The sacred geese were kept by the ancient Romans in the temple of Juno on the Capitoline Hill. These geese are especially noted in Roman story, because when a party of Gauls climbed stealthily up the steep rock unobserved by the sentinels, and even without disturbing the watch-dogs, the geese gave the alarm by their cackling, and Manlius, being aroused, reached the rampart just in time to push over the foremost Gaul, and thus saved the capitol.

Idris was a mythical figure in Welsh tradition, supposed to have been at once a giant, a prince and an astronomer. On the summit of Cader Idris in Merionethshire may be seen his rock-hewn chair, and an ancient tradition told that any Welsh bard who should pass the night upon it would be found the next morning either dead, mad, or endowed with supernatural poetic inspiration. This tradition forms the subject of a fine poem by Mrs. Hemans; the gigantic size of the chair is alluded to in Tennyson's "Geraint and Enid."

The name of Bucentaur was that of the state-galley in which the former Doges of Venice used to sail out every year on Ascension Day, amid great festivities, in order, by sinking a ring into the sea, to wed it in token of perpetual sovereignty. The word signifies a monstrous figure of half bull half man, such as may originally have been depicted on the vessel. The ceremony was already in use in the thirteenth century; in 1798 the last Bucentaur, built in 1722-29, was burned by the French, but some portions, spared for their gold work, are still preserved in the arsenal.

The Griffin is a chimerical creature, and first mentioned by Aristeas about 500 B. C. The griffin is variously described and represented, but the shape in which it most frequently appears is that of a cross between a lion and an eagle, having the body and legs of the former, with the beak and wings of the latter, and the addition of pointed ears. Sometimes the four legs are all like those of an eagle, and the head is that of a cock. The figure seems to have originated in the East, as it is found in ancient Persian sculptures. Amongst the Greeks it appears on antique coins, and as an ornament in classical architecture.

Nectar is the name given by Homer, Hesiod, Pindar and the Greek poets generally, and by the Romans, to the beverage of the gods, their food being called Ambrosia. But Sappho and Alcman make nectar the food of the gods and ambrosia their drink. Homer describes nectar as resembling red wine, and represents its continued use as causing immortality. By the later poets nectar and ambrosia are represented as of most delicious odor; and sprinkling with nectar or anointing with ambrosia is spoken of as conferring perpetual youth, and they are assumed as the symbols of everything most delightful to the taste.

Vishnu, "the Preserver," is the second god of the Hindu triad, now the most worshipped of all Hindu gods. Originally in the oldest Vedas a sun-god, he gradually increased in influence at the expense of other gods, and in the later Purána is the supreme god. Always a friendly god, he became specially the friend and benefactor of man in his avatars or incarnations. The Vishnuite doctrines were gathered into one body in the eleventh century as the Vishnu-Purána. Of twenty principal sects and a hundred minor brotherhoods some are merely local, others are wealthy bodies and wide-spread, and one has grown into a warlike nation, the Jains.

U. I.-9

Damon and Pythias, two noble Pythagoreans of Syracuse, are remembered as the models of faithful friendship. Pythias having been condemned to death by the elder Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, begged to be allowed to go home, for the purpose of arranging his domestic affairs, Damon pledging his own life for the reappearance of his friend at the time appointed for his doom. Dionysius consented, and Pythias returned just in time to save Damon from death. Struck by so noble an example of mutual affection, the tyrant pardoned Pythias, and desired to be admitted into their sacred fellowship.

The Sacred Ibis was one of the birds worshipped by the ancient Egyptians, and was supposed, from the color of its feathers, to symbolize the light and shade of the moon. Its feathers were supposed to scareand even kill the crocodile. It appeared in Egypt at the rise and disap, peared at the inundation of the Nile, and was said to deliver Egypt from the winged and other serpents which came from Arabia. As it did not make its nest in Egypt it was believed to be self-engendering, and to lay eggs for a lunar month. It was celebrated for its purity, and only drank from the purest water; besides which, it was fabled to entertain the most invincible love of Egypt, and to die of self-starvation if transported elsewhere.

A very engaging though mythical creature is the "brownie", which in Scottish rural districts is believed to assist in the housework at nights. The brownie is good tempered and industrious, but has a great objection to slovenliness and marks his sense of neglect by pinching slatternly maids. Good housewives leave out a bowl of milk for him. If the farm changed hands the brownie usually left, which may explain why there are none now. The resemblance of the Scotch brownie to the Robin Goodfellow, of English, and the Kobold of German folklore is obvious, but perhaps they may be traced further to the lares or hearth spirits of the ancients. The Russian domovoy, Mr. Ralston tells us, lives behind the stove, and in some families a portion of the supper is always set aside for him; for if he is neglected he waxes wroth and knocks the tables and benches about at night. Spirits with the same functions elsewhere are the Lithuanian kanka, the Finnish paara, and the French lutin.

