from Harris's Voyages. That there is a connection, by a subterraneous channel, between those whirlpools and the Arabian Gulf (Andromache), will appear highly probable from a simple inspection of the map; for notwithstanding that Gulf or Sea is so large as to extend through near twenty degrees in length, and in some places from three to four in breadth, it is not, in its whole space, fed by any river amounting to more than a brook. If the Taxos, or Trojan wall, is rightly assigned as above, to the Isthmus of Suez, it would seem that thereabout we should look for the first outlet of the channels by which the subterraneous passage is made from the whirlpools to the Arabian Gulf; and this would give a satisfactory explanation of the citation above, namely, that when Andromache (at the whirlpools) came to the Tuрyou μɛyav (Arabia), she made her way πроs Taxos; but though the first or chief outlet may be at that isthmus, there are doubtless innumerable springs in the great multitude of shoals of the Arabian Gulf through which the waters from those whirlpools find their passage; and that it is the sands of Arabia which ultimately stop the Euphrates, and give it its course to the ocean through the Persian Gulf, will appear from a consideration of the lines in which Andromache says to her husband Hector (the Euphrates), 6 Il. 431, Αλλ' άγε νυν ελεαίρε και αυτε μιμν επι τουργω The situation of Arabia Petræa (Aaöv), on the T cited, I am much inclined to think, it was the poet's intention not merely to notice those natural phænomena, but, (by the words we wuyou en μèyav, &c. &c.) to suggest a recollection of the annual pilgrimages of the Mahommedans to Mecca, their holy city. But though every part of the Iliad may conspire to prove that the city, which is supposed to be there besieged, and which it was the object of that siege to possess, was the country of Egypt; yet is it certain that an ulterior object of contention in that poem, is the establishment of an influence over the wealth and power of Asia, which continent being the seat of the great chain of mountains called Taurus, gives us the definition of the other name of Ilium, Tpom (quasi Tavpön). To view Egypt alone in the poetical Troy of the Iliad, would be to stop very short indeed of the poet's meaning; and yet on reflection it will appear that this reference to Asia, under the name of Troy, and to Egypt, under that of Ilium, will only be another thing and the same, since it is evident from the stupendous masses of architecture in Egypt, and the long and peaceable possession which such splendid remains prove to have been enjoyed by those who held the dynasty there, that Egypt was anciently a common and habitual medium of communication between Europe and Asia, and a step, as it were, from the former to the latter. For who were the Greeks who laid siege to Troy, as in either way above defined? Who, but the Europeans? The common epithet applied to the Greeks in the Iliad, Καρηκομόωντες Αχαιοι, alludes to the Europeans making their hair a source of ornament in their dress; whereas the Asiatics almost invariably cover it with the turban. Ano ther epithet, no less commonly applied to the Greeks, εüxvиuides, alludes to the Europeans exhibiting their legs bare, with all the grace that nature gives them, whereas the Asiatics invariably cover them with long robes, or loose and heavy pantaloons. So again the epithet naλλyama, applied to Axiada, does justice to the beauty of European women, as compared with the Asiatics. It appears also that there is a clear distinction taken in the Iliad between the Europeans and Asiatics in point of religion; for while Achilles, considered as representing the Nile and Egypt, sides with the Greeks (because, as I have supposed, Egypt was at the time in question possessed by Europeans, professing of course the religion of Europe), Priam sides with the Trojans, because all the rest of Africa is Mahommedan; and upon this ground may one explanation be assigned why the same country, Africa, is represented in the poem by two heroes, Achilles and Priam, in opposition to each other. The identity of religion furnishes a reason likewise why Hector, Paris, and the rest, are fabled to be the sons of Priam, since all the extensive countries, represented by those heroes, alike profess Mahommedism. Lastly, it appears also, that the geographical divisions of Europe and Asia, conformable to the same divisions of the present day, are noticed by the poet; for in the 77th line of the 3d Iliad, it is said of Hector, Και ρ' ες μεσσον των Τρώων ανεεργε φαλαγγας |