FAUNI. These are wild beasts of the nature of apes, having four paws, but using commonly the hindermost only. Their faces are made almost like a man’s, the forepart is without hair, the hinder part abounds with it. Some of them are found in the Indies, and in the province of Angola. One of them, it is said, was brought to Holland some years ago, where it lived some time. St. Jerom says, that in the Emperor Constantine’s time, one of them was carried to Alexandria, where it pined and died very soon of melancholy. It was imbalmed and brought to the Emperor, who was then at Antioch. The same Saint says, that St. Antony met with one in his way, as he was going to search after St. Paul the Hermit. Plutarch relates, that after the defeat of Mithridates, one of them was carried to Sylla. There are other Fauns, which are the country Deities of the Heathens, described with horns upon their heads, and with the feet of goats.
The Fauns, or Deities of the woods and groves, were not known among the Greeks, but by the Latins only, who kept their festival upon the fifth of December, and sacrificed a Goat to them in the meadows with great rejoicings of all the villages about. Faunus among the Romans, was the same thing as Pan with the Greeks; at least the Fauns were companions to Pan. Notwithstanding they were honoured as Demi-Gods, it was nevertheless believed, that they died after a certain time. The Prophet Jeremiah, and some others, give them the Epithet of Ficarii, which some translate eaters of figs. Several copies read Sicariis, instead of Ficariis, and explain it of some cruel and murderous Fauns; but the reading Ficariis is most generally received. Others derive Ficarii, not from figs, ficus, ficus, but from the word ficus, fici, which signifies a spongy and fibrous excrescence of flesh, which appears in different parts of the body, and principally about the fundament and pudenda, to which the Fauns were believed to be very subject. They are represented exactly like Satyrs, sometimes in a human shape with the tail only of a horse or goat, and sometimes with the ears of a goat and horns. Lastly, they are almost always confounded with the Satyrs, for which reason when any speak of them, they say, Faunus an Satyrus? because they cannot tell whether it be one or the other, both being painted alike.
As to the existence of Fauns, St. Jerom, we know, has done all he can to prove it in his Life of St. Paul the Hermit, but he has not succeeded in persuading many to be of his opinion. There are still multitudes who are incredulous in this point, tho’ the relations we have of Savages, and men born and living in the Sea, might make a thing of this nature less incredible. In some particular places there are Apes to be seen, which very much resemble Fauns and Satyrs; and are so ingenious and diverting, as to persuade one that they have understanding. It is very probable, that the ancients who honoured Fauns, Sylvani, Pans, and Satyrs, both spoke and thought of them as they did of Tritons, Nymphs, and Nereids: they imagined there were certain Genii, who reigned in the woods, fields, and desarts, in the sea, and waters; and superstition afterwards framed such bodies for them as it pleased, as our Painters give such as they think fit to Angels, and Demons, to Virtues, Vices, Towns, Provinces, to the Gods of Rivers, and Goddesses of Fountains, &c.
In the passage cited out of Jeremiah, the import of the Hebrew is this, a The Ziims dwelt there with the Ijims; and we find the same terms in Isaiah xxxiv. 14. where, according to the Vulgate, we read, Devils and onocentaurs shall meet there. In the Hebrew, b The Ziims shall meet with the Ijims. Upon comparing all the passages where we find these terms, it appears to us, that Ziim signifies fishermen, mariners, seafaring men; and Ijim Isles; and that this place in Jeremiah may be translated thus, The fishermen shall inhabit the Isles. And that in Isaiah thus, The fishermen, or they who shall sail into this country, will meet with Islands. That is to say, Babylon shall be destroyed in such a manner, that the waters shall cover its very ruins, and the fishermen and mariners, who shall pass by, shall see there nothing but some Islands, formed by the heaps of its ruins.