characters, and signs like hieroglyphics, extending their whole length. The signs were explained to us as those of the months, and the characters denoted the weeks and the days. The Runic staves, which have been given to us, were afterwards exhibited at Morvanna, and in the different places through which we passed, in the hope of procuring more. We afterwards saw others; but they were always rare, and considered more as curious antiquities than things in actual use: although the inhabitants were well acquainted with them, and were often able to explain the meaning of the characters upon them, and the purpose for which these instruments were made, especially in this part of Sweden. We saw one of more elaborate workmanship, where the Runic characters had been very elegantly engraved upon a stick, like a physician's cane: but this last seemed to be of more modern date. In every instance, it was evident, from some of the marks upon them, that their first owners were Christians the different lines and characters denoting the fasts and festivals, golden numbers, dominical letter, epact, &c. But the custom of thus preserving written records upon rods or sticks, is of the highest antiquity. There is an allusion to this custom in Ezek. xxxvii. 16-20, where mention is made of something very similar to the Runic staff. Nearly nine centuries before the age of Ezekiel's prophecy, Moses used rods in the same manner, (Num. xvii. 2, 3.)" We may now see how satisfactorily the use to which these written rods were in after-ages applied, is illustrated by the Runic staves, which have generally the form of a sword or sceptre, being the ensigns of office and dignity borne in the hands by the priests, the elders, and princes of the people. The recurved rods of the priests among the Greeks, and the crozier of a modern bishop, had the same origin. : Bishop Nicholson, (Eng.Hist. Libr. pt. i. p. 52. 2d edit. folio) remarks: "the Danes (as all other ancient people of the world) registered their more considerable transactions upon Rocks, or on parts of them, hewn into various shapes and figures. On these they engraved such inscriptions as were proper for their Heathen altars, triumphal arches, sepulchral monuments, and genealogical histories of their ancestors. Their writings of less con cern (as letters, almanacks, &c.) were engraven upon Wood: and because Beech was most plentiful in Denmark, (though Fir and Oak be so in Norway and Sweden) and most commonly employed in these services, from the word Bog, which in their language is the name of that sort of wood, they and all other northern nations, have the name of Book. The poorer sort used Bark; and the Horns of rein-deer and elks were often finely polished, and shaped into books of several leaves. Many of their old calendars are likewise upon Bones of beasts and fishes: but the inscriptions on Tapestry, Bells, Parchment, and Paper, are of later use.".. A singular custom still prevails at Pamber, near Basingstoke, in Hampshire. The Court-leet holden annually for that manor, is opened sub dio, in a small piece of ground called Lady-Mead, which belongs to the tithing-man for the year. Thence an adjournment is made to a neighbouring public-house. The proceedings of the court are recorded on a piece of wood, called a tally, about three feet long, and an inch and a half square, furnished every year by the steward. One of these singular records was some time ago produced in evidence in a law-suit at Winchester. The mode of keeping accounts by tallies, or cleft pieces of wood, in which the notches are cut on one piece conformably to the other, one part being kept by the creditor, and the other by the debtor, is still practised in many parts of England, in particular cases. A Tally continues to be given by the Exchequer, to those who pay money there upon loans; hence the origin of the Teller, or Tally-writer of the Exchequer; and also of the phrase to tally, to fit, to suit, or answer exactly.* * See Astle's Origin and Progress of Writing, chap. v. p. 68, viii. p. 201. Davies' Celtic Researches, sect. 4 and 5. Fry's Pantographia, pp. 304, 307. Gent. Mag. LXXXII. pt.i. p. 625; and LXXX. pt. i. p. 308. Vallancey's Antiquity of the Irish Language, p. 55. Dublin, 1772, 8vo. Townley's Illustrations of Biblical Literature, vol. i. pp. 28-30. Horne's Introduction to the Crit. Study of the Script., vol. iii. Pt. iv. ch. vi. sect. 7, and Introduct. to Bibliography, vol. i. pp. 104, 105; and Burder's Oriental Literature, vol. 1. p. 193. MATT. v. 25. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. THESE words allude to a Roman custom, which had been introduced into Palestine with the Roman government. Among the Romans, when a person had a lawsuit with another, he first endeavoured to arrange the matter amicably. (Cicero for Publius Quintius, v. 11). If the matter could not be settled in this manner, the complainant called on his adversary to go with him before the prætor. If the latter refused, the complainant called on some person present to be a witness, saying, May I take you as a witness? If the latter agreed, he presented the tip of his ear, which the complainant touched. After this, he could compel the defendant by force to go before the magistrate with him, and even lay hands on him for the purpose, which explains the words in Matt. xviii. 28, where one servant laid hands on the other, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. If he agreed with the complainant the way," (eundo via,) the affair was at an end, which explains the above words of Jesus, whiles thou art in the way with him.* 66 on MATT. xxv. 1-12. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us. said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Ir appears from both the Old and New Testaments, that the But he answered and See Adam's Roman Antiquities, b. i. p. 405.-Burder's Oriental Literature, vol. ii. p. 303. Jews celebrated the nuptial solemnity with great festivity and splendour. Many of the rites and ceremonies observed by them on this occasion were common both to the Greeks and the Romans. After the connubial union was solemnly ratified and attested, and the religious part of it concluded, it was customary for the bridegroom, as among the Greeks and Romans, in the evening to conduct his spouse from her friends to his own home with all pomp, brilliancy, and joy that could be crowded into the procession. It was usual for the bridegroom to invite his young female friends and relations to grace this procession, and to add numbers and lustre to his retinue: these, adorned in robes suitable to the occasion, took lamps, and waited in a company near the house, till the bride and bridegroom, with their friends, issued forth, whom they welcomed with the customary congratulations-then joined in the train-and, with songs and acclamations, and every demonstration of joy, advanced to the bridegroom's house, where an entertainment was provided, according to the circumstances of the united pair. The same custom prevailed among the ancient Greeks. Thus Homer, (II. xviii. line 491, &c.) - Εν τη μεν ρα γαμοι τ' εσαν, ειλαπίναι τε Here sacred pomps and genial feasts delight, POPE. So the messenger in Euripides' Helena (lin. 728, &c.) says to Helen, that he remembers the lamps or torches he carried before her and Menelaus at their wedding. Νυν ανανεούμαι τον σου ἐμεναιον παλιν, A like custom is still observed among the Pagan East-Indians: "For on the day of their marriage the husband and wife, being both in the same palanquin, go out between seven and eight o'clock at night, accompanied with all their kindred and friends: the trumpets and the drums go before them, and they are lighted by a multitude of massals, which are a kind of flambeaux.-The new married couple go abroad in this equipage for the space of some hours, after which they return to their own house, where the women and domestics wait for them. The whole house is enlightened with little lamps, and many of those massals, already mentioned, are kept ready for their arrival, besides those that accompany them, and go before the palanquin."* This nuptial feast was adorned and celebrated only by a select company of the bride and bridegroom's friends-no strangers were admitted-by these the evening was spent in all the convivial enjoyment, which social happiness, their approbation of the late union, and the splendour of such a festivity could inspire. "At a marriage, the procession of which I saw some years ago," says Mr. Ward, "the bridegroom came from a distance, and the bride lived at Serampore, to which place the bridegroom was to come by water. After waiting two or three hours, at length, near midnight, it was announced, as if in the very words of Scripture, "Behold! the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him." All the persons employed, now lighted their lamps, and ran with them in their hands to fill up their stations in the procession; some of them had lost their lights, and were unprepared, but it was then too late to seek them, and the cavalcade moved forward to the house of the bride, at which place the company entered a large and splendidly illuminated area, before the house, covered with an awning, where a great multitude of friends, dressed in their best apparel, were seated upon mats. The bridegroom was carried in the arms of a friend, • Agreement of Customs between East-Indians and Jews, art. xvii. p. 68, edit. Lond. 1705. |