of northern Persia all belong, their ziarets | intend the affairs of this world after his The second sect into which the Ansairee are divided is that of the Kalazians, or moon-worshippers; that is to say, they affirm that Ali dwells in the moon, which he created as a palace for himself. When they look at the moon they profess to see Ali himself in the dark parts with the crown on his head and the sword of Mohammed in his hand; he is to them, in fact, a veritable man in the moon. Whilst we were at Mersina and Tarsus we were witnesses ourselves to several disagreeable nocturnal addresses to Ali in the moon from his devoted followers the Arab fellaheen. At full moon it was hard to sleep from the noise they made, beating tambourines, and howling hideously; and to the new moon it is their custom to make low obeisance and other forms of adoration by way of welcome, spreading out the bands as they pray to represent the crescent of the new moon. At Tarsus and Mersina the Arabs are nearly all Kalazians, hence we had a good opportunity of studying their peculiarities. The next sect of Ansairee say that Ali dwells in the air, and commence their prayers with the formula, "O thou who art the air." Ali, they say, pervades everything, is omnipresent and omniscient. The fourth sect say that Ali dwells in the twilight. But of these two latter sects we had no opportunity of forming any opinion; and I presume they are only to be found in the recesses of their own mountains. To all intents and purposes the Ansairee may be said to consist of the two former sects, and all my remarks refer exclusively to them. One of the most curious features of the Ansairee faith is their belief in a Trinity: Ali, the Father; Mohammed, the Son; and Salman el Farsi, the Holy Ghost. Ali, the Father, became man through his veil or representative, Mohammed; and Mohammed appointed Salman to super. Concerning the third person of their Trinity, Salman the Persian - or, as he is more commonly abbreviated, Sin-the Ansairee have many curious legends. They call him "the communicator," the medium by which Ali makes his will known to man; he is supposed to have superintended the creation of the world, and to govern the atmospheric conditions of our globe. The mystery of the covenant of the Ain, Min, Sin, may be said to be the one point which joins all Ansairee together, be they inhabitants of the Mediterranean shores or the mountains of northern Persia. There is something of freemasonry about it; and a body of nomads are said to know their fellows by a certain shake of the hands, and the oath, "I adjure thee, by the faith of the covenant of Ali, the prince of believers, and by the covenant of the Ain, Min, Sin," after taking which oath an Ansairee dare not lie. It is also admitted by all the sects of the Ansairee that the old man, Nasare, born at the village of Nasaria, in Arabia, was the discoverer of this holy mystery; but he is somewhat cast into the shade by another divine, called Al Khusaibi, who perfected their religion, to whom most of the prayers they have now in use are attributed, and who taught that all great men and proph. ets, in all ages, are incarnations of Ali. In his list of incarnations Al Khusaibi includes Plato, Socrates, Alexander the Great, Jesus Christ, and Mohammed, the founder of Islamism; in fact, all the great leaders of various ages; whereas celebrated women, and the wives of these great men, are supposed to be incarnations of Salman Al Farsi, with the curi ous exception of the wives of Noah and Lot. Many of the religious festivals and observances practised by the Ansairee would seem to be of distinctly Christian origin. So that some observers, including Dr. Wolff, have been induced to believe that | Entombment, and hoping thereby to de the religion represents a species of decayed Christianity, and that the name of their founder, Nasari, is really derived from Nazarene. This may possibly be the case, and that the early incentive to mystery and secrecy was to avoid persecution; and that in the lapse of ages corrupt practices crept in, possibly through the instrumentality of Al Khusaibi, the so-called perfector of their religion. This, however, is pure speculation; and, as we find amongst the observances many strong traces of Judaism and pure Mohammedanism, I personally feel inclined to think that the original founders of the Ansairee faith borrowed the points which pleased them best from the religions of the people with whom they were in immediate contact. At all their secret religious feasts the cup of wine forms an important feature. It is called by them "The image of Ali." This cup is first tasted by the sheikh in the south, or the seid in the north, who presides at the feast, and then handed round to those assembled, each recipient kissing the hand of the one who passes him the cup. Women are never admitted into this communion, though the Mohammedans circulate stories concerning the scenes of gross immorality which occur at these festivities; but they say the same thing of the Baabis and other religious sects which do not conform to their ritual; and, from our personal observation, I should not think there is any truth in these calumnies. In Persia a sheep without blemish is roasted at the feasts of the Ali-ullah-hi, the horns and the hoofs being first removed; this is then brought into the assembly-room and placed before the seid, who distributes portions of it to all who are present. But of this ceremony I could find no trace among the Kalazians of the south. The Ansairee have many feast-days in their year. With the Mohammedans, they observe the feasts of Ramazan and Bairam, and with the Christians they observe New Year's day, the feast of St. John the Baptist, Epiphany, St. Mary Magdalene, Good