icon as standing in front of seven al- solar year. (St. Jerome's Commentary A X This passage explains the winged B figure who is pictured in the Mithraic R icon as standing in front of seven al-A tars. It is the perfected soul, who has passed through the seven planetary S gates, and has reached the fixed stars, or heaven of perfect bliss. 1 M 2 E 100 I 1 TH 60 R 1 A 200 S 365 40 Before presenting himself for initia-But the latter name appears to have tion into the mysteries, the devotee been deliberately misspelt in order to subjected himself to certain ordeals, as arrive at the desired result! a preparation for what Himerius the The Gnostics have left immense Sophist (Orat. vii. 9) calls the "better numbers of engraved gems, which they life." Elias Cretensis, in his commen-used as charms or amulets, and on them tary on the works of St. Gregory Nazi- the sun is represented as a lion-headed anzenus (Orat. 4), says: "No one is man, a lion, or a lion-headed snake admitted to the sacred rites of Mithras crowned with rays, together with many unless he has first undergone all the other Mithraic symbols, such as the different kinds of torment, and has bee, the crescent moon, the seven given a proof of his piety and fortitude planets, and the eight-rayed star. of mind in suffering pain. It is said that there are eighty different kinds of torture, through which the person desiring initiation must of necessity pass in a certain order. First he must spend many days in the water, then he must cast himself into the fire. After that he must live in a desert, and impose fasting upon himself. And in this manner he must proceed, until he has exhausted the eighty kinds of torture. And if he survives them, then at length he is initiated into the sacred rites of Mithras." It is not surprising that the early Fathers regarded some of the Mithraic mysteries as Satanic parodies of Christian ceremonies. Tertullian says: "The devil himself imitates, in the mysteries of idols, the very details of the divine sacraments, and he himself baptizes his believers and faithful, and promises them remission of sins by that ablution, and Mithras signs his own soldiers upon the forehead, celebrates an oblation of bread, and exhibits a symbolical representation of the Resurrection." (De Præscriptione These severe rules of discipline must Hæreticorum, c. 40.) And Justin have been greatly relaxed in the case Martyr adds that the devils took bread of all except fanatics, for this species and a cup of water in the sacrifices of of self-mortification, which finds such those who were initiated into the favor among Orientals, is not likely to mysteries of Mithras, and pronounced have commended itself to Western certain words over them, in imitation minds, or to have become popular of the Christian rites. (Dialogue with amongst the Roman public. Besides, Tryphonus, c. 70.) A Mithraic temwe find that women and children became initiates of Mithras. ple discovered at Spoleto consisted of a long subterranean corridor, at the The pseudo-Christian sects, known east end of which were three niches as the Gnostics and Basilidians, wor- that had once contained statues of the shipped the sun under the names of god and his two attendant genii, but Abraxas and Mithras, and both these the shrine had been rifled, and the mystic names were found to contain statues had disappeared. In front of the number three hundred and sixty- the niches was an altar with the five, that is the number of days in the inscription, "Soli invicto Mithra sa From Macmillan's Magazine. WHEN WE WERE BOYS. crum," and beside it stood a rough- are referred to in this brief account hewn stone shaped like a sugar-loaf, will enable the reader who is desirous with a square orifice cut in its side to of further pursuing the subject to inrepresent the hole in the rock from vestigate more fully the details of the which Mithras emerged at his birth. worship aud ritual of the "unconquered Among other objects found here were god." THOMAS H. B. GRAHAM. a large prism-shaped stone, some fragments of a terra-cotta image of the god, a little bone statue of a priest crowned with laurel, who kneels and plays upon a lyre; two other figures of a priest dressed in a red tunic, with a green band upon his left arm, and a green veil upon his head, holding in his right hand a bill-hook, and in his left a cup; a figure of a priestess arrayed in a red mantle lined with green, and offering a cup; a sacrificial knife, and a small bronze cross adorned with busts of the sun and moon, who are represented with nimbi around their heads. (Archæologia, 47, 205.) In another artificial cavern at Ostia the great icon occupied the east end, with an altar before it, and in a sort of side chapel were seven other altars, sacred, it may be assumed, to the seven planets. (Archæologia, 48, 19.) III. WHEN we were boys, the first magpie's nest that we