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 God, as it is in English. “Thus, then, according to the Arabian traditions, Henoch was the same with Elijah, and Elijah with Phinehas. But all these three were the same with Al-Choder, that is, ὁ φοῖνιξ, palma.” This Al-Choder is said to have flourished at the same time with a certain Aphridun which signified ὁ φοῖνιξ, avis. We have not inquired respecting the birth-place of this celebrated bird. Lucian says what we might expect, that it is an Indian bird, Φοῖνιξ το Ινδικον οργεον. But the Irish have it in Phenn, and Phennische.

The annus magnus of the ancients was a subject of very general speculation among the Greeks and Romans, but not one of them seems to have suspected the sacrum nomen, cognomen, et omen, of Martianus Capella. Several of them admit that by the Phœnix this period was meant, or at least that its life was the length of the great year. From this I conclude that, as it was well known to Martianus Capella, it must have been a secret known only to the initiated. Solinus says, it is a thing well known to all the world, that the grand year terminates at the same time as the life of the Phœnix. This is confirmed by Manilius and Pliny.

George Syncellus says, that the Phœnix which appeared in Egypt, in the reign of Claudius, had been seen in the same country 654 years before. On this Larcher says, “This pretended Phœnix appeared the seventh year of the reign of Claudius, the year 800 of Rome, and the 47th year of our æra. If we take from 800 the sum of 654, which is the duriationduration [sic] of life of this bird, according to this chronographer, we shall have for the time of its preceding apparition the year 146 of the foundation of Rome, which answers to the year 608 before our æra.” It is surely a very extraordinary accident that should make the learned Larcher’s calculation exactly agree with the term of one of the great Neroses, which this bird’s name means; and also, that the other term 147 of our æra, should, within one year, be the term of the six last whole Neroses of Shem, from the flood: 6×608=3648. Deduct one Neros, thus, 3648−608=3040=5 Neroses. We must recollect that the Neros of Shem, in the time of the flood, was partly before the flood and partly afterward, so the one spoken of might be said to be either the fifth or the sixth from the flood. Faber says, “sometimes the Phœnix is said to live 600, sometimes 460, and sometimes 340 years.”

We will now return to the cycles. I before stated that I suspected the first ended with the birth of Enoch. The second ended with the birth of Noah. The third ended with Noah leaving the ark, when he was 600 years old. The fourth ended about the time of Abraham, and was probably Isaac, whose name may mean joy, gladness, laughter, and who was so called because he was the saviour, not because his mother laughed at God. The word I shall explain in a future page, when I treat of the Jews. And here it may be observed, that in the conduct of this curious system, if I correctly develop it, the incarnations ought not to coincide exactly with the beginning of a cycle; because, though the priests could regulate the dates of long-past events, they could not so