Chapter IX

_Tyrrhenian Privateers._--The description of these vessels
is based upon a figure found upon a vase in the Campana
Museum.--_Page 158._

_Scylla. Charybdis._--The romances interwoven into my tale
are strictly Phœnician; and I have felt quite justified in
introducing an allusion to the way in which the Tyrian sailors
delighted to mystify strangers upon whom they could impose. I
may adduce the passage in Herodotus, where he speaks of the
young girls fishing for gold in the island of Cyraunis, and
calls it a fine Phœnician story. "Tell it to the Greeks!"
has passed into a proverb, and the Phœnician tar was only
too glad to amuse himself and to enhance the price of his wares
by giving a highly-coloured version of his adventures.--_Page
164._

_Nergal._--The superstition about the gigantic cock is borrowed
from a Rabbinical legend quoted by Movers.--_Page 164._