Fasting and self-denial were observances practiced by all nations of antiquity. The _Hindoos_ have days set apart for fasting on many different occasions throughout the year, one of which is when the birth-day of their Lord and Saviour Crishna is celebrated. On this occasion, the day is spent in fasting and worship. They abstain entirely from food and drink for more than thirty hours, at the end of which Crishna's image is worshiped, and the story of his miraculous birth is read to his hungry worshipers.[177:4] Among the ancient _Egyptians_, there were times when the priests submitted to abstinence of the most severe description, being forbidden to eat even bread, and at other times they only ate it mingled with hyssop. "The priests in Heliopolis," says Plutarch, "have many fasts, during which they meditate on divine things."[177:5] Among the _Sabians_, fasting was insisted on as an essential act of religion. During the month _Tammuz_, they were in the habit of fasting from sunrise to sunset, without allowing a morsel of food or drop of liquid to pass their lips.[177:6] The Jews also had their fasts, and on special occasions they gave themselves up to prolonged fasts and mortifications. Fasting and self-denial were observances required of the Greeks who desired initiation into the _Mysteries_. Abstinence from food, chastity and hard couches prepared the neophyte, who broke his fast on the third and fourth day only, on consecrated food.[177:7] The same practice was found among the ancient _Mexicans_ and _Peruvians_. Acosta, speaking of them, says: "These priests and religious men used great fastings, of five and ten days together, before any of their great feasts, and they were unto them as our four ember weeks. . . . "They drank no wine, and slept little, for the greatest part of their exercises (of penance) were at night, committing great cruelties and martyring themselves for the devil, and all to be reputed great fasters and penitents."[178:1] In regard to the number of days which Jesus is said to have fasted being specified as _forty_, this is simply owing to the fact that the number _forty_ as well as _seven_ was a sacred one among most nations of antiquity, particularly among the Jews, and because _others_ had fasted that number of days. For instance; it is related[178:2] that _Moses_ went up into a mountain, "and he was there with the Lord _forty days and forty nights, and he did neither eat bread, nor drink water_," which is to say that he _fasted_. In Deuteronomy[178:3] Moses _is made to say_--for he did not write it, "When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, . . . then I abode in the mount _forty days and forty nights_, I neither did eat bread nor drink water." _Elijah_ also had a long fast, which, _of course_, was continued for a period of _forty days and forty nights_.[178:4]