whither. Those who consult the urn of Amorgos before they engage in any affair of the last importance, are sure to prove unsuccessful if, upon their first approach, they find the water lower than ordinary. Father Richard assures us, that the islanders annually, at Easter, consult this urn of Amorgos, which, from its fulness or emptiness, presages a plentiful or a bad harvest.

There is a very particular custom observed in the island of Andros, the origin of which, however, has hitherto baffled the most rigid inquiry. At the procession on the festival of Corpus Christi, the bishop of the Romish church, who carries the body of our blessed Saviour, tramples under foot all the Christians, of whatever sect they may be, who lie prostrate before him in the streets. The same custom is observed at Naxos, and the missionary who relates the story adds, that such as have any sick persons in their family bring them out, in order to lie in the way of the blessed Sacrament; and the more they are trodden, the nearer they approach to convalescence.

The inhabitants of some part of the island of Chios are of opinion that a corpse, which is not corrupted in forty days, is transformed into a familiar spirit, or hobgoblin, which is very troublesome and impertinent, knocks at people's doors, and even calls them distinctly by their names. If any person presumes to answer to his call, they think he will most assuredly die in two or three days at furthest.

At Nicaria, near Samos, the inhabitants, who are all swimmers, will not marry their daughters to any but such young fellows who can dive eight fathoms deep at least. They are obliged to produce a certificate of their diving ability, and when a papa, or some substantial islander, is determined to dispose of his daughter in marriage, he appoints a day when the best swimmer is to bear away the prize. As soon as the candidates are all stripped naked, the young lady makes her personal appearance, and in they jump. He who continues longest under water is the fortunate bridegroom.

The Greeks of the Holy Land assert, and firmly believe it to be a real fact, that the birds which fly round about Jerusalem never sing during passion week; but stand motionless and confounded almost all the time, testifying a sympathetic sorrow and compassion for the sufferings of our Saviour.

The sacred fire of the Greeks is a ceremony more superstitious than religious; a whimsical, merry custom, which is very justly a stumblingblock and rock of offence to several serious Mahometans, instilling into their minds a most contemptible idea of the Eastern Christians. In short, it is nothing but a piece of priestcraft, to cheat the too credulous pilgrims out of their money, by making them believe that, on Easter-eve, a fire descends from heaven into the sacred sepulchre. The Turks are no strangers to this pious fraud, but connive at it, because it is very advantageous to them; and the patriarchs on their part declare that they could never pay their taxes, nor their tributes, if this stratagem, however unbecoming the practice of a Christian, should be discovered and exposed. Thevenot has given us the following description of this religious farce. "About eight in the morning the Greeks extinguish all their lamps, and those in the sacred sepulchre. Then they run about, staring like persons distracted,

bawling and making an hideous howling, without any regard or reverence to the sacred place. Every time they passed the holy sepulchre, they cried out Eleyson! that is, ' Have mercy upon us!' It was very diverting to see them afterwards jump upon one another's backs, kicking one another's shins, and flogging each other on the shoulders with knotted cords. A whole crowd of them got together, and taking up some of their comrades in their arms, ran for some time with them round the sepulchre, until, at last, they threw them down in the dirt, and laughed till they hallooed again at their own unlucky gambols. Those, on the other hand, who had thus been made the laughing-stocks of the crowd, ran in their turn after the others, in order to be equally mischievous, and to revenge themselves for the affront which they had received; in short, they all acted like a set of idle fools and merry-andrews. Every now and then they would lift up their eyes to heaven, and hold up their wax-tapers, with outstretched arms, as if they implored the Almighty to send down his celestial fire to light them. After this folly and extravagance had continued till about three o'clock in the evening, two archbishops and two Greek bishops, dressed in their patriarchal robes and coifs, marched out of the choir, attended by the clergy, and began their procession round the sepulchre the Armenians likewise attended, with their clergy, followed by the Coptan bishop. After they had taken three solemn tours around the sepulchre, a Greek bishop came out of the Chapel of the Angel, which is at the entrance of the sepulchre, and informed the individual who personated the Patriarch of Jerusalem, that the sacred fire had descended from heaven. He then entered the holy sepulchre with a large bundle of waxtapers in each hand, and after him the prelate, who represented the Armenian patriarch, and the bishop of the Copti. Some short time afterwards, the Greek archbishop came out in a very whimsical posture, marching with his eyes cast upon the ground, and both his hands full of lighted wax-tapers. As soon as he appeared, the mob crowded upon one another's shoulders, kicking and boxing one another, to reach the prelate, for the purpose of lighting their tapers by that which he held in his hand; because that fire which comes immediately from his, is looked upon to be the purest and most holy. In the mean time the Janizaries, who were the guards of the sepulchre, dealt their blows indiscriminately about them, to make room for the archbishop, who used his utmost endeavours to get clear of the crowd. At last he came to a stone altar, which stood before the door of the choir, and opposite that of the holy sepulchre. Immediately the populace flocked round about him for some of his sacred fire; but those who had lighted their tapers, in their endeavours to retreat, were overpowered by others, who very devoutly struck them with their fists, and took away the fire that had cost them so much labour and fatigue to procure: in short, the gravest of them all threw down and trampled their neighbours under foot, to get close to the prelate. At last, the Greek archbishop withdrew; the Armenian bishop retired to the church of the Armenians, and the Coptan bishop to that of the Copti. In the mean time, the Turks, who kept the door of the holy sepulchre, permitted none to enter but those who paid for lighting their wax-tapers at the lamps of that sanctuary, as those lamps are the first that are touched by the sacred fire. In a few minutes after, the church was illuminated