Friday, and Christmas. On the feast of Epiphany, which they call "Yetas," the Ansairee of Tarsus may be seen in crowds on the banks of the river Cydnus, washing themselves and their clothes and making general holiday. Similarly, on Good Friday, it is not uncommon to see an Ansairee attending a midnight service in the Greek Church; passing, with the Christians, under the representation of the rive the same benefit that the Greeks attach to this ceremony. Their idea about Christmas is very curious. They observe the day as a holiday at the same time as the Greeks, and call it the Feast of Meelad, and offer up to Ali on Christmas eve the following prayer: "Thou didst manifest in that night thy name, which is thy soul, thy veil, thy throne, to all creatures as a child, and under human form." But at the same time they do not believe in the Crucifixion. There is something repellent to them in the idea of a portion of the Godhead being offered up as a sacrifice for men. But they say that Ali took up Eesa, as they call Jesus, to himself. Ali always, they believe, has an incarnation of the Deity on earth on occasions when it is necessary. This incarnation is a great man, a leader of men; but this is not the invariable rule, and oftentimes the incarnation of Ali upon earth may pass unnoticed by those with whom he mixes. Some of their prayers are couched in really very beautiful and sublime language, full of the rich redundancy of the Arab tongue; and at prayer-time great solemnity is observed, when "it is forbidden either to take or to give, to sell or to buy, to report the news, to whisper, to be noisy, to be restless, or to tell stories over the myrtle; but let there be silence, listening, attention, and saying of Amen." The expression "over the myrtle" requires some explanation. It is the common expression amongst the Ansairee of Tarsus for their religious services, from the fact that the floor is strewed with myrtle-branches for the occasion. This may arise from the prevalence of myrtle in those parts, and I do not know if it is used elsewhere. The town of Mersina, close to Tarsus, is called after the myrtle, which grows there in abundance, as it does all over the littoral of the Cilician plain. From a Greek, a native of Tarsus, who professed to have seen an Ansairee religious service when hidden in a lemon-tree in a garden, I had an account of one of their secret meetings. Not that one can attach much faith to the words of a Greek of that place; but, curiously enough, he represented the place as all strewn with myrtles, and I do not imagine that he could have invented this without it really came before his notice. At Tarsus, as I have already stated, the Ansairee are all gardeners, and the love of flowers amongst the Ansairee women, who go about unveiled, is very marked. ม B During my stay at Tarsus I paid a visit to Sheikh Hassan, the chief of the Kalazians and one of the most influential men in Tarsus. There is also another sheikh, the chief of the few Shemali who reside in the place; but his followers are few and his influence is in no way to be com All of them wear an extravagant number | go to make pretence of prayers; but the of flowers about their person, and their whole sect is an abomination to the Turks, reed huts are often gaily decorated with who cannot say enough that is bad against the produce of their gardens. During my them. 24 stay at Tarsus I was lucky enough to be present at an Ansairee wedding. The festivity took place at one of the reed houses buried in the gardens, and the people were assembled in a courtyard walled in by reeds ; in one corner stood the takht, or throne, a sort of balcony raised on poles, where the inhabitants sleep in sum-pared to that of Sheikh Hassan. He is a mer to obtain the greatest amount of cool- very wealthy man, for the Ansairee pay ness and the least possible number of tithes to their chief priest, and he lives in insects; in another corner of the yard one of the best houses in the outskirts of stood the mud oven, where on most days the town. Hassan Effendi is a dignified of the week you may see the Arab women Arab, with a handsome, benign face, and baking their flabby oat-cake. The green a long, white beard. He met us at the top trees of the adjoining garden shaded this of his wooden staircase and conducted us courtyard. The orange-blossom was just to his divan; he was dressed in a long, then a little past its best, and the Japa- mustard-colored robe, and wore a white nese medlars, the yeni dunyah of the turban bound round his head. Several Arabs the first fruits of the earth- other influential Ansairee were in the were just beginning to assume consistency. room at the time, and consequently our Every woman assembled for the wed- conversation never for a moment turned ding was decorated with an enormous on the subject of religion; but we dis quantity of the gay spring flowers, and the cussed the chances of a good harvest, and effect of the whole was brilliant, though he told us about his fields of sesame and the costumes were not particularly gay. the mill in which he grinds his grain. He The women danced by themselves whilst told us that he, when a boy, about fifty the men looked on; and hired musicians years ago, came to Tarsus with a large played the flute and the drum to accom- number of other Ansairee from the Leb pany them. The chief woman dancer, an anon in search of work; by reason of elderly woman for so frivolous an amuse- their diligence they have prospered and ment, led the circle of women, waved her multiplied exceedingly, and are now quite handkerchief in the air, and occasionally the most influential body of men in the performed a pas seul; then the circle town, and the Turkish governor does moved round and round with a sort