THE HE name given to this month by the Romans was taken from JANUS, one of their divinities, to whom they gave two faces; because, on the one side, the first day of this month looked towards the new year, and on the other towards the old one. The titles and attributes of this old Italian deity are fully comprised in two Choriambic verses of Sulpitius; and a further account of him from Ovid would here be superfluous:

Jane pater, Jane tuens, dive biceps, biformis,
O cate rerum sator, O principium deorum!

Father Janus, all-beholding Janus, thou divinity with two heads, and with two forms; O sagacious planter of all things, and leader of deities!'

He was the god, we see, of wisdom; whence he is represented on coins with two, and, on the Etruscan image found at Falisci, with four faces; emblems of prudence and circumspection. Thus is GANESA, the god of Wisdom in Hindoostan, painted with an elephant's head, the symbol of sagacious discernment, and attended by a favourite rat, which the Indians consider as a wise and provident animal.

His next great character (the plentiful source of many superstitious usa2H ATHENEUM VOL. 8.

ges), was that, from which he is emphatically styled the Father,' and which the second verse before cited more fully expresses, The origin and founder of all things.' Whence this notion arose, unless from a tradition that he first built shrines, raised altars, and instituted sacrifices, it is not easy to conjecture: hence it came, however, that his name was invoked before any oth er god-that, in the old sacred rites, corn and wine, and, in later times, incense also, were first offered to Janusthat the doors or entrances to private houses were called Januæ ; and any pervious passage or thoroughfare, in the plural number, Jani, or with two beginnings'-that he was represented holding a rod as guardian of ways; and a key, as opening, not gates only, but all important works and affairs of mankind-that he was thought to preside over the morning or beginning of day-that, although the Roman year began regularly with March, yet the eleventh month, named Januarius, was considered as first of the twelve: whence the whole year was supposed to be under his guidance, and opened with great solemnity by the consuls inaugurated in his fane, where his statue was decorated on that occasion with

fresh laurel; and, for the same reason, a solemn denunciation of war, than which there can hardly be a more momentous national act, was made by the military consul's opening the gates of his temple with all the pomp of his magistracy. The twelve altars and the twelve chapels of Janus might either denote, according to the general opinion, that he leads and governs twelve months; or that, as he says of himself in Ovid, all entrance and access must be made through him to the principal gods, who were, to a proverb, of the same number. We may add, that Janus was imagined to preside over infants at their birth, or the beginning of life.

The Indian divinity has precisely the same character. All sacrifices and religious ceremonies, all addresses even to superior gods, all compositions in writing, and all worldly affairs of moment, are begun with an invocation of GANESA; a word composed of isa, the Governor or Leader, and yana, or a Company of Deities. Instances of opening business auspiciously by an ejaculation to the Janus of India might be multiplied with ease. Few books are begun without the words "Salutation to Ganes;" and he is first invoked by the Brahmins, who conduct the trial by ordeal, or perform the ceremony of the homa,' or sacrifice to fire. Mons. Sonnerat represents him as highly revered on the Coast of Coromandel; 'where the Indians,' he says, ' would not, on any account, build a house, without having placed on the ground an image of this deity, which they sprinkle with oil, and adorn every day with flowers. They set up his figure in all their temples, in the streets, in the high roads, and in open plains at the foot of some tree so that persons of all ranks may invoke him, before they undertake any business; and travellers worship him, before they proceed on their journey. To this may be added that, in the commodious and useful town which now rises at Dharmaranya or Gaya, every new-built house, agreeably to an immemorial usage of the Hindoos, has the name of Ganesa superscribed

on its door; and, in the Old Town, his image is placed over the gates of the temples.-(See Sir Wm. Jones's Works.'

New Year's Day has ever been considered a season of joy and congratulation for blessings received and dangers escaped in the year past, as well as for gratitude to the kind Providence which permits us to witness the commencement of a succeeding one. Among the Romans it was the custom for the people to appear in their new clothes; and the consuls entering upon their office on the first of January, they went in procession to the capitol, clothed in purple, having the fasces (a bundle of rods, inclosing an axe) carried before them by officers called lictors.

The ushering in of the New Year, or New Year's tide, with rejoicings, presents, and good wishes, was a custom observed, during the sixteenth century, with great regularity and parade, and was as cordially celebrated in the court of the prince as in the cottage of the peasant.

The custom of interchanging gifts on this day, though now nearly obsolete, was, in the days of Shakspeare, observed most scrupulously; and not merely in the country, but, as hath been just before hinted, even in the palace of the monarch. In fact, the wardrobe and jewelry of Elizabeth appear to have been supported principally by these annual contributions.

The greatest part, if not all the peers and peeresses of the realm, all the bishops, the chief officers of state, and several of the Queen's household servants, even down to her apothecaries, master cook, serjeant of the pastry, &c. gave New Year's gifts to Her Majesty; consisting, in general, either of a sum of money, or jewels, trinkets, wearing apparel, &c. The largest sum given by any of the temporal lords was £20; but the Archbishop of Canterbury gave £40, the Archbishop of York £30, and the other spiritual lords £20, and £10; many of the temporal lords and great officers, and most of the peeresses, gave rich gowns, petticoats, kirtles,silk stockings, cypress garters, sweet

bags, doublets, mantles, some embroidered with pearls, garnets, &c. lookingglasses, fans, bracelets, caskets studded with precious stones, jewels ornamented with sparks of diamonds in various devices, and other costly trinkets.

