DEAR MR. FORTH,—Your letter throws considerable light on a topic which has long engaged my earnest attention. To my thinking, the _Cab_ in _Cabiri_ = CAV, “hollow,” as in _cavus_, and refers to the Ark of Noah, which, of course, before the entrance of every living thing according to his kind, must have been the largest artificial hollow or empty space known to our Adamite ancestors. Thus the Cabiri would answer, naturally, to the Patæci, which, as Herodotus tells us, were usually figured on the prows of ships. The Cabiri or Patæci, as children of Noah and men of the “great vessel,” or Cave-men (a wonderful anticipation of modern science), would perpetuate the memory of Arkite circumstances, and would be selected, as the sacred tradition faded from men’s minds, as the guides of navigation. I am sorry to seem out of harmony with your ideas; but it is only a matter of seeming, for I have no doubt that the Etruscan Involuti are also Arkite, and that they do not, as Max Müller may be expected to intimate, represent the veiled or cloudy Dawns, but rather the Arkite Patriarchs. We thus, from different starting-places, arrive at the same goal, the Arkite solution of Bryant. I am aware that I am old-fashioned—like Eumæus, “I dwell here among the swine, and go not often to the city.” Your letters with little numerals (as _k_2) may represent the exactness of modern philology; but more closely remind me of the formulæ of algebra, a study in which I at no time excelled. It is my purpose to visit Cambridge on June 3, to listen to a most valuable address by Professor Tösch, of Bonn, on Hittite and Aztec affinities. If you can meet me there and accept the hospitality of my college, the encounter may prove a turning point in Mythological and Philological Science.—Very faithfully yours, J. CASAUBON. P.S.—I open this note, written from my dictation by my wife, to enclose my congratulations on Mrs. Forth’s scholarly attainments. * * * * * _From Professor Forth to Rev. Mr. Casaubon_. (Telegram.) Will be with you at Cambridge on the third. * * * * * _From Mrs. Forth_, _Bradmore-road_, _Oxford_, _to David Rivers_, _Esq._, _Milnthorpe_, _Yorkshire_. He goes on Saturday to Cambridge to hear some one talk about the Hittites and the Asiatics. Did you not say there was a good Sunday train? They sing “O Rest in the Lord” at Magdalen. I often wonder that Addison’s Walk is so deserted on Sundays. He stays over Sunday at Cambridge. {129} * * * * * _From David Rivers_, _Esq._, _to Mrs. Forth_, _Oxford_.