markable, that where the prophet Ifaiah is mentioning the ruin of the Babylonians, he alludes to their monarch and princes under the titles of the heavenly bodies. And where it is faid in the original, The stars of heaven and their cafil) shall fall; by which is meant the nobles and their king it is rendered in the Seventy δι αςέρες τε Ουραν nai giwv. The stars of Heaven and Orion. Ifaiah c. xiii, v. 10. From hence we may infer, that it was an hereditary title, derived from the firft monarch to others. The fawn was made an emblem of Nimrod, and of the difperfion, and it was called VECgos; which I make no doubt in the ancient Pelafgic was ve6pod. It was probably thus applied as a fymbol; because it is the most fugitive of all animals, and the moft eafily difmayed. On this account it was looked upon as a proper type for the people of the difperfion. Homer ftiles perfons in a panic-TENTOTES NUTE VECρol. II. . v. 243. The Bacchæ used to cut a fawn to pieces, and fcatter its limbs abroad. Sometimes at their frantic rites they made use of a young steer for that purpofe, which they used to rend to pieces alive. Hence Catullus fpeaking of these rites among other things mentions Horum pars tectâ quatiebant cufpide thyrfos : Peleus & Thet. v. 256. They also used to clothe themselves at this season with the spotted fkin of the fawn called vpis: from whence they are thought by fome to have had the name of Nebride. It was probably used in this manner as an emblem of that conftellation, which they had appropriated to Nimrod, and called Orion. For this afterifm abounds with ftars; of which the fpots in the skin might be efteemed C 3 efteemed a proper type. And the author of the Orphic verfes certainly alludes to this, when he mentions Bacchus putting on-seμα оRUSINTE INgos—Asgwv_daidaλewv ρος-Αερων δαιδαλεων μιμημ, ἱερα τε πόλοιο. Fragment. 7. Hence Bacchus had the title of gotτων and νεβριδόςολος : and is mentioned with thefe remarkable titles very Νυκτελιον, Νόμιον, Νεβρώδέα, Νεβροδοπέπλον. Antholog. L. 1. p. 50. Steph. In confequence of these hiftories, and many others too tedious to be recapitulated, I thought that I faw plainly fome traces of this extraordinary perfon in Sicily: and that there was particularly a mountain, abounding with beafts for the chafe, which was called Nebrodes from him. The annotator upon this has accused me of grofs ignorance in not knowing, that the latter part of the word (wdns) was a termination; and that the mountain was named from velpos, a fawn. This is a ftrange object for fuch a place to be denominated from: and I know not how to conceive it. I have heard of Sierra Leona, deferts of lions; but never of whelps of wealds of bears; but never of cubs: of woods of boars; but not of pigs. How came the mountain to be named from the young fry only? If there were no aged animals, from whence were these produced? But after all, how does the author know, that this was a Grecian word? The names of hills, and promontories; of woods and rivers, are of long duration; and those who fucceed to places, commonly acquiefce in the names already impofed. The Grecians were comparatively late in their getting footing in Sicily. We learn from Thucydides L. 5. that there had been Læftrygonians, Cyclopians, Sicani, Opici, and other na tions of great antiquity before them. The Grecians were pofterior even to the Poeni. Why then does he take for granted, that Nebrodes was a Grecian word: and given as a name by people of that country. As we find in Sicily, and not far from this place, the names Elorus, and Pelorus; titles of Nimrod; and an history of Orion, the fon of Urius; which fignifies merely a native of Ur and Babylonia; why may we not fuppofe, that the mountain was denominated in memory of this perfon? No, fays my opponent: he was not called Nebrod but by writers of late date; Chriftian writers, in whom there is no truft. But Jofephus was not a Christian, nor a late writer: and he calls him not merely Nebrod, but Newdns, Nebrodes; the very name in difpute : Νεβρώδης-ύίωνος τε Χαμε, T8 Nwex, Nebrodes, the grandfon of Cham, the son of Noab. Ant. L. 1. C. 4. p. 19. He was a gigantic perfon, a great hunter; the fame as Orion Urius: and the mountain was undoubtedly denominated from him. His true name was eclipfed by