenicia.

The primary meaning of Henoch () is commencement, initiation. The primary meaning of Noach, or Nuch, (3) is rest, quiet-From this last word there is a crowd of derivatives in the European languages both ancient and modern, nox, nacht, night. Noach entered the ark at the commencement of winter; and the deified Noach, the helio-arkite God of idolators, was always worshipped as Sol Inferus. Osiris, Adonis, Dionysus, Pluto, were types of the Winter Sun. They represented the God of light, when he left the world to night and darkness. And

who was Phoenix, unless a symbol of the same God, when those who derived their name from him confounded Noach, or Phinoach, with Anak, or Phanak,-the God who has gone to the realms. of night and rest, with the God who makes the circuit of the heavens? As Noach, or Phinoach came to be considered as the same with Nux or Nox, so was the fable of the personified Night blended with that of Phoenix. As Noach was the father of all men born since the flood, so Night was said to be the mother of all things produced since chaos. Again Erebus () the West, or the Evening, was the brother of Nox; and Europa (7) the West, or the Evening, was the sister of Phoenix. One of the names of Phoenix was 'Paßßubs, and this is an evident corruption of the oriental 127, or-rest, or quiet-a name consequently that seems to identify Noach or Phinoach with Phoenix. Thus was mythology built upon historical fact.

The patin-tree was assumed by the Phoenicians as the symbol of their nation. Perhaps it was the symbol of universal Syria; for the palm-tree is to be found on some medals that represent Judea.

That the Phoenicians should have honoured this tree, which they considered as a type of the year, and of the solar orb, with the name of Phoenix, cannot now appear extraordinary, if 1 be right in supposing that the son, or grandson, of Neptune, who bore the name of Point, was only one of the many fabulous representatives of Anak, Henoch, and Noach, whom the Egyptians would denominate Phanak, Phenoch and Phinoach, and whose names and histories appear to have been confounded together by those idolators who worshipped the host of heaven.

The bird, called also phoenix, owes its imaginary existence to the Egyptians. It was a type of renovation of the year, and of the Sun; and indeed its picture, which Herodotus more properly calls Ypaph, was a mere hieroglyphic. Horus-Apollo says, that the Egyptians depicted this bird, to denote-1st, the soul dwelling for a long period here-2ndly, an inundation-3dly, a traveller returning to his native country after a long absence-and 4thly, any lasting re-establishment, or period renewed. Concerning the 1st and 3nd of these similitudes he thus expresses himself. Yux ἐνταῦθα πολὺν χρόνον διατρίβουσαν γράψαι, ἢ πλημμύραν, φοίνικα τὸ ὄρνεον ζωγραφοῦσι. ψυχὴν μὲν ἐπειδὴ πάντων τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ πολυχρονιώτατον υπάρχει τοῦτο τὸ ζῶινε πλημμύραν δὲ ἐπειδὴ ἡλίου ἐστὶν ὁ

Φοίνιξ σύμβολον ο μηδέν ἐστι πλεῖον κατὰ τὸν κόσμον. Πάντων (lege πάντα) γὰρ ἐπιβαίνει καὶ πάντα ἐξερευνᾷ ὁ ἥλιος εἶθ' οὕτω πολὺς ὀνομασ θήσεται. - He says in the next page - Λέγεται γὰρ μᾶλλον τῶν ἄλλων page—Aéystaι, yàp ἀνθρώπων ἡλίῳ χαίρειν ὑπ ̓ Αἰγυπτίων διὸ καὶ τὸν Νεῖλον αὐτοῖς πλημμυρεῖν, ὑπὸ τῆς θερμότητος τούτου τοῦ θεοῦ, περὶ οὗ μικρὸν ἔμπροσθεν ὁ λόγος ánodolýαetai nap' hμv. i. e. “When the Egyptians wish to describe the soul lingering for a long time here, or an inundat on, they paint the bird called the phoenix. They thus typify the soul, because this animal exceeds all others in the world in length of life; and they represent an inundation by the phoenix, because it is the symbol of the sun, than which there is nothing greater in the world, for the sun ascends above all things, and scrutinizes all, and thus is denominated Polys (i. e. Multus)""It is said that the Egyptians rejoice more in the Sun than any other people, because the Nile is made to inundate their country by the heat of this God, the reason of which has been given by us a little before." Now all this seems "passing strange." A bird, which is the hieroglyphic for the soul lingering here, is also the hieroglyphic, for an inundation. And why? Because this bird is also the symbol of the Sun, the heat of which causes the Nile to inundate. Egypt. This singular statement may perhaps be accounted for, if the word phoenix be only a corruption from Noach, or Phinoach. It is scarcely possible to suppose, that the philosophers of Egypt attributed the annual inundation of the Nile to the ardour of the Sun's rays. Of all causes of this phænomenon, this is the very last that common sense would assign for it.. I cannot help, suspecting then, that the phoenix was the symbol of that great inundation, which once certainly took place. The renovation of nature after so terrible a catastrophe as the flood, would be well expressed by the phoenix, the symbol of renovation.

The Egyptians strangely confounded the names of their solar symbols with the names, of the Nile. Could this arise from their confusing the history of the deluge with the inundations of that river; and from their worshipping Noach, or Phinoach, under the name of Osiris, one of their principal solar symbols? The most ancient name of Egypt and of the Nile was D, Cham. In Coptic the word for the country is Chami, or Chemi. Diodorus calls the river 'Quáins which is clearly Ou-keme, or Qu-Cheme, the indefinite article ou being incorporated, as very frequently

happens, with the word. Another name of the Nile was Siris, which I cannot easily separate from Osiris; in fact I believe Osiris, to be Siris prefixed by the same article Ou. Here then it seems difficult not to recognise the similarity between the name of Cham, the son of Noach, and the names of Egypt and the Nile; while I need hardly hesitate to pronounce Osiris to be no other than the deified Noach. But Osiris was frequently represented with the head of a hawk. May not the Greeks have sometimes taken the phoenix for a hawk? (See especially Strabo 1. xvii. concerning the sacred hawk at Philæ.) The Nile received one of its names from a bird, which the Greeks understood to be an eagle; and they accordingly called the river 'Astó§.

The Phoenix was the symbol of the solar year, but more particularly of the great years, or cycles. It is surprising that so judicious a writer as Tacitus should have said, that the phoenix really had been occasionally seen in Egypt. He has, however, mentioned one tradition, of which I must take notice.

Speaking of the years which elapsed between each return of the phoenix, he says, sunt qui asseverent, mille quadringentos sexaginta unum interjici. This period then coincides with the Sothic year, which consisted of 1461 civil years, or 1460 solar years. But observe again. The smallest cycle of the Egyptians consisted of 4 years. The days in that period amount to 1460, and when the intercalated day of the leap year is added, the number amounts to 1461.

Solinus conveys some curious intelligence to us on this subject, though he himself comprehended nothing of the matter. Proba tum est dxk, eum (nempe phænicem) durare annis. Rogos suos struit cinnamis, quos prope Panchaiam concinnat, in solis urbem strue altaribus superposita. Cum hujus vita magni anni fieri conversionem rata fides est inter autores: licet plurimi eorum magnum annum non quingentis et quadraginia, sed duodecim mullibus nongentis quinquaginta' quátuor annis constare dicant.

Before we proceed to examine this passage, I wish to observe, that there seems some reason to believe, that the ancient Egyptians had discovered the period, in which the fixed stars make their total apparent revolution; or to speak exactly, in which the pole of the earth moves round the pole of the ecliptic. The Arabians at an early epoch, and long before astronomy was cultivated in