For the YEAR 1763. naked. This figure appears by his In the other piece there is an al- 165 which is a kind of fringed fcarf; fcarf, but, notwithstanding, they both hands are wrapped in this prefent a cruife (hydria) to the veneration of the affiftants. It is remarkable, that all these figures have naked feet, and it into the temple to pray. The hawas the custom to enter bare-footed bit of the minifters is a long white robe, which was worn by all the priests of Ifis, and was of linen, whence the name Linigeri. Herodotus relates, that every third day they fhaved all the hair of the body, that they might with more propriety appear before the god whom they served. learned and ingenious perfon in It has been conjectured by a very Italy, that the first of these paintings reprefents a vow made by the upon the fickness of Pompey the Ififian college of Herculaneum, Great, about the 705th year of Naples, and of all the other cities Rome, when the inhabitants of of Italy, offered up public prayers for his recovery. This conjecture accounts for the mixture of Greek and Egyptian priefs; and we have Roman perfonages with the teftimony of Apuleius, that Rome from the time of Sylla; and an Ififian college was established at it is probable that the worship of Ifis was introduced into Greece in the time of Alexander the Great. The rod which one of the figures holds in his hand, calls to mind teftifies, that the Egyptians seeing a paffage of Artaphanes, who the miracles which Mofes performed with a rod, made themfelves a rod alfo, and preferved it In Eufeb. præp. Ev. ix. 4. in the temple of Ifis. Apuleius's defcription of an Ififian folemnity, will also explain many particulars in thefe pictures; the long white linen robes in which both men and women, but especially the priests, are cloathed, the fhaved heads, flutes, fiftrums of gold, filver and brafs, the cruife which the priest carries as the fymbol of the fupreme Deity, gerebat felici fuo genio; and the veil which ferves to cover it, as defcribed by Montfaucon in his account of an Ififian folemnity. A paffage of Vitruvius is alfo quoted on this occafion, which throws confiderable light on the fubje&t, Quum hydriam tegunt, quæ ad Templum ademque cafta religione refertur, tunc in Terrá procumbentes, manibus ad cælum fublatis, inventionibus gratias agunt divine benignitatis f. We learn from Tibullus that prayers were offered to Ifis twice a day : In the morning, that is, at the first hour of the day, as Scaliger remarks, and inthe evening at the eighth hour: the fervice of the first hour was called the opening of the temple, the falutation, and the morning facrifice: Arnobius and Apuleius fpeak of it in many places; and in Porphyry's defcription, the ufe that is made of Autes, fire, and water, is not forgotten. Martial, who is alfo cited by Scaliger, fpeaks of the fervice of the eighth hour, when, after the prayer, the temple is fhut. The learned reader may eafily fee in what manner Apuleius defcribes the return of an Ififian folemnity, which concludes with the vows of Lib. 8. Præf. the priest made at the door of the temple for the prince, and for all orders of the ftate, after which he difmiffes the affiftants by pronouncing the Greek words Aaois aq1o1s, populis missio. Upon a border of one of the pictures in this collection, there appears a volume, or roll, half open, in which many lines, written in Roman characters, are ftill vifible, and the three words quiquis, maxima, cura, are diftinctly legible: it is ftill more remarkable that the q, the r, the u, and the s, are in minuscular character. The obfervations which have occurred upon this particular to the learned fociety to whom the publication of these curious remains of antiquity have been intrusted, will appear when they publish their explanations of the papers that have been found in Hercula neum. Dimensions of a giant cut out on the fide of a very steep hill, near Cerne in Dorfetfhire. TH HIS monftrous figure, viewed from the oppofite hill, appears almost erect, with a huge crabtree club in his hand, raised over his head, juft going to strike a blow, which feems fufficient, as it were, to overturn a mountain. It is fuppofed to be above a thoufand years ftanding, as there is a date between its legs, and the figures are not legible; but it is plain there were but three figures; fo that, even fuppofing them all to be nines, it must have been formed a I Lib. I. Eleg. 3. long ong while ago. Some think it cut by the ancient Britons, and that they worshipped it; others believe it to be the work of the papifts, as here was formerly an abbey, &c. &c. But however that be, the dimenfions, by actual admeasurement, are as follows: Feet. 18 8 9 Ditto of the small of the leg 51⁄2 of the head the top Whole length Breadth of the face 17 80 99 180 14 4 3 5 2 2 . Without giving credit to thefe cir-cumftances, this vafe is however valuable from its antiquity, of which there can be no doubt. N the treasury belonging to the cathedral of Genoa is pre-' ferved, with the greateft veneration, for upwards of fix hundred years, a difh, or rather an hexagon bowl, which they pretend to be made of emerald. It has two small handles, and confifts of one fingle piece: its greatest diameter is about fourteen inches and an half; its height, five inches nine lines; its thickness, three lines. This monument is kept under several keys, depofited in different hands. When it is fhewn, which happens but feldom, and by virtue only of a decree of the fenate, the veffel is let down by a cord, paffed through its two handles, and fufpended around the priest's neck, who prefides at the exhibition; but never goes of his hands. By an ancient decree of the fenate, bearing date 24th of May 1476, it is forbid, 1 under fevere penalties, to approach too near this facred veffel (il facro catino), and much more to touch it with any metal whatsoever. All this apparatus, and these difficulties, feem only fo many precautions taken against thofe who might want to fatisfy themselves by fome proof, fuch as that of the file, or graving-tool, whether the matter of which this veffel is compofed, be really of the hardness of an emerald. 22 2 5. 