-dorus Siculus says, the Troglodytes, the indigenous inhabitants of that very spot, had a tradition from father to son, from their very earliest and remotest ages, that once this division of the sea did happen there, and that after leaving its bottom sometimes dry, the sea again came back, and covered it with great fury. The words of this author are of the most remarkable kind. We cannot think this heathen is writing in favour of revelation. He knew not Moses, nor says a word about Pharaoh, and his host; but records the miracle of the division of the sea, in words nearly as strong as those of Moses, from the mouths of unbiassed, undesigning Pagans.
Were all these difficulties surmounted, what could we do with the pillar of fire? The answer is, We should not believe it. Why then believe the passage at all? We have no authority for the one, but what is for the other; it is altogether contrary to the ordinary nature of things, and if not a miracle, it must be a fable.
The cause of the several names of the Red Sea, is a subject of more liberal inquiry. I am of opinion, that it certainly derived its name from Edom, long and early its powerful master, that word signifying Red in Hebrew. It formerly went by the name of Sea of Edom, or Idumea; since, by that of the Red Sea.
It has been observed, indeed, that not only the Arabian Gulf, but part of the Indian Ocean *[1], went by this name,
- ↑ * Dionysii Periegesis, v.38. et Comment. Eustathii in eundem. Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 765. Agathemeri Geographia, lib. ii. cap. II.
