"_TVRBVL_ ... Monsieur," he said, coming nearer and lowering his voice for fear anyone else but myself should hear, "read _TVRBVLNERÆ_." "I do not understand any better." "Listen carefully. A league from here, at the base of the mountain, is a village called Boulternère. It is a corruption of the Latin word _TVRBVLNERA._ Nothing is commoner than such an inversion. Boulternère, Monsieur, was a Roman town. I have always been doubtful about this, for I have never had any proof of it. The proof lies here. This Venus was the local goddess of the city of Boulternère; and this word Boulternère, which I have just shown to be of ancient origin, proves a still more curious thing, namely that Boulternère, after being a Roman town, became a Phoenician one!" He stopped a minute to take breath, and to enjoy my surprise. I had to repress a strong inclination to laugh. "Indeed," he went on, "_TVRBVLNERA_ is pure Phoenician. _TVR_ pronounce _TOUR.... TOUR_ and _SOUR_, are they not the same word? _SOUR_ is the Phoenician name for Tyre. I need not remind you of its meaning. _BVL_ is Baal, Bâl, Bel, Bul, slight differences in pronunciation. As to _NERA_, that gives me some trouble. I am tempted to think, for want of a Phoenician word, that it comes from the [Greek _neiros_]--damp, marshy. That would make it a hybrid word. To justify [Greek _neiros_] I will show you at Boulternère how the mountain streams there form poisonous swamps. On the other hand, the ending _NERA_ might have been added much later, in honour of Nera Pivesuvia, the wife of Tetricus, who may have done some benevolent act to the city of Turbul. But, on account of the marshes, I prefer the derivation from [Greek _neiros_]." He took a pinch of snuff with a satisfied air. "But let us leave the Phoenicians and return to the inscription. I translate, then: 'To the Venus of Boulternère Myro dedicates by his command this statue, the work of his hand.'" I took good care not to criticise his etymology, but I wanted, on my own account, to put his penetrative faculties to the proof, so I said to him: "Wait a bit, Monsieur, Myro dedicated something, but I do not in the least see that it was this statue." "What!" he exclaimed, "was not Myro a famous Greek sculptor? The talent would descend to his family; and one of his descendants made this statue. Nothing can be clearer."