LEGEND OF THE PHCENIX
bird^f C ° rdi f I to . anci ? nt writers, the phoenix was a d of great beauty, about the size of an eagle. Only one of these birds could live at a time; but its existence covered a period of 500 or 600 years. When its life drew to a close, the bird built for itself a funeral pyre of wood and aromatic spices, with its wings fanned the pyre into a flame, and therein consumed itself -brom its ashes a worm was produced, out of which another phoenix was formed, having all the vmor of youths The first care of the new g phoenfx was to solemnise its parent s obsequies. For that purpose it made a ball of myrrh, frankincense, and other fragrant
things. At Heliopolis, a city in Lower Egypt, there was a magnificent temple dedicated to the sun. To this temple the phoenix would carry the fragrant ball and burn it on the altar of the tain as a sacrifice.
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Tablet, 7 December 1911, Page 2501
Word Count
168LEGEND OF THE PHCENIX New Zealand Tablet, 7 December 1911, Page 2501
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