The Phoenix — The Mermaid, or Siren. 617 
Virgil, in his eighth Pastoral, mentions this animal as 
if really existing, but does not give us any description of 
it ; and Claudian, in his Epistle to Serena, alludes to the 
supposed fact of their keeping watch over masses of gold 
in the bosom of northern mountains. 
THE PHOENIX. 
Herodotus, Pliny, and nearly sixty other classical authors, 
have related marvellous stories of this bird, all of which 
are of course fabulous. The Phoenix, they say, inhabits 
the plains of Arabia, and is about the size of an eagle, 
with gorgeous plumage of purple and gold. He is the 
only one of his kind in the world. At the approach of 
death, he builds himself a nest of aromatic herbs, and on 
it yields up his life. From his marrow proceeds a worm, 
which shortly becomes a young Phoenix, whose first duty 
is to discharge the obsequies of his sire. For this pur- 
pose he collects a quantity of myrrh, which he moulds 
into the shape of an egg, as large as he can conveniently 
carry, and then scooping it out, he deposits the body of 
his sire in the inside. Having stopped it up again 
with myrrh, he carries it to the Temple of the Sun in 
Egypt, where he devoutly places it on the altar. This 
is the only time that he is seen during his life, which 
lasts five hundred years. According to others, after pre- 
paring a funeral pile of rich herbs and spices, he burns 
himself, but from his ashes revives in all the freshness 
of youth. 
From late mythological researches it is conjectured 
that the Phoenix is a symbol of five hundred years, of 
which the conclusion was celebrated by a solemn sacri- 
fice, in which the figure of a bird was burnt. His being 
restored to youth signifies that the new springs from 
the old. 
THE MERMAID, OR SIREN. 
The existence of this animal, half a woman and half a 
fish, has long been talked of, believed, disbelieved, and 
doubted. Homer is the first who speaks of such beings, 
