516 Rev. Mr Wivx1ams on one Source of the 
covery, which will enable us to read them with perfect facility. 
They are evidently hymns, composed by priests, similar in cha- 
racter to the Curetes, Idei Dactyli, Telchines, Orphic initia- 
tors, and other such colleges, whose mission it was to communi- 
cate the blessings-of corn and wine, under religious and myste- 
rious sanctions, to those nations, which had not previously been 
made acquainted, with those main supports of civilized life. 
Among these names the Pelasgi occupy a conspicuous station, 
not, however, as teachers of the art of agriculture and vine-dress- 
ing, but as hewers of stone and builders of fortresses and cities. 
It would be most difficult to prove that they ever were a distinct 
nation, but it is clear that they belonged to that race, call them 
Trojans, Pelasgians, Thracians, Phrygians, or any other equiva- 
lent name, who sunk under the superior energies of the Achzan 
and Hellenic races. Prxascus, the patron saint or mythological 
representation of the Pelasgi, is described by Pausanzas,' as the 
person “ who first invented huts to defend mankind from the 
cold and rain.” Even Fynrs Cir toy, with all his judgment and 
sagacity, cannot press this PeLascus into the historical curricu- 
lum, without multiplying him into five distinct personages, a clear 
proof that there is not the slightest rational ground for clothing 
him at all with a real existence. That the Pelasgi were every- 
where to be found, is most true, in Asia, in Crete, in the other 
islands, in Thrace, Thessaly, Epirus, Peloponnesus, and Italy, but it 
is impossible to prove that they were a race distinct in blood from 
the other older inhabitants of those countries. The word, twist- 
ed as it has been by various attempts at etymology, seems a very 
simple compound of the two words =a, the old Macedonian* 
| Lib. 8. cap. 1. 
TheAaoyos 6c Bacirevous. Tovlo jwev roinonobus narupas ETEVONHEV, WS [LH “eryourres nok vecbus Fouc 
avbowsrous. 
2 See the Macedonian Glossary at the end of Steph. 'Thes. 
