Note 189 — Chapter XII · THE STONE OF HERCULES.
Reading edition
No ancient or modern European language affords an etymology for the nautical designation of a fire-place—Cabouse. It is Arabic, and means “a thing consecrated to a mosque.” In Pagan times it would be the temple or the sacrifice. The Phœnician vessels had their altars and their gods, Patacoi. Nautical terms, of which the etymology is unknown, are generally traceable to the Phœnicians—for instance, Davit in Arabic, a bent piece of wood. Cabouse and Davit have disappeared from the Mediterranean, and must have been left amongst us by the Phœnicians.