-that did not cry for quarter! By doing so, I, with | of Madrid:-"The sacred and royal bank of piety has, 300 men, was spared, and set at liberty.

ITEMS OF INTELLIGENCE.

The government of the young queen of Portugal has been recognized by the Pope, and the Portuguese war may now be considered entirely at an end.

During the recent conflagration at Constantinople, the Seraskier caught a man with fire-balls in his pocket; whereupon he caused the police to throw him directly into the fire.

Paul of Russia, in his time, ordered, by an imperial ukase, that all persons who met the emperor's carriage in the streets should fall down on their knees and take off their hats as it passed; and a peasant, who did not observe the regulation, because he did not know it, had his hat nailed to his head by order of the imperial

CYBELE.

"High as the mother of the gods in place, And proud, like her, of an immortal race; Then, when in pomp she makes the Phrygian round, With golden turrets on her temples crown'd, A hundred gods her sweeping train supply, Her offspring all, and all command the sky. "She was by the Greeks called Pasithea; that is, as the Romans usually named her, the mother of all the gods; and from the Greek word signifying a mother. Her sacrifices were named Metroa, and to celebrate them was called Metrazein, in the same language.

CYBELE is the goddess not of cities only, but of all things which the earth sustains. She is the Earth itself. On the earth are built many towers and castles; so on her head is placed a crown of towers. In her hand she carries a key, for in winter the earth locks up those treasures which she brings forth and dispenses with so much plenty in summer. She rides in a chariot, because the earth hangs suspended in the air, balanced and poised by its own weight, But that chariot is supported by wheels, since the earth is a revolving body; and it is drawn by lions, because no- "Her name, Bona Dea, implies, that all good things thing is so fierce, so savage, or so ungovernable, but a necessary for the support of life proceed from her. motherly piety and tenderness is able to tame it, and She is called Fauna, because she is said to favour all make it submit to the yoke. I need not explain why creatures; and Fatua, because it was thought that her garments are painted with divers colours, and fig-new-born children never cried till they touched the ured with the images of several creatures, since every body sees that such a dress is suitable to the earth. "She is called Cybele, from the mountain Cybelus in Phrygia, where sacrifices were first instituted to her. Or the name was given her from the behaviour of her priests, who used to dance upon their heads, and toss about their hair like madmen, foretelling things to come, and making a horrible noise. These were named Galli, and this fury and outrage in prophesying is described by Lucian, in his first book. Others again derive the word Cybele from a cube, because the cube, which is a body every way square, was dedicated to her by the ancients.

"She is called Ops, because she brings help and as sistance to every thing contained in this world.

"Her name Rhea is derived from the abundance of benefits which, without ceasing, flow from her on every side.

"Dyndymene and Dyndyme is a name given her from the mountain Dindymus, in Phrygia.

"Virgil calls her mater Berecynthia, from Bereeynthus, a castle in that country; and in the same place describes her numerous and happy offspring.

ground. It is said that this Bona Dea was the wife of king Faunus, who beat her with myrtle rods till she died, because she disgraced herself, and acted very unsuitable to the dignity of a queen, by drinking so much wine that she became drunk. But the king afterwards repenting of his severity, deified his dead wife, and paid her divine honours. This is the reason assigned why it was forbidden that any one should bring myrtle into her temple. In her sacrifices, the vessels of wine were covered: and when the women drank out of them, they called it milk, not wine. The modesty of this goddess was so extraordinary, that no man ever saw her except her husband, or scarce heard her name; wherefore her sacrifices were performed in private, and all men were excluded from the temple.

"From the great privacy observed by her votaries, the place in which her sacrifices were performed was called Opertum, and the sacrifices themselves were styled Opertanea, for the same reason that Pluto is by the poets called Opertus. Silence was observed in a most peculiar manner in the sacrifices of Bona Dea, as it was in a less degree in all other sacrifices; according to the doctrine of the Pythagoreans and Egyptians,

who taught that God was to be worshipped in silence, | tyli.
since from this, at the first creation, all things took
their beginning. To the same purpose, Plutarch says,
'Men were our masters to teach us to speak, but we
learn silence from the gods: from those we learn to
hold our peace, in their rites and initiations.'

