girded. And the Almighty bids Job gird up his loyns like a man. So the high priest was girt with a girdle of fine linen. So it is sayd concerning our Saviour, righteousness shall be the girdle of his loyns, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins!' Unto this day the Jews doe blessee themselves when they put on their zone or cincture. The heart and parts which God requires are divided from the inferior or concupiscential organs, implying thereby a memento unto purification and cleanness of heart, which is commonly defiled for the concupiscence and affection of those parts. And thus we may make out the doctrine of Pythagoras, to offer sacrifice with our feet naked; that is, that our inferior parts and farthest removed from reason might be free and of no impediment to us."

Amongst the Persians too we find the girdle was an emblem of significance. Upon arriving at years of dis. cretion the Persian youth were invested with the cincture or girdle, when they renewed and ratified their religious obligations. It may be said to have been their sacrament of CONFIRMATION. * In the SAD-DER, the sacred book of Zoroaster, both men and women are enjoined to put on the girdle, called Camar, such being the command of God himself, as a token of obedience towards the Creator. This duty is even coupled with the giving of alms, and we are farther told that the girdle expels demons, and confers so much merit on the wearer, that if he have done no other good, this alone will secure him a place in Paradise.† Nor is the superstition by any means confined * Beausobre, "Hist. de Manichee," vol. i. livre ii. chap. iv. p. 198,

"Præceptum hoc est in omni suâ vitâ, tam viris tam fæminis, religiosis incumbens alligare cingulum et præstare eleemosynas; nam alligare custi, seu cingulum, etiam dictum Camàr, est præceptum Dei, cum sit signum obedientiæ ergo Creatorem. Cingulum fuit Gjemshidi institutum quo omnes dæmones fugavit; fuit enim ex ejus cin

to the Persians. All the Christians of the Levant, whether Syrians, Arabs, or Egyptians, deem it irreligious to go to church without their girdle ;* and the monks use a girdle with twelve knots to show that they are followers of the twelve apostles. Hence has come their ceremony of excommunication; when any one is expelled from the communion of the church, the bishop cuts, or tears from him his girdle, as will appear from the following anecdote.

Al-Motavacces, Emperor of the Arabs, had in his service a skilful physician named Honaïn. He was of those Arabs, who professed Christianity, and whom they termed Al-Ebad, a word signifying those who served only the Creator, while Al-Abid designates those who serve the creatures also. Honaïn seeing at a Christian's, in Bagdad, a picture representing Christ and his disciples, before which they burnt a lamp, said to the master of the house," why waste your oil so uselessly, for this is neither Christ nor his apostles, but their images?" Another Christian, who was present, and who envied the physician's good fortune, replied, "if this picture be not worthy of adoration, spit upon it." Honaïn did so, and the high-priest being informed of it, excommunicated him and cut his girdle from him.†

gulo et chuna, seu illuminatione, quòd evacuata fuerint opera diabolorum; nam quicunque cingulo ditatus est, ex dimidiâ potestate diaboli evasit, et in dimidiam potestatem Dei positus est. Ipse in avorum religionem credet; et qui cingulo medium cingit, si præterea nullum aliud in mundo bonum opus habet, is tamen de omnibus septem terræ climatum meritis (seu bonis operibus) particeps erit in viâ religionis." Historia Religionis Veterum Persarum.-Autore T. Hyde, p. 441. 4to. Oxon. 1700.

* "Ex illa Christi Domini sententiâ, sint lumbi vestri præcincti, &c. Syri, Arabes, et Egyptii Christiani religioni [contrarium] ducunt ad ecclesiam absque zonâ accedere."- Bibliotheca Orientalis, Autore J. S. Assemano, tom. iii. pars i. p. 359. col. 2.

+ Beausobre, livre ii. c. iv. p. 199.

322

ROBERT BURTON.

THIS name, or that of Richard Burton, appears in the title-pages of several curious volumes published about the end of the seventeenth, and the beginning of the eighteenth century by a bookseller of the name of Nathaniel Crouch. In the Bodleian Catalogue they are marked as being written by Burton, alias Crouch, and some have thought they have been written by the bookseller himself. I am not aware of any grounds for the suspicion, though no doubt there must have been some reasons for it, whether true or false. Whoever he was, Aubrey himself was not a more determined collector of gossip whether by hearsay or by reading; nothing seems to have come amiss to him except Popish miracles, and in regard to them he is no less hard of belief than he is credulous on all other occasions. No great use perhaps is to be derived from any of his works, as numerous and as small as the fry of sticklebacks in the New River, but there is some amusement in glancing at these, or at any other old records of credulity, independent of which he has many pieces of pleasant gossip that are no doubt true enough

in the main. In endeavouring to make my readers acquainted with the character of this author, I shall confine myself to his Admirable Curiosities, as being the most interesting of his publications.

Wotton's Dream." In 1533 Nicholas Wotton, Dean of Canterbury, being then ambassador in France, dreamed that his nephew, Thomas Wotton, was inclined to be a party in such a project, as, if he were not suddenly prevented, would turn to the loss of his life, and ruin of his family. The night following he dreamed the same again; and knowing that it had no influence on his waking thoughts, and much less the desires of his heart, he did the more seriously consider it, and resolved to use so prudent a remedy by way of precaution, as might be no great inconvenience to either party; and thereupon writ a letter to Queen Mary, that she would cause his nephew to be sent for out of Kent, and that the council might interrogate him in such feigned questions as might colour his commitment into a favourable prison, of which he would hereafter give her majesty the true reason. This was done accordingly; and soon after, the queen being married to King Philip, divers persons declared and raised forces against it, among whom Sir Thomas Wyatt of Kent-with whom the family of the Wottons had an entire friendship-was the principal, who, being defeated, suffered death with many others for the same; and of the number Mr. Wotton probably had been; for he afterwards confessed to his uncle that he had some strong intimation of Wyatt's design, and believed he should have engaged in it, if his uncle had not dreamed him into prison."*

The sagacity of the Dean that led him to this fortunate dream, and the prudent use he made of his miraculous

* Admirable Curiosities, p. 103. 12mo. London. 1737.

knowledge cannot be too much admired. It would be unjust to demolish a tale so happily imagined, by hinting that he must have had some general notion of the disposition both of his nephew and of his intimate friend, although he was in all likelihood ignorant of their precise designs.

The Mayor and Provost. "It is memorable what cruel sport Sir William Kingston, the provost marshal, made by virtue of his office on men in misery. One Boyer, mayor of Bodmin in Cornwall, had been amongst the rebels, not willingly but enforced. To him the provost sent word he would come and dine with him, for whom the mayor made great provision. A little before dinner the provost took the mayor aside, and whispered him in the ear that an execution must that day be done in the town, and therefore requested to have a pair of gallows set up against dinner was done. The mayor provided them accordingly. Presently after dinner, the provost, taking the mayor by the hand, entreated him to show him the place where the gallows was, which when he beheld, he asked the mayor if he thought them to be strong enough, 'yes,' said the mayor; 'doubtless they are.' 'Well then,' said the provost, 'get you up,

speedily, for they are provided for you.'-' I hope,' said the mayor, 'you do not mean as you speak.'—' In faith,' says the provost, there is no remedy, for you have been a base rebel.'—And so without respite or defence he was hanged to death, a most uncourteous part for a host to offer to his guest.' "'*

The Miller.-"Near the same place dwelled a miller, that had been very active in that rebellion, † who fearing the

*Admirable Curiosities, p. 35.

In the second year of King Edward the Sixth, the king had issued orders that all images should be removed from the churches,that prayers to saints or for the dead should be discontinued, and that the clergy