They are
mentioned perhaps by the classical writers, but their chief
popularity and currency seem to have been in more modern times. We
seek our accounts of them not so much in the poetry of the
ancients as in the old natural history books and narrations of
travellers. The accounts which we are about to give are taken
chiefly from the Penny Cyclopedia.
THE PHOENIX
Ovid tells the story of the Phoenix as follows: "Most beings
spring from other individuals; but there is a certain kind which
reproduces itself. The Assyrians call it the Phoenix. It does not
live on fruit or flowers, but on frankincense and odoriferous
gums. When it has lived five hundred years, it builds itself a
nest in the branches of an oak, or on the top of a palm tree. In
this it collects cinnamon, and spikenard, and myrrh, and of these
materials builds a pile on which it deposits itself, and dying,
breathes out its last breath amidst odors. From the body of the
parent bird, a young Phoenix issues forth, destined to live as
long a life as its predecessor. When this has grown up and gained
sufficient strength, it lifts its nest from the tree (its own
cradle and its parent's sepulchre), and carries it to the city of
Heliopolis in Egypt, and deposits it in the temple of the Sun."
Such is the account given by a poet.
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