Chap. V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 147 



Such a thing happened in Laconia, where the body of Oreftes was 

 difcovered, and found to be of length feven cubits, that is, ten feet 

 and a half. The IXory is moR pleafantly told by Herodotus, and 

 is to this efFed : 



The Lacedemonians were engaged in a war with the Tegeatae, a 

 people of Arcadia, in which they were unfuccefsful. They con- 

 fulted the Oracle at Delphi, What they fhould do, in order to be 

 more fuccefsful ? The Oracle anfwered, That they muft bring to 

 Sparta the bones of Oreftes, the fon of Agamemnon. But thefe bones 

 they could not find ; aud therefore they fent again to the Oracle to 

 inquire where Oreftes lay buried. The God anfwered in hexameter 

 verfe, butfo obfcurely, and enigmatically, that they could not under- 

 ftand what he meant. They went about inquiring every where for the 

 bones of Oreftes, till, at laft, a wife man among them, called by Hero- 

 dotus Liches^ found them out, partly by good fortune, and partly by 

 good undcrftanding ; for, happening to come one day to a finlth's fhop, 

 in the country of the Tegeatae, with whom at that time there w^as a 

 truce and intercourfe betwixt the two nations, he looked at the opera- 

 tions ofthefraith, and feemed to admire them very much ; which the 

 fmith obferving, ftopped his work, and, 'Stranger,' fays he, * you, that 

 ' feem to admire fo much the working of iron, would have wonder- 



* ed much more if you had feen w^hat I faw lately ; for, as I was 

 ' digging for a well in this court here, I fell upon a coffin that was 



* feven cubits long ; but, believing that there never were, at any 



* time, bigger men than the prefent, I opened the coffin, and 



* found there a dead body as long as the coffin ; which having mea- 



* fured I again buried.' Hearing this, the Spartan conjedured that the 

 words of the Oracle would apply to a fmith*s Ihop, and to the ope- 

 rations there performed ; bii% taking care not to make this difcovery 

 to the fmith, he prevniied on him, with much difficulty, to give him 

 a leafe of the court ; waicli hiving obtained, he opened the coffin, 



T 2 and 



