[33] A celebrated oracle; those who entered the cave are commonly said never to have smiled again. It appears, however, from Pausanias, that this loss of the important faculty which is said to distinguish men from brutes was only temporary. The method of consulting the oracle was singular. The aspirant descended into a cave, where was a small crevice, into which he proceeded to insinuate himself feet foremost. So soon as he had got his knees in, the whole body was sucked forwards by an overpowering force, and after passing through the circuit of the mysteries, he was ejected, feet foremost, at the place where he had entered. [34] _Cade._ The elder of them, being put to nurse, Was by a beggar–woman stolen away: And, ignorant of his birth and parentage, Became a bricklayer, when he came to age. His son am I; deny it if you can. _Smith._ Sir, he made a chimney in my father’s house, _and the bricks are alive to this day to testify it_; therefore deny it not. _Henry VI. Part 2_, Act iv., sc. 2. [35] We by no means pledge ourselves to the truth of this piece of secret history, which is not supported by the testimony of earlier authors. [36] Pausanias, iv. 17. [37] Ithome was a strong town on Mount Ithome, now Vourkan, in which the Messenians made their last stand in the first war. [38] When the Messenians were restored by Epaminondas, the locality of this deposit was indicated by a dream. It was found to consist of a tin plate beaten thin, and folded into the shape of a book, upon which were engraved the rites and doctrines of the Eleusinian mysteries.—_Pausanias_, iv. 26. [39] We have retained this story in the text for its intrinsic beauty, and regret being obliged to say that it is entirely false. It has been shown by Bentley to be inconsistent with Herodotus and Thucydides, and is tacitly rejected by Clinton. Zancle was taken by the Samians, B.C. 494, at the suggestion of Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegium; who afterwards expelled the Samians, and filling the city with men of various nations, called it Messene, being himself of Messenian descent. [40] Ingulph, Hist. Croyland. In later times the ceremony seems to have been universally religious:—see, for example, the dubbing of Don Quixote. We cannot doubt, however, but that Ingulph knew the practice of his own times. Probably the Normans, whose conversion to Christianity was not of very old standing, still retained a flavour of heathenism. [41] It is interesting to trace the physical changes of the island; the formidable swamps above mentioned are now converted into the richest land in England, and we doubt whether Peterborough, or Lincoln, then a centre of trade and commerce, be now accessible to any vessel more dignified than a coal–barge or an eight–oared cutter. [42] “Now (A.D. 1692) Bulldyke Gate, on the south side of the monastery.”—_Gibson’s Saxon Chronicle._ [43] Hugo Candidus.