LETTER X.

Recovery of Queen Amense--Gropings after the True God--Pleasure-galley of the Nile--Voluptuous ease--River chant--Phœnician Mythology and Learning--Procession of the Dead--Tradition of the universal Deluge and of Noe-menes (Noah)--Myths of Ammon, and of Belus the Warrior-god and Founder of Babylon--Nimrod's temple--Baalbec--Worship of the Sun--Myths of Apis, Horus, Adonis, and Io--Magnificent worship of Osiris and Isis--Mysteries of the temple of Tyre--Baal-phegor--Pillars of the West--Marvels of foreign lands, and islands of wonderful beauty--Men formed like monkeys--The edge of the world--A sea-storm--Gulf down which the full sea plunges--Legends of the form of the Earth; of its foundation; of its motion through space--pp. 158-172.