We took notice before, that these shepherds who quitted Egypt under the conduct of our Hercules, call’d themselves Hycsi, as Manethon informs us in Josephus & Eusebius in chronol. The word imports royal shepherds, valiant, freemen, heroes. Now we find the remains of this very name in the south-western part of our island, in Worcestershire, even to the Roman times, and still further, even to the time of venerable Bede. They were called Huiccii, to which Orduices and Vigornienses is synonymous. And all three words mean the same thing, as the great Baxter shews in his glossary, Antiq. Britan. voce Orduices, Iceni, Huiccii, &c. And by all accounts our old Britons lov’d that same free, shepherd’s life, which the old Canaanites did about Abraham’s time, as describ’d in scripture. Bishop Cumberland is elaborate upon it.
I take the Irish, and ancient highland Scots, to be the remains of the original Phœnician colony. My learned friend, Dr. Pocock, when he was in Ireland, observ’d a surprizing conformity between the present Irish and the Egyptians, and that in very many instances.
These considerations, added to what I said in Stonehenge, are enough to persuade us, that our Hercules had a considerable hand in peopling Britain.
TAB. XL.
P. 78.
The antient Symbols of the deity.
the deity thus exprest on the imposts at Persepolis.
thus upon Chinese gates.
thus in Egyptian monuments.
on asardonyx in Pignor. mens. Isiaca. P.20.
isiac table.
isiac table.
isiac table.
isiac table.
isiac table.
Reverendissimo Prœsuli Iohanni Archiepiscopo Cantuarensi. humillime d.d. W. Stukeley.
CHAP. XIV.
Part of Cadmus his history, who was a builder of serpentine temples. He was son of Canaan called Agenor. He was a Horite or Hivite, call’d Kadmonite in scripture. Hivite signifies a serpent. Mount Hermon denominated from his wife, Psal. cxxxiii. 3. “like as the dew of Hermon, which fell on the hill of Sion.” Correct it, Sirijon. Another correction in the translation of our bible, “Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts,” read merchant. ’Tis a prophecy not attended to, Zech. xiv. 21. The ancient greek fables of sowing serpents’ teeth; of Cadmus and his wife being turn’d into serpents, and the like; are form’d from their building serpentine temples. Not to be wonder’d at so much, when our country-people have the very same reports of Rouldrich stones; of the Weddings, another Druid temple in Somersetshire; of Long Meg and her daughters, another in Cumberland; and most firmly believe, that they were men and women turn’d into stones. The mythology of the ancients not to be despis’d, but its original meaning sought for.