THE PHCENIX 3 



world. And he cometh to burn himself upon the altar of 

 the temple at the end of five hundred years, for so long 

 he liveth. At the end of that time the priests dress up 

 their altar, and put upon it spices and sulphur, and other 

 things that burn easily. Then the bird Phoenix cometh 

 and burneth himself to ashes. And the first day after 

 men find in the ashes a worm, and on the second day 

 they find a bird, alive and perfect, and on the third day 

 the bird flieth away. He hath a crest of feathers upon 

 his head larger than the peacock hath, his neck is yellow 

 and his beak is blue ; his wings are of purple colours, and 

 his tail yellow and red in stripes across. A fair bird he is 

 to look upon when you see him against the sun, for he 

 shineth full gloriously and nobly.' 



It is very hard to believe that the man who wrote 

 this had not actually seen this beautiful creature, he seems 

 to know it so well, and perhaps sometimes he really 

 fancied that one day it had dazzled his eyes as it darted 

 by. The Phoenix was a living bird to old travellers and 

 those to whom they told their stories, although they are 

 not quite agreed about its habits, or even about the 

 manner of its death. Sometimes, as we have seen, the 

 Phoenix has a father, sometimes there is only one bird. In 

 general it burns itself on a spice-covered altar ; but, 

 according to one writer, when its five hundred years of life 

 are over it dashes itself on the ground, and from its 

 blood a new bird is born. x\t first it is small and helpless, 

 like any other young thing; but soon its wings begin 

 to show, and in a few days they are strong enough to 

 carry the parent to the city of Heliopolis, where, at sun- 

 rise, it dies. The new Phoenix then flies back home, 

 where it builds a nest of sweet spices — cassia, spikenard 

 and cinnamon ; and the food that it loves is another spice, 

 drops of frankincense. 



b2 



