essential name of God: The Tetragrammaton or great four-lettered name, which they never mention in common speech: of the time and place when and where they mention it they are very particular, and always with a solemn air. This appellative is compounded of four notes, used only in their most sacred ceremonies. The first, Yab, is pronounced quite short in a base key; then in like manner retreating backwards and facing each other with their heads bowing forward, their arms across, rather below their breast, and their eyes half shut: thus, in a very grave, solemn manner, they sing on a strong bass key the awful monosyllable O, for the space of a minute: then they strike up majestic, He, on the treble with a very intent voice as long as their breath allows them; and on a bass key, with a bold voice and short accent, they at last utter the strong mysterious sound, Wah, and thus finish the great song, or most solemn invocation of the divine essence. The notes together compose their sacred mysterious name, Yo-He-Wah. As a further illustration of this subject I shall add Mr. Adair's account of one of their great festivals: "While their sanctified new fruits are dressing, a religious attendant is ordered to call six of their old beloved women to come to the temple and dance the beloved dance with joyful hearts, according to the old beloved speech. They cheerfully obey, and enter the supposed holy ground in solemn procession, each carrying in her hand a bundle of small branches of various green trees, and they join the same number of old magi, or priests, who carry a cane in one hand adorned with white feathers, having likewise green boughs in the other hand, which they pulled from their holy arbor and carefully place there, encircling it with several rounds. These beloved men have their heads dressed with white plumes, but the women are decked in the finest attire and anointed with bear's grease, having small tortoise shells and white pebbles fastened to a piece of white dressed deer-skin which is tied to each of their legs. "The eldest of the priests leads the sacred dance a-head of the innermost row, which of course is next the holy fire. He begins the dance round the supposed holy fire by invoking Yah after their usual manner on a bass key, and with a short accent; then he sings Yo Yo, which is repeated by the rest of the religious procession, and he continues his sacred invocations and praises, repeating the divine word or notes, till they return to the same point of the circular course where they began, then He-He in the same manner, and Wah-Wah. While dancing they never fail to repeat those notes, and frequently the holy train strike up Hallelu, Hallelu, then Halleluiah, Hallelu Yah, and Alleluiah, and Allelu Yah, Irradiation to the divine essence,' with great earnestness and fervor, till they encircle the altar, while each strikes the ground with right and left feet alternately, very quick but well timed. Then the awful drums join the sacred choir, which incite the old female singers to shout forth their pious notes and grateful praises before the divine essence, and to redouble their former quick joyful steps, in imitation of the leader of the sacred dance and the religious men a-head of them. What with the manly strong voices of the one and the shrill notes of the other, in concert with the bead shells and the two sounding drum-like earthen vessels, with the voices of the musicians who beat them, the reputed holy ground echoes with the praises of Yo-He-Wah. Their religious singing and dancing in these circles round the sacred fire appears to have a reference to a similar religious custom of the Hebrews; and may we not reasonably suppose that they formerly understood the psalmis or divine hymns; at least those that begin Hallelu Yah; otherwise how came all the inhabitants of the extensive regions of North and South America to have, and retain, those very expressive Hebrew words? Or how repeat them so distinctly, or apply them after the manner of the Hebrews in their religious acclamations? The like cannot be found in any other countries." In another place2 Mr. Adair mentions that "Laet, in his description of America, and Escarbotus, assure us they often heard the South American Indians repeat the sacred word Hallelujah, which made them admire how they first attained it. And Malvenda says that the natives of St. Michael's had tomb-stones which the Spaniards digged up with several Hebrew ancient characters upon them, as "Why is God gone away?" and "He is dead, God knows." Had his curiosity induced him to transcribe the epitaph, it would have given more satisfaction, for as they yet repeat the divine essential name Yo-HeWah, so as not to profane it when they mourn for their dead, it is probable they would write or engrave it in like manner when they first arrived at this main continent." Numbers ix. 6. Leviticus v. 2." And there were certain men who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day. Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcase of an unclean beast, or a carcase of unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him he also shall be unclean and guilty." Whosoever," (says Lucian)" has seen a dead body must not visit the temple of Hierapolis till the next day; and after purification, the relations of the deceased are not suffered to enter for thirty days, and then must have their heads shaved.": "In Japan they abstain from animal food, are very loth to shed blood, and will not touch any dead body. Whenever any one transgresses in any of these points, he is considered as unclean for a longer or a shorter term."4 "When a person of eminence dies, even if a child of the superior class, he is preserved and not buried, unless he died of some contagious or offensive disease. They take out the viscera and dry the body with cloth, anointing it within and without with the perfumed oil, and this is frequently repeated. The person who performs this office is counted unclean, and may not touch provisions or feed himself for a month."5 Adair, p. 96. 2 Adair's Indians, p. 214. 3 Lucian de dea Syria, p. 510. 4 Thunberg's Travels, V. iv. p. 20. "Les Brames Vaidigeurs peuvent se marier, mais ils ne doivent vivre que d'aumones & s'abstenir ainsi que les prêtres Egyptiens de tout ce qui a vie. Il leur est défendu d'assister aux enterremens, et ils ne peuvent entrer dans une maison ou se trouve un cadavre que dix jours après qu'on l'en a retiré." "La maison d'un defunt reste souillée pendant dix jours: mais ce temps etant passé, le chef de famille, après s'être purifié, la benit par des aspersions d'eau lustrale.” Leviticus xvi. 21.-" And he shall bring the live goat, and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all the iniquities into a land not inhabited, and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness." "There was one lambutus, from his youth studious and learned. His father being a merchant, he applied himself likewise to that calling, but as he travelled through Arabia to that part of the country where spices most abounded, he and all his company fell into the hands of thieves. At first, he was made a shepherd, together with another of his fellow captives. Afterwards he was again taken by Ethiopian skulkers and carried away into the maritime parts of Ethiopia. And they were thus stolen and carried away, that (being strangers) by them they might purge and expiate the land. For the Ethiopians there had a custom anciently used among them, and appointed by the oracles of the Gods twenty generations before, i. e. six hundred years (every generation comprehending thirty years) that the land should be purged by two men who were strangers. They prepared therefore a little ship, yet sufficient to endure the storms at sea, and easily to be governed by two men. Upon this ship they put the men with six months' provisions, that (according to the direction of the oracle) they might sail away in a direct course to the South in order to arrive at a fortunate island where they might find people that were gentle and kind, with whom they might live happy lives. And that if they arrived safe at the island, they told them their own nation from whence they came should enjoy peace and prosperity for 600 years to come. But if they were affrighted at the length of the voyage, and should returu again, they told them that, like impious wretches and destructive to the nation, they should undergo the most severe púnishments. Then they say the Ethiopians kept a festival upon the sea shore, and after splendid sacrifices crowned the purgators with garlands and sent them away, and so perfected the purgation of the nation. These two men (they say) being posted for four months together, having passed over a vast ocean, after many storms and hardships at sea, at last arrived at the island designed in the 4th month."3 Having led the animal destined and marked for the purpose to 66 Voyage aux Indes Sonnerat, V. i. p. 88. 