Oscophoria were the first sacrifices offered up to Bacchus they were instituted by the Phoenicians, and when they were celebrated, the boys, carrying vine-leaves in their hands, went in ranks praying from the temple of Bacchus, to the chapel of Pallas. The Trieterica were celebrated in the winter at night, by the Baccha, who went about armed, making a great noise and pretending to foretell things to come. They were entitled Trieterica, because Bacchus returned from his Indian expedition after three years.

The Epilenæa were games celebrated in the time of vintage, before the press for squeezing the grapes was invented. They contended with one another, in treading the grapes, who should soonest press out most must; and in the mean time they sung the praises of Bacchus, begging that the must might be sweet and good.

Apaturia were feasts celebrated in honour of Bacchus, setting forth how greatly men are deceived by wine. These festivals were principally observed by the Athenians.

Ambrosia were festivals observed in January, a month sacred to Bacchus; for which reason this month was called Lenæus, or Lenæo, because the wine was brought into the city about that time. But the Romans called these feasts Brumalia, Bruma, one of the names of Bacchus among them; and they celebrated them twice a year, in the months of February and August.

Ascolia, feasts so called from a Greek word signifying a boracho, or leathern bottle; several of which were produced filled with air, or, as others say, with wine. The Athenians were wont to leap upon them with one foot, so that they would sometimes fall down; however, they thought they did a great honour to Bacchus hereby, because they trampled upon the skins of the goat, which animal

is the greatest enemy to the vines. But among the Romans, rewards were distributed to those who, by artificially leaping upon these leathern bottles, overcame the rest; then all of them together called aloud upon Bacchus confusedly, and in unpolished verse; and putting on masks, they carried his statue about their vineyards, daubing their faces with the bark of trees, and the dregs of wine: and returning to his altar they presented him with their oblations in basins, and then burnt them. In the last place, they hung upon the highest trees little wooden or earthen images of Bacchus, which from the smallness of their mouths were called Oscilla: they intended that the places, where these small images were set up in the trees, should be, as it were, so many watch-towers, from which Bacchus might look after the vines, and see that they suffered no injuries. These festivals, and the images hung up when they were celebrated, are elegantly described by Virgil, in the second book of his Georgics.

"Atque inter pocula læti

Mollibus in pratis unctos saliere per utres :
Nec non Ausonii, Troja gens missa coloni,
Versibus incomptis ludunt, risuque soluto,
Oraque corticibus sumunt horrenda cavatis :
Et te, Bacche, vocant per carmina læta, tibique
Oscilla ex alta suspendunt mollia pinu.
Hinc omnis largo pubescit vinea fœtu, &c."
And glad with Bacchus, on the grassy soil,
Leap'd o'er the skins of goats besmear'd with oil.
Thus Roman youth, deriv'd from ruin'd Troy,
In rude Saturnian rhymes express their joy;
Deform'd with vizards, cut from barks of trees,
With taunts and laughter loud their audience please,
In jolly hymns they praise the god of wine,
Whose earthen images adorn the pine,

And there are hung on high, in honour of the vine.
A madness so devout the vineyard fill, &c.

Lastly, the Bacchanalia, or Dionysia, or Orgia, were the feasts of Bacchus, among the Romans, which at first were solemnized in February, at mid

day, by women only; but afterward they were performed in the most scandalous manner by men and women, and young boys and girls, till the senate by an edict abrogated this festival, as Diagundus did at Thebes. Pentheus, king of Thebes, attempted the same thing, but the Baccha barbarously killed him; whence came the story, that his mother and sisters tore him in pieces, fancying he was a boar.. There is a story, that Alcithoe, the daughter of Ninyas, and her sisters, despising the sacrifices of Bacchus, staid at home spinning while the Orgia were celebrating, and on that account were changed into bats.-Ovid Met. 4.-And it is said that Lycurgus, who attempted many times to hinder these Bacchanalia in vain, cut off his own legs, because he had rooted up the vines to the dishonour of Bacchus.

QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION.

What are the three things to be considered in regard to sacrifices?

What things were consecrated to Bacchus ?

