mile, or a mile and half, which is considerably less than that of Mount Etna or the Alps.

Delphi, a town of Phocis, situate in a valley at the south west side of Mount Parnassus. It was famous for a temple of Apollo, and for an oracle celebrated in every age and country. The origin of the oracle, though fabulous, is described as something wonderful. A number of goats, that were feeding on Mount Parnassus, came near a place which had a deep and long perforation. The steam which issued from the hole seemed to inspire the goats, and they played and frisked about in such an uncommon manner, that the goatherd was tempted to lean on the hole and see what mysteries the place contained. He was immediately siezed with a fit of enthusiasm: his expressions were wild and extravagant, and passed for prophecies. This circumstance was soon known about the country, and many experienced the same enthusiastic inspiration. The place was revered, and a temple was soon after erected in honour of Apollo, and a city built. The oracles were always delivered by a priestess called Pythia. The temple was built and destroyed several times. It was customary for those who consulted the oracle, to make rich presents to the god of Delphi; and no monarch distinguished himself more, by his donations, than Croesus. This sacred repository of opulence was often the object of plunder; and Nero carried from it, no less than five hundred statues of brass, partly of the gods, and partly of the most

illustrious heroes. And, in another age, Constantine the Great removed its most splendid ornaments to his new capital. It was universally believed, by the ancients, that Delphi was in the middle of the earth.

518 Or in Dodona.

A town in Thespotia, in Epirus; others say, in Thessaly. There was, in its neighbourhood, an oracle, dedicated to Jupiter. The town and temple of the god was built by Deucalion, after the Deluge.

519 Of Doric land.

1

A country of Greece, between Phocis, Thessaly, and Acarnania. It received its name from Dorus, the son of Deucalion, who made a settlement there.

520 Fled over Adria.

520

Or Adriaticum mare: a sea, lying between Illyricum and Italy, now called, The Gulf of Venice; first made known to the Greeks by the discoveries of the Phoenecians.bayra

to th' Hesperian fields.

Hesperia is derived from Hesper or Vesper, the setting sun: whence the Greeks call Italy, Hesperia.

521 And o'er the Celtic.

584

Celtae: this name, though anciently applied to the inhabitants of Gaul, as well as of Germany and Spain, was particularly given to a part of the Gauls, whose country was called Gallia Celtica. that proud honour claim'd,

Azazel as his right.

Satan's standard bearer.

543 Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night.

Chaos, the original confused mass of matter, out of which all things were made: hence Chaos is styled the father of all the gods; from him sprung, Nox or Night; Æther and Hemera, that is, air and day.

550 In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood.

575

A kind of grave and solid music, consisting of slow spondaic time. Doria, a town of Pelopennus, now the Morca, where Thamyris, the musician, challenged the Muses to a trial of skill. that small infantry,

Warr'd on by cranes.

The Pygmæi, a nation of dwarfs, in the extremest parts of India; or, according to others, in Ethiopia. Some authors affirm, that they were no more than one foot high, and that they built their houses with egg shells. Aristotle says that they lived in holes under the earth; and that they came out, in harvest time, with hatchets to cut down the corn, as if to fell a forest. The crane is, of all the migratory birds, the deze species which undertakes and performs the boldest and most distant journeys: originally a native of the north, it visits all the temperate climes, and olorevent the regions of the south: it is seen in

Sweden, in the Orkneys of Scotland, in Padola, od in Vilhina, in Lithuania, and in the whole of the North of Europe: in autumn it alights in the it low fenny countries, and then hastens to the south; from whence it returns, with the spring, and again penetrates into the northern countries; ..thus completing its circuit with the round of the

A

seasons.

Struck with these perpetual migrations, the ancients termed it a bird of Lybia, or the bird of Scythia; since, by turns, they saw it arrive from both extremities of the then known world. Herodotus and Aristotle make Scythia to be the summer abodes of the cranes ; and those which halt in Greece really descend from that extensive region. Thessaly is called by Plato, the pasture of the world; where they alight in flocks, and cover all the Cyclodes. Hesiod marks the time of the passage when he says," that the husbandman should observe the scream of the crane from aloft in the clouds, as the signal to begin ploughing." India and Ethiopia were the countries assigned as its southern residence. Strabo says, that the people of India eat the eggs of cranes; Herodotus, that the Egyptians cover bucklers with their skins: and, to the source of the Nile, the ancients referred the scene of their combats with the Pigmies, a race of little men, says Aristotle, mounted on small horses, who live in caves. Pliny places the country of the Pigmies among the mountains of India, beyond the fountain of the Ganges: he relates that the climate was salubrious, perpetually mild and fanned by the northern breeze. It is reported, he continues, that sitting on the backs of rams and of goats, and armed with bows, the whole nation descends in the spring, and consumes the eggs and young of these birds; and, that this expedition lasts during the space of three months, otherwise it could not resist the invasions of future flocks." In another part of this work he

tells us, that the northern part of Thrace was possessed by a tribe of Scythians; and that many towns are said to have been inhabited by the race of Pigmies, whom the barbarians called Catizi, and believe to have been destroyed by the cranes. These ancient fables are absurd; but popular traditions generally contain important facts, though obscured by exaggeration or concealed under the veil of allegory. Buffon is, therefore, strongly disposed to believe, that this story alludes to some singularities in the history of the crane. It is well known that the apes, which rove at large in most parts of Africa and India, wage continual war with the birds; they seek to surprise them in the nest, and lay perpetual snares for them. The cranes, on their arrival, find these enemies assembled, perhaps in numbers, to attack, with more advantage, their new and rich prey. The cranes (confident in their own strength; enured to fight, by their disputes with each other; and naturally prone to combat, as their attitudes, their movements, and the order with which they marshal, sufficiently evince) make a vigorous defence. But the apes, obstinately bent on plundering the eggs and the young, return repeatedly in troops to renew the battle; and, as by their subtlety, their gait and posture, they imitate human actions, they appeared a band of little men to the rude spectators, whọ viewed them from a distance; or who, captivated by the marvellous, chose to embellish their relations. Such is the origin and history of these fables.