anecdote relating to the superstitions of some, at least, of the African slaves of our Southern States. It is taken from a letter addressed by Dr. Robert W. Gibbes to Governor Alston of South Carolina, a few years ago. The Doctor writes: "Negroes are generally fatalists, and believe that every one has his time appointed to die; and if it be come, they expect to die; and if not, they will get well without medicine. Frequently I have found the patient's bed turned from its position of the day before, in order that he might die with his face toward the rising sun; and often have I had it re stored, informing them that their time had not come to go home,' as they call it." It is an affecting story, and not wholly out of place here. Doubtless the poor fellows, from a similar feeling, would like to have their eyes, after their sight was gone, turned still in the same direction. The east and their native land, the home of their memory and the home of their hope, would naturally run together in the gleams and shadows of that parting hour.

A further reflection is this. As the eastern quarter of the heavens, both from history and from sentiment, as the point whence religions sprang and the point where the day breaks, would naturally be the religious quarter to the Western nations, whether the head or face of a corpse was studiously deposited in the direction of the Orient, would be equally significant in a religious point of view. There would be the same pious intent; though it would partake, in the one case, more of an allegorical character. If the head were to the east, it would lie nearest to the scene of miraculous events, and to ground considered thrice holy. If the face were to the east, it would, beside such local references or even without them, prefigure the great hope of human souls.

To return to the line-and-a-half of Shakespeare which have given oc

casion to this wide ramble of a disquisition. The action of the play is in Britain, just previous to the Christian era. Britain was then the chief seat of the Druidical institutions. Its religious ceremonies were those of the Druids. Now it would be in the highest degree probable, even before making any researches into the subject, that this religion of sacerdotalism and caste, so unlike anything of European birth, did not originate in that extreme corner of the old Western world. It would be too violent a conjecture that such could be the case. The elder Pliny must have told but a small part of the story in saying that this religion was brought into Britain from Gaul; and Julius Cæsar must have been still further from the fact in saying that it was brought into Gaul from Britain. If you go on into Germany, where it contrived to gain a footing, you will still be a great way off from its primitive domain. Eastward,-still eastward. Its doctrines, its ceremonies, its symbols, and the names of its divinities, closely resembling the Sanscrit, afford large testimony that India was its native soil. Even so early a writer as Aristotle, and Diogenes Laertius after him, rank the Druidic priesthood with the priesthoods of the remotest East; and modern scholarship has followed out that idea with ample confirmations. A writer in the second volume of the "Asiatic Researches" has the boldness to say that "Stonehenge is evidently one of the temples of Buddha ;" and again, "that the Druids of Britain were Brahmins is beyond the least shadow of a doubt." This may be spoken extravagantly, but the general idea that Druidism may be traced back to the Hindoos may be regarded as well sustained. In view of this fact, and especially when we consider how much addicted this worship was to the observation of heavenly phenomena and the cardinal points of the sky,

nothing is more natural than that it should choose to lay the buried body with the head towards the sacred land of the East. The motive would be precisely parallel with that which determined the position of the cruciform church of the Middle Ages.

When, therefore, old Belarius, in the play, prescribes that mode of interment, and "hath a reason for 't," we may be willing to travel to the East Indies to discover what that reason was. And there is fair ground forthinking that there we find it. We are confirmed in this conclu

sion by a certain air of mystery that seems to hang over the passage which is so singularly and abruptly introduced into the dialogue. And since the burial usage in Christian countries was exactly the reverse of the instruction here given, may we not entertain the thought that the universal mind of Shakespeare meant to mark that difference, and to show, by one touch of his art, that the persons of his drama lived at a time when a foreign faith ruled in his native island, and there was as yet no Christendom?

We had been travelling for a good many months through Germany, and had just crossed over from Trieste (that modern Babel, where you hear every language that is spoken under the sun) to Ancona, the nearest port to Rome. From the sea, Ancona looks beautiful enough, and it possesses, in Trajan's triumphal arch, one of the most perfect relics of antiquity; but a very few minutes on shore are quite enough to prove that you are a long way indeed from honest, clean Germany. It makes one almost ill, even now, to think of the dirt, and the beggars, and the cheating we encountered there.

