Page 77.—“_Serpents of fire._”—“Ces considérations me portent à penser
que, dans les mystères, ces phénomènes étoient beaucoup mieux exécutées et
sans comparison plus terribles à l’aide de quelque composition pyrique,
qui est restée cachée, comme celle du feu Grégeois.” _De Pauw._
Page 78.—“_The burning of the reed‐beds of Ethiopia._”—“Il n’y a point
d’autre moyen que de porter le feu dans ces forêts de roseaux, qui
répandent alors dans tout le païs une lumière aussi considérable que celle
du jour même.” _Maillet_, tom. 1. p. 63.
Page 79.—“_The sound of torrents._”—The Nile, _Pliny_ tells us, was
admitted into the Pyramid.
Page 81.—“_I had almost given myself up._”—“On exerçoit,” says _Dupuis_,
“les recipiendaires, pendant plusieurs jours, à traverser, à la nage, une
grande étendue d’eau. On les y jettoit et ce n’étoit que avec peine qu’
ils s’en retiroient. On appliquoit le fer et le feu sur leurs membres. On
les faisoit passer à travers les flammes.”
The aspirants were often in considerable danger, and Pythagoras, we are
told, nearly lost his life in the trials. v. _Recherches sur les
Initiations, par Robin_.
Page 90.—For the two cups used in the mysteries, see _L’Histoire des
Juifs_, liv. 9. c. 16.
Ib.—“_Osiris._”—Osiris, under the name of Serapis, was supposed to rule
over the subterranean world; and performed the office of Pluto, in the
mythology of the Egyptians. “They believed,” says Dr. Pritchard, “that
Serapis presided over the region of departed souls, during the period of
their absence, when languishing without bodies, and that the dead were
deposited in his palace.” _Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology._
Ib.—“_To cool the lips of the dead._”—“Frigidam illam aquam post mortem,
tanquam Hebes poculum, expetitam.” _Zoega._—The Lethe of the Egyptians was
called Ameles. See _Dupuis_, tom. 8. p. 651.
Page 90.—“_A draught divine._”—_Diodor. Sicul._
Page 93.—“_Grasshopper, symbol of initiation._”—_Hor. Apoll._—The
grasshopper was also consecrated to the sun as being musical.
Page 94.—“_Isle of gardens._”—The isle Antirrhodus near Alexandria.
_Maillet._
Ib.—“_Vineyard at Anthylla._”—See _Athen. Deipnos._
Page 97.—“_We can see those stars._”—“On voyoit en plein jour par ces
ouvertures les étoiles, et même quelques planètes en leur plus grande
latitude septentrionale; et les prêtres avoient bientôt profité de ce
phénomène pour observer à diverses heures la passage des étoiles.”
_Séthos._—_Strabo_ mentions certain caves or pits, constructed for the
purpose of astronomical observations, which lay in the Zelopolitan
prefecture, beyond Heliopolis.
Page 98.—“_A plantain._”—This tree was dedicated to the Genii of the
Shades, from its being an emblem of repose and cooling airs. “Cui imminet
musæ folium, quod ab Iside infera geniisque ei addictis manu geri solitum,
umbram requiemque et auras frigidas subindigitare videtur.” _Zoega._
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