that more general one of Bacchus; yet it was fometimes alluded to by the Grecians, as we find by the verse before quoted, which contains fome of the titles of that perfon. Νυκτελιον, Νομιον, ΝΕΒΡΩΔΕΑ, Νεβροδοπεπλον, A mistake in etymology is comparatively trifling: but an errour in reafoning, and in hiftory, is of great confequence. And mifconception, when it arifes from spleen and prejudice; and when attended with unneceffary severity, deferves no quarter. I have fuppofed, that the island Nebriffa near Gades had by its name a reference to the fame perfon especially as it was devoted to the rites and worship of Bacchus. And as it is mentioned by Pliny under the name Veneria; I have furmifed, that this might have been a mistake for Venaria. My words are, I should think a mistake: by which I did not mean merely a mistake in the writer; but a difference arifing from length of time; and from the ignorance of the colonists in fo remote a part of the world. For this I am called to account, In Plinio pro Venereâ corrigit Venaria: quæ primum inaudita eft vox Romanis. p. 77. Yet this fame Pliny, fpeaking of the Fortunate Inlands takes notice of Canaria; which he fays, was fo named from dogs, L. 1. p. 349. and Pliny was a Roman, and of great learning. If canis caninus can give Canaria; why may not venor venari produce Venaria? I do not think, that the derivation from canis is right: yet who would call Pliny either knave or fool? It fhews plainly, that he did not think this kind of derivation fuch an unpardonable folcecifm. Still it is urged, that Venaria is a name never heard of by the Romans. But my opponent hurries on too faft: for this very Pliny mentions an island fo called upon the coaft of Italy, even in the confines of Latium; and not a vast way from the Tiber.-Barpana, Mænaria, Columbaria, Venaria L. 3. p. 160. My notion is faid to be farther contradicted by a coin of Claudius. But this has little weight: for if there had been antecedently a variation in the name; thofe, who came after, would abide by the change. But let the name be, what it will, what does the whole amount to? My opinion I introduced as a doubt and never dreamt, that a mere fuppofition would be mifconftrued for a fixed principle, and be fa fhamefully mifreprefented, 'It is not Venerea in Pliny. It is in that author found with the penultima otherwife expreffed-Veneria. This the annotator alters without any notice and without any authority. But he does it to make my change the more glaring and heinous. My 1. My adverfary proceeds upon the fame fubject, and arraigns me for my judgment about the people ftiled Nebridæ, particularly those at the island Coüs, or Cos: Quia Athenis et in Co infula gens erat Nebridæ, nullum potuit alium habere quam Nimrodum auctorem. p. 77. This is very laconic, and equally decifive. Now it must be observed, that in fpeaking of this people I have taken notice, that they were ftiled Meropes; and their island was called Meropeis: and that people fo called were denominated from their language having been of old divided and confounded. Μεροπες παντες κεκληνται δια μεμερισμένην την φωνην. Epiphanius, L. I. P. 7. Hefychius defcribes them much in the fame manner: δια μεμερισμένην έχειν την όπα. They are alfo faid to have had the name of Meropes from one Merops of the giant brood, απο Μεροπος ynyεves, Steph. Byzant. They were likewife reported to have been defcended from Eumelus, a Thepherd, whose father was Merops; the head of the Meropians. Pindar takes notice of the Meropes, and of their monarch Alcuon; who was a gigantic perfon, and faid to have been flain by Hercules. By Hercules was meant the chief Deity. He deftroyed the Meropians together with their king Al-Cuon, the shepherd; whom he found at Phlegra, and who was in fize like a mountain. Pindar Ifth. 6. v. 45. Now Phlegra was not in the inland Coüs from whence we may perceive that the history was foreign, and imported. Al-Cuon fignifies the king xar' on and Phlegra is only another word of the fame fignification for Ur in Babylonia, the land of fire. Here these events really happened; though transferred to other parts. From these and other evidence I fuppofed, that the families ftiled Nebride were defcended from people of the difperfion: and that their island was occupied, |