2 THE PHOENIX 



else that its song was ' more beautiful than that of 

 any other bird,' and that it was ' a very king of the 

 feathered tribes, who followed it in fear, while it flew 

 swiftly along, rejoicing as a bull in its strength.' Flash- 

 ing its brilliant plumage in the sun, it went its way till it 



THE 1'HUiMX 



reached the town of Heliopolis. ' In that city,' says 

 another writer, whose account is not quite the same as the 

 story told by the first—-' in that city there is a temple 

 made round, after the shape of the Temple at Jerusalem. 

 The priests of that temple date their writings from the 

 visits of the Phoenix, of which there is but one in all the 