Here and there in the highways and byways of the world many legends and superstitions still linger and continue to retain their ancient prestige. In Galicia, the province northeast of Hungary, the peasants believe that when a star falls to earth it is at once transformed into a rarely beautiful woman with long hair, blonde and glittering. This splendid creature, miraculously engendered, exercises on all who come in contact with her a magical influence. Every handsome youth unfortunate enough to attract her attention becomes her victim. Thus having allured them to her, she encircles them with her arms in an embrace that becomes gradually tighter and tighter until the poor dupes are strangled to death. If certain words are murmured the moment the star starts to fall, they cause her allurements to lose their power. From this superstition springs the custom of wishing, while a star is seen hurrying through the air, a wish said surely to come true if completely formulated before the light is extinguished. The Spaniards saw in the falling stars the souls of their dead friends, the thread of whose existence was cut short by destiny. The Arabs thought these stars to be burning stones thrown by the angels onto the heads of devils who attempted to enter paradise.

Hecatomb, in the worship of the Greeks, and in other ancient religions, meant a sacrifice of a large number of victims, properly, although by no means necessarily, one hundred. As early as the time of Homer it was usual only to burn the legs wrapped up in the fat and certain parts of the intestines, the rest of the victim being eaten at the festive meal after the sacrifice. In Athens the hecatomb was a most popular form of sacrifice; while the thrifty Spartans, on the contrary, limited the number both of the victims and of the sacrifices. In the hecatomb, strictly so called, the sacrifice was supposed to consist of one hundred bulls, but other animals were frequently substituted.

Belief in witches has caused the death of thousands of innocent persons in almost all countries. In England alone it is computed that thirty thousand persons were burned at the stake for witchcraft. The witchcraft frenzy rose to its height in the reign of James I., who wrote a book on demonology. It revived under the Long Parliament, when Matthew Hopkins, the witch-finder, plied his trade (1645-7). Executions for witchcraft were prohibited by an edict of Louis XIV. in 1670. At Salem, New England, in 1692, nineteen persons were hanged by the Puritans for witchcraft. The last execution for witchcraft in England was that of Mrs. Hicks and her daughter, aged nine, who were hanged at Huntingdon in 1716. The last execution in Scotland was at Dornoch in 1722. The laws against witchcraft were repealed in 1736. The last witch was officially tried and executed in 1793 in Posen.

STORY OF THE NIBELUNGEN LIED.

This famous historic poem, which is called the Iliad of Germany, was produced about 1210, and is divided into two parts, and thirty-two lieds or cantos. The first part ends with the death of Siegfried, and the second part with the death of Kriemhild.

Siegfried, the youngest of the kings of the Netherlands, went to Worms, to crave the hand of Kriemhild in marriage. While he was staying with Günther, king of Burgundy (the lady's brother), he assisted him to obtain in marriage Brunhild, queen of Issland, who announced publicly that he only should be her husband who could beat her in hurling a spear, throwing a huge stone, and in leaping. Siegfried, who possessed a cloak of invisibility, aided Günther in these three contests, and Brunhild became his wife. In return for these services Günther gave Siegfried his sister Kriemhild in marriage. After a time the bride and bridegroom went to visit Günther, when the two ladies disputed about the relative merits of their respective husbands, and Kriemhild, to exalt Siegfried, boasted that Günther owed to him his victories and his wife. Brunhild, in great anger, now employed Hagan to murder Siegfried, and this he did by stabbing him in the back while he was drinking from a brook.

Thirteen years elapsed, and the widow married Etzel, king of the Huns. After a time she invited Brunhild and Hagan to a visit. Hagan, in this visit, killed Etzel's young son, and Kriemhild was like a fury. A battle ensued, in which Günther and Hagan were made prisoners, and Kriemhild cut off both their heads with her own hand. Hildebrand, horrified at this act of blood, slew Kriemhild; and so the poem ends.Authors unknown (but the story was pieced together by the minnesingers.) The "Völsunga Saga" is the Icelandic version of the "Nibelungen Lied." This saga has been translated into English by William Morris,

The "Nibelungen Lied" has been ascribed to Heinrich von Ofterdingen, a minnesinger; but it certainly existed before that epoch, if not as a complete whole, in separate lays, and all that Heinrich von Ofterdingen could have done was to collect the floating lays, connect them, and form them into a complete story.

THE SAGAS OF THE NORSEMEN.

A

"Edda" was the name of the Bible of the ancient Scandinavians. saga is a book of instruction, generally, but not always, in the form of a tale, like a Welsh "mabinogi." In the "Edda" there are numerous sagas. As our Bible contains the history of the Jews, religious songs, moral proverbs, and religious stories, so the "Edda" contained the history of Norway, religious songs, a book of proverbs and numerous stories. The original "Edda" was compiled and edited by Sæmun Sigfusson, an Icelandic priest and scald, in the eleventh century. It contains twenty-eight parts or books, all of which are in verse.