"She was called Idea Mater, from the mountain Ida, in Phrygia, or Crete, for she was at both places highly honoured; as also at Rome, whither they brought her from the city of Pessinus in Galatia, by a remarkable miracle. For when the ship in which she was carried stopped in the mouth of the Tiber, the vestal Claudia, (whose fine dress and free behaviour made her modesty suspected) easily drew the ship to shore with her girdle, where the goddess was received by the hands of virgins, and the citizens went out to meet her, placing censers with frankincense before their doors; and when they had lighted the frankincense, they prayed that she would enter freely into Rome, and be favourable to it. And because the Sybils had prophesied that Idæa Mater should be introduced by the best man among the Romans,' the senate was a little busied to pass a judgment in the case, and resolve who was the best man in the city; for every one was ambitious to get the victory in a dispute of that nature, more than if they stood to be elected to any commands or honours by the voices either of the senate or people. At last the senate resolved that P. Scipio, the son of Cneus, who was afterwards killed in Spain, a young gentleman who had never been quæstor, was the best man in the whole city.

"She was called Pessinuntia, from a certain field in Phrygia, into which an image of her fell from heaven; from this, the place was called Pessinus, and the goddess Pessinuntia. And here the Phrygians first began to celebrate the sacrifices Orgia to this goddess, near the river Gallus, from which her priests were called Galli. When these priests desired that great respect and adoration should be paid to any thing, they pretended that it fell from heaven; and they called those images Diopete, that is, 'sent from Jupiter.' Of which sort were the Ancile, the Palladium, and the effigies of this goddess, concerning which we now speak.

"Her sacrifices, like the sacrifices of Bacchus, were celebrated with a confused noise of timbrels, pipes, and cymbals, and the sacrificants howled as if they were mad; they profaned both the temple of their goddess and the ears of their hearers, with their wild words and actions. The following rites were peculiarly observed in her sacrifices: her temple was opened, not by hands, but by prayers; none entered who had tasted garlic; the priests sacrificed to her sitting, and touching the earth, and offered the hearts of the victims. And lastly, among the trees the box and the pine were sacred to her. The box, because the pipes used in her sacrifices were made of it; the pine, for the sake of Atys, Attes, or Attynes, a boy that Cybele much loved, and made him president of her rites, upon condition that he always preserved his chastity inviolate. But he forgot his vow, and lost that virtue; wherefore the offended goddess threw him into such a madness, that he was about to lay violent hands upon himself; but Cybele, in pity, turned him into a pine. There was, however, a true Atys, the son of Cræsus, king of Lydia. He was born dumb; but when he saw in the fight a soldier at his father's back, with a sword lifted up to kill him, the strings of his tongue, which hindered his speech, burst; and by speaking clearly, he prevented his father's destruction.

"The priests of Cybele were named Galli, from a river of Phrygia. Such was the nature of the water of this river, that whoever drank of it immediately grew mad. The Galli, as often as they sacrificed, furiously cut and slashed their arms with knives; and thence all furious and mad people were called Gallan

tes.

Beside the name of Galli, they were also called Curetes, Corybantes, Telchines, Cabiri, and Idæi Dac

Some say that these priests were different from the Galli; but most people believe them to be the same, and say that they were priests of Cybele. "The Curetes were either Cretans, or Etolians, or Eubœans, and had their names from shaving; so that Curetes and Detonsi signify almost the same thing. For they shaved the hair of their heads before, but wore hair behind, that they might not be taken (as it has often happened) by the forelocks by the enemy; or, perhaps, they were called Curetes, because they were habited in long vests, like young maidens; or lastly, because they educated Jupiter in his infancy.

"Her priests were also called Corybantes, because in the sacrifices of their goddess they tossed their heads and danced, and butted with their foreheads like rams, after a mad fashion. Thus, when they initiated any one into their sacrifices, they placed him in a chair, and danced about him like fools.

"Another name of her priests was Telchines. These were famous magicians and enchanters; they came from Crete to Cyprus, and thence into Rhodes, which latter island was called Telchines from them. Or, if we believe others, they were deserving men, and invented many arts for the good of the public, and first set up the statues and images of the gods.

"The Cabiri, or Caberi, so called from Cabiri, mountains of Phrygia, were either the servants of the gods, or gods themselves, or rather dæmons, or the same with the Corybantes; for the people's opinions concerning them are different.

