PHOSNIX. 355 



account we do not presume to answer. The facts lie 

 too remote ; and covered, as they are, with the mists 

 of antiquity, all further argument is suspended. 



" From the reign of Ptolemy to Tiberius, the 

 intermediate space is not quite two hundred and fifty 

 years. From that circumstance it has been inferred 

 by many that the last phcenix was neither of the 

 genuine kind, nor came from the woods of Arabia. 

 The instinctive qualities of the species were not ob- 

 served to direct its motions. It is the genius, we 

 are told, of the true phoenix, when its course of years 

 is finished, and the approach of death is felt, to build 

 a nest in its native clime, and there deposit the prin- 

 ciples of life, from which a new progeny arises. The 

 first care of the young bird, as soon as fledged and 

 able to trust to its wings, is to perform the obsequies 

 of his father. But this duty is not undertaken rashly. 

 He collects a quantity of myrrh, and to try his 

 strength, makes frequent excursions with a load on 

 his back. When he has made his experience through 

 a long tract of air, and gains sufficient confidence in 

 his own vigour, he takes up the body of his father, 

 and flies with it to the altar of the sun, where he 

 leaves it to be consumed in flames of fragrance. 

 Such is the account of this extraordinary bird. It 

 has, no doubt, a mixture of fable; but that the 

 phoenix from time to time appears in Egypt, seems 

 to be a fact sufficiently ascertained*. 3 ' 



After this statement we deem it superfluous to 

 quote writers of inferior note, such as Pomponius 

 Mela, who talks of its " being regenerated," and 

 " carrying its own bones to Heliopolisf ;" or Horus 

 Apollo, who says it " dashes itself on the ground till 

 it is wounded, and another phoenix is generated from 

 the blood thus shed}." Nor shall we detail all the 



* Tacitus, Hist, by Murphy, vi. 28. 

 t De Litu Orbis, iii. 9. J Hieroglyphicis, i. 33.; 