Two hundred years later, Snorro Sturleson, of Iceland, abridged, rearranged, and reduced to prose the "Edda," giving the various parts a kind of dramatic form, like the dialogues of Plato. It then became needful to distinguish these two works; so the old poetical compilation is called the "Elder" or "Rhythmical Edda, "and sometimes the "Soemund Edda'while the more modern work is called the "Younger" or "Prose Edda" and sometimes the "Snorro Edda." The "Younger Edda" is, however, partly original. Pt.i. is the old "Edda" reduced to prose, but pt. ii.is Sturleson's own collection. This part contains "The discourse of Bragi" (the scald of the gods) on the origin of poetry; and here, too, we find the famous story called by the Germans "Nibelungen Lied." Besides the sagas contained in the "Eddas," there are numerous others. Indeed, the whole saga literature extends over two hundred volumes.

RIP VAN WINKLE AND OTHER SLEEPERS.

Almost all nations have a tradition about some sleeper, who will wake after a long period of dormancy. Of these the best known to us is Rip Van Winkle, who, according to the legend (Washington Irving's version), was a Dutch colonist of New York, who met a strange man in a ravine of the Kaatskill Mountains. Rip helped the stranger to carry a keg to a wild glen among rocks, where he saw a host of strange personages playing skittles in mysterious silence. Rip took the first opportunity of tasting the keg, fell into a stupor and slept for twenty years. On waking he found that his wife was dead and buried, his daughter married, his village remodelled, and America had become independent.

Epimenidês the Gnostic slept for fifty-seven years.

Nourjahad, wife of the Mogul emperor Geangir, who discovered the otto of roses, slept seven years.

Gyneth slept five hundred years, by the enchantment of Merlin.
The seven sleepers slept for two hundred and fifty years in Mt. Celion.
St. David slept for seven years.

The following are not dead, but only sleep till the fullness of their respective times: Elijah, Endymion, Merlin, King Arthur, Charlemagne, Frederick Barbarossa and his knights, the three Tells, Desmond of Kilmallock, Thomas of Erceldoune, Bobadil el Chico, Brian Boroimhe, Knez Lazar, King Sebastian of Portugal, Olaf Tryggvason, the French slain in the Sicilian Vespers, and one or two others.

INDIAN FOLK LORE.

He

As a specimen of the folk-lore of our own aborigines none can surpass in interest the story of Hiawatha, the prophet-teacher, son of Mudjekeewis (the west wind) and Wenonah daughter of Nokomis. represents the progress of civilization among the North American Indians. Hiawatha first wrestled with Mondamin (maize), and having subdued it, gave it to man for food. He then taught man navigation; then he subdued Mishe Nahma (the sturgeon), and taught the Indians how to make oil therefrom for winter. His next exploit was against the magician Megissognon, the author of disease and death; having slain this monster, he taught men the science of medicine. He then married Minnehaha (laughing water), and taught man to be the husband of one wife, and the comforts of domestic peace. Lastly, he taught man picturewriting. When the white men came with the gospel, Hiawatha ascended to the kingdom of Ponemah, the land of the hereafter. Among many other accomplishments when Hiawatha put on his moccasins, he could measure a mile at a single stride.

He had moccasins enchanted,
Magic moccasins of deer-skin;

When he bound them round his ankles

At each stride a mile he measured!

-LONGFELLOW, Hiawatha, iv.

THE LANGUAGE OF GEMS.

AMETHYST.-Peace of mind. Regarded by the ancients as having the power to dispel drunkenness.

BLOODSTONE.-I mourn your absence. Worn by the ancients as an amulet or charm, on account of the medicinal and magical virtues it was supposed to possess.

DIAMOND.-Pride. Awarded supernatural qualities from the most remote period down to the Middle Ages. Has the power of making men courageous and magnanimous. Protects from evil spirits. Influences the gods to take pity upon mortals. Maintains concord between husband and wife, and for this reason was held as the most appropriate stone for the espousal ring.

EMERALD.-Success in love. Mentioned in the Bible as worn in the breast plate of the High Priest as an emblem of chastity.

RUBY.-A cheerful mind. An amulet against poison, sadness, evil thoughts. A preservative of health. Admonishes the wearer of impending danger by changing color.

SAPPHIRE.-Chastity.

Procures favor with princes.

enchantment. Prevents impure thoughts.

TOPAZ.-Fidelity. Calms the passions.

Frees from

TURQUOISE.-Success and happiness. Preserves from contagion. GARNET.-Fidelity in every engagement. Onyx.-Reciprocal love. Opal.-Pure thoughts. Pearl.-Purity and innocence.

THE GIFT OF SECOND SIGHT.

Second-sight, a gift of prophetic vision, was long supposed in the Scottish Highlands and elsewhere to belong to particular persons. The most common form it took was to see the wraith, fetch, or shadowy second self of some person soon to die, often wrapped in a shroud, or attended with some other of the special circumstances of death or burial.