“Dissertation sur le dieu Pet,” par M. Claude Terrin.—This author is stated to have cited from Clemens Romanus and Saint Cæsar.—(See Bib. Scat., p. 37.) Suetonius has the following remarks upon the Roman Emperor Claudius: “It is said too that he intended to publish an edict ... allowing to all people the liberty of giving vent at table to any distension occasioned by flatulence.” This was upon “hearing of a person whose modesty, under such circumstances, had nearly cost him his life.”—(“Claudius,” xxxii.) Plutarch asks the question: “Question 95. Why was it ordained that they that were to live chaste should abstain from pulse?... Or rather was it because they should bring empty and slender bodies to their purifications and expiations? For pulse are windy and cause a great deal of excrements that require purging off. Or is it because they excite lechery by reason of their flatulent and windy nature?” (“Morals,” Goodwin’s English translation, Boston, 1870, vol. ii. p. 254.) “The fact that in honor of the arrival of friends, the house is swept and strewn with sand, and that the people bathe at such occasions, shows that cleanliness is appreciated. The current expression is that the house is so cleaned that no bad smell remains to offend the guest. For the same reason the Indian takes repeated baths before praying, ‘that he may be agreeable to the Deity.’”—(“Report on the Northwestern Tribes of Canada,” Dr. Franz Boas, British Association for the Advancement of Science, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Meeting, 1889, p. 19.) “Saul went into a cave ‘ut purgaret ventrem.’”—(Harington, “Ajax,” p. 25.) XXII. OBSCENE TENURES. In close connection with this worship of Bel-Phegor, if there ever was such a worship, may be examined the obscene tenures by which certain estates in England were held in “sergeantcy.” No less an authority than Buckle, the historian, deemed an investigation of these not beneath the dignity of his intellect, as may be ascertained by a glance at his article “Contributions to the History of the Pet,” in his “Commonplace Book,” p. 472. He refers to “Miscellanea Antica Anglicana,” Blount’s “Ancient Tenures,” Luther’s “Table Talk” (as above), Dulaure’s “Des Divinités Génératrices,” Niebuhr’s “Description of Arabia,” Gifford’s edition of Ben Jonson, “The Staple of News,” by Ben Jonson, Wright’s “Political Ballads,” in vols. iii. and vii. of the Percy Society’s publications. With the exception of the first named, all the above have been examined, and a transcription made of the notes, which will be found inserted in their proper place.