denominated on account of their sanctity. Strabo supposes, that the city Samos in Elis was situated in the Samian plain: it therefore could not well have this name from its high situation. It is moreover inconsistent to suppose regions called κοιλα, or cava, to have been denominated from Sama, high. In short both terms have been mistaken: and Coilus in the original acceptation certainly signified heavenly: whence we read in Hesychius, as also in Suidas, Κοιολης, ὁ Ἱερευς. By which we learn, that by Coioles was meant a sacred or heavenly person; in other words, a priest of Cœlus. In Coioles there is but a small variation from the original term; which was a compound from Coi-El, or Co-El, the Cœlus of the Romans. Concerning the term Cœl in Ennius, [417]Janus Gulielmus takes notice, that this poet copied the Dorians in using abbreviations, and writing Cœl for Cœlus and Cœlum. But herein this learned person is mistaken. The Dorians were not so much to be blamed for their abbreviating, as the other Greeks were for their unnecessary terminations, and inflexions. The more simple the terms, the more antient and genuine we may for the most part esteem them: and in the language of the Dorians we may perceive more terms relative to the true mythology of the country, and those rendered more similar to the antient mode of expression, than are elsewhere to be found. We must, therefore, in all etymological inquiries, have recourse to the Doric manner of pronunciation, to obtain the truth. They came into Greece, or Hellotia, under the name of Adorians; and from their simplicity of manners, and from the little intercourse maintained with foreigners, they preserved much of their antient tongue. For this there may be another additional reason obtained from Herodotus; who tells us, that they were more immediately descended from the people of the [418]east. The antient hymns, sung in the Prutaneia all over Greece, were [419]Doric: so sacred was their dialect esteemed. Hence they cannot but afford great help in inquiries of this nature. What was by others styled Αθηνη, they expressed Αθανα: Cheops they rendered Chaops: Zeen, Zan: Χαζηνη, Χαζανα: Μην, Μαν: Menes, Manes: Orchenoi, Orchanoi: Neith, Naith: Ιηνισος, Ιανισος: Hephæstus, Hephastus: Caiete, Caiate: Demeter, Damater: all which will be found of great consequence in respect to etymology. And if they did not always admit of the terminations used by their neighbours: they by these means preserved many words in their primitive state: at least they were nearer to the originals. They seem to have retained the very term, of which I have been treating. It was by them styled Χαι, Cai; and signified a house, or cave: for the first houses in the infancy of the world are supposed to have been caves or grottos[420]. They expressed it Cai, Caia, Caias, similar to the cava, cavus, and cavea of the Romans. When these places were of a great depth, or extent, they were looked upon with a kind of religious horror.