from her prototype at the west end of the Medi terranean; her face, looking north, being about Malaga, in Spain, and her legs about the Gulf of Lyons, in France. Her name is derived from Below, Beisw (post sumptum cibum paululùm dormio) thereby indicating a sea not in agitation, but asleep as it were; alluding to the circumstance that the tides have very little influence in that sea. That this is the representative character of Biovis is confirmed by a consideration of those of Patro clus, and the other persons employed by the poet to fetch her from Achilles to Agamemnon, 320 II. 1. Αλλ' ογε Ταλθύβιον τε και Ευρυβατην προσέειπε For Ταλθύβιος oι Ταλίυβ is the same as the * Of this method of disguising a name by inversion another very remarkable instance will be given presently in treating of Hector. The very singular coincidence of inverted) and that is the same as tall boot, and alludes to the well known boot-like shape of Italy: Eugubarns represents Sicily and his name alludes to the ewer, cup or crater of Etna: both these countries lie about mid-way from Egypt, (the country of Achilles,) to France, (that of Agamemnon,) and the employment of Patroclus (the Delta) by Achilles (Egypt or Africa) to conduct Briseis to Agamemnon, is explained by the Nile, at the time of its inundation, after it has passed through the channels of the Delta, giving its current to those parts of the Mediterranean that lie in the neighbourhood of Italy and Sicily (Ta20610s and Eupubarns,) and so conducting Bionis (as above explained) to France (Ayaμɛvwv). Thersites, whose character comes next in ques uniting the ancient earldom of Shrewsbury to the name of Talbot (as above explained) could scarcely have happened without design. The town of Shrewsbury derives its name from being encircled by the River Severn in the form of a horse-shoe, and thence comes Horseshoesbury, Shoesbury or Shrewsbury. tion, represents a considerable part of the continent of Africa, which in its entirety, has been already allotted to Achilles. This subdivision of the same country (or sea) into different characters may have been adopted by the poets, not merely for the purpose of increasing the enigmatical puzzle (a principal ingredient of every ancient composition), but from their having found a convenience in it: for where the characteristics of a country or its inhabitants cannot all be consistently represented by a single hero, one or more other personages might be aptly devised for the support of some of them; and, in the present instance, after ascribing such noble qualities to Achilles (having chiefly in view the inhabitants of Egypt, the more civilized part of Africa,) the poet must have found it impossible to engraft on the same hero all the base characteristics which are found in the negro race of that continent: he has, therefore, put them into action in the person of Thersites, as may be plainly seen from a consideration of the passage, beginning with the 211th, and ending with the 269th line of the • second Iliad. Not to insert here so long a passage, I would observe only that the words επεα ακοσμα and ακριτομυθε refer to the imperfect mode of speaking of the negroes, who, in fact, are never able correctly to articulate the European languages their inferiority to the whites is repeatedly noticed, as by the words αισχιστος ανηρ, χερειότερον βροτον, &c. The peculiar conformation of their persons is likewise minutely described, not only with respect to their fox-like woolly heads, Φοξος την κεφαλήν ψεδνη επενήνοθε λαχνη, but in regard to other particulars less commonly observed, but not proper to be further noticed here. The name of Θερσίτης itself seems to refer to the resemblance that race bears to baboons or monkeys, (θηρώσιτης, quasi, exhibiting the sight or appearance of a brute, θηρ;) and of the four following lines, Ει μη σε λαβων, απο μεν φιλα είματα δυσω Χλαιναν δ' ηδε χιτωνα ταδ' αίδω αμφικαλύπτει Αυτον δε κλαιοντα θρας επι νηας εφησω Πεπληγως αγορηθεν αείκεσσι πληγησιν the first alludes to the desert sands of Africa, stripped of plants and herbage by the sun's heat; and the word andw, of the second line, as well to the circumstance hinted above, as to a certain appearance which the general outline of that continent exhibits, to which last circumstance I would wish to direct the reader's particular attention, as it may facilitate an understanding of many passages of the poets, and of many gems, termini, &c. of the obscene kind, though all of that kind are certainly not to be explained by a reference to Africa. Again, the words TAYON and πληξεν and πεπληγως seem to refer not only to the disease of the plague, as before observed af the same words in regard to Achilles, but to the practice of punishing negro slaves by the whip; while aɛɛσσ may allude to the uneven number of the stripes usually of old inflicted, namely, forty save one: and ayoputus and ayopиlɛv may (covertly) imply that anciently, as well as in our days, the negroes were brought to market for sale. It will appear, by the next quotation, that the |