PHOENIX. 357 



the appearance of a bird alighting on the altar must 

 have obviously arisen from some eagle or vulture 

 pouncing upon the carcase of the animal sacrificed, 

 a circumstance, we should imagine, of occasional 

 occurrence when altars were situated in the open air, 

 and which, in Greece or Rome, instead of the bird 

 being considered a phoenix, would have been hailed 

 as an avatar (if we may borrow the Brahminical 

 term) of Jupiter himself. That such were the cir- 

 cumstances which, in process of time, were worked 

 up into the fabulous and fanciful stories of the 

 phoenix we have not a doubt; and it appears to us 

 that this is the only plausible and rational explanation 

 which can be given, though a vast deal of learning 

 and no little ingenuity has been expended in support 

 of other views. 



Deusing*, for example, as well as Kirchmayerf 

 and Laurenberg J, concludes that the phoenix was 

 nothing else than a hieroglyphic character, signifying 

 that the study and knowledge of the heavenly bodies 

 originated in Phoenicia, the golden colour of the head 

 denoting the stars, and the variegated body the 

 earth, and so of the other parts. In the Introduction, 

 again, to the Latin Translation of Pennant's Indian 

 Zoology, by the late Dr. Rheinhold Forster, we 

 are gravely told that the phoenix means the con- 

 version of the great year; because Pliny says the 

 conversion of the great year corresponds with the life 

 of the phoenix ; and Horapollo says the Egyptian 

 priests paint the phoenix as an emblem of the great 

 year. The author, therefore, concludes by saying, 

 " Every common year is a year of God ; and the 

 great year the sun of time, which, in the Egyptian 

 language, would be Dsphenoeisch, and, on accoupt 



* Dissertatio de Phoenice. t Disputat. Zoologies, 



J Acerra, Philol. Cent. Secund, Hist. xvii. 



