a carved mirror frame in the museum at South Kensington, an exquisite specimen of Italian work of the sixteenth century. At the base is a tuft of Acanthus leaves, into which is set a large letter Y, from which, on each side, springs an acanthus scroll running to the top; and at their juncture is the device of a flaming grenade, on one side of which is the recording angel, on the other a human skeleton. Within the scroll are various animals, symbolic of the virtues; others on the left representing the vices of human nature. Each animal is accompanied by a capital letter, picked out in gold, forming the words Bonum Malum.

The following letter intended to honour the Virgin Mother, is given in a "Short Relation of the River Nile" (1672). The writer says: "Eating some dates with an old man, but a credulous Christian, he said: 'that the letter O remained on the stone of a date for a remembrance that our Blessed Lady, the Virgin, with her divine Babe in her arms, resting herself at the foot of a palm-tree (which inclined her branches, and offered a cluster of dates to her Creator), our Lady plucked some of the dates, and eating them, satisfied with the taste and flavour, cried out in amazement: "Oh! how sweet they are!" This exclamation engraved the letter O, the first word of her speech, upon the date-stone, which, being very hard, preserved it.'"

The following charm was taken from a German soldier during the late war, and brought over to England by an English surgeon. In a lecture which he delivered at Cambridge, he said that the charm was worn and firmly believed in by a large number of German soldiers. The words were copied from a photograph of the original, and a brief account and summary of the German is given in "Notes and Queries."

The charm came down from God in 1724, and hovered about some representation of the Baptism of Mary Magdalene, in Holstein, refusing to be caught, until 1791, when some person had the happy thought to copy it as it hovered. The essence of the charm seems to consist in the letters L, T, L, K, H, B, K, N, K,

pronounced in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Whoever wears the charm need have no fear of thieves and murderers, swords, or fire-arms of any sort, neither will he receive injury from storm, fire, water, or any assault of the Evil One, nor will he be taken prisoner. No bullet will strike him, be it of gold, silver, or lead. Whoever doubts this may hang the chaim round a dog's neck, and shoot at him; he will find that he cannot hit him. The greater part of the charm, however, consists of pious exhortations couched in Biblical language, threats of evil to those who disbelieve in it, and promises a reward to those who believe in it, and do what it enjoins. It concludes with a tale bearing witness of its efficacy, and well calculated to inspire with confidence a superstitious soldier. A certain count in Schleswig-Holstein had a servant, who had given himself up in his father's stead to have his head cut off. The executioner stood up to perform his office, when lo, and behold, his sword was powerless in his hands! The count seeing this, asked the servant how it was that the sword did him no harm, and the servant showed him the charm with its mystical letters. Whereupon the count gave orders that everyone should wear this charm about him.*

* With regard to the superstition of certain words rendering the body invulnerable, Mr. Thoms remarks that in Grübner's "Bilder der Wunderkunst," it is stated that this amulet, or talisman (commonly known as the Passauish Art), was first communicated to the German soldiers, who were quartered at Passau in 1611, by the hangman of the town, who gave them scraps of paper to swallow, inscribed with the mystical words and signs, "Arios: Beji, Glaigi, Ulpke, nalat, nasala, eri lupie," and which, in the belief of the credulous, enabled them, under the command of the Archduke Matthias, to defeat the ill-paid and dispirited forces of his brother, the Emperor Rudolph II.

Grübner mentions that a Jew once presented himself before Duke Albrecht, of Saxony, and offered him a cliarm (Anop), engraved with rare signs and characters, which should render him invulnerable. The duke determined to try it, had the Jew led out in the field, with his charm hanging round his neck; he then drew his sword, and at the first thrust ran the few through.

CHAPTER VI.

NUMBERS.