found came upon us as a great surprise. We did not discover it until it was fully grown and had eggs in it. A fully grown magpie's nest is a large object, and the fir-tree in which it was built was not a particularly big or bushy one. The truth is that the magpie did not advertise its nest in the way that so many birds did for us. The wood-pigeon would sit and coo; the blackbird would flit restlessly about and chuckle when we came within the neighborhood of its home; most of the birds would show uneasiness in one form or another and so betray themselves. But the magpies, we saw afterwards how they managed. When they left the nest, or came back to it, they flew right far away, or straight in as the case might be. There was no flitting about with them on the branches beside the nest. Even when they were building they must have brought the materials from some little distance, so that we should not see them collecting the sticks. We could scarcely believe our eyes when the sight of the great structure met them first. There, inside the thorny dome, were six beautiful eggs, lying on the firm, clean, mud lining. We took one only. Joe did not really care for eggs; he only strung them and hung them, till they were broken, over the china shepherdess on the coachman's mantelpiece; he had no real preserved collection. One, he said, was enough for us; he had other views with regard to the prospective magpies which the eggs represented. It appeared that there was a certain demand among his friends and relations for young A cave temple was discovered some years ago upon a hillside at Housesteads, Northumberland. A spring of water flowed through it, and there were extensive foundations of a building connected with the exterior of the grotto. At the west end stood a halflength statue of Mithras enclosed in an oval shrine, upon which were sculptured the twelve signs of the Zodiac. On the right and left of this shrine stood two altars, one inscribed "To God the sun, unconquered Mithras the eternal," and the other "To God the best and greatest, unconquered Mithras the eternal;" and the names of the consuls which appear upon the latter indicate that it was dedicated in the year 252 A.D. Facing the shrine was a broken fragment of the conventional icon representing Mithras slaying the bull. These relics are at Newcastle-on-Tyne. (Hodgson's Northumberland, vol. 3, part 2.) We have now noticed all the salient points connected with this very mysterious religion, and the passages which magpies, and for them he would take a week's languishing in the less distinguished obscurity of the wood-house. Really it was a great step up in life for the magpies; for the cow-linhay was just on your left as you came into the stable-yard, so that any visitors to the stables must almost of necessity see all but one. That one, however, we were to be allowed to pick out of them all; moreover, had we not already got the egg? The egg in the present, the bird in the hand, so to speak, was our real comfort and support under the trial of this rather unequal division. A them. Here they became objects of boy will always look at the present good; how fat one could grow out of trading with boys, if only they ever had anything more valuable than a slatepencil to exchange with you! general interest; of interest even to some of those in high authority who were so ignorant as to hold absurd and immoral heresies, based on the nurseryrhyme, about the conjugal relations of robins and wrens. The magpies, in fact, inaugurated a new era, an era in which it did not appear so absolutely necessary that all boyhood's pursuits should be conducted with secrecy. They revealed the astonishing fact that grown up people could take, or at least affect, some sort of interest in the things which are the important factors of a boy's life. To realize this was an enormous step. There were certain things, many things, yet, which it was advisable to do in secret; that we soon discovered. The magpies were safely hatched, and grew in wisdom and wickedness as nothing not of the corvine race will ever do. After all we left the parents one youngling, not so much out of mercy as because it was a very weakly bird and we were doubtful of being able to bring it up. We took a certain artistic pride in bringing our young birds up; a failure humiliated us; a vigorous adult was a glory to us, whereby we advertised ourselves as proudly as a "Crammer" advertises himself by the boys he has passed into Sandhurst. So we rejected the one It was about a year later than this young magpie as a probable failure, and affair with the magpie's that Joe inleft him to be brought up at home. vented (to us, at least, it was an invenOur entreaties moved the butler to tion) a new scheme for catching birds. give us an old packing-case. Joe had From the village he brought a small obtained from the village carpenter spring-trap which