SACRED ISLES IN THE WEST. ^ 



The White Island seems to be the original Delos, -which the Egypii^i^s 

 and Greeks claimed as their own property, and acGordingly placed it in 

 their respe6live countries. There the sun and Lunus were born, accorc|- 

 ■ing to the Greeks: but the Egyptians said that they were only con- 

 cealed there by Latona, theirnurse; for she was not their rnpther, ac- 

 cording to them. Latona, or Latdyana, in Sanscrit, and the western 

 languages, implies only a place of concealment. Both islands were 

 floating originally, on the surface of the waters : but Neptune, pitying 

 the deplorable situation of this unfortunate island, according to Pi ndar^ 

 rendered it fixed and immoveable. This was not the case with the 

 'Egyptian Delos, according to Herodotus, who says that it was in a lake 

 near Chemmis : but he acknowledges that he could not perceive that it 

 was floating ; though the priests assured him, that this was really the case. 



The White Island, or Terrestrial Moon, was equally floating at first; 

 •and I have before related the legend of its produ(5\ion from the tears or 

 rheum. of the giant Atri.('> 



Delos, according to some Greek mythologists, was formerly a woman, 

 and sister to Latona, and was transformed into an island. The original 

 name of Delos, and of that woman, was Asteria, the sister of Latona, 

 and who had a famous oracle among the Hyperboreans. Asteria is 

 then the famous goddess worshipped by the Gothic tribes under the 

 name of Aster or Easter. Belos, m Greek, is synonymous with Tejas 

 and Ghrita, or the resplendent, an epithet of the White Island. Cynthus, 

 another name for Delos, is from the Sanscrit cdnta, resplendent, and 

 tlie While Island is also called Chandra-cdnta, or resplendent like the 



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