III. BOOK are suffered to live, and not to retain many of their old words among them, and so make the language mixed of both, as it is in all nations conquered by the Romans; the Roman not being purely spoken by any, but corrupted with a mixture of the former language in use among them. The second argument is from the different pronunciation and dialects in use in the Greek language; of which no account so likely can be given, as the mixture with different languages. This is most evident in the Doric dialect; for the Dorians inhabiting probably where most of the Pelasgi had been, their pronunciation and dialect comes the nearest to the eastern of any of the Greeks; for in the Doric dialect the Пaraoμòs, or broad pronunciation, is most taken notice of. So he in Theocritus upbraids the Dorians, ὅτι πλατειάσδουσιν ἅπαντα, they speak every thing very broad; which answers to the pronunciation of the eastern languages: besides, the Doric dialect delights much in adding a to the end of words, which besides that it is the custom of eastern tongues, especially the Syriac, it doth much widen the pronunciation. The third argument is from the remainders of the eastern tongues in those places, especially where the Pelasgi had been. The Pelasgi are much taken notice of for their frequent removes, and travelling from one place to another; which I suppose was chiefly after the Hellens had conquered the country where they dwelt, then they were forced to go seek better habitations abroad: thence Strabo calls the nation of the Pelasgi πολύπλανον καὶ ταχὺ τὸ ἔθνος πρὸς ἐπαναστάσεις : and elsewhere, that they were πολλαχοῦ τῆς Εὐ ρώπης τὸ παλαιὸν πλανώμενοι, they went up and down to a great part of Europe: but we may suppose them to have made their first and chief resort to the neighbour islands to Greece; where we shall see what evidence Strabo, Id. 1. xii. IV. they left of their language there. The first island we CHAP. *Αλλη δ ̓ ἄλλων γλῶσσα μεμιγμένη· ἐν μὲν ̓Αχαιοί, p. 153. Hom. Odyss. T'. 175. Phon. Col. p. 153. It is evident then that the Pelasgi were in Crete. Now most of the Cretan words are of an eastern extraction, if we believe the learned Bochartus, who hath pro- Bochart. de mised a discourse on that subject: besides Crete, wel. i. c. 15. find the Pelasgi in Chios, καὶ Χῖοι δὲ οἰκιστὰς ἑαυτῶν Πελασγούς φασι τοὺς ἐκ Θετταλίας, saith Strabo ; the inhabitants of Chios say that the Pelasgi of Thessaly were their first inhabitants; and here the forenamed learned person hath derived the name Chios, the mountain Pelinæus, and the wine Arvisium, all from the eastern languages. The next we find them in, is Lesbos, kai γὰρ τὴν Λεσβὸν Πελασγίαν εἰρήκασι, which from them was called Pelasgia, saith Strabo, whose name is likewise Strabo, 1.v. fetched out of the east. By Bochartus further we find them in Lemnos and Imbros. So Anticlides in Strabo, πρώτους φησὶ Πελασγοὺς τὰ περὶ Λέμνον καὶ Ἴμβρον κτίσαι ; concerning whose names, see Bochartus, 82. I know Bochart. that learned author makes the Phoenicians the authors I. i. C. 12. Geogr. p. ii. of all these names, from no other ground generally, but because they are of an eastern derivation; but according to what we have laid down we may yield to the thing itself, and upon clearer grounds; for of some of these islands he ingenuously confesseth he can find no evidence of the Phoenicians being in them. Phœ- Id. l. i. c. 9. nices in his insulis habitasse nusquam legimus: but we find it very plain, that in those very islands the Pelasgi inhabited; and whether account then be more III. BOOK probable, let the reader judge. One thing more I shall insist on, which is the original of the Samothracian mysteries. That these were, as to their names, from the eastern languages, is now acknowledged by all learned men; the Cabiri being so evidently derived from, which signifies strength and power, i. e. the Tertull. de Dii potes, so Cabiri is explained by Varro and TertulSpect. c. 8. lian, and the particular names of the several Cabiri mentioned by the Scholiast on Apollonius, 'A§iepòs, Αξιόκερσα, Αξιόκερσος, and Κάδμιλος, are very handsomely Bochart. explained by that learned and excellent Bochartus, from Geogr. p.ii. 1. i. c. 12. the eastern languages: only he will needs have them Herod. 