18 5 Ditto of the hand 7 2 5 From the elbow to the fhoulder 60 Length of the arm Breadth of the shoulder Ditto of the elbow Length of the club 109 22 19 121 22 2 An account of the famous vafe, faid to have been made use of by Solomon, and that alfo n which our Saviour celebrated his laft fupper. From Mr. Condamine's Tour to Italy. twelve hundred marks of gold, and this fum was paid off and the pledge withdrawn twelve years after. This feems to prove, that the great value of the matter of this depofit was at that time without fufpicion. I fee not what prefumption in favour of the matter of this veffel can be drawn from the circumftance of one of its handles being cracked; nor how this proof, which is fuppofed to have been made in the prefence of the emperor Charles V. could afcertain the genuineness of the emerald. The princes Corfini, grand nephews to pope Clement XII. whom 1 had the honour of accompanying from Marseilles to Genoa, having obtained from the fenate the neceffary decree to fee this monument, I availed myfelf of the opportunity in order to examine it. I viewed it attentively, oppofing it to the light of a large taper. The colour appeared to me of a very deep green: I perceived not in it the least trace of thofe icicles, ftraws, clouds, and other defects of transparence fo common in emeralds and other precious ftones of the leaft thickness, even in rock cryftal; but I diftinguished very evidently feveral little voids, refembling small bubbles of air, of a round or oblong form, fuch as are commonly found in cryftals, or glafs, whether white or coJoured. One would not expect that a prejudice of the twelfth century should be blindly refpected in the eighteenth; nevertheless I know not that any modern traveller has combated it; and the Geographical Dictionary of Martinere, edition 1740, fays positively, "that they preferve at Genoa a precious veffel of ineftimable value," which afsertion I am the more aftonished at, as my doubt is by no means new. It is clearly indicated in the expreffions employed by William archbishop of Tyre, about four centuries ago, where he says, that at the taking of "Cæfarea this veffel fell by lot, for a large fum of money, to the Genoefe, who believed it to be an emerald, and who fhew it ftill as fuch, and as fomething wonderful, to ftrangers." For the reft, it belongs only to thofe whom these fufpicions may difpleafe, to deftroy them, if they are not well founded; and I have not entered into this detail, but in the hope that a fact, the clearing up of which is so easy, will not remain any longer in obfcurity; or that this obfcurity, if it fhould continue, will change thefe fufpicions into certainty. I drew the figure and dimensions of the veffel of Genoa, fuch as I now lay them before this affembly, from a work published at Genoa in 1726, by a religious of the Auguftine order, and filled with hiftorical refearches on this fubject. The author leaves undecided the queftion which he proposes to himfelf, whether this precious moveable was brought by the Genoefe from the fiege of Cæfarea in Paleftine, in the year 1101 (as appears evident by the teftimony of William of Tyre) or from the fiege Januenfes.... Smaragdinum reputantes, pro multâ pecuniæ fummâ in fortem recipientes.... ufque hodie tranfeuntibus.... Vas idem quafi pro miraculo folent oftendere, &c. Guill. Tyr. Archiepifc. lib. x. chap. 16. of of Almeria, taken by the Moors in 1147; but he difcuffes with great erudition through what hands the veffel has paffed, fince the queen of Sheba made a prefent of of it to Solomon, to the time wherein it was employed to ferve up the pafchal lamb to our Saviour on the eve of his paffion: this is a point on which our author has not the leaft doubt. As for what refpects the matter of it, he maintains that is certainly an emerald; and his ftrongest argument is, that the matter of a veffel which ferved for the fupper wherein our Lord inftituted the auguft facrament of the Eucharift, could not be too precious. This principle once admitted, would lead the author farther than he defires, and prove that the difh ought to be a diamond. A differtation on Oracles. FEW fuperftitions have been fo famous, and have fo powerfully operated on the minds of mankind during a number of ages, as oracles. In treaties of peace or truces, the Greeks never forgot to ftipulate the liberty of going to oracles, No colony undertook new fettlements, no war was declared, no important affair begun, without firft confulting the oracles. The most renowned were thofe of Delphos, Dodona, Trophonius, Jupiter Hammon, and the Clarian Apollo. Some have attributed the the oracles of Dodona to oaks, others to pigeons. The opinion of thofe pigeon propheteffes was introduced by the equivocation of a Theffalian word, which fignified both a pigeon and a woman; and gave room to the fable, that two pigeons having taken wing from Thebes, one of them fled into Lybia, where it occafioned the establishing of the oracle of Jupiter Hammon; and the other, having ftopped on the oaks of the foreft of Dodona, informed the inhabitants of the neighbouring parts, that it was Jupiter's intention there fhould be an oracle in that place. Herodotus has thus explained this fable: there were formerly two priefteffes of Thebes, who were carried off by Phenician merchants. She that was fold into Greece, fettled in the foreft of Dodona, where great numbers of the ancient inhabitants of Greece went to gather acorns. She there erected a little chapel at the foot of an oak, in honour of the fame Jupiter, whofe prieftefs fhe had been; and here it was this oracle was established, which in after-times became fo famous. The manner of delivering the oracles of Dodona was very fingular. There was a great number of kettles fufpended from trees near a copper ftatue, which was alfo fufpended with a bunch of rods in its hand. When the wind happened to put it in motion, it ftruck the firft kettle, which communicating its motion to the reft, all of them tingled, and produced a certain found which continued for a long time; after which the oracle fpoke. The oracle of Jupiter Hammon was in the defert, in the midst of the burning fands of Africa. This oracle declared to Alexander, that Jupiter was his father. After feveral queftions, having asked if the death of his father was fufficiently revenged, the oracle anfwered, That the death of Philip was re venged. |