$66 T A M E S W A N. Class II. 



Thefe birds were by the ancients confecrated tp 

 Apollo and the Mufes ; 



Mou<ra$ $Ef<x7TEUEt. Enrip. fyhig. in Tanr. lin. 1 1 04. 



And CaUimachiiSj in his hymn upon the ifland of 

 Delos, is dill more particular : 



• K.uxvoi 3e Seou (jle"K7tovIe; wmoi 



Mwcviov vraKTuXcv EKvy^aaavro Kittovtes 

 JLGdopaKis TTEfi AyXov, ZTtweav $t *0%£W 

 Mcucrauv c^vxS-sj, aci^crarai tteteyivxv. 

 EvSev Traig Toacra^E KugY) Evzovaaro %o$a', 

 T^TEfQV) oaaani xmvoi ett codivEcrcnv aziaav : 

 Oydbcv hk et asvrav, o'ek^ev. 



— When from Pafiolus* golden banks 



Apollo's tuneful fongfters, fnovvy fwans 



Steering their flight, feven times their circling Courfe 



Wheel round the ifland, caroling mean time 



Soft melody, the favourites of the Nine, 



Thus ufhering to birth with dulcet founds 



The God of harmony, and hence fev'n firings 



Hereafter to his golden lyre he gave, 



Por ere the eighth foft concert was begun 



He fprung to birth. Bod's Callbnachus, p. \\$. 



Upon this idea of their being peculiarly confecrated 

 to Apollo and the Mufes, (the deities of harmony) 

 feems to have been ingrafted, the notion the an- 

 tien:s had of fwans being; endowed with a mufical 

 voice. Tho' this might be one reafon ' for the fa- 

 ble j yet, to us there appears another (till ftronger, 



which 



