The imagination of the wild inhabitants is seduced, their superstitions aroused, and they yield to a teacher--not succumb to an invader.

It was probably thus, then, that Cecrops with his colonists would have occupied the Attic plain--conciliated rather than subdued the inhabitants, and united in himself the twofold authority exercised by primeval chiefs--the dignity of the legislator, and the sanctity of the priest.

It is evident that none of the foreign settlers brought with them a numerous band.

The traditions speak of them with gratitude as civilizers, not with hatred as conquerors.

And they did not leave any traces in the establishment of their language:--a proof of the paucity of their numbers, and the gentle nature of their influence--the Phoenician Cadmus, the Egyptian Cecrops, the Phrygian Pelops, introduced no separate and alien tongue.