the blacksmith's assome wire-netting on credit; the secu-sistant had given him, by way of setrity given being a promise that when ting a seal on the peace which had the magpies were three weeks from the succeeded some ill-feeling caused by a nest the carpenter should have second certain matter of young wood-pigeons. choice of them. The wire-netting, for It was exactly similar to the common which Joe had thus mortgaged our spring rat-traps, only smaller. "We second-best magpie, he cunningly nailed will till it," said Joe (till was his local across one side of the packing-case, word for set), "We will till it out at and the magpie's cage was ready. the back." This meant behind the They did marvellously well. Their stables. The phrase indicated all that mouths were always gaping ready to delightful area which comprised the receive the balls of moist oatmeal which | pigs' place, the rick, and the butt-linwe delighted in thrusting down them. hay. We should dearly have liked to They knew no fear. On fine days we would take their cage out and set it in the sun a while, careful to leave them one shaded corner. After a time they grew to attract the favorable notice of the under-gardener. He drove two strong iron stays, for us, into a wall of the "cow-linhay," and thither the young magpies were transported after have set the trap in the pigs' place itself; that would have been the spot most likely for a catch; but we feared the inquisitive nature of the pigs who would always set to work grouting in any spot on which a man had lately been busy. They would surely disturb our gin. Then it would spring up, its teeth would catch them by the snout, would scarify that snout, and so bring times used for fattening a pig, somedown on us the wrath of the under-gar- times the tenement of a calf, at present dener (their caretaker), who at pres- without inhabitants. Here, watching ent was our valuable ally. "We must keenly the whole day long (for it was till it just outside the pigs' place," Christmas time and there were no lesJoe said. He added that to till it at- sons) we caught no fewer than three tractively we needed corn. This meant blackbirds; two cocks, with magnifithat we were to ask the coachman to cent orange bills and glossy jet-black give us some. We waited about in the plumage, and one rusty hen. We also harness-room, where the corn-chest caught a blue-tit; but so elated were was kept, until one o'clock, the hour we by the triumphs of that glorious at which the horses were fed; for we day, that of the blue-tit we thought were wise enough to know that we hardly anything, indulging ourselves in were more likely to find favor, and a infinitely grand visions of the quarry handful of oats, if we came when the which the future was to provide us chest was open than if we came when from that sieve. Unfortunately we the coachman, to oblige us, would have had left out of our reckoning the fickle to go to his coat and get his keys and mild climate of our western county. then take us to the chest. We recog- By the morrow morning the white covnized that there was a season for the ering was turned into a yellow slush, giving of oats and a season for their and not a bird would be tempted to withholding. approach our precious sieve. We had often begged oats for baiting So this request for oats, for the tilling figure-of-four traps and for strewing of our wonderful new engine, was no under sieves held off the ground by a novelty, and we obtained a handful stick which we, keeping keen watch, without much grumbling. After all, pulled away by a string so soon as a however, we did not till it very near bird was rash enough to get beneath the pigs' place, but in the rubbish at the sieve. Some boys, it is supposed, the foot of the hayrick. We dealt with catch birds with figure-of-four traps, the engine not without a wholesome for we still see them described at great fear lest it should spring off and catch length in boys' books as deadly engines our clumsy little fingers in its sharp for the capture of the small bird. Cer- iron teeth, having an exaggerated, yet tainly, however, we never caught any wholesome, idea of the damage which so, though it was not for want of try- its snap was likely to inflict. At length ing, and though we decline to believe we got it tilled, and cunningly covered for a moment that we were extraordi- with rubbish and corn, and retired into narily unskilful. With the other plan, the adjacent butt-linhay to await dehowever, we did have some success, velopments. We had great hopes that especially in the hard weather. Very we might thus have our revenge on vivid in our recollection is one great the blackbird who loved to worry about day when the snow had lain several inches deep for some forty-eight hours. We cleared a little circle; and that of itself is an attraction sufficient to tempt the birds to come and visit it. Further, we