rous lamps, kindled around, blaze forth with purer fplendor and more vigorous energy. The two following paffages in the Sacontala, quoted, I believe, before, will evince at once the use and the antiquity of the use of this ingredient in the Indian facrifices. My fweet child, there has been a happy omen: the young brahmin who officiated in our morning facrifice, though his fight was impeded by clouds of fmoke, dropped the clarified butter into the very centre of the adorable flame." (6 My best beloved, come and walk with me round the facrificial fire. May these fires preferve thee! fires, which spring to their appointed stations on the holy hearth, and consume the confecrated wood, while the fresh blades of myfterious cufa-grafs lie fcattered around them! facramental fires, which deftroy fin with the rifing fumes of clarified butter!" P. 47.

It has already been obferved, that, one indifpenfable ceremony in the Indian Pooja is the ringing of a small bell by the officiating brahmin. We have alfo feen, that the women of the idol, or dancing girls of the pagoda, have little golden bells faftened to their feet, the foft harmonious tinkling of which vibrates

in

in unison with the exquifite melody of their voices.

The BELL, in fact, feems to have been a facred utenfil of very ancient ufe in Afia. Golden bells formed a part of the ornaments of the pontifical robe of the Jewish highpriest, with which he invested himself upon those grand and peculiar festivals, when he entered into the fanctuary. That robe was very magnificent, it was ordained to be of fky-blue, and the border of it, at the bottom, was adorned with pomegranates and gold bells intermixed equally, and at equal diftances. The ufe and intent of these bells are evident, from the paffage immediately following. And it shall be upon Aaron to minister, and bis found fhall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not. Ezekiel, xxviii. 23. He was never to make his appearance before the fhechinah of glory without this richly-ornamented tunic, and he was forbidden to wear it except when engaged in the most folemn rites of his miniftry. The found of the numerous bells, that covered the hem of his garment, gave notice to the affembled people that the most awful ceremony of their religion had commenced, "When arrayed in this garb, he

bore

bore into the fanctuary the vessel of incense. It was the fignal to proftrate themselves before the Deity, and to commence those fervent ejaculations which were to afcend with the rich column of that incenfe to the throne of heaven.

Calmet has a curious article upon this fubject of facred bells.* He tells us that the ancient kings of Perfia, who, in fact, united in their own perfons the regal and facerdotal office, were accustomed to have the fringes of their robes adorned with pomegranates and golden bells: that the Arabian courtisans, like the Indian women, have little golden bells faftened round their legs, neck, and elbows, to the found of which they dance before the king; and that the Arabian princeffes wear golden rings on their fingers, to which little bells are fufpended, as well as in the flowing treffes of their hair, that their fuperior rank may be known, and they themselves, in paffing, receive the homage due to their exalted station.

To return from this digreffion to the founding of facred bells in the service of the Indian deities, I am of opinion, that there is another reafon for the invariable use of them in the ceremonials

* See Calmet's Dictionary on the word BELL.

ceremonials of the pagoda. It is connected with their notions of evil dæmons, who are supposed to moleft the devotee in his religious exercises, by affuming frightful forms in order to inspire terror into his foul, and detach his thoughts from the fteady contemplation of the benignant numen. "Oh king, exclaim the terrified brahmins in the Sacontala, while we are beginning our evening facrifice, the figures of blood-thirfty dæmons, embrowned by clouds, collected at the departure of day, glide over the facred hearth, and fpread confternation around." P. 205.

The vibration of the facred bell, however, was ever heard with horror by the malign dæmons, who fled at the found, while the air, being put in motion by it, became purified of the infection which their prefence imparted. From Afia, it is probable, that the bell, with a thousand concomitant fuperftitions, was imported into Europe, and mingled with the rites of a purer religion. Every body knows its importance in the Roman Catholic worship; the ceremony of anathematizing with bell, book, and burning taper; and the thrilling found of the dreadful paffing bell, which not only warns the devout Chriftian to pray for the departing foul of his brother, and to prepare Mm m

to

to meet his own doom, but drives away, said the good Catholics of old time, thofe evil fpirits that hover round the bed of the dying man, eager to feize their prey, or, at least, to moleft and terrify the foul in its paffage into eternal reft. Hence, poffibly, the great price paid for tolling the great bell, whose awful and portentous voice filled those perturbed fpirits with increased astonishment and direr dismay, driving them far beyond the parish bounds into distant charnel vaults and other dreary fubterraneous cavities. This deteftation of the found of bells, fo natural to wicked dæmons that infeft the atmosphere, is pointedly described in the Golden Legend, by W. de Worde. "It is faid, the evill fpirytes that ben in the regyon of th'ayre doubte moche when they here the belles rongen and this is the cause why the belles ben rongen whan it thondreth, and whan grete tempefte and outrages of wether happen, to the ende that the feinds and wycked fpirytes fhold be abashed, and flee, and ceafe of the movyng of the tempefte."*

Mr. Forbes, of Stanmore-Hill, in his elegant museum of Indian rarities, numbers two of the bells that have been used in devotion

• Golden Legend, p. 90.

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