[133] Unless the words of Rabelais are to stand for the precocious discrimination of his age:--“Qu’est devenu l’art d’evoquer des cieux la foudre et le feu céleste, jadis enseigné par le sage Prométhée?” [134] “Guided by Numa’s books, Tullius used the same ceremonies, but through inaccuracy (_parum ritè_) he perished, struck by the lightning.”--LUCIUS PISO apud PLINY, _Hist. Nat._ 1. xxviii. cap. 11. Livy uses the expression _pravâ religione_. [135] “Fulmineo periit imitator fulminis ictu.”--OVID. _Metam_. 1. xiv. v. 617. [136] Suidas, verbo “Zoroaster.” See also Müller. [137] This word is found in the _pharanks_ or dictionaries of the Persians, and is described as the iron-attracting stone. It is mentioned in the Talmud. It was known to the Hindoos, as it was to the Greeks and Romans. [138] Those assumed are “Buxus, Buxolus, Buxola, Bussola, Boussole.”--MENAGE. “Buso, _Ital._ eye of a needle.”--COVARRUVIAS. “Boxel, _English_.”--POUQENS. “Bruxa, _Spanish_, sorcerer.” “Boursole, _French_, little purse.”--P. LABBE. [139] This figure being now a _Fleur de Lis_, the French claim the invention. The profound Germans surrender it to them as a national property. Voltaire, however, remarks that the Fleur de Lis was the cognizance of Naples at the time of Flavio de Gioja. [140] The term “Mouassola” is preserved to this day among the Mussulmans in connection with their religious edifices. It signifies the square open space corresponding with the Fane of the Etruscans, in which the two festivals of the Bairam are held, and where consequently the Mussulman _sacrifice_ is performed. The connection is evident, but how it is to be established I am not at present prepared to say. Cf. Hariri. Chresth. Arabe, i. 191; iii. 167. [141] I picked up this little work at a book-stall of Cadiz. A Spanish translation is printed, page for page with the Arabic, and thus it was that I fell upon the word. It so happened that I chanced on it midway between the two seas. Consult Khabil Dhaheri. Apud Ch. Arabe, ii. 13 _et seq._ [142] Tiraboschi, iv. 1. xi. § 35; Andrea, _Orig. D’Ogni Letter_.; Gueguenné, _Hist. de la lit. Italienne_, iv. [143] Consult El Edrisi on the “Straits of Babel-Mandel,” the “Arabian Book of Stones,” as quoted by Bailak Kibdjak, the “Treasury of Wonders,” as quoted by El Edrisi; Ptolom. i. vi. 2; Palladius, de Gentibus Indiæ; S. Ambrosius, de Moribus Brachmanorum; Anonymus, de Bragmanibus: ed. Bissæus, Lond. 1665.