strewed this circle with oats and scraps and bread-crumbs. Then, fixing "There's nothing there," Joe asup a sieve on a stick over the most sured us, as we ran out to the stables succulent portions, we led the string again after a very hurried meal. He attached to this stick through the gap- had much trouble to persuade us not to ing hinge-joint of the door of one of go at once to look again; but at length those low buildings which helped to convinced us that it was better policy divide the stable-yard from the pigs' to leave the scene of the snare unplace. It was a poky little place, some- troubled. Before we went in for the among the débris and who had fled away so often, scotfree and laughing at our expense. Tea-time, however, arrived before the blackbird, and we had to go in without any satisfaction of our high-pulsing impatience. night, he said, we would go together | out their legs and escaped, wiser birds. and have another look. We went; and The scene of our greatest success with we can distinctly remember, even now, the incredulity, growing to a glad certainty, with which we sighted something, a bird,—there, where we had cunningly covered the trap. It lay the steel trap was not behind the stables, but away down at the foot of the arable field beyond the lawn, where some fine beech-trees had been spared at the expense of plough land and still, then flapped its wings vainly, pasture. They grew on the steep side tightly held by the feet, then lay of the bank bending quickly to the still again, awaiting us with anxious, little stream, where a path led down to fearful eyes as we bent over and se- a pool formed by damming the stream, cured it. It was a yellow-hammer. for the drinking-place of the cows. In With the intensest interest we watched the autumn the floor of this bank beJoe press down the spring of the trap came russet red with the fallen beech with one hand, while the other held leaves, and among the leaves were nuts the panting little bird, and release its of the beech, which were a particular legs from the cruel teeth. Alas, that delight to wood-pigeons and chafit needs to be written, both legs were finches. The wood-pigeon was too broken! But there was no sorrow or large game for our little trap to aspire mercy in our pagan little hearts then, to hold, but the finches were just what only a great joy at the speedy triumph we could hope to catch, and, in fact, of our latest scheme. most often caught. The loose-strewn ""Tisn't no good keeping him," Joe leaves of beech were an excellent cover remarked with iron philosophy, refer- for the gin, and often we captured, at ring to the broken limbs, and by that the right season, two or three in the he meant, as we well knew, keeping afternoon. Then came a sad day. A him alive; it was with no notion of footway led down either side of the setting the bird free (in its crippled arable field, and the easternmost footstate no kindness, truly), that he said way led close beside the beech-strewn the words. So the poor little yellow-bank. On this evil day it happened hammer met with a mercifully quick that one of those in authority, passing death. We realized, however, suc-along that footway, saw a bird fluttercessful as the gin had proved, that it was not altogether perfect. It was not our desire to kill or maim our captives; and this, not from any motive of mercy (a quality which does not seem to drop into the heart of a boy), but because our visions were always of keeping these birds as prisoners in cages. And once there, it was our constant effort and desire to make them as happy and prosperous as we could; for after all we had fairly kindly, though utterly unreflecting, natures, when once the cruel hunting instinct had been satiated. Wherefore, after that first incomplete triumph over the yellow-hammer, we bethought ourselves of schemes whereby, still using the sharp-toothed gin, we might save the captives' limbs. We bound round the teeth of the gin with list, and thus saved many; though many still were broken, and some pulled ing in an unnatural manner among the beech-leaves, proceeded to investigate, found there a noble cock-chaffinch held by the legs in the teeth of a steel trap - and those legs, alas, broken, in spite of the list around the teeth! The chaffinch was released, a cruel mercy; the trap was confiscated; and later in the day Authority sat with some severity, but with many unanswerable charges of cruelty, on us who had set the trap, with strict injunctions that no such engines were to be used in the future. Authority was so far wise as to exact no promise, which would have been but to invite its breach; but hereafter it was evident that the sympathy which it had seemed possible to win from Authority was not to be relied upon without reserve. became evident that while sympathy could be won for some of the interests of boyhood, there were others which It |