"The Idæi Dactyli were the servants and assistants of Magna Mater; called Idæi from the mountain Ida, where they lived; and Dactyli from the fingers; for the priests were ten, like the fingers: they served Rhea every where, and in every thing, as if they were fingers to her. Yet many affirm that there were more than ten.

[To be continued.]

ANTIQUITIES.

ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS.

[Continued.]

Cadmus was not satisfied with this conquest, but recollecting the success of Cecrops, an Egyptian prince, who, eight years before, had subjugated that part of Greece, where he founded the kingdom of Athens, and considering Greece, well peopled as it was, an object worthy of his ambition, and the conquest of it within his power, he directed his views toward Beotia; not at all intimidated by the circumstance of its being then governed by the valiant Draco, a son or a descendant of Mars. The commencement of this enterprise was commensurate with his wishes; his progress was brilliant, but the termination disastrous; as it happens in small monarchies when the chiefs, prompted by ambition and covetousness, mutually seek each other's destruction, and finally become the victims of the most powerful." Calmet, lib. 1, cap. 8.

Cadmus founded the city of Thebes, situated near mount Parnassus, the capital of his empire, and fortified it with a citadel, which he called Cadmea, after his own name.

The epoch of the foundation of Thebes is ascertained from one of the Parian marbles, (now called the Arundel marbles, because the earl of Arundel, an English nobleman, at a very great expense, transported them to his own country,) to have been in the sixty-fourth year of the Attican era, indubitably coinciding with 3195 of the Julian, and 1519 before the Christian era; at which period, Moses was with his father-in-law, Jethro, in the land of Midian.

Greece was indebted to Cadmus for the art of writing, the cultivation of the vine, the consecration of images, the rights of sanctuary so scrupulously respected by antiquity, and the use of arms offensive and defensive; he was the first warrior who armed his soldiers with helmets of copper, and he taught the extraction

Should a scrupulous reader not feel conviction from this interpretation, the brass medal, of which two specimens were found, one of them now in the possession of Don Ramon Ordonez, the other, which was my own, I presented to the King, with two copies of this work by the hands of the President, on the 2d of June, 1794, will remove every doubt on this head, (the drawing is in all respects the same as the original, except being rather enlarged,) and fully authenticate the rest of what Votan relates in his history, as well as demonstrate that the American tradition as to his origin and his expulsion from the kingdom of Amaguemecan, which was his first disaster on this continent, applies to him; while the narrative and the medal,

del Rio, will elucidate a few historical fragments which have been related by writers of the greatest authority, but are considered apocryphal by the most esteemed modern authors.

of this metal from the mineral containing it, and which, up to the present day, has retained the name of Cadmia. His disastrous end did not prevent the superstition of the times from celebrating his worth, his talents, and his valour, by placing him among the demi-gods. The fable says, that his soldiers, having been killed by a serpent near a fountain, whither they went to fetch water, (alluding to a battle that he lost against Draco,) he avenged their death by killing their destroyer, from which he pulled out the teeth, and sowing them, by the advice of Minerva, they produced a plentiful harvest of armed men, so warlike, and so fiery in their tempers, that, upon a slight disagreement arising between them, they fought and killed each other, excepting five only, by whom this part of Greece was after-assisted by some portions of information from Captain wards peopled. This is not a proper place to discuss the meaning of the fable: unseasonable erudition seldom fails to weary the reader, and leads his attention from the principal subject under consideration; Homer and many other grave authors have transgressed by such a display; it is, nevertheless, undeniable, that this fable is one of the greatest supporters of history; I cannot, however, forbear remarking, that the Phonician words expressive of a copper helmet were so ambiguous as to signify also a man armed for war, a serpent's teeth, and the number five. The invention of such a fable, its being fostered and propagated, either by the priests of the deified personage, or the princes, his descendants and successors, might have occasioned the first and true meaning of the words to be forgotten; while their own interest or convenience may have engrafted the deception on the minds of the vulgar, who, from ignorance and simplicity, are always prone to credit portentous novelties; more particularly, when they tend to identify the characters of their beloved princes with their national glory; and especially when their religion is concerned.

