traditions current in the city of Acele),(1846) and also in Herodotus, whose genealogy of the ancient kings of Lydia—Hercules, Alcæus (from the Greek mythology, Belus, the god of Babylon), Ninus (Nineveh), Agron, &c., refers to the Assyrian origin of the ancient Lydian kings, and agrees remarkably with the statement that Hercules-Sandon or Sandes, was originally an Assyrian deity belonging to the same religious system as Belus.(1847) 7. We now come to a fable of kindred origin, the fable of Hylas. Hylas was invoked during midsummer at the sides of fountains by the aboriginal inhabitants of Bithynia,(1848) long before the Greeks founded their city of Cios; but the latter adopted the story of the boy falling into the water, connecting it (as they worshipped Hercules as their founder)(1849) with the fable of that hero. Indeed a legend very similar had previously existed, the minion of Hercules being (according to Hellanicus) Theiomenes, the son of Theiodamas the king of the Dryopes.(1850) The death of Lityerses was in Phrygia the subject of an ancient song; and who else should have slain him, according to the tradition of the Greeks, than he whose power was dreaded throughout the countries of the barbarians?(1851) The Greeks introduced such heterogeneous matter without hesitation into their mythology. Hercules, even in the spot where his worship originated, was represented as a hero of great power abroad: he was the protector of boundaries and (if I may be allowed the expression) of marches: afterwards, when his worship was adopted by the whole of Greece, he was considered as the general guardian of the Grecian colonists. Thus he is represented as contending for the territory of Heraclea on the Pontus, against the aboriginal Bebryces, and in defence of Cyrene against the native Libyans. For it seems very probable that the combat with Antæus,(1852) who derived new vigour from touching the earth, was merely emblematical of the contests sustained by the Greek colonists against the Libyan hordes, which, though often conquered, always sallied forth from the deserts in increased numbers. Thus the fable of Hercules and Busiris was invented at a time when the Greeks first became known in Egypt, and had as yet only an imperfect acquaintance with that country; for which reason Herodotus ridicules it as a silly invention of the Ionians. Busiris appears to me to have been the name of the principal deity with the addition of the article. In this story he is described as a ferocious tyrant, who orders Hercules to be sacrificed, until the latter, recovering himself suddenly, slays the tyrant and his cowardly retinue.