ABARIS, the Hyperborean, a celebrated sage of antiquity, whose history and travels have been the subject of much learned discussion. Such a number of fabulous stories were told of him, that Herodotus himself seems to scruple to relate them. He tells us only, that this barbarian was said to have travelled with an arrow, and to have taken no sustenance; but this does not acquaint us with the marvellous properties which were attributed to that arrow; nor that it had been given him by the Hyperborean Apollo. With regard to the occasion of his leaving his native country, Harpation3 tells us, that the whole earth being infested with a deadly plague, Apollo, upon being consulted, gave no other answer than that the Athenians should offer up prayers in behalf of all other nations; upon which, several countries deputed ambassadors to Athens, among whom was Abaris the Hyperborean. In this journey, he renewed the alliance between his countrymen and the inhabitants of the island of Delos. It appears that he also went to Lacedæmon; since according to some writers,4 he there built a temple consecrated to Proserpine the Salutary. It is asserted that he was capable of foretelling earthquakes, driving away plagues, laying storms,5 &c. He wrote several books, as Suidas6 informs us, viz., Apollo's arrival in the country of the Hyperboreans; the nuptials of the river Hebrus; Θεογονία or the word Αγαίς Generation of the Gods; a collection of oracles, &c.—If the7 Account Hebrides, or Western islands of Scotland, (says Mr Toland)7 were the Hyperboreans of Diodorus,8 then the celebrated Abaris was of that country; and likewise a Druid, having been the priest of Apollo. Suidas, who knew not the distinction of the insular Hyperboreans, makes him a Scythian; p. 161. as do some others, misled by the same vulgar error; though8 Diod. Sic. lib. ii. iii.