CHAPTER IX.
Tyrrhenian Privateers.—The description of these vessels is based upon a figure found upon a vase in the Campana Museum.—[Page 158].
Scylla. Charybdis.—The romances interwoven into my tale are strictly Phœnician; and I have felt quite justified in introducing an allusion to the way in which the Tyrian sailors delighted to mystify strangers upon whom they could impose. I may adduce the passage in Herodotus, where he speaks of the young girls fishing for gold in the island of Cyraunis, and calls it a fine Phœnician story. "Tell it to the Greeks!" has passed into a proverb, and the Phœnician tar was only too glad to amuse himself and to enhance the price of his wares by giving a highly-coloured version of his adventures.—[Page 164].
Nergal.—The superstition about the gigantic cock is borrowed from a Rabbinical legend quoted by Movers.—[Page 164].