use before the days of
_David_, in any other nation besides the posterity of _Abraham_. The
_Egyptians_ ascribed this invention to _Thoth_, the secretary of _Osiris_;
and therefore Letters began to be in use in _Egypt_ in the days of _Thoth_,
that is, a little after the flight of the _Edomites_ from _David_, or about
the time that _Cadmus_ brought them into _Europe_.

_Helladius_ [262] tells us, that a man called _Oes_, who appeared in the
_Red Sea_ with the tail of a fish, so they painted a sea-man, taught
Astronomy and Letters: and _Hyginus_, [263] that _Euhadnes_, who came out
of the Sea in _Chaldaea_, taught the _Chaldaeans_ Astrology the first of any
man; he means Astronomy: and _Alexander Polyhistor_ [264] tells us from
_Berosus_, that _Oannes_ taught the _Chaldaeans_ Letters, Mathematicks,
Arts, Agriculture, Cohabitation in Cities, and the Construction of Temples;
and that several such men came thither successively. _Oes_, _Euhadnes_, and
_Oannes_, seem to be the same name a little varied by corruption; and this
name seems to have been given in common to several sea-men, who came
thither from time to time, and by consequence were merchants, and
frequented those seas with their merchandise, or else fled from their
enemies: so that Letters, Astronomy, Architecture and Agriculture, came
into _Chaldaea_ by sea, and were carried thither by sea-men, who frequented
the _Persian Gulph_, and came thither from time to time, after all those
things were practised in other countries whence they came, and by
consequence in the days of _Ammon_ and _Sesac_, _David_ and _Solomon_, and
their successors, or not long before. The _Chaldaeans_ indeed made _Oannes_
older than the flood of _Xisuthrus_, but the _Egyptians_ made _Osiris_ as
old, and I make them contemporary.

The _Red Sea_ had its name not from its colour, but from _Edom_ and
_Erythra_, the names of _Esau_, which signify that colour: and some [265]
tell us, that King _Erythra_, meaning _Esau_, invented the vessels,
_rates_, in which they navigated that Sea, and was buried in an island
thereof near the _Persian Gulph_: whence it follows, that the _Edomites_
navigated that Sea from the days of _Esau_; and there is no need that the
oldest _Oannes_ should be older. There were boats upon rivers before, such
as were the boats which carried the Patriarchs over _Euphrates_ and
_Jordan_, and the first nations over many other rivers, for peopling the
earth, seeking new seats, and