To avoid spending the night in Ancona, we lost no time in hiring a carriage for Loretto, the first stage on our journey towards Rome. We were charged enormously for it, but it broke down before we were fairly out of the town, and an hour or two was wasted in patching up the broken springs. Whenever we came to a hill (and the road for the first day was almost nothing but hills,) our postilions set up a shout-the first time to our considerable alarm. The shout, however, meant no harm, but was intended merely as a signal to any one who might be ploughing near, and the signal was readily understood. A couple of oxen or cows (as was the case in one instance) were taken out of the plough and harnessed as leaders to our team. Our equipage consisted, at such times, of a very rheumatic carriage, and four still more rheumatic horses,-horses and carriage all being drawn up the hill by a pair of oxen; a conductor and a soldier occupied the box, the former intended as our defence against the postilions, and the latter against the bandits; while the ox-driver, goad in hand, walked leisurely by the

side, prickering his poor patient beasts every now and then by way of diversion. And yet, after all, this is the bright side of the picture; for there are no beggars. For example: just at the end of our day's journey we reached the bottom of the hill on which stands Loretto; and full half the town must have been lying in wait for us; men, women, and children—all were intent on begging. They rushed out of their ambush with frantic cries and gestures, all begging in the same tone and almost in the same words, always ending, "For love of Maria Madonna." Some tried flattery: "Your Excellency," "Great Prince General," "A halfpenny." Others attempted to work on our compassion: Fame, fame! I have fourteen brothers and sisters, all orphans, and starving. Date mi qualche cosa." The dirtiest of them all-and no words can describe how dirty an Italian beggar is-squeezed up close in hopes of squeezing something out of us through sheer disgust. They knew well that the steepness of the hill left us at their mercy, for our horses could not go faster than a walking pace. At length, to our vast relief, we found refuge in the dreary, dirty hotel at the top.

It

Except Rome itself, there is no spot in all Italy so sacred as Loretto. No one need be told the reason, for the Santa Casa, or Holy House, has been heard of by everybody. claims to be the very building in which the Virgin lived at Nazareth, in which the angel Gabriel appeared to her, and in which the blessed Lord passed His early life; and its claims are sanctioned by all the authority of the Romish Church: yet at Nazareth itself, as might be expected, is a rival Santa Casa, making equal claim to be genuine. The

tradition is of comparatively modern date, for it can be traced no further back than the fifteenth century, and it is first (Stanley's "Sinai and Palestine," p. 444) recited in a bull of Leo X., bearing the date of a.D. 1518.

The story itself, and the evidence on which it rests, is written in all the languages of Europe round the walls of the cathedral in which the Santa Casa stands. We subjoin the English version from a copy published by authority, which we purchased on the spot :

"THE MIRACULOUS ORIGIN AND TRANSLATION OF THE CHURCH OF OUR B. LADY OF LORETTO. "The Church of Loreto was a chamber of the house of the B. V. nigh Hierusalem in the citty of Nazareth, in which she was born and bred and saluted by the angel and therein conceaved and brought up her sonne Jesus to the age of twelve yeares. This chamber after the ascension of our Saviour was by the apostles consecrated into a church in honour of our B. Lady, and S. Luke made a picture to her likeness, extant therein, to be seene at this very day. It was frequented with great devotion by the people of the country where it stood, whilst they were Catholicks, but when leaving the faith of Christ they followed the sect of Mahomet, the angels took it and carrying it into Sclavonia, placed it by a towne called Flumen, where not being had in due reverence, they again transported it over sea, to a wood in the territory of Kecanati, belonging to a noble woman called Loreta, from whom it first took the name of our B. Lady of Loreto, and thence againe they carried it by reason of the many robberies committed, to a mountain of two brothers in the said territory, and from thence finally, in respect to their disagreement about the gifts and offerings, to the comon highway not far distant, where it