3 Diod. Sic. B. 11. c. iv. p. 81, 2 Ibid. p. 164, the altar, they kindle a fire, a libation of wine is poured upon the altar, the god is solemnly invoked, and the victim is then killed. They afterwards cut off his head and take the skin from the carcase. Upon the head they heap many imprecations. Such as have a market-place at hand carry it there, and sell it to the Grecian traders. If they have not this opportunity, they throw it into the river. They imprecate the head by wishing that whatever evil menaces those who sacrifice, or Egypt in general, it may fall upon that head. This ceremony respecting the head of the animal, and this mode of pouring a libation of wine upon the altar, is indiscriminately observed by all the Egyptians. In consequence of the above, no Egyptian will on any account eat of the head of a beast." A custom founded probably upon this Jewish practice is common in Africa. Mr. Parke, p. 43. thus describes it: "We had not travelled more than a mile before my attendants insisted on stopping, that they might prepare a saphie or charm, to insure us a safe journey. This was done by muttering a few sentences and spitting upon a stone which was thrown before us in the road. The same ceremony was repeated three times, after which the negroes proceeded with the greatest confidence, every one being firmly persuaded that the stone (like the scape goat) had carried with it every thing that could induce superior powers to visit us with misfortune."' Mr. Bruce relates the following anecdote illustrative of the same .custom. In the place in which he then was he found, "that upon some discussion the garrison and townsmen had been fighting for several days, in which disorders the greatest part of the ammunition of the town had been expended, but it had since been agreed on by the old men of both parties, that nobody had been to blame ou either side, but that the whole wrong was the work of a camel. A camel was therefore seized and brought without the town, and then a number on both sides having met, they upbraided the camel with every thing that had either been said or done. The camel had killed men, he had threatened to set the town on fire; the camel had threatened to burn the Aga's house and the castle, he had cursed the grand signor and the sheriff of Mecca, the sovereign of the two parties, and the only thing the poor animal was interested in, he had threatened to destroy, the wheat that was going to Mecca. After having spent great part of the afternoon in upbraiding the camel, whose measure of iniquity, it seems, was near full, each man thrust him through with a lance, devoting him Dijs manibus et Diris, by a kind of prayer, and with a thousand curses on his head. After which every man retired fully satisfied as to the wrongs he had received from the camel.” 2 The following is extracted from the Cumarica Chanda, and is stated to have occurred A. C. 315. About the time of Alexander's invasion of India, Chanacya, a wicked and revengeful priest, that he might establish the base-born Chandra-gupta on the imperial throne, 2 Herod. Euterpe. 39, V.i. p. 263. Bruce, Vol. i. p. 251. caused his eight royal brothers, the legitimate sons of his father, to be murdered. After this paroxysm of revengeful rage was over, Chanacya was exceedingly troubled in his mind, and so much stung with remorse for his crime, and the effusion of human blood which took place in consequence of it, that he withdrew to Sucla Tertha, a famous place of worship on the banks of the sacred river of Kerbudda in Guzerat, to get himself purified. Thus having gone through a most severe course of religious austerities and expiatory sacrifices, he was directed to sail upon the river in a boat with white sails, which, if they turned black, would be to him a sure sign of the remission of his sins, the blackness of which would attach itself to the sails; thus it happened, and he joyfully sent the boat adrift with his sins into the sea. This ceremony, or another very similar to it, is performed to this day at Sucla Tertha, but instead of a boat they use a common earthen pot, in which they light a lamp, and send it adrift with the accumulated load of their sins.” * JO. GAGNIERII ECLOGA IN LAUDEM IN our XVIIth No. p. 47. after having produced the following words of J. L. Mosheim: "Hodie, quanquam pauci Anglorum Latinam curant eloquentiam, sunt tamen nonnunquam inter eos, qui ipsos ad certamen veteres provocare possint: exemplo esto elegantissima Jo. Gagnierii Carolina seu Ecloga in Laudem Principis Walliæ, cui Theod, Hasaus merito Bibl. Brem. T. iv. p. 376. (Bremæ 1720.) locum dedit." J. L. Mosheim ad Morhofii Librum de Pura Dictione Latina, Hanov, 1725,: we added that we should not fail to republish this excellent com position in our miscellany, if any of our correspondents would favor us with a copy of it. We are now enabled to gratify our juvenile readers, as Professor BOISSONADE has most obligingly transcribed it for our use. 2 CAROLINA, ECLOGA, CORYDON, MELIBUS, THYESIS, MENALCAS, EGON. Corydon. Thyrsis adest, Meliboe; venit quoque ab Urbe Menalcas. 1 Forbes' Oriental Memoirs, Vol. ii. p. 234. 2 Ut misceatur magis magisque utile dulci, quo omne ferri punctum ille judicabat, et tædium, quod magis ac par erat, ex sanctiorum ac severiorum |