The FUMIGATION from a Variety of ODORIFEROUS SUBSTANCES. Mother of Gods, great nurse of all, draw near, Divinely honor'd, and regard my pray'r: Thron'd on a car, by lions drawn along, By bull-destroying lions, swift and strong, Thou sway'st the sceptre of the pole divine, And the world's middle seat, much-fam'd, is thine. Hence earth is thine, and needy mortals share Their constant food, from thy protecting care: From thee at first both Gods and men arose; From thee, the sea and ev'ry river flows. Vesta, and source of good, thy name we find To mortal men rejoicing to be kind; For ev'ry good to give, thy soul delights; Come, mighty pow'r, propitious to our rites, All-taming, blessed, Phrygian saviour, come, Saturn's great queen, rejoicing in the drum. Celestial, ancient, life-supporting maid, Fanatic Goddess, give thy suppliant aid; With joyful aspect on our incense shine, And, pleas'd, accept the sacrifice divine.

(2) And there are those who fashion ears and eyes of costly material, and consecrate them, dedicating them in the temples to the gods - by this plainly indicating that God sees and hears all things. Besides, the lion is with them the symbol of strength and prowess, as the ox clearly is of the earth itself, and husbandry and food, and the horse of fortitude and confidence; while, on the other hand, the sphinx, of strength combined with intelligence - as it had a body entirely that of a lion, and the face of a man. Similarly to these, to indicate intelligence, and memory, and power, and art, a man is sculptured in the temples. And in what is called among them the Komasiae of the gods, they carry about golden images - two dogs, one hawk, and one ibis; and the four figures of the images they call four letters. For the dogs are symbols of the two hemispheres, which, as it were, go round and keep watch; the hawk, of the sun, for it is fiery and destructive (so they attribute pestilential diseases to the sun); the ibis, of the moon, likening the shady parts to that which is dark in plumage, and the luminous to the light. And some will have it that by the dogs are meant the tropics, which guard and watch the sun's passage to the south and north. The hawk signifies the equinoctial line, which is high and parched with heat, as the ibis the ecliptic. For the ibis seems, above other animals, to have furnished to the Egyptians the first rudiments of the invention of number and measure, as the oblique line did of circles.

(5) The prophetic woman too in Brandchidæ, whether she holds in her hand a wand, which was at first received from some God, and becomes filled with a divine splendour, or whether seated on an axis, she predicts future events, or dips her feet or the border of her garment in the water, or receives the God by imbibing the vapour of the water; by all these she becomes adapted to partake externally of the God. But the multitude of sacrifices, the sacred law of the whole sanctimony, and such other things as are performed in a divine manner, prior to the prophetic inspiration, viz. the baths of the prophetess, her fasting for three whole days, her retiring into the adyta, and there receiving a divine light, and rejoicing for a considerable time—all these evince that the God is entreated by prayer to approach, that he becomes externally present, and that the prophetess, before she comes to her accustomed place, is inspired in a wonderful manner; and that, in the spirit which rises from the fountain, another more ancient God, who is separate from the place, shines forth to the view, and who is also the cause of the place, of the country, and of the whole divination.

The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE. ILLUSTRIOUS Themis, of celestial birth, Thee I invoke, young blossom of the earth; 2 Beauteous-eyed virgin; first from thee alone, Prophetic oracles to men were known, Giv'n from the deep recesses of the fane In sacred Pytho, where renown'd you reign; From thee, Apollo's oracles arose, And from thy pow'r his inspiration flows. Honour'd by all, of form divinely bright, Majestic virgin, wand'ring in the night: Mankind from thee first learnt initial rites, And Bacchus' nightly choirs thy soul delights; For holy honours to disclose is thine, With all the culture of the pow'rs divine. Be present, Goddess, to my pray'r inclin'd, And bless the mystic rites with fav'ring mind.

The FUMIGATION from STORAX. Call Thesmophorus *, spermatic God, Of various names, who bears the leafy rod: Mises, ineffable, pure, sacred queen, Two-fold Iacchus, male and female seen: Illustr'ous, whether to rejoice is thine In incense offer'd, in the fane divine +; Or if in Phrygia most thy soul delights, Performing with thy mother sacred rites; Or if the land of Cyprus is thy care, Well pleas'd to dwell with Cytherea fair; Or if exulting in the fertile plains With thy dark mother Isis, where she reigns, 12 With nurses pure attended, near the flood Of sacred Egypt, thy divine abode: Wherever resident, blest pow'r attend, And with benignant mind these labours end.