Who were the priests and priestesses of Bacchus ?

Were the sarifices all of one kind?

Which were the first sacrifices; by whom were they instituted,

and how were they celebrated?

What were the Épilenæa?

What were the Apaturia?

What were the Ambrosia?

What were the Ascolia, and how were they celebrated?
What were the Oscilla?

Repeat the lines of Virgil on this subject?

What were the Bacchanalia ?

SEC. 5.-THE HISTORICAL SENSE OF THE FABLE. BACCHUS AN EMBLEM EITHER OF NIMROD OR MOSES.

Some writers say, that Bacchus is the same with Nimrod: the reasons of these opinions are: 1. The similitude of the words Bacchus and Barchus, which signifies the son of Chus, that is, Nimrod. 2. They think the name of Nimrod may allude to the Hebrew word namur, or the Chaldee, namer, a tiger:

and accordingly the chariot of Bacchus was drawn by tigers, and himself clothed with the skin of a tiger. 3. Bacchus is sometimes called Nebrodes, which is the very same as Nimrodus. 4. Moses styles Nimrod "a great hunter," and we find that Bacchus is styled Zagreus, which in Greek signifies the same thing. Nimrod presided over the vines, since he was the first king of Babylon, where were the most excellent wines, as the ancients often say.

Others think that Bacchus is Moses, because many things in the fable of the one seemed derived from the history of the other. For, first, some feign that he was born in Egypt, and presently shut up in an ark, and thrown upon the waters, as Moses was. 2d. The surname of Bimatur, which belongs to Bacchus, may be ascribed to Moses, who, beside one mother by nature, had another by adoption, king Pharaoh's daughter. 3d. They were both beautiful men, brought up in Arabia, good soldiers, and had women in their armies. 4th. Orpheus directly styles Bacchus a lawgiver, and calls him Moses, and further attributes to him the two tables of the law. 5th. Bacchus was called Bicornis; and accordingly the face of Moses appeared double horned, when he come down from the mountain, where he had spoken to God; the rays of glory that darted from his brow, resembling the sprouting out of horns. 6th. As snakes were sacrificed, and a dog given to Bacchus, as a companion; so Moses had his companion Caleb, which in Hebrew signifies "a dog." 7th. As the Bacche brought water from a rock, by striking it with their thyrsi, and the country wherever they came flowed with wine, milk, and honey; so the land of Canaan, into which Moses conducted the Israelites, not only flowed with milk and honey, but with wine also; as appears from that large bunch of grapes which two men carried between them upon a staff. 8th. Bacchus dried

up the rivers Orontes and Hydaspes, by striking them with his thyrsis, and passed through them, as Moses passed through the Red Sea. 9th. It is said also, that a little ivy-stick, thrown down by one of the Baccha upon the ground, crept like a dragon, and twisted itself about an oak. And, 10. That the Indians once were all covered with darkness, while those Bacchæ enjoyed a perfect day.

From this you may collect, that the ancient invention of fables have borrowed many things from the Holy Scriptures, to patch up their conceits. Thus Homer says, that Bacchus wrestled with Pallene, to whom he yielded; which fable is taken from the history of the angel wrestling with Jacob. In like manner Pausanias reports, that the Greeks at Troy found an ark that was sacred to Bacchus; which when Euripidus had opened, and viewed the statue of Bacchus laid therein, he was presently struck with madness: the ground of which fable is in the second book of Kings, where the Sacred History relates that the Bethshemites were destroyed by God, because they looked with too much curiosity into the ark of the covenant.

Wine and its effects are understood in this fable of Bacchus. He was educated by the Naiades, nymphs of the rivers and fountains; whence men may learn to dilute their wine with water.

Bacchus is naked, he cannot conceal any thing. Wine always speaks truth, it opens all the secrets of the mind.

The poet says Bacchus has horns.

"Accedant capiti cornua, Bacchus eris."-Ov. Ep. Saph. But put on horns, and Bacchus thou shalt be.

Wine makes even the meanest people bold, insolent, and fierce, exercising their fury and rage against others, as a mad ox gores with his horns.

He is crowned with ivy; because that plant, be