OW Egypt, mad with Superftition grown,

Ho

Makes Gods of Monffers, but too well is known: One Sect Devotion to Nile's 'Serpent pays;

2

thers to Ibis, that on Serpents preys.

Where, 3 Thebes, thy Hundred Gates lye unrepair'd,
And where maim'd 4 Memnon's Magick Harp is heard,
Where these are Mouldring, let the Sots combine
With pious Care a Monkey to enshrine!

Fish Gods you'll meet with Fins and Scales o'ergrown;
Diana's Dogs ador'd in ev'ry Town,

Her Dogs have Temples, but the Goddess none!
'Tis Mortal Sin an Onion to devour,

Each Clove of Garlick is a facred Pow'r.
Religious Nations fure, and bleft Abodes,
Where ev'ry Orchard is o'er-run with Gods!
To Kill, is Murder, Sacrilege to Eat

A Kid or Lamb----- Man's Flesh is lawful Meat!
Of fuch a Practice when s Ulyffes told,

What think you? Cou'd Alcinous' Guests with-hold

1 The Crocodile.

z A fort of Bird in thofe Parts, that is a great Deftroyer of Serpents.

3 Thebes in Baotia had feven Gates, this in Egypt an hundred, and therefore call'd Hecatompylus.

4 This Coloffus, or Marble Statue of Memnon, held a Harp in its Hand, which utter'd Mufical Sounds, when ftruck by the Beams of the rifing Sun; which Strabo tells us, that he both faw and heard, but confefles he is not able to

affign the Caufe. He adds, that one half of this Statue was fall'n in an Earthquake; from which Mutilation and Continuance of the ftrange Sounds (fuppos'd to proceed from Magick) our Author fays, Dimidio magica refonant ubi Memnone Chorda.

s Homer introduces Vlyffes Shipwreck'd at the Inland Corcyra, and Treated by Alcinous, who there Reign'd King of the Phaacs; at whofe Table he recited the following Paffages.

From

From Scorn or Rage? Shall we (cries one) permit
This Lewd Romancer, and his Bantring Wit?
Nor on Charibdis' Rock beat out his Brains,
Or fend him to the Cyclops whom ke feigns.
of Scylla's Dogs, and ftranger Flams than thefe,
Cyane's Rocks that justle in the Seas,

of Wmds in Bags (for Mirth (ake) let him tell,
And of his Mates turn'd Swine by Crice's Spell,
But Men to eat Men, Human Faith furpasses:
This Trav'ller takes us Iflanders for Alles.
Thus the incred❜lous Phaac (having yet
Drank but one Round) reply'd in fober Fret.
Nor without Reafon truly, fince the Board
(For Proof o'th' Fact) had but Ulyffes' Word.
What I relate's more strange, and ev'n exceeds
All Registers of Purple Tyrants Deeds:
Portentous Mischiefs they but fingly A&,
A Multitude confpir'd to this more horrid Fact.
Prepare, I fay, to hear of fuch a Crime
As Tragick Poets, fince the Birth of Time,
Ne'er feign'd, a thronging Audience to amaze;
But true, and perpetrated in our Days.

Ombus and Tentyr, Neighb'ring Towns, of late
Broke into Outrage of deep-fefter'd Hate.
A Grutch in both, time out of mind, begun,
And mutually bequeath'd from Sire to Son.
Religious Spight and pious Spleen bred first
This Quarrel, which fo long the Bigots nurft.
Each calls the other's God a fenfeless Stock,
His own, Divine; tho' from the felf-fame Block
One Carver fram'd then, diff'ring but in Shape,
A Serpent this resembling, that an Ape.

6 The Symplegades, two Rocks in the Mouth of the Bosphorus, which being at like diftance

L

from each other, feem to ftrike upon one another, as the Sailors pafs by them.

2

The

The Tentyrites to execute their Crime

Think none fo proper, as a facred Time:

Which call'd the Ombites forth to publick Rites,
Sev'n Days they spent in Feafts, fev'n fleepless Nights.
^(For Scoundrel as these wretched Ombites be,
Canopus 7 they exceed in Luxury)

Them rev'lling thus the Tentyrites invade,
By giddy Heads and ftagg'ring Legs betray'd:
Strange odds! where Crop-fick Drunkards muft engage
A hungry Foe, and arm'd with fober Rage.
At first both Parties in Reproaches jar,

