of India: if now we compare these citations with the account given of Pandarus in the catalogue, 2 Il. 824, Οι δε Ζέλειαν εναιον Αφνειοι, πίνοντες υδωρ μελαν Αισηποιο in which the city of Delhi, and the Sepoys (with their black complexion, under the idea of a darkcoloured river), are again in the same manner noticed; no doubt will remain of what the poet really intended: again, under the word ayλäos, a reference seems to be had to the diamonds found in India, and used by the natives in the ornament of their dress, while the 827 of Il. 2, relating to Pandarus, Πανδαρος, ω και τοξον Απολλων αυτος εδωκεν, shews that the curve or bow of the tropical circle crosses the heart of India, as represented by him. As to the way by which the ancients proceeded to India, I have already spoken of that in treating of the Scaan Gates, and in the cursory observations made there on the fable of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis. I think likewise that when, in the 221 of the 16 II. Achilles makes a libation to Jupiter upon the departure of his friend Patroclus, clad in the arms of the former (that is upon the Delta's (Patroclus) going out of view when overflowed by (Achilles) the Nile); a poetical allusion is made to the famous canal of communication between the Mediterranean and the Arabian Gulf, which in fact would be most serviceable at the time of such annual inundation; -χηλο δ' απο πωμ' ανεωγε Καλης δαιδαλέης την οι Θετις αργυρόπεζα Νιψατο δ' αυτος χειρας αφυσσατο δ' αίθοπα οίνον— where, among other circumstances, we have in the word xaigas, an oblique reference to the canal's connecting itself with the Nile, and so passing by the city of Cairo; and in aloα onov, to coffee (of which the Turks and Egyptians are so fond) being brought by the canal from Arabia. This famous canal is again particularly noticed in 6 II. 298, Τησι θυρας ωιξε Θεανω καλλιπάρηος where Koonis would seem to allude to the name of Cosseir in the neighbourhood of which town, the outlet of it probably was; and as it was situate opposite to and poured out its waters upon the coast of Arabia (represented by Avvwę), the canal may, from that circumstance, have been fabled to be the wife of Antenor.* * The Sepoys who were conveyed from India to Egypt (I think in the year 1799, under Sir David Baird) were landed at Cosseir; and an officer who accompanied them informed me that in the whole of the distance from thence to Kéné on the Nile (about 150 miles) they marched along what was obviously the bed of a river or canal with a pebbly bottom: there were on the higher points, on the borders of the banks, the remains of forts which seemed to have been intended for the defence of it, probably against The lines below notice the fine linens, or rather cottons of India, 6 Il. 288, Ενθ' εσαν οι πεπλοι παμποικιλοι έργα γυναικων and in the following lines, 4 II. 141, Ως δ' ότε τις ελεφαντα γυνη φοινικι μίννη the Arabs. This in all likelihood was the line of the ancient canal of communication between the Nile and the Arabian Gulf. It may be not uninteresting to the reader to learn further, that the march of this military party from Cosseir to Kéné occupied twelve nights (as they travelled in the night to avoid the heats of the day), that they found water of various qualities, at about four different places in the desert; that their passage afterwards by the river from Kéné to Rosetta (about 900 miles by water) occupied fourteen days, (and days only, as they stopped during the night;) and that at the end of their voyage in the neighbourhood of Rosetta, great numbers of the Sepoys unfortunately fell victims to the plague. and again (in ιππνες Φορεειν and κόσμος ιππω, οι their context,) we may see it poetically observed, that the Indians were highly famous for their works in ivory; and an insinuation is also thrown out there, that their о, or beast of burden, is the elephant, and that ivory is the elephant's tooth, παρηίον ιππων. But as we have a very detailed description of India given us in the Odyssey, in the character and fable of Nausicaa, I shall go into some length in the consideration of her, and of her father and mother, and thereby shew the intimate knowledge that Homer had of the East. The principal parts of the name of Navonaa may be well suited to India, with reference to the practice of coasting and river-navigation so common there, (vavo and κομαι) while the final αλφα so remarkable in its position, may relate to the general shape of India, as viewed with its southern promontory uppermost and intercepted between the Indus and Ganges or the whole of the name together (vavo, moud, and aλα) may allude to the instrument by means of which voyages are made at sea, and so |