1876.] 
The Cradle of Civilisation 
449 
his followers Neef Teunis, or Cousin Teunis, who had 
chosen the Mediterranean as the destination of his expedi- 
tions, and must have been deified by the Tyrians at the 
time when the Phenician navigators begun to extend their 
voyages so remarkably, sailing to Friesland (!) to obtain 
British tin, northern iron, and amber from the Baltic, about 
2000 years before Christ. 
44 Besides these two, we meet with a third mythological 
personage — Minos, the law-giver of Crete, who likewise ap- 
pears to have been a Friesland sea-king ; Minno, born at 
Lindacord, between Wiesingen and Kreyl, who imparted to 
the Cretans an 4 Asagaboek.’ He is that Minos who, with 
his brother Rhadamanthus and Aeacus, presided as judge 
over the fates of the ghosts in Hades, and must not be con- 
founded with the later Minos, the contemporary of dEgeus 
and Theseus, who appears in the Athenian fables. 
44 The reader may perhaps be inclined to laugh at these 
statements, and apply to me the words that I myself have 
lately used, fantastic and improbable. Indeed at first I 
could not believe my own eyes, and yet, after further consi- 
deration, I arrived at the discovery of extraordinary con- 
formities, which render the case much less improbable than 
the birth of Min-erva from the head of Jupiter, by a blow 
from the axe of Hephaestus, for instance.” . 
If the reader has managed so far to restrain his laughter 
we fear that his gravity will be completely upset by the ex- 
quisite simplicity of the sentence last quoted. Can Dr. 
Ottema really think that any one in these days conceives of 
Minerva as a veritable personage born from the brain of 
Jupiter ? Does he so ill comprehend the nature of the myth 
as to think his own story must find acceptance because his- 
torically 44 less improbable ” ? If Minerva was a Frisian 
priestess who settles in Attica and builds Athens, how comes 
it that her name should survive in Italy and be replaced in 
Greece by Pallas ? How, if Pallas came from Friesland, is 
she likely to have endowed Attica with the olive ? 44 Cousin 
Teunis,” as the etymology of Neptune, strongly reminds us 
of Dean Swift’s derivation of the name Achilles, from 44 a 
kill ease.” Indeed we are not without suspicions that the 
entire 44 Oera Linda Book ” may be a solemn Dutch joke, 
and that the learned Dodtor is gravely chuckling at his be- 
lieving readers. We are somewhat startled to read of the 
Phenicians sailing to Friesland in order to obtain British 
tin. We know, from the most positive fadts, that they came 
diredt to Cornwall, where coins, local names, and evident 
traces of Phenician blood — as pointed out by Dr. Knox and 
VOL, VI. (N.S.) 2 q 