And make their Tongues the Trumpets of the War.
Words break no Bones, and in a railing Fray,
Women and Priests can be as ftout as they.
Words ferve but to enflame our warlike Lifts:
Who wanting Weapons clutch their horny Fifts:
Yet thus make shift t'exchange such furious Blows,
Scarce one efcapes with more than half a Nofe.
Some ftand their ground with half their Vifage gone,
But with the Remnant of a Face fight on.
Such transform'd Spectacles of Hor rour grow,
That not a Mother her own Son wou'd know.
One Eye, remaining, for the other fpies,
Which now on Earth a trampled Gelly lies.
Yet hitherto both Parties think the Fray
But Mockery of War, meer Children's Play:
Tho' traverfing, with Streams of Blood they meet,
They tread no Carcase yet beneath their Feet:
And Scandal think't to have none flain out-right
Between two Hofts that for Religion fight.

This whets their Rage to fearch for Stones, as large
As they cou'd lift, or with both Hands difcharge:
Not (altogether) of a fize, if match'd

With those which Ajax once, or Turnus fnatch'd

7 A City in Egypt, infamous for Riots and Debauchery.

For their Defence, or by Tydides thrown,

That brusht Æneas' Creft, and ftruck him down,
Of weight wou'd make two Men strein hard to raise,
Such Men as liv'd in honeft 8 Homer's Days:
Whom Giants yet to us we must allow,
Dwindled into a Race of Pigmies now;
The Mirth and Scorn of Gods that fee us fight,
Such little Wafps, and yet fo full of Spight:
For Bulk meer Infects, yet in Mischief Arong,
And, spent fo ill, our fhort Life's much too long!
Fresh Forces now of Tentyrites, from Town,
With Swords and Darts, to aid their Friends, come down.
Who with fleet Arrows levell'd from afar,
Ere they themselves approach'd, fecure the War.
Hard fet before, what cou'd the Ombites do?
They fly; their preffing Foes as faft pursue.
An Ombite Wretch (by headlong hafte betray'd,
And falling down i'th' Rout) is Pris'ner made:
Whose Flesh torn off by-Lumps, the rav'nous. Foe
In Morfels cut, to make it farther go;

His Bones clean pick'd, his very Bones they gnaw;
No Stomach's baulkt, because the Corps is raw.
'Thad been loft time to dress him---keen Defire
Supplies the want of Kettle, Spit, and Fire.
(Prometheus' Ghoft is fure o'er-joy'd to fee

His Heav'n-ftol'n Fire from fuch Difafter free:
Nor feems the sparkling Element less pleas'd than he.
The Guests are found too num'rous for the Treat,
But all, it feems, who had the luck to eat,
Swear they ne'er tafted more delicious Meat.
They fwear, and fuch good Palates you shou'd trust;
Who doubts the Relifh of the first free Guft?

Alluding to that of Homer in the Iliad. "O dúo är♪pa Φέρομεν, οἷοι νῦν βροτί εισι.

Since one who had i'th' Rear excluded been,
And cou'd not for a Taste o'th' Flesh come in,
Licks the foil'd Earth, which he thinks full as good;..
While reeking with a mangled Ombit's Blood,

The 9 Vafcons once with Man's Flesh (as 'tis faid)
Kept Life and Soul together ----- grant they did,
Their Cafe was diff'rent; with long Siege distress'd,
And all Extremities of War opprefs'd.

(For Miferable to the last Degree,

Th' Excuse of fuch a Practice ought to be.)

With Creature's, Vermin, Herbs or Weeds fuftain'd,
While Creatures, Vermin, Herbs, or Weeds remain'd
'Till to fuch meagre Spectacles reduc'd,

As ev'n Compaffion in the Foe produc'd:
Acquitted by the Manes of the Dead,

And Ghosts of Carcaffes on which they fed..
By To Zeno's Doctrine we are taught, 'tis true,,
For Life's fupport no harmless thing to do.
But Zeno never to the Vafcons read;

'Tis fince their Days that Civil Arts have spread:
'Twas lately British Lawyers, from the Gaul,
Learnt to Harangue, and Eloquently Bawl.
Thulè hopes next t'improve her Northern Style,
And Plant (where yet no Spring did ever smile)
With Flow'rs of Rhetorick her frozen Ifle.)
That brave the Vafcons were, we must confefs,
Who Fortitude preferv'd in such distress,
Yet not the Brightest their Example fhines,
Eclips'd by the more Noble

Saguntines;

ving suffer'd all Extremities, at laft erected one great Pile, in which they burnt themselves with their Dead, as alfo all their Goods, to leave the Enemy no Plunder.

Who