now remains without foundation, famous for many signes, graces, and miracles, whereat the inhabitants of Kecanati who often came to see it, much wondering, environed it with a strong and thick wall, yet could noe man tel whence it came originally til in the yeare M.CC.XC.VI. the B.V. appeared in sleep to a holy devout man, to whom she revealed it, and he divulged it to others of authority in this province, who determining forthwith to try the truth of the vision, resolved to choose XVI. men of credit, who to that effect should go altogeather to the citty of Nazareth, as they did, carrying with them the treasure of the church, and comparing there with the foundation yet remnat, they found them wholy agreable, and in a wall thereby ingraven that it had stood there and had left the place, which done, they presently returning back, published the premisses to be true, and from that time forwards it hath byn certainly knowne that this church was the chamber of the B. V. to which Christians begun then, and hath ever since had, great devotion, for that in it daily she hath donne and doth many and many miracles, one Friar Pavi de Silva an ermit of great sanctity who lived in a cottage nigh unto this church, whither daily he went to matins, said that for ten yeares' space, on the VIII. of September two howers before day he saw a light descend from heaven upon it which he said was the B. V. who there shewed her-self on the feast of her nativity. In confirmation of all which two vertuous men of the said citty of Kecanati divers times declared unto mee Prefect of Terreman and Governor of the forenamed church, as followeth the one cald Paul Kenalduci avouched that his grandfather's grandfather sawe when the angels brought it over sea, and placed it in the forementioned wood, and had often visited it there, the other called Francis Prior, in like sort affirmed, that his grand

father being C.XX. yeares ould, had also much frequented it in the same place, and for a further proof, that it had byn there, he reported that his grandfather's grandfather had a house nigh unto it, wherein he dwelt, and that in his time it was carryed by the angels from thence to the mountaine of the two brothers where they placed it as above said, to the honour of the ever glorious Virgin."

Loretto consists almost entirely of one long street-the very paradise of beggars-tenanted by numberless sellers of rosaries and painted candles; indeed, we began to doubt whether anything else could be purchased in the town. At the end of this long street stands the vast cathedral, massive as a fortress, and flanked by the huge palace of the governor. In the centre of its nave stands the Santa Casa. On the outside it is cased with marble, magnificently carved; but within it has all the appearance of a poor cottage (its size is 37 feet by 16), and its walls are of bare brick unplastered. It is fitted up as a chapel; and over the altar and, if we recollect right, standing a little back, is the famous statue of "Our Lady of Loretto," carved (so the tradition has it) by no less an artist than the evangelist St. Luke himself. It is of wood, and quite black, apparently with age. Once it was covered with jewels, and even still it is richly ornamented. The altar is placed a yard or two in advance of the wall, exactly in front of the chimney of the Casa; and a passage is shut off behind it, by which access is obtained to the fireplace. In the fireplace itself is a sort of fald-stool, or prie-dieu; and

to our astonishment every pilgrim seemed to think his devotions incomplete till he had knelt there and uttered a short prayer, looking up the chimney.

A hundred and twenty masses are daily said within the cathedral walls. In the Holy House, too, mass is continually being recited, and it is considered no slight honour to be allowed to officiate there. Round the outside of the shrine may constantly be seen (as was the case when we were there) troops of pilgrims-old and young, high and low

all slowly progressing on their knees, a well-worn track in the pavement marking (the route. A noble bronze door closes the Casa, and on it there is a prominent figure of our Saviour. Strange to say, unless our eyes altogether deceived us, portions of it had been fairly worn away by the kisses of the faithful, or of the credulous.

But it was time to be leaving Loretto, for many weary miles and many most uninviting meals lay between us and our journey's end. Slowly then we kept travelling on night and day towards Rome. We passed along the vale of Clitumnus, still famous, so they say, for its white oxen. Soracte lay a little to our left, not just then, unfortunately, having its head white with snow; and Tivoli-gelidam Tibur-was glittering in the distance, while the few remains of Veii we passed close by. Then came a turn in the road, and we caught our first sight of Rome. There it lay, miles off, across the desolate Campagna, with little which we could make out except one great glorious dome, towering high above everything else.