their coincidence I think cannot but be admitted; it being easy to trace, in the original, the uplifted hands, the averted face, the attitude of the legs, as of a person running, and the dagger (the Isle of Gonave in the Bite of Leogane) at his side. The figure of the constellation is running away holding up the skirt of his clothes (the prototype of which clothes is in the small island of Samana) an idea which may have been suggested possibly by the heavy tropical rains to which the island of St. Domingo is subject. If now we further observe that these four constellations are situate in the zodiac near those of Taurus and Gemini, the prototypes of which have already been shewn to be connected with the West India Gulf, I think no doubt will remain that I have thus added the explanation of four constellations more to that of the twelve signs already given but I take occasion to add, that though the prototypes of many more of the constellations are in my opinion geographical, yet it would be erroneous to believe them all to be so : and as that is a remark I have before made on other subjects, and, among them, on the Fables of Esop, so, out of what has just now been said, there arises some confirmation of that remark, as applied to those fables. For if the prototype of the constellation Orion (namely, the Isle of St. Domingo), be observed with its north side uppermost, it will be seen to resemble a tortoise: the head at the east end; the left foot formed by the Isle de la Saone; the right by the promontory near the Bay of Neybe; the left foot at Cape Mole, the right at Cape Tiburon; the shell extending through the north coast: and as it has already been shewn that the Island of Jamaica resembles a hare, if it be recollected that St. Domingo is situate to the eastward of Jamaica, and that though both islands set out together upon the axis of the globe, yet the former (the tortoise) must necessarily come first to the meridian, we shall have a simple explanation of the fable.When these volumes come to be examined by the Public, I much fear it may be thought that the hare has been my example rather than the tortoise; and, indeed, it would have been my endeavour to render them more fit for the public eye; but, during the time of making the last corrections, many interruptions have occurred, the account of which have added a page or two to a somewhat eventful story. END OF THE SIXTH VOLUME. |