When the tempestuous chorus had subsided, I began again:--"Gentlemen, you will find a very circumstantial account of the Sicarii in at least three different parts of Josephus; once in Book XX. sect. v. c. 8, of his _Antiquities_; once in Book I. of his _Wars_: but in sect. 10 of the chapter first cited you will find a particular description of their tooling. This is what he says--'They tooled with small scymetars not much different from the Persian _acinacæ_, but more curved, and for all the world most like the Roman sickles or _sicæ_.' It is perfectly magnificent, gentlemen, to hear the sequel of their history. Perhaps the only case on record where a regular army of murderers was assembled, a _justus exercitus_, was in the case of these _Sicarii_. They mustered in such strength in the wilderness, that Festus himself was obliged to march against them with the Roman legionary force." Upon which Toad-in-the-hole, that cursed interrupter, broke out a-singing--"Et interrogatum est à Toad-in-the-hole--Ubi est ille exercitus? Et responsum est ab omnibus--Non est inventus." "No, no, Toad--you are wrong for once: that army _was_ found, and was all cut to pieces in the desert. Heavens, gentlemen, what a sublime picture! The Roman legions--the wilderness--Jerusalem in the distance--an army of murderers in the foreground!" Mr. R., a member, now gave the next toast--"To the further improvement of Tooling, and thanks to the Committee for their services." Mr. L., on behalf of the committee who had reported on that subject, returned thanks. He made an interesting extract from the report, by which it appeared how very much stress had been laid formerly on the mode of tooling, by the fathers, both Greek and Latin. In confirmation of this pleasing fact, he made a very striking statement in reference to the earliest work of antediluvian art. Father Mersenne, that learned Roman Catholic, in page one thousand four hundred and thirty-one[1] of his operose Commentary on Genesis, mentions, on the authority of several rabbis, that the quarrel of Cain with Abel was about a young woman; that, by various accounts, Cain had tooled with his teeth, [Abelem fuisse _morsibus_ dilaceratum à Cain;] by many others, with the jaw-bone of an ass; which is the tooling adopted by most painters. But it is pleasing to the mind of sensibility to know that, as science expanded, sounder views were adopted. One author contends for a pitchfork, St. Chrysostom for a sword, Irenæus for a scythe, and Prudentius for a hedging-bill. This last writer delivers his opinion thus:-- "Frater, probatæ sanctitatis æmulus, Germana curvo colla frangit sarculo:"