PHCENIX. 359 



multitude of forms. The word phoenix, for in- 

 stance, from signifying 1 a palm-tree, as well as the 

 fabulous bird, has given rise to some strange mis- 

 takes. Thus Tertullian translates, " The righteous 

 shall flourish like the palm-tree *," by " The just 

 shall flourish like the phcenix ;" and Dr. Poole, fol- 

 lowing Amyot in translating Plutarch, uses these 

 words : " Though the brain of the phcenixf be very 

 sweet, it will cause the headache J;' ; as if the brains 

 of the phoenix were a no less common dish than the 

 pith of the buds of the palm-tree, called the brain 

 (cerebmm) by Pliny, are in the south of Europe, 

 where they are served up with pepper and salt as a 

 dessert . It was a more plausible notion of Belon, 

 (who went to the East, partly on purpose to ascertain 

 the matter,) that the phoenix was one of the birds of 

 paradise (Paradisea), the Rhyntaces of Aristotle, 

 who describes it in the old erroneous way as wanting 

 legs, and using the long feathers of its tail to suspend 

 itself from trees. The first Portuguese navigators 

 also called the bird of paradise the bird of the sun 

 (Passaros da so/). 



The only plausible and rational view, as it appears 

 to us, of the history of the phoenix, is well illustrated 

 by what has been recorded of the birds of prey in the 

 country where this fabulous bird is said to have ex- 

 clusively appeared. Bruce, for example, gives the 

 following account of the bird which he met with near 

 Gondar,and which the Abyssinians call Abou Duch'n, 

 or father long-beard (Gypaetos barbatus ? STORR). 

 <: This noble bird," says he, " was not the object of 

 any chase or pursuit, nor stood in need of any strata- 

 gem to bring him within our reach. Upon the 



* Psalm xcii. 12. 



f The original is rov iyjuQa^ov rov Qoivixog. 



J Rules for the Preservation of Health, edit. 1684, 



Matheolius" Comment, on Dioscorides. 