The Queen, though she made returns in plate and other articles, took sufficient care that the balance should be in her own favour; hence, as the custom was found to be lucrative, and had indeed been practised with success by her predecessors on the throne, it was encouraged and rendered fashionable to an extent hitherto unprecedented in this kingdom. In the country, however, with the exception of the extensive households of the nobility, this interchange was conducted on the pure basis of reciprocal kindness and good will, and without any view of securing patronage or support; it was, indeed, frequently the channel through which charity delighted to exert her holy influence, and, though originating in the heathen world, became sanctified by the Christian virtues.-See Dr. Drake's Shakspeare and his Times.

Soft floated the clouds in the fields of blue ether; The earth with fresh flowers was still covered o'er; Like Egypt's enchantress, whom age could not with

er,

regions, by preventing the conveyance of the iron ore from the mines in Sweden to the smelting houses; and in Russia, the carriage of goods from the interior to the seaports for exportation, which is regularly done in the winter, when the hard frozen ground, covered with snow many feet deep, affords a solid, even, and commodious road.

Usually at this season, dense fogs are among the atmospheric phenomena of the Arctic Regions; their effect is often such as not only to render the needle's motion sluggish, but sometimes even wholly to arrest its activity. This occurred to Capt. Fox, in 1631, when on a voyage to discover the north-west passage: at Nottingham Island (in Hudson's Bay), he found that the needle had lost its power. One of these thick fogs and its singular effects is thus beautifully described by Mr. Montgomery :—

The Sun retires,

more.

The voice of delight was long heard from the thorn,
Its tenants no end to their happiness knew;
The evening of love was as sweet as its morn,
And the bird of the spring lingered all the year
thro'.

And even that day, whose return we revere,

Though often it lours in our northern skies, Arose with mild aspect, unclouded, and clear, As of old it appeared to the Bethlemites' eyes.

Such is the poetical description of the winter of 1818-19, as it was experienced in England. The singularly mild temperature of this winter, and the want of frost and snow, was equally observed in almost all parts of the European Continent, as well as in the American. This was the case even in Lapland, to the north of Tornea, where, instead of the usual cold of 20° of Reaumur, they had 6° of warmth. This want of frost and snow proved a serious inconvenience in these northern

Navies at anchor, mountains, woods, and streams,
Where all is strange, and nothing what it seems;
Till deep involving gloom, without a spark
Of star, moon, meteor, desolately, dark,
Seals up the vision:-then the pilot's fears
Slacken his arm; a doubtful course he steers,
Till morning comes, but comes not clad in light;
Uprisen day is but a paler night,
Revealing not a glimpse of sea or sky;

The ship's circumference bounds the sailor's eye.
So cold and dense the impervious fog extends,
He might have touched the point where being ends;

His bark is all the universe; so void

The scene, as though creation were destroyed,
And he and his few mates, of all their race,

Were here becalmed in everlasting space.

Refraction, also, that variation which the rays of light suffer in passing through mediums of different densities, and which causes the heavenly bodies to appear at a greater height than they really are, occasions, likewise, an appearance in the sun and moon, rarely assumed by them in lower latitudes. By reason of this influence, they sometimes appear of an oval figure near the horizon; for the under side being more refracted than the upper, the perpendicular diameter is less than the horizontal one, which is not affected by refraction.

SOME

ACCOUNT OF A SUTTEE.

IE late publications have assumed a convulsed and irritated tone on the subject of the fearful sacrifices to which Hindoo devotees think themselves called upon to make under a state of mind which unites the most obscure views of religious obligation with the most sincere obedience to apprehended duty. It is insinuated that offerings of life on the altar of superstition, which appear to be voluntary, are in reality compelled. It is, therefore, more than ever important to collect the testimonies of persons of character, whose near observation of each individual case enables them to convey a distinct representation of the scene.

Burdwan, Nov. 27.

I was yesterday evening present at the awful ceremony of a woman burning herself with the corpse of her husband. I was conducted to the house of the deceased, who was of the husbandman cast. I found the body laid on a mat, the widow seated by it, getting her hair combed. When she saw me, she crept on her knees towards me, begging permission to burn herself with the body of her husband.

As soon as the magistrate's leave arrived for the awful ceremony, the relatives placed the corpse on a bier, which they carried, and on which the widow

BY AN EYE WITNESS.

was seated. She was carried to the place of funeral, amidst a large crowd, on whom she scattered parched grain. The funeral pile was made in a hollow cone dug in the earth, about four feet deep, and five feet diameter at the mouth. It was lined with dry wood, and partly filled with combustibles. After the widow had bathed in an adjacent tank, the corpse was placed in the cone. At this time she was so exhausted that a relation was obliged to bear her up in his arms.

When again on her feet, she tore off a part of her robe, and wrapt it round her eldest son, a child about eight years old. After this many men and women fell at her feet and kissed them. The victim exhorted the women to follow her example, should they ever be in a similar state. The boy now threw a lighted torch into the cone; it blazed with great fury. The widow walked three times round the cone, throwing in rosin to enliven the blaze from a pot which she held under her arm, then jumped with alacrity into the flames, and seated herself near the corpse. She was in a moment enveloped in flames, which the crowd increased by throwing in tow and other combustibles, and she kept clapping her hands after the epidermis was nearly burnt off her body. Her hands then fell; she was soor