The Phoenix -The Mermaid, or Siren. 617 



Virgil, in his eighth. Pastoral, mentions this animal as 

 if really existing, but does not give us any description of 

 it ; and Claudian, in his Epistle to Serena, alludes to ths 

 supposed fact of their keeping watch over masses of gold 

 in the bosom of northern mountains. 



THE PHCENIX. 



HERODOTUS, Pliny, and nearly sixty other classical authors, 

 have related marvellous stories of this bird, all of which 

 are of course fabulous. The Phoenix, they say, inhabits 

 the plains of Arabia, and is about the size of an eagle, 

 with gorgeous plumage of purple and gold. He is the 

 only one of his kind in the world. At the approach of 

 death, he builds himself a nest of aromatic herbs, and on 

 it yields up his life. From his marrow proceeds a worm, 

 which shortly becomes a young Phoenix, whose first duty 

 is to discharge the obsequies of his sire. For this pur- 

 pose he collects a quantity of myrrh, which he moulds 

 into the shape of an egg, as large as he can conveniently 

 carry, and then scooping it out, he deposits the body of 

 his sire in the inside. Having stopped it up again 

 with myrrh, he carries it to the Temple of the Sun in 

 Egypt, where he devoutly places it on the altar. This 

 is the only time that he is seen during his life, which 

 lasts five hundred years. According to others, after pre- 

 paring a funeral pile of rich herbs and spices, he burns 

 himself, but from his ashes revives in all the freshness 

 of youth. 



From late mythological researches it is conjectured 

 that the Phoenix is a symbol of five hundred years, of 

 which the conclusion was celebrated by a solemn sacri- 

 fice, in which the figure of a bird was burnt. His being 

 restored to youth signifies that the new springs from 

 the old. 



THE MERMAID, OR SIREN. 



THK existence of this animal, half a woman and half a 

 fish, has long been talked of, believed, disbelieved, and 

 doubted. Homer is the first who speaks of such beings, 