It is also necessary to observe, that the names of Cadmus and Hermione are not proper to these persons: Hermione was so called from being born a Hivite among those who dwelt near mount Hermon; while Cadmus signifies an eastern man, or one who comes from the country situated towards the east; but this denomination was not indiscriminately given to all Orientals, as Calmet, together with other authors quoted by him, believes; but it properly belonged to the Hivites near mount Hermon, who were known as Kadmonites or Cedmonites, from the Hebrew word kedem, which, according to the interpretation of the rabbi Jonathan, Genesis, chap. 15, verse 19, means east; and Calmet also places them in this situation. Paraphrastres of Jerusalem, in glossing the word Heveum, chap. 10, verse 17, of Genesis, is, in my opinion, more correct in rendering it Tripolitanum, meaning to insinuate, as Calmet says, that "the Hebrews removed themselves to Africa, into the kingdom of Tripoli," or to speak more accurately, to Tripoli of Syria, a town in the kingdom of Tyre, which was anciently called Chivim. Under this supposition, when Votan says he is Culebra, because he is Chivim, he clearly shows, that he is a Hivite originally of Tripoli in Syria, which he calls Valum Chivím, where he landed in his voyages to the old continent.

Here then we have his assertion, I am Culebra, because I am Chivim, proved true, by a demonstration as evident, as if he had said, I am a Hivite, native of Tripoli in Syria, which is Valum Chivim, the port of my voyages to the old continent, and belonging to a nation famous for having produced such a hero as Cadmus, who, by his valour and exploits, was worthy of being changed into a Culebra, (snake,) and placed among the gods; whose worship, for the glory of my nation and race, I teach to the seven families of the Tzequiles, that I found, on returning from one of my voyages, united to the seven families, inhabitants of the American continent, whom I conducted from Valum Votan, and distributed lands among them.

The medal is a concise history of the primitive population of this part of North America, and of the expulsion of the Chichemecas from Amaguemecan, the capital of which indubitably was the Palencian city, hitherto sought for in vain, either to the northward of Mexico, or in the north of Asia. This history, comprised in so small a compass, is the best panegyric that can be given upon the sublime genius of its inventors, of whose descendants, at the time of the conquest, it was a matter of doubt whether they possessed rationality or not. On one side, the first seven families to whom Votan distributed lands are symbolized by seven trees; one of them is withered, manifestly indicating the extinction of the family it represented; at its root, there is a shrub of a different species, demonstrative of a new family supplying its place. The largest tree is a cieba, wild cotton, placed in the midst of the others, and overshadowing them with its branches; it has a snake, Culebra, twined round its trunk, showing the Hivite, the origin of all these seven families, and the principal posterity of Cadmus in one of them; it also exposes the mistake of Nunez de la Vega, in applying the symbol of the cieba to Ninus, and more strongly than ever establishes the derivation of Votan and the seven families he conducted hither from the Culebras. The signification of the withered tree, the shrub at its foot, and the bird on the top, I shall give when I speak of the idol Huitzlopochtli. The reverse of the medal shows other seven trees, with an Indian kneeling, the hands joined, the countenance sorrowful, the eyes cast down, in the act of invoking divine help in the serious tribulation that afflicts him: this distress is typified by a crocodile on each side, with open mouth, as if intent on devouring him. These devices doubtless imply the seven families of the Tzequiles, whom Votan says he found on his return from Valum Chivim. Although it may not be an easy matter to assign a reason why each tree is expressive of each family in particular, it is incontrovertible, that the Mexican nation had the Opuntia or Nopal, (two of them,) as its peculiar device; therefore, the others might, in the same manner, have belonged to other tribes now unknown. An eagle, with a snake in its beak and claws, on the Nopal, is also confirmatory of Votan's having recognised in the Tzequiles the same origin from the Culebras as his own, and strengthens the Mexican tradition, of his having been driven from Amaguemecan.

[For an illustration of the medal described in the preceding paragraph, the reader is referred to the two cuts on the following page.]

Clavigero, in his ancient history of Mexico, vol. I, book 2, speaks of this kingdom, and the arrival of the Chichemecas at the city before mentioned, which he calls the country of Anahuac, and interprets the name to mean "the place of the waters:" he says their native country and principal city was named Amaguemecan, a word implying the same meaning as Anahuac, where, according to their own account, many kings of