390 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



Carpathos ; for even the maritime shore of Caria was called 

 Doria. 



Notwithstanding that polished Greece claimed to be in the 

 centre of the world, and assumed for itself the discovery of 

 almost every element of knowledge and civilization, it had a 

 secret pride in the pretence that the Cadmeans and Thebans 

 were colonies from Egypt; and it may be conceded, that in the 

 wanderings of the parent clans of those denominations, they 

 had been to the south so far, as to remain for a period in the 

 then unclaimed marshes of the Delia, or had resided some 

 time on the coast of Palestine or Syria, which was on many 

 occasions considered as a portion of Egypt. But on the banks 

 of the Nile no civil war, historically known, brought vanquished 

 fugitives to the north ; they fled to Abyssinia, or westward 

 towards Cyrene. No true Egyptian was ever known to travel 

 northward, though Greek students and philosophers constantly 

 went in search of knowledge to the regions of the Nile, or 

 eastward even to the Indus. The slight resemblance of the 

 Greek Theban rites with those of Egyptian Thebes was more 

 likely a consequence of Hellenic importation; and the Cad- 

 mean Python worship was derived from the same source as 

 the Colchian and the Celtic, that is, came direct from the east. 

 The alphabet was totally distinct, and the language of Cadmus, 

 if not Semitic, was allied to Sanscrit. 



The Pelasgi, more properly so called, had resided on the 

 coast of Asia Minor. If we take a Celto Scythic dialect to 

 have been in use among them, the tribal names of Cranai in 

 Hellas, as well as that of Cieropidse, might have reference to 

 their migratory life in boats, while the general appellation 

 may have indicated the character they assumed of heroes or 

 champions, it being alike traceable in the Pelhevi, Pelwan, and 

 the Celtic Pulvan, although, if the denomination had a more 

 Gothic root, the Pelasgi would merely denote skin-clad Asi, 

 nearly the same signification as that of Seeapush Kaufir, and 

 peltry-wearing heroes — a term in later ages applied to the 