1. ii. derived from the Phoenicians; whereas Herodotus ex C. 51. ed. Wess. pressly tells us, that they were from the Pelasgi, whose words are these: ὅστις δὲ τὰ Καβείρων ὄργια μεμύηται, τὰ Σαμοθρήϊκες ἐπιτελέουσι παραλαβόντες παρὰ Πελασγῶν. And again, τὴν γὰρ Σαμοθρηΐκην οἴκεον πρότερον Πελασγοὶ οὗτοι, τοί περ Αθηναίοισι σύνοικοι ἐγένοντο, καὶ παρὰ τούτων Σαμοθρήϊκες τὰ ὄργια παραλαμβάνουσι. We see evidently by this, that the Samothracians derived their mysteries from the Pelasgi; and without all question they had their names from thence, whence they derived their mysteries. And to this purpose it is further observable, that, as the old Hetrurians were certainly a colony of the Pelasgi, upon Vossius de their removal out of Greece, so Vossius observes, that the old Hetruscan language (fere a Syris habet cuncta sacrorum nomina) hath almost all the sacred appellations from the eastern tongues. For which purpose Grot. An- it is further observable, which Grotius takes notice of, that the jus pontificum Romanorum was taken a great part from the Hetrusci, and the Hetrurians had it ab Hebræis out of the eastern parts. Idol. 1. ii. c. 57. not. in Mat. xii. I. XV. By all which I cannot conceive but this opinion, notwithstanding its novelty, is advanced to as high a degree of probability as any that stands on the like IV. , xii. 21. tiq. thus: Joseph. AnἸουδαῖοι τία. 1. xi. They Oxon. c. 4. ed. Voss. de Idol. l. i. c. 13. foundations; and not only so, but it is an excellent clue CHAP. to direct us to the labyrinth of antiquities, and gives us a fair account whence the eastern tongues came to be so much used among both the ancient Greeks and Hetrurians. One thing more this will help us to understand far better than any salvo hath been yet used for it; which is the affinity spoken of by Arius, king of Lacedæmon, in his letters to Onias, between the Jews and Lacedæmonians: Εὑρέθη ἐν γραφῇ περί τε τῶν 1 Maccab. Σπαρτιατῶν καὶ Ἰουδαίων, ὅτι εἰσὶν ἀδελφοὶ, καὶ ὅτι εἰσὶν ἐκ γένους ̓Αβραάμ which is explained by Josephus Εντυχόντες γραφῇ τινι, εὕρομεν ὡς ἐξ ἑνὸς εἶεν γένους καὶ Λακεδαιμόνιοι, ἐκ τῆς πρὸς ̓Αβράμον οἰκειότητος. had found in a book that the Jews and Lacedæmonians were of the same stock, from their mutual relation to Abraham. Vossius thinks the original of this was from those of the posterity of Anak, who came into Greece, and peopled Sparta, and would seem to have been of the posterity of Abraham; or that they were partly of the posterity of Abraham by Agar or Ceturah, and partly of the Canaanites, driven out by Joshua. But how unlikely a thing is it (supposing Sparta peopled by the Canaanites, which yet is not evident) that they should give out themselves to be of that stock which they had been expelled their country by? And for the true posterity of Abraham coming thither, as we have no ground for it but the bare assertion, so we have this strong evidence against it, that all that came from Abraham were circumcised, as the Ishmaelites, Hagarens, &c. which we never read of among the Lacedæmonians. Hugo Grotius differs not much from the opinion of Vossius concerning the ground of this kindred between the Jews and Spartans; for in his notes on that place in the Maccabees, where it is spoken of, he gives this account of it. The BOOK Dorians, of whom the Spartans were a part, came from III. the Pelasgi; the language of the Pelasgi was different Aristoph. Acharnen. act. i. sc. 4. from that of the Greeks, as appears by Herodotus in |