of pretty nearly what they wish. Sheikh mazurka step, sometimes singing, some- Hassan has the reputation of being very times silent; and all this was done openly charitable; every Friday one hundred and with unveiled faces -a great contrast to fifty poor fellaheen assemble at his house, their Turkish sisters, who would think it and he gives them alms and food; during the height of immodesty to perform such the recent famine his liberality was most gyrations before men. The bride sat on marked, and in every way he appeared to a stool in front of the cottage door, dressed be a most estimable old gentleman. His in a rich satin dress, and with her eye- room was plain but comfortable, with the brows deeply blackened. She looked usual divan all round it, whitewashed particularly self-conscious, but not in the walls, and two texts out of the Koran least shy; and the bridegroom bustled framed on the walls, to prove to the world about, giving glasses of mastic to the as- what a good Mohammedan he would have sembled guests. Such ceremonies as them believe he is. On one point, and on these the Turks look upon with undis-one only, did he in the least commit himguised horror, more especially as the self. Seeing several women about, and Ansairee outwardly profess to be Mohammedans. The result is that they hate these double-faced people even more than the Christians, and if an Ansairee slaughters an animal no pious Mussulman would purchase it in the market. The head sheikh of the Ansairee always goes to the mosque every Friday as a sort of scapegoat for his people, and sometimes others children, I asked him if he was married and if he had any children. He appeared somewhat annoyed at the question, and replied that he was neither married nor had he any children; and then I recol. lected that the sheikhs or chief priests of the Ansairee are not supposed to be married or given in marriage, but that the women around them become mothers from time to time by some supernatural | sheikh or seid hands round the "cup" of agency. I paid Sheikh Hassan a visit on two occasions, and was quite charmed with his dignified bearing and kindly manners. After death they say he will become a star at once, without having to submit to any of those unpleasant corporal transmigrations which form so integral a part of their | religious belief. This belief in metempsychosis is very curious amongst the Ansairee. Ordinary Mussulmans, they say, pass into jackals after death; and it is a common saying amongst them, when the jackals howl at night, "Listen to the Mussulmans calling to prayer." Bad men after death have to "walk in low envelopes," as their expression goes, making use of the Arabic word kamees for the envelope of the body, which exists amongst us in the word chemise. For what reason I know not, Christian doctors are supposed to go into very low envelopes indeed, and become swine when this life is over. Jewish rabbis become apes, and so forth. The stars, they say, are "envelopes of light," the destination of the great and good Ansairee who have, like Sheikh Hassan, distinguished themselves in this life by their charity and integrity; and there are fifty thousand of them who form the great "light world,” or the inhabitants of the seventh heaven who surround Ali, and are perpetually illuminated by his presence. Most Ansairee pretend to a knowledge of what they did in a former existence, whether as animals or men; and at Tarsus it is a common theory amongst them that Frankish travellers, intent on archæological research, come to look for treasures which they remember to have seen in these spots during a former existence. A man, they say, who has not acted rightly in this life may be punished in the next existence by being born a woman, and a woman who does her duty in this life may be rewarded in the next by being born a man. Womanhood is considered by them a sort of probationary step between the animal world and the lords of creation, and their women are treated by them with great contempt and never permitted to participate in the sacred mysteries of religion. The initiation of males into the mysteries generally takes place between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. It is done in solemn conclave, and by several probationary steps. The youth is brought by his father or nearest male relative, the wine, and before tasting it the novice has to swear five hundred times by the mys teries of the Ain, Min, Sin never to reveal anything he hears. The sheikh's sandal is put on his head, bound on by a white rag, as he swears, and the greatest solemnity is maintained. There have to be twelve sponsors, who also take an oath that they will pursue the youth to death if he reveals their secrets, and will cut him in pieces. It is commonly reported, though with what truth I cannot say, that the tongues of two renegade Ansairee are kept in pickle at Tarsus, and shown to the youths at their initiation as an awful warning; certain it is that they have kept their secret very well, and that the danger of apostasy must be very considerable. After a probationary period of forty days, further mysteries are revealed to the youth under the same solemn circumstances, and he then has to repeat several of the Ansairee prayers which the sponsors have taught him during the interval. Two sponsors, generally taken from amongst the leading men, have to become responsible for the good conduct and vigilance of the other twelve, and then at a third meeting the youth has to repeat sixteen prayers to Ali and is admitted into full communion. There are certain higher grades to be attained to only by men of influence and undoubted character; but to these the rank and file of the Ansairee do not aspire. The ordinary or third degree is the one