1 84 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



as quite surpass all description. In the front rank of 

 these is the Phoenix, that famous bird of Arabia ; though 

 I am not sure that its existence is not a fable. 



"It is said that there is only one in existence in the 

 whole world, and that that one has not been seen very 

 often. We are told that this bird is of the size of an 

 eagle, and has a brilliant golden plumage around the 

 neck, whilst the rest of the body is a purple colour ; 

 except the tail, which is azure, with long feathers inter- 

 mingled, of a roseate hue ; the throat is adorned with a 

 crest, and the head with a tuft of feathers. The first 

 Roman who described this bird, and who has done so 

 with great exactness, was the Senator Manilius, so 

 famous for his learning ; which he owed, too, to the 

 instructions of no teacher. He tells us that no person 

 has ever seen this bird eat, that in Arabia it is looked 

 upon as sacred to the Sun ; that it lives five hundred 

 and forty years. That when it is old it builds a nest 

 of Cassia and sprigs of incense, which it fills with per- 

 fumes, and then lays its body down upon them to die : 

 that from its bones and marrow there springs at first a 

 sort of small worm, which, in time, changes into a little 

 bird ; that the first thing it does is to perform the 

 obsequies of its predecessor, and to carry the nest entire 

 to the City of the Sun near Panchaia, and there deposit 

 it upon the altar of that divinity. 



"The same Manilius states also, that the revolution of 

 the great year is completed with the life of this bird, and 

 that then a new cycle comes round again with the same 

 characteristics as the former one, in the seasons and the 

 appearance of the stars ; and he says that this begins 

 about midday of the day in which the Sun enters the 

 sign of Aries. He also tells us that when he wrote to 



