Chap. 2.J THE PHCENIX. 479 



throwing 5 at those who pursue them. They have the marvel- 

 lous property of being able to digest 6 every substance without 

 distinction, but their stupidity 7 is no less remarkable; for al- 

 though the rest of their body is so large, they imagine, when 

 they have thrust their head and neck into a bush, that the wholo 

 of the body is concealed. Their eggs 8 are prized on account 

 of their large size, and are employed as vessels for certain pur- 

 poses, while the feathers of the wing and tail are used as orna- 

 ments for the crest and helmet of the warrior. 



CHAP. 2. (2.) THE PBXEJUX. 



.^Ethiopia and India, more especially, produce 9 birds of diver- 

 sified plumage, and such as quite surpass all description. In 

 the front rank of these is the phoenix, 10 that famous bird of 



5 Father Lobo, in his account of Abyssinia, says that when the ostrich 

 is running at great speed, it throws the stones behind with such violence, 

 that they would almost seem to be thrown at those in pursuit. 



6 An ostrich, Cuvier says, will swallow anything, but it is by no means 

 able to digest everything. He says, that he has seen ostriches with the 

 stomach ruptured by nails which they have swallowed, or dreadfully torn 

 by pieces of glass. 



7 It has been remarked by Diodorus Siculus, B. ii., that so far from dis- 

 playing stupidity in acting thus, it adopts a wise precaution, its head being 

 its most weak and defenceless part. 



8 Cuvier states that its egg is equal to twenty-four to twenty-eight 

 fowls' eggs, and that he had frequently eaten of them, and found them very 

 delicate. 



9 " Ferunt." With regard to this verb, Cuvier remarks, that it is equi- 

 vocal ; and that it is very possible that the writer intends to say, not that 

 India and ^Ethiopia produce these marvellous birds, but that the people of 

 those countries report or relate marvellous stones touching those birds. It 

 is clear that he does not believe in the existence of the phoenix. 



10 Cuvier remarks, that all these relations are neither more nor less than 

 so many absurd fkbles or pure allegories, but that the description given is 

 exactly that of a bird which does exist, the golden pheasant, namely. The 

 description given is probably tclken from the pretended phoenix that Pliny 

 mentions as having been brought to Rome in the reign of Claudius* It is 

 not improbable, he thinks, that this may have been a golden pheasant, 

 brought from the interior of Asia, when the pursuits of commerce had as 

 yet hardly extended so far, and to which those who showed it gave, most 

 probably, the name of the phoenix. Ajasson is of opinion, that under the 

 story of the phoenix an allegory was concealed, and thinks it may not im- 

 probably have been employed to pourtray the doctrine of the immortality 

 of the soul. Bailly, Hist, de r Astronomic, thinks that it bore reference to 

 the great canicular year of the Egyptians. 



