Note 26 — RADICALS.

This person is looked upon as the father of the Egyptians: on which account one might expect to meet with many memorials concerning him: but his history is so veiled under allegory and titles, that no great light can be obtained. It is thought, by many learned men, that the term, Mizräim, is properly a plural; and that a people are by it signified, rather than a person. This people were the Egyptians: and the head of their family is imagined to have been, in the singular, Misor, or Metzor. It is certain that Egypt, by Stephanus Byzantinus, is, amongst other names, styled Μυαρα, which, undoubtedly, is a mistake for Μυσαρα, the land of Musar, or Mysar. It is, by [26]Eusebius and Suidas, called Mestraia; by which is meant the land of Metzor, a different rendering of Mysor. Sanchoniathon alludes to this person under the name of [27]Μισωρ, Misor; and joins him with Sydic: both which he makes the sons of the Shepherds Amunus and Magus. Amunus, I make no doubt, is Amun, or Ham, the real father of Misor, from whom the Mizräim are supposed to be descended. By Magus, probably, is meant Chus, the father of those worshippers of fire, the Magi: the father, also, of the genuine Scythæ, who were styled Magog. The Canaanites, likewise, were his offspring: and, among these, none were more distinguished than those of Said, or Sidon; which, I imagine, is alluded to under the name of Sydic. It must be confessed, that the author derives it from Sydic, justice: and, to say the truth, he has, out of antient terms, mixed so many feigned personages with those that are real, that it is not possible to arrive at the truth.