with above two thousand branches of blazing torches, whilst the numerous congregation, hooting like madmen, began to repeat their former frolics. A man, with a drum at his back, ran with all imaginable speed round the sacred sepulchre, and another ran after him, and drummed upon it with two sticks; when he was tired, a third supplied his place. Devotion, or rather custom, enjoins the Greeks not to eat nor drink that day, till they have received the sacred fire."

Some ascribe the origin of this superstition to a real miracle, which they pretend was formerly wrought in the presence of the whole congregation on Easter-eve, in the church belonging to the holy sepulchre. The Almighty sent down celestial flame into this divine monument, which kindled or lighted again all the lamps, which by the orders of the Church are extinguished in passion week, and thereby indulged them with new fire. Every one was an eye-witness of the descent of this new flame from heaven, which darted from one place to another, and kindled every lamp and taper that was extinguished. It is added, also, that the Almighty, being provoked at the irregularities and disorders of the Christian Crusades, refused to work this miracle one Easter-eve, when they were assembled together in the most solemn manner, to be spectators of the descent of his celestial fire; but that, at last, he vouchsafed to have mercy on them, and incline his ear to their fervent prayers and repeated supplications. The descent of this holy fire continued for seven hundred and fifty years after the time of St. Jerome; but since that period, it has, owing to some reason not easily defined, been wholly discontinued: the most probable conjecture is, that the whole fraud was discovered, and an end was consequently put to the enactment of this religious farce.

This ceremony of the sacred fire, which is so whimsical and extravagant, and so unbecoming the practice of a Christian, has introduced another superstitious custom very conformable to its romantic original. In this same church of the holy sepulchre, there are some men and women who have several pieces of linen cloth lying before them, which they mark from one end to the other with a cross, made by the tapers kindled at the sacred fire. Thus marked, they serve for the shrouds or winding-sheets of these good devotees, and are reserved for that solemn purpose, as the most sacred relics.

Amongst the superstitious customs of the Greeks, may be included the marks which the pilgrims imprint upon their arms, and which they take care to produce as a certificate of their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. These marks are made with some particular wooden moulds, filled with charcoaldust, and afterwards pressed hard upon the arm. As soon as the part is thus stamped, it is pricked with an instrument full of needles; it is then bound up, and a scurf or scab generally rises upon the place, which falls off again in about two or three days; but the blue impression remains ever after.

There is a stone still to be seen not far from Bethlehem which is perfectly white, and which colour we are told is owing to the extraordinary virtue of the Blessed Virgin's milk. The Greeks assure us, that this stone will infallibly fill a woman's breast with milk; and even the Turks themselves, and the Arabians, are so strongly riveted to the same belief, that they oblige their wives, who have sucking infants at their breasts,

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to take a little of the powder of this stone infused in water, in order that the above-mentioned desirable effect may be produced. Mount Sinai, Mount Horeb, the frontiers of the Holy Land, the Holy Land itself, in short, all the countries from the Red Sea to Jerusalem, are, as it were, so many sources which have immemorially supplied the Greeks with fictions, and their bigots with superstition. Upon Mount Horeb the Greeks pretend to show the place in which the prophet Jeremiah concealed the tables of the law, and a particular stone, on which are several Hebrew characters, carved by the prophet himself. According to this idea, they pay to this stone a superstitious homage, which consists of a number of prayers and innumerable signs of the cross, performed with the utmost hurry and precipitation, and consequently with very little zeal or devotion.

The Greeks ascribe to the waters of Jordan, and almost all the fountains of the Holy Land, the supernatural virtue of healing several distempers. The plant generally known by the name of the Rose of Jericho, is, in their opinion, a sure defence against thunder and lightning, and a speedy relief for a woman in the time of her travail. A certain traveller, Morison, assures us, with an extraordinary air of piety and devotion, that this last quality is owing to the Blessed Virgin, of whom that vegetable is the figure or representation.

SEC. II. RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES AND CUSTOMS OF THE RUSSIAN
GREEK CHURCH.

Introduction

Ir is impossible perhaps to settle with any certainty at what period, or by whom, Christianity was first introduced into Russia. What we learn with most appearance of probability is, that the Grand of Christianity Duchess Olga, or, as her name is pronounced, Olha, grandinto Russia. mother to Wladimir, was the first person of distinction converted to Christianity in Russia, about the year 955, and that she assumed the name of Helena at her conversion; under which name she still stands as a saint in the Russian calendar. Methodius, and Cyril the philosopher, travelled from Greece into Moravia, about the year 900, to plant the gospel; where they translated the service of the church, or some parts of it, from the Greek into the Sclavonian language, the common language at that time of Moravia and Russia; and thus it is thought that this princess imbibed the first principles of Christianity. And, being herself fully persuaded of its truth, she was very earnest with her son, the Grand Duke Sviatoslav, to embrace it also; but this, from political motives, he declined to do. In the course, however, of a few years, Christianity is said to have made considerable progress in that nation.

It is fully ascertained that, about the end of the tenth century, the Christian religion was introduced into Russia, chiefly through their connexion with Greece; and coming from this quarter, it was very natural that the doctrine and discipline of the church of Constantinople should become at first the pattern of the church of Russia, which it still continues to follow in the greatest part of its offices. Hence likewise the patriarch of Constantinople formerly enjoyed the privilege of a spiritual supremacy

over the Russians, to whom he sent a Metropolitan whenever a vacancy happened.

Little occurred in the ecclesiastical history of Russia, except, perhaps, the rise of the sect of the Raskolniki, which excited considerable tumults and commotions in that kingdom, till Peter the Great ascended the throne of Russia; who, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, made some remarkable changes in the form and administration both of its civil and ecclesiastical government.

This great prince made no change in the articles of faith received among his countrymen, which contain the doctrine of the Greek church; but he took the utmost pains to have this doctrine explained in a manner conformable to the dictates of right reason, and the spirit of the gospel ; and he used the most effectual methods to destroy, on the one hand, the influence of that hideous superstition that sat brooding over the whole nation; and, on the other, to dispel the ignorance of the clergy, which was incredible, and that of the people, which would have surpassed it, had that been possible.

To crown these noble attempts, he extinguished the spirit of persecu tion, and renewed and confirmed to Christians, of all denominations, liberty of conscience, and the privilege of performing divine worship in the manner prescribed by their respective liturgies and institutions. This liberty, however, was modified in such a manner, as to restrain and defeat any attempts that might be made by the Jesuits and other members of the church of Rome, to promote the interests of Popery in Russia, or to extend the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff beyond the chapels of that communion that were tolerated by law; and particular charge was given to the council, to which belonged the cognizance of ecclesiastical affairs, to use their utmost care and vigilance to prevent the propagation of Romish tenets among the people. All this caution had, no doubt, arisen from the repeated efforts of the designing pontiffs of Rome and their missionaries to extend the papal empire over the Greek churches, under the pretence of uniting the two communions; and, with this view, a negotiation was entered into in 1580, under John Basilides, Grand Duke of Russia, who seems to have had political ends to answer in pretending to favour this union. But, although the professed object of this negotiation failed, the ministry of Possevin, the learned and artful Jesuit, who was charged with the mission on the part of the Roman pontiff, was not without fruit among the Russians, especially among those residing in the Polish dominions.

Proposals for uniting the two communions have been made by different popes, as Honorius III., Gregory IX., Innocent IV., Gregory XIII., and last of all, by the Academy of Sorbonne in 1718; but the Russian Sovereigns and the nation have always remained firm and true to their religion at the same time, all religions, without exception, are tolerated in Russia. In the year 1581, in the reign of Czar John Vasilievitz, Pope Gregory XIII. proposed to that sovereign that the Lutheran clergy should be banished from Russia; but he was answered, that in that country all nations have a free exercise of their religions; and now in Russia there ar Lutherans, Calvinists, Hernhutters, Armenians, Jews, Mahomet Pagans, Hindoos, &c. &c. Roman Catholics are to be met with