into which every male is admitted, and the secrets of this degree and its passes are known to them all; thus it is possible for an Ansairee of Tarsus or the Lebanon to enter into fellowship with a co-religionist of the north of Persia, be he Shemali, or Kalazian, or a member of the other two sects. As most of the nomad tribes belong to this religion, it gives them a wonderful bond of union, and must act amongst them much as freemasonry or the secrets of other orders used to act in the disturbed days of western Europe. From Macmillan's Magazine. TWO TREATISES ON THE SUBLIME. THE treatise of Longinus "On the Sublime," and the modern performance of Burke "On the Sublime and Beautiful," have shared a common fate. Once highly famous, they have now fallen into almost general neglect. It is proposed in the present paper to offer some ac count of their contents, and to try to determine how far this indifference is justified. Adopting the natural order, I shall first take the ancient treatise, once universally known under the name of Longinus on the Sublime." works, and how far the literary aspirant may himself hope to attain it by study and labor. He begins by correcting the error of those who would leave all to nature, and who deny that genius can owe anything to conscious method. The The question of the age of Longinus is question is the same in art as that which one which must ultimately depend on lin- filled so large a space in the ancient specguistic considerations, and would require ulations on ethics. How far, in conduct, a very minute and elaborate disquisition. or in literature, are we to depend on the Possessing neither the taste nor the qual- inspirations of nature? And, as Aristotle ifications for such a discussion, I must ask allows the original impulse to virtue to leave to assume that the author of this depend on natural disposition, claiming, essay is the Longinus known to history, however, at least as important a part for the friend of Zenobia and the victim of discipline and education, so Longinus, Aurelian, Whether this is the case or while he recognizes that the possession not, whether the work belongs to the first of genius is indispensable to success in century or the third, - whether Longinus | writing, maintains that this genius must be is the Longinus of Gibbon, or a mere controlled, chastened, and corrected by pseudonym thinly concealing the person- art. ality of Plutarch, is after all of little moment to our present inquiry. The thoughts of a retired student, who lives among his contemporaries as one who has neither part nor lot with them, breathing, as it were, the ideal air of an heroic past, are but little influenced by his surroundings. I shall pass at once to the consideration of what Longinus has bequeathed to us. 66 What strikes us at first sight on looking into the work "On the Sublime" is its tentative, unscientific character. He does not attempt any precise definition of the sublime in literature. He contents himself with describing it in general terms as “ἀκρότης καὶ ἐξοχή τις λόγων, a kind of loftiness and excellence of language." Elsewhere he speaks of it figuratively, as "μeyaλoppoσvins annua, the echo," or as we should rather say, "the image, of greatness of soul." For this vagueness he has been censured by Macaulay. But is it not rather true that in declining any closer definition he has shown a wise reticence? Is it not a fact that the higher principles in art, as in ethics, elude definition? They belong to a sphere which is above reason, a region of ethical and æsthetic faith. We read of lives of utter devotion and self-sacrifice, and we ap prove because they appeal in the very bighest degree to our moral sense. We feel them to be right, but we should be puzzled to give a reason for our conviction. And what is true of a grand or beautiful life is true also of the grand or beautiful in art. It moves us, it stirs us to the very depths of our nature. It is vain to ask why. The question, then, which Longinus proposes to himself is not why, but how the sublime affects us, by what means it The loss of two sheets in the Parisian manuscript has robbed us of what immediately follows. When Longinus appears again, we find him emerging from a plunge into the bathos, and bearing with him the spoils which he has won "in that obscure sojourn." We are regaled by an excursion on the Art of Sinking in writing, after which the critic applies himself to the serious task of finding some valid criterion of the true sublime. And first he warns us against being deceived by outward pomp and glitter. We do not admire a man for the possession of wealth and power, but for moral and intellectual worth. Similarly we should not allow ourselves to mistake tinsel for pure gold, in estimating the value of a book. We should suspect our first impressions. A great work rarely attracts us on a first perusal. Frequently it repels us. It is only after earnest thought and repeated study that it will yield its riches. We have here a protest, which can never be unneeded, against what is flashy, sensational, and overstimulating in literature. We are recalled by the earnest voice of Longinus to the grandeur, the repose, and the majestic beauty of the old masters. It would take too long, and it would be alien from our present purpose, to give a complete account of this memorable frag. ment of ancient criticism. My object is to try and point out how far the words of Longinus appeal to us, and what lessons they may teach us. And full indeed are his pages of noble thoughts, rich in pregnant texts on the ethics of literature and of life. Whence is derived, he asks in one place, that elevation of sentiment which characterizes the great masters of poetry and prose? His answer is that grandeur |