T°

O what is called Arithmonancy belongs the magical operation of numbers and magical squares, and is derived from the doctrines of the Pythagoreans and Platonists. In estimating these doctrines it must be remembered that all movement, proportion, time, and, indeed, all idea of quantity and harmony may be represented by numbers: hence, whatever may be attributed to the latter, may also be expressed by numbers, as the signs of occult virtues and laws. It is known to philosophers that the movements of nature are rhythmical; physicians have observed this in the periodicity of diseases; and the appointment of the seventh day as a Sabbath has added a religious obligation to this law of nature. The three, the ten, and the twelve, are also numbers of well-known import, and one is the most divine of all, as expressing the unity of God, and the comprehension of all things in perfect harmony.

The use of numbers in divination has assumed many curious forms. It may suffice to mention the Gematria, or first division of the Cabala, which teaches how to cast up the letters of particular words, as numerals, and to form conclusions from the portion between the sum of one text and the sum of another. This method converts the Bible into a book written solely by numbers, and some curious results are obtained.

Some singular properties of perfect, amicable, and other numbers have been elucidated by the late Platonist, Thomas Taylor.

The most valuable remains of antiquity connected with the subject are contained in the "Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster."

The notion that an analogy existed between men's names and their fortunes is supposed to have originated with the Pythagoreans; it furnished some reveries to Plato, and has been the source of much small wit in Ausonius. Two leading rules in what was called Onomancy were first, that an even number of vowels in a man's name signified something amiss in his left side; an uneven number a similar affection in the right; so that between the two, perfect sanity was little to be expected. Secondly, of two competitors, that one would prove successful the numeral letters in whose name, when summed up, exceeded the amount of those in the name of his rival; and this was one of the reasons which enabled Achilles to triumph over Hector.

The Gothic king, Theodoric, is said, on the authority of Cælius Rhodoginus, to have practised a peculiar species of Onomancy on the recommendation of a Jew, and the story is alluded to by Camden. The diviner asked the prince, when on the eve of a war with Rome, to shut up thirty hogs in three different sties, having previously given some of them Roman and others Gothic names. On an appointed day, when the stis were opened, all the Romans were found alive, but withalf their bristles fallen off-all the Goths, on the other and, were dead; and from this prognostic the diviner for Joded that the Gothic army would be utterly destroyed by the Romans, who, at the same time, would lose half their forces.

THE

HE Bedui, a people found in the interior of Bantam, Java, have a superstitious notion of the number one. It is an established rule among them to allot but one day for each of the different successive operations of husbandry; one day for cutting down the trees and underwood; one day for clearing what has been so cut down; one day for sowing the grain; one for weeding the field; and one for reaping; one

for binding up the grain; one for carrying it home. If any part of what has been reaped cannot be carried home in one day, it is left and neglected.

The most ancient Trinitarian doctrine on record is that of the Brahmins. The eternal Supreme Essence, called Parrabrahma, Brehm, Paratma, produced the universe by self-reflection, and first revealed himself as Brahma, the Creating Power, then as Vishnu, the Preserving Power, and lastly as Shiva, the Destroying and Renovating Power. According to the popular belief, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are three distinct deities; whereas the sages who framed the higher doctrines of the Vedas merely regarded them as the three modes in which the Supreme Essence reveals himself in the material universe. Payne Knight remarks that "this tri-form division of the personified attributes, or modes of action of one first cause, seems to have been the first departure from simple theism, and the foundation of religious mythology in every part of the earth."

In ancient mythology Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, the Hellenic Trinity, are represented with a triform symbol; Jupiter with the tripartite, or three-forked lightning; Neptune with the trident; and Pluto with the tricephalic, or three-headed dog, Cerberus.

In the Scandinavian Eddas we have a Trinitarian doctrine n Har, Jafuhar, and Thridi. Adam of Bremen describes the statues of Odin (Woden), Thor, and Frey (Frico), as being placed in the temple of Upsal on three thrones, one above the other.

"It was" (observes Mr. Max Müller in the "Hibbert Lectures," 1878) "a very old conception of life in India, that each man is born a debtor; that he owes a debt, first, to the sages, the founders, and fathers of his religion; secondly, to the gods; thirdly, to his parents." After having paid these three debts a man is considered free of this world.

The Babylonians attached to each of their gods a special mystic number, which is used as his emblem, and may even stand for his name in an inscription. To the gods of the first