The practice of walking round an object of reverence with the right hand towards it, which is one of the ceremonies mentioned in our author's account of Vásavadattá's marriage, has been exhaustively discussed by Dr. Samuel Fergusson in his paper--"On the Ceremonial turn called Desiul," published in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy for March 1877. (Vol. I. Ser. II. No. 12.) He shews it to have existed among the ancient Romans as well as the Celts. One of the most striking of his quotations is from the Curculio of Plautus (I. 1. 69.) Phædromus says--Quo me vortam nescio. Palinurus jestingly replies--Si deos salutas dextrovorsum censeo. Cp. also the following passage of Valerius Flaceus (Argon VIII. 243). Inde ubi sacrificas cum conjuge venit ad aras Æsonides, unaque adeunt pariterque precari Incipiunt. Ignem Pollux undamque jugalem Prætulit ut dextrum pariter vertantur in orbem. The above passage forms a striking comment upon our text. Cp. also Plutarch in this life of Camillus Tauta eipôn, kathaper esti Rômaiois ethos, epeuxamenois kai proskynêsasin, epi dexia exelittein, esphