On the Ancient HELLENES. 137 



teral tranflation of it. " But the nation of the Hellenes, fince 

 " ever it exifted, continues, as far as to me appears, to ufe the 

 " fame language ; being a branch cut off from the Pelafgic 

 " (lock, and weak and inconfiderable at the firft, in a fhort 

 " time it increafed into a multitude of people ; vaft numbers of 

 " the neighbouring nations in particular, and multitudes of other 

 " barbarians in general, having joined it, as I imagine to have 

 " been the cafe." According to this detail, the Hellenes were 

 fprung from the Pelafgic flock, and were not fo called from the' 

 fabulous Hellen. Nor is it furprifing that Herodotus 

 fhould imagine, that thefe Hellenes were of Pelafgic extraction, 

 when it is confidered, that they lived among thofe people from 

 the time of their firft arrival in thofe parts, and were conftant- 

 ly under their patronage and protection. 



Having thus endeavoured to prove, that the Hellenes of* 

 ThefTaly were a colony of emigrants from the Helli or Selli of 

 Epire, in the neighbourhood of Dodona, let us try if we can- 

 not difcover who thefe people were, and from what country 

 they emigrated, when they came to fettle in thofe parts. We 

 have already feen, that they were the minifters of the temple of 

 Jupiter Dodoneus, and that they were an auftere, afcetic, felf- 

 denied race of men. The origin of the temple of Jupiter at 

 Dodona is accurately defcribed by Herodotus *. Its vocal 

 oaks, prophetic doves, and tinkling kettles, have been minutely 

 explained by a great variety of writers, both ancient and mo- 

 dern. It was fituated in Chaonia f , a fmall territory of Epi- 

 rus, which formerly belonged to Thefprotia, but afterwards to 

 the IMoloffi. The temple itfelf lay at the foot of a mountain 

 called c Tcmarus or Tnmrus* As that mountain rofe from the 

 plain, fomewhat refembling a' palm-tree, I imagine the name is 

 derived from the oriental word Tamar, which actually fignifies 



Vol. 111. / a 



* Lib, ii. cap. 54. et feq. f Strabo, p. 328, 329. 



