ne of the most remarkable and
brilliant they called Cahen Sehor; another they termed Purcahen; a third
Cahen Ourah, or Cun Ourah. These were all misconstrued, and changed by the
Greeks; Cahen-Sehor to Canis Sirius; P'urcahen to Procyon; and Cahen Ourah
to Cunosoura, the dog's tail. In respect to this last name I think, from
the application of it in other instances, we may be assured that it could
not be in acceptation what the Greeks would persuade us: nor had it any
relation to a dog. There was the summit of a hill in Arcadia of this
[69]name: also a promontory in [70]Attica; and another in [71]Euboea. How
could it possibly in its common acceptation be applicable to these places?
And as a constellation if it signified a dog's tail, how came it to be a
name given to the tail of a bear? It was a term brought from [72]Sidon, and
Egypt: and the purport was to be sought for from the language of the
Amonians.

The antient Helladians used upon every promontory to raise pillars and
altars to the God of light, Can-Our, the Chan-Orus of Egypt. But Can-Our,
and Can-Ourah, they changed to [Greek: kunosoura], as I have shewn: yet
notwithstanding this corruption, the true name is often to be discovered.
The place which is termed Cunosoura by Lucian, in his Icaromemenippus, is
called Cunoura by Stephanus Byzant, and by [73]Pausanias. Cunoura is also
used by Lycophron, who understood antient terms full well, for any high
rock or headland.

[74][Greek: En haisi pros kunoura kampulous schasas]
[Greek: Peukes odontas.]

[Greek: Pros kunoura, pros tracheias petras.] Scholiast. ibid.

We find the same mistake occur in the account transmitted to us concerning
the first discovery of purple. The antients very gratefully gave the merit
of every useful and salutary invention to the Gods. Ceres was supposed to
have discovered to men corn, and bread: Osiris shewed them the use of the
plough; Cinyras of the harp: Vesta taught them to build. Every Deity was
looked up to as the cause of some blessing. The Tyrians and Sidonians were
famous for the manufacture of purple: the die of which was very exquisite,
and the discovery of it was attributed to Hercules of Tyre; the same who by
Palaephatus is styled Hercules [75]Philosophus. But some will not allow him
this honour; but say, that the dog of Hercules was the discoverer. For
accidentally feeding upon the Murex, with which the coast abounded, the dog
stained his mouth with the ichor of the