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and Bremen, in the ninth century, describing a vision of the Person of the Lord, speaks of Him as "statura procerus". In my paper on the measure of the wound in the side of the Redeemer1 will be found a short account of the Sindon Taurinensis, and of the Sindon Vesontina, where it said:

"Staturam corporis Christi, a vertice ad calcem usque, in Sudario Vesontino reperi sex pedum geometricorum, tribus digitis minus; seu, quod eodem recidit, quinque pedum et trium quartarum unius pedis, duodenum enim digitorum, ut solet, pedem mathematicum facio."2

At the Church of San Stefano, at Bologna, in the Confessio, "one of the pillars professes to give the exact height of our Saviour".

Our Magical Roll brings comfort to the sleepless; they have but to write out the names Beatorum Dormiencium, and place the scroll beneath their heads, to ensure repose.

The devotion to the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus is scarcely so familiar to English readers as that to the Three Kings of Cologne. All are aware that

Caspar brings myrrh; Melchior, incense; Balthasar, gold. Whoever carries these three names about with him will, through Christ, be free from the falling sickness."4

Everyone who has visited the magnificent Cathedral at Cologne has seen the Shrine of the Three Kings, still well worthy of minute examination, though it has lost many of its most precious gems.

Perhaps it may be as well to add a few particulars about the singular legend of the Seven Sleepers, found in most Lives of the Saints.

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During the persecution under the Emperor Decius there lived in the City of Ephesus seven young men who were Christians: their names were Maximinian, Malchus, Marcian, Dionysius, John, Serapion, and Constantine. As they refused to offer sacrifice to the idols, they were accused before the tribunal; but they fled, and escaped

1 Journal Brit. Arch. Assoc., xxx, 363.

2 Quaresmius, Historia Theologica ac Moralis Terræ Sanctæ Elucidatio, 532.

3 Murray's Handbook of North Italy.

4 Ennemoser's History of Magic, ii, 95. (Tiedeman, 102.)

to Mount Coelian, where they hid themselves in a cave. Being discovered, the tyrant ordered that they should roll great stones to the mouth of the cavern, in order that they might die of hunger. They, embracing each other, fell asleep.”1

Their slumbers lasted till the thirtieth year of the reign of the Emperor Theodosius, when the cavern was discovered by an inhabitant of Ephesus. The Sleepers were aroused. They thought that their slumbers had lasted but a single night. They despatch one of their number, Malchus, to the city to buy food. He offers to the baker, in payment for his loaves, a coin of Decius. The citizens think that Malchus has discovered some hoarded treasure, and they take him to the Bishop, to whom he relates his story. Theodosius himself hastens to the cave, where one of the Sleepers exhorts him, saying, "We have been raised, O Emperor, that thou mightest believe in the Resurrection of the dead." Having uttered these words, they expired. They had slept 196 years.

It is a wide-spread legend, found in the whole of Western Christendom, in Abyssinia, in Scandinavia. Mahomet, it is said, introduces it into the Koran.

The Seven Sleepers are found in the Museum Victorium at Rome, on an engraved gem (une pierre qui ressemble assez à une pierre précieuse). Each has his name, and an accompanying symbol: John and Constantine have each a club, Malchus and Marcian an axe, Denis a large nail, Serapion a torch, and Maximinian a knotted club. Mrs. Jameson suggests that these may be intended for implements used in their respective trades: the story will not allow them to be instruments of their martyrdom.

Varying versions of the legend will be found in Mr. Baring Gould's Lives of the Saints. There are sometimes eight sleepers, and their sleep lasts over 372 years. Photius calls them Maximilian, Jamblicus, Martin, Dionysius, Exacustodian, Antoninus, and John. Names given by other narrators are Dianus, Melito, Diomed.

1 Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, ii, 581. 2 Les Petits Bollandistes, July 27.

3 Mr. Baring Gould describes this "pierre" as a "curious cast of sulphur and plaster."

King Edward the Confessor, one Easter Day, musing in his palace at Westminster, saw the Seven Sleepers, who for two hundred years had been lying on their right sides, in a cavern of Mount Celion, suddenly turn to their left sides they would so lie, he said, seventy-four years-years of war, pestilence, and famine. Earl Harold sent a messenger to ascertain the truth of this vision, who, being admitted to the cave, found them lying as the King had said. Hence it is, I suppose, that the Seven Sleepers are represented on the frieze of the Chapel of Edward the Confessor at Westminster.

They are commemorated in the Sarum Breviary by three lessons and the following Collect :—

"Oratio. Deus qui gloriosos resurrectionis æternæ præcones septem dormientes magnifice coronasti: præsta, quæsumus, ut eorum precibus resurrectionem sanctam, quæ in eis mirabiliter præostensa est, consequamur. Per Dominum."

"Seincte Cyriac and Seinct Julite", whose names appear in the Roll, are to be found in the Martyrologies.

S. Cyriac was a Deacon of Rome, martyred under Diocletian.1 "S. Cyriaque, Diacre, et ses compagnons............... transférés par saint Marcellin, Pape, dans le champ de Lucine sur la voie d'Ostie."

S. Julitta, a wealthy lady, was martyred at Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, about the year 303. S. Basil pronounced a homily upon her circa 375.3 Her name occurs in a Litany in the Sarum Breviary.*

Unconnected with the Magical Roll, which forms the subject of this paper, but yet having a certain kindred interest, I venture to submit to the readers of this paper the following extracts, which I have taken from the Burleigh Papers in the British Museum."

1 Baring Gould, Lives of the Saints, August 8.

2 Les Petits Bollandistes. Alban Butler says that their bodies". were translated into a farm of the devout lady Lucina, on the Ostian Road, on the eighth day of August."

s Baring Gould, Lives, July 30; but the Sarum Breviary gives June 16, and in another place July 15.

4 Brev. ad Usum Sarum. Fascic. ii, p. 257.

5 Lansdowne MS. 96, art. 44, f. 104,

The extracts are endorsed, "A Popish Charm or Spel; An Antem or Hymn." Each is interesting, though the Catalogue of the Lansdowne MSS. describes the paper as containing "some ridiculous Popish charms or spells, in miserable rhyme, the recital of which is to procure pardon for sins, protection from spirits, etc."

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The first is, obviously, an ejaculation to be made when one first sees the new moon. In Suffolk I used to be told, when I was a child, that it was unlucky to see it for the first time through glass, and also that one ought to turn the money in one's pocket. The second is a hymn of no little beauty; the third, a well-known prayer at bed-time; and the fourth (for there are really four articles), the "Fridaye spell", is a short poem on the Passion.

PRAYERS.

"Newe moone, newe moone, welcome be the and all the three vertues that thowe broughteste w'th the | One for the | Another for me And one to helpe the man or beaste for St. Charytye. "God that made boythe daye & neight

the mone shyne and the starres soe lyght
The holye sonne that shines soe bryght
kepe youe and save youe from all ill sprytes
God hym send bothe farre and neare
that bought w'th his blode soe deare."

In nomine patris at my Crowne

filius speritus vpp & downe
Corpus Christi att my Breste
Jesus Take my soule into reste

In the name of the father & of the sone
And of the holye goste Amen."

"Not': this she callethe the Frydaye spell

:

"This daye is Fridaye faste while we maye
While wee heare knyll' or Lords owne bell

or Lorde in his Chappell stoode, wth his xij appostells soe
good

There Came a Saynte throughe ryghte robe

what is yt that shynes soe bryght, or Lorde God almyghte He was naled sore, farre and in goore

Throughe lyver, throughe longe, throughe harte, throughe
tonge

Throughe the holye brayne panne, well is that man tha
Frydaye spell can

He for to saye and his fellowes for to learne

So manye tymes as youe saye this on Frydaye before noone
So manye tymes shall your synnes be forgeven youe att
Domesdaye. Amen."

It may seem scarcely worth while to rescue from utter oblivion these curious relics of the superstition of our forefathers. These days in which we live are, we are told, days of progress, of light, of advanced education, of Board schools, of numberless means of enlightenment. No doubt we have made some progress since the days of Queen Elizabeth, of Lord Burleigh, and of Shakespeare. But even the electric telegraph has not dispelled the dark clouds of folly and of blind superstition.

The Times of July 2, 1891, tells us, in its Russian intelligence, of six peasants who were tried before the Criminal Sessions Court of Samara, and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment "for deliberately disinterring the body of a woman, who had died of intoxication, and floating it down the Volga as a means of causing rain. It seems to be quite a fixed belief among the Russian peasantry that throwing the dead body of a drunkard into the river is a sure cure for want of rain."

Here is a remarkable scene from Sicily. I am quoting from the Times of February 21, 1891, which devotes a paragraph to "The Religion and Superstition of the Sicilian Peasant."

SICILIAN PEASANTS.-Mr. Stigand, the British Consul at Palermo, in his last report, describes the Sicilian peasant as assiduous and devout in his religious practices, and although there is much superstition, there is no doubt the people are sincere in their simple-hearted and ignorant way. They attend the functions of the Mass regularly, and on Sundays and Feast-days the churches are thronged by both men, women, and children-the dogs of the family frequent the churches as regularly as their masters-and though the service is, with some exceptions, performed in Latin, they seem intuitively to understand. its tenour, performing all the genuflexions at the proper time, and crossing and beating of the breast at the "Credo" and "Elevations", with the uniformity of soldiers on parade. Simple votive offerings to Saint and Shrine, for real or supposed mercies, are most common, and if they make a vow when in trouble, they are sure to keep it in the most rigorous fashion, even when it entails great suffering. Every man and woman have their favourite saints, after whom they are named, and the labourer, when working in the field with his fellows, will often call upon his guardian saint in a loud voice, and, after he has called his comrades, shout, "Viva San Giuseppe!" or "Viva San Francesco!" as the case may be. And in some parts, also, pedestrians are greeted by the peasants with the salutation of "Viva Gesú", to

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