plaited together. The whole constitutes a parcel of considerable size, from which various articles are suspended, such as tobacco and the roots of certain plants. No person dares to open the coverings of the sacred deposit, in order to expose the shell to view. Tradition informs them that curiosity induced three different persons to examine the mysterious shell, who were immediately punished for their profanation by total blindness. Previously to undertaking 1 a national expedition against an enemy, the sacred shell is consulted as an oracle. For this purpose the maji of the band seat themselves around the great medicine lodge; the lower part of which is hung round and thrown open like curtains, and the extreme envelope is carefully removed from the mysterious parcel, that the shell may receive the air. During this ceremony, an individual occasionally inclines his head forwards, and listens attentively to catch some sound which he expects to issue from the shell," this is considered as a favourable omen, and the nation prepares for the projected expedition with a confidence of success."

"They are," adds Major Long, "of opinion that the WAHCONDAH has been more profuse of his gifts, especially the knowledge of letters to the white people, than to themselves. They consider the result of experience thus easily

1 Adair, speaking of Indian "cities" (or places) "of refuge," says, with reference to the ark which went out to the war, "I observed that if a captive taken by the reputed power of the holy things of their ark, should be able to make his escape into one of these beloved towns, or even into the winter house of the archimagus, he is delivered," &c. "It is also worthy of notice that they never place the ark on the ground. They rest it on stones, or short logs, where they also seat themselves. And when we consider in what a surprising manner the Indians copy after the observances of the Hebrews and their strict purity in the war camps; that opae, "the leader," obliges all, during the campaign, which they have made with the beloved ark, to stand every day they are not engaged in warfare from sun-rise to sun-set, and after a fatiguing days march, and scanty allowance, to drink warm water embittered with the snake-root in order to purification; that they have also as strong a faith in the power of their ark as ever the Israelites had of old, ascribing the success of one party to their stricter adherence to the law than the other. We have strong reason to conclude them of Hebrew origin.

transmitted, "like the operation of some mystic medicine." "But they claim a superiority in natural intelligence," &c.

"They esteem themselves more generous, brave, and hospitable to strangers than the white people, and these benificent virtues with them, mark "the perfect man." If a white man or stranger enters the habitation of an Indian, he is not asked if he has dined, or if he is hungry,—but independently of the time of the day or night, the pot is put on the fire, and if there is a single pound of venison in the possession of the family, that pound is cooked and set before him."

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FESTIVALS.

It has been justly remarked that "ancient customs become modified by change of situation and circumstance, after a great lapse of time."

The transference of the Levitical economy to the New Continent is a striking comment on this observation; for in reflecting on that disregard of "the statutes and judgments of the LORD, which had caused their expatriation, the tribes seem in their 'outcast' state to have even zealously continued for more than two thousand years in such a modified observance of these, as change of situation and circumstances, and want of the written WORD admitted.

In failing to be governed and instructed by the revealed mind of God in their Land, they were to experience, as an act of retribution, the want of it when "afar off." Hence the prophet foretold, that "not a famine of bread and water, but of hearing the words of the LORD," should be their punishment—a famine which they should deeply feel and

deplore, when they should "wander from sea to sea, &c. to seek the Word of the LORD, and should not find it.”1

Hieroglyphic and other painted records, together with oral tradition, became a substitute for the written WORD, but these artificial means were comparatively cold and ambiguous, and however they might have traced the outlines of their ritual and historical peculiarities, they could not enter into the minute detail of these, and were moreover subject to more or less of that tincture of error which necessarily accompanies such mediums of conveyance.

"Language," observes a late Hebrew critic," is subject to three qualifications, viz. 2 (cogitative), (organic), and (writing). There is an inherent connection between these three qualifications; the first terminates in the first person; the second is to deliver verbatim to the second person present; but the third is to communicate to persons absent and to posterity. These three qualifications are infallibly absolute and essential objects to man as an intellectual being. A man when deficient of this triplex is an unfinished being." 2

"Four times a day," writes Clavegero, "They offered incense—namely, at day-dawn, mid-day, sunset, and at midnight. The last offering was made by the priest whose turn it was to do so, and the most respectable officers of the Temple attended it.”

"For incense on certain Festivals they employed the bitumen of Judea, but usually they burned copal or other aromatic gums. The censers were either of clay or of gold. The Hebrews had a rejoicing Festival on the ingathering,

1 There is a self-constituted famine more grievous in its character, and more fatal in its results than that under which the outcasts of Israel have been left to pine for a series of ages:-that which in explaining away the integrity of the written WORD (in order to self or party monopoly) starves the heart while it inebriates the mind. Amos viii. 11, 12.

2 Theological and Critical Treatise, by Solomon Bennet, p. 35.

called the Feast of Tabernacles. It was commemorated with temporary verdant booths, in which certain prescribed leafy branches were interlaced in remembrance of their having sojourned in temporary lodges in the wilderness. The willow and palm, &c. emblematic of humiliation and triumph, were united in these tabernacles. It has always been a tradition among them that the triumphant Messiah would come at the celebration of the feast of Tabernacles into HIS BELOVED CITY; and that his herald Elijah, the ancient prophet, would precede that coming six months:-that he would come at the feast of passover to announce His triumphant advent to "restore all things, and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and those of the children to the fathers," preparatory to that event.

"It will be recollected that Peter unmindful of time and season, and not knowing what he said for joy at that demonstration of the identity of the Sufferer and the Victor of which he was an eye witness, exclaimed, "let us make three Tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias."

"The coming of the Messiah therefore is connected (in the warrant of Scripture expectation, as well as traditionary hope) with the Feast of tabernacles, which the Jews believe will then come together with the Jubilee period.

We have this festival in an obscure manner in the following extract from the Abbe Clavegero:

"In their twelfth month (October) they celebrated the feast of the arrival of the gods, which they express by the word Trotlico, which name they gave to both the month and the festival. On the sixteenth day of this month they covered all the temples and the corners of the streets of the city with green branches. On the eighteenth, the gods, according to their accounts, began to arrive. They spread before the door of the sanctuary of the god, a mat, made

of the palm tree, and sprinkled upon it some powder of maize."

"The High Priest stood on watch all the preceding night, and went frequently to look whether footsteps were observable on the mat. Sometimes a cry was made, "Our great God is now come." When all the priests and crowds of people repaired there to greet Him, and celebrate His arrival with hymns and dances, which were repeated the rest of the night."-See Clavegero.

"The feast of trumpets seems to be discernible in the Abbe's description of the following faded memorial: "The second of the four principal festivals, was that which they made in honour of the great God. Ten days before it, a priest dressed in his most elaborate manner, went into the Temple, with a bunch of flowers and a horn or flute of clay which made a very shrill sound. Turning his face toward the east,' and afterwards to the other three principal 'winds,' he sounded the horn loudly, and then, taking up a little dust from the earth with his fingers, he put it to his mouth and swallowed it. Upon hearing the sound of the horn, all knelt down; criminals were thrown into the utmost terror and consternation, and with tears implored the God to grant pardon for their offences," &c. "All the people tasting a little particle of earth, after the example of the priest, who supplicated for favor and mercy."

"The day before the festival, all the virgins and youths, as well as the nobles, wore wreaths. Then followed a procession through the lower area of the Temple, where flowers and odorous herbs were scattered, two priests offered incense to the idol, while the people were kneeling," &c.

He adds, "The dances were more solemn in Tlascala, Huetxotzinco, and Cholula. In like manner the festivals at the beginning of every thirteen years were attended with