In this he has been followed by thousands of imitators, and quoted miraculously at all the public schools. Nay, his disciples would fain even improve upon the thing; and Servius has gone so far as to say that the old woman’s name was Pelias!
Now, here is the whole mystery unravelled for you.
When the Greeks established an oracle of their Dodona, subordinate to our master one, they adopted, at the same time, one of the orders of our priesthood. This was that of the Pheeleas, the meaning of which being to them an enigma, they bent it, as usual, to some similar sound in their own language.[531] This was that of Peleiai, in the accusative Peleias, which, in the dialect of Attica, signifies pigeons, and in that of Epirus, old women; and so the whole metamorphosis was forthwith adjusted!
“The very extraordinary piece of antiquity, represented in the annexed woodcut, was found,” says Mr. Petrie, “in a bog at Ballymoney, county of Antrim, and exhibited to the Royal Irish Academy, by the Lord Bishop of Down, in March 1829. Its material is that description of bronze of which all the ancient Irish weapons, etc., are composed, and its actual size is four times that of the representation. It is a tube, divided by joints at A and B into three parts, which, on separating, were found to contain brass wire, in a zigzag form, a piece of which is represented in Fig. G. This wire appears to have been originally elastic, but when found was in a state of considerable decomposition. At E and F are two holes, about one-eighth of an inch in diameter, and seem intended for rivets or pins to hold the instrument together. The birds move on loose pins, which pass through the tube, and on the other end are rings. The material and style of workmanship of this singular instrument leaves no doubt of its high antiquity. But we confess ourselves totally unable to form even a rational conjecture as to its probable use, and should feel obliged to any antiquary who would throw light upon it.”[532]
Had the antiquarian high-priest to this magnanimous assemblage been equally modest in former cases, and courted instruction, instead of erecting himself into a Pheelea, he would not cut the figure which he now does. Ignorance is no fault: it is only its vagaries that are so ridiculous!
However, he has said—I beg pardon, he is in the plural number—well, then, they have said, that they would feel obliged to any antiquary who would throw light upon the subject.
To be sure, I am no antiquary. The Royal Irish Academy have made that as clear as the sun at noonday. Nay, they have even strove to make their brethren at this side of the water to think so also! But their brethren at this side of the water are too honest a people, and too noble in their purpose, to make history a trade, and to stifle truth at the unhallowed dictates of interest or partiality.
No matter; I will tell all what this piece of antiquity was. It was the actual instrument through which the oracle of Dodona was announced! You see upon it the swans by which Apollo was brought to the Hyperboreans! The bulbul of Iran also attends in the train; and the affinity of this latter bird to the species of pigeons, convinced the Greeks that they had really hit off the interpretation of the word Pheelea! and that pigeons were, in truth, the deliverers of the oracle.
This was the block upon which Abbé Bannier was stumbling. Having learned from some quarter, I believe from Aristotle, that there were some brass appendages contiguous to Dodona, he converts those appendages into kettles—a worthy friend of mine would add, of fish—“which,” says he, “being lashed with a whip, clattered against one another until the oracle fulminated”!!!