With the Egyptians Osiris was supposed to be buried in the ark, which represented the disappearance of the deity. His loss, or death, constituted the first part of the mysteries, which consisted of lamentations for his decease. After the third day from his death, a procession went down to the seaside in the night, carrying the ark with them. During the passage they poured drink offerings from the river, and when the ceremony had been duly performed, they raised a shout that Osiris had again risen—that the dead had been restored to life. After this followed the second or joyful part of the mysteries. The similarity of this custom with the Good Friday celebrations of the death of Jesus, and the rejoicings on account of his resurrection on Easter Sunday, will be at once observed. It is further said that the missing part of Osiris was eaten by a fish, which made the fish a sacred symbol. Thus we have the Ark, Fish, and Good Friday brought together, also the Egg, for the origin of the Easter eggs is very ancient. A bull is represented as breaking an egg with his horn, which signified the liberating of imprisoned life at the opening or spring of the year, which had been destroyed by Typhon. The opening of the year at that time commenced in the spring, not according to our present reckoning; thus, the Egg was a symbol of the resurrection of life at the spring, or our Easter time. The author of the “Worship of the Generative Powers,” describes the origin of the hot cross-bun at Easter, which is a further parallelism of the Christian and Pagan festivals. The author also draws a further conclusion—that the cakes or buns have in reality a Phallic origin, for in France and other parts, the Easter cakes were called after the _membrum virile_. The writer says:—“In the primitive Teutonic mythology, there was a female deity named in old German, Ostara, and in Anglo-Saxon, Eastre or Eostre; but all we know of her is the simple statement of our father of history, Bede, that her festival was celebrated by the ancient Saxons in the month of April, from which circumstance that month was named by the Anglo-Saxons, Easter-mona or Eoster-mona, and that the name of the goddess had been frequently given to the Paschal time, with which it was identical. The name of this goddess was given to the same month by the old Germans and by the Franks, so that she must have been one of the most highly honoured of the Teutonic deities, and her festival must have been a very important one and deeply implanted in the popular feelings, or the Church would not have sought to identify it with one of the greatest Christian festivals of the year. It is understood that the Romans considered this month as dedicated to Venus, no doubt because it was that in which the productive powers of nature began to be visibly developed. When the Pagan festival was adopted by the Church, it became a moveable feast, instead of being fixed to the month of April. Among other objects