und from Coi-El, or Co-El, the Coelus
of the Romans.

Concerning the term Coel in Ennius, [417]Janus Gulielmus takes notice, that
this poet copied the Dorians in using abbreviations, and writing Coel for
Coelus and Coelum. But herein this learned person is mistaken. The Dorians
were not so much to be blamed for their abbreviating, as the other Greeks
were for their unnecessary terminations, and inflexions. The more simple
the terms, the more antient and genuine we may for the most part esteem
them: and in the language of the Dorians we may perceive more terms
relative to the true mythology of the country, and those rendered more
similar to the antient mode of expression, than are elsewhere to be found.
We must, therefore, in all etymological inquiries, have recourse to the
Doric manner of pronunciation, to obtain the truth. They came into Greece,
or Hellotia, under the name of Adorians; and from their simplicity of
manners, and from the little intercourse maintained with foreigners, they
preserved much of their antient tongue. For this there may be another
additional reason obtained from Herodotus; who tells us, that they were
more immediately descended from the people of the [418]east. The antient
hymns, sung in the Prutaneia all over Greece, were [419]Doric: so sacred
was their dialect esteemed. Hence they cannot but afford great help in
inquiries of this nature. What was by others styled [Greek: Athene], they
expressed [Greek: Athana]: Cheops they rendered Chaops: Zeen, Zan: [Greek:
Chazene], [Greek: Chazana]: [Greek: Men], [Greek: Man]: Menes, Manes:
Orchenoi, Orchanoi: Neith, Naith: [Greek: Ienisos], [Greek: Ianisos]:
Hephaestus, Hephastus: Caiete, Caiate: Demeter, Damater: all which will be
found of great consequence in respect to etymology. And if they did not
always admit of the terminations used by their neighbours: they by these
means preserved many words in their primitive state: at least they were
nearer to the originals. They seem to have retained the very term, of which
I have been treating. It was by them styled [Greek: Chai], Cai; and
signified a house, or cave: for the first houses in the infancy of the
world are supposed to have been caves or grottos[420]. They expressed it
Cai, Caia, Caias, similar to the cava, cavus, and cavea of the Romans. When
these places were of a great depth, or extent, they were looked upon with a
kind of religious horror. A cavern of this sort was at Lacedaemon, with a
buildin