foags | 
In confequence of the ftriking refemblance between this cuftom 
and that of Metelin, I ufed my beft endeavours to find out 
fome authority for the peopling this ifland from Lycia, but could 
trace no fuch origin. The inhabitants of Lefbos were Aolians, 
and, let us go back ever fo far, we can only find that the ifland 
had, in times of the higheft antiquity, been colonized by the 
Pelafgi. However, if we may fuppofe that this ufage fubfifted 
among the Lycians fo late as in the times of Nicolaus Damaf- 
cenus and of Plutarch, that is to fay in the reign of Auguftus, 
and in thofe of Trajan and of Adrian; and, fince from the filence 
of ancient writers upon this point, and more efpecially from the 
negative authority of Herodotus, who exprefsly fays that in this 
inftance the Lyciams agree with no other race of men, we have 
fome reafon to believe that it may not be of very ancient ftanding 
in Lefbos, there is no impoffibility in the fuppofition that in 
the latter ages fome colony may have pafled over from Lycia 
into Metelin, and may have there eftablifhed this extraordinary 
cuftom, a fa& of which the deficiency of hiftorians in thofe times 
may have left us ignorant. 
Wirt this flimfy conje@ure I was compelled. to content myfelf, 
and, though by no means fatisfied, had well nigh given up the 
point, when, happening one day to turn over Diodorus Siculus 
for fome other purpofe, I fortunately, but accidentally, met with 
a paflage which had hitherto efcaped all my painful refearches, 
and which I read with a degree of pleafure only to be conceived 
by my antiquarian brethren. It feems that thofe Pelafgi, who 
under their leader Xanthus, the fon of Triopas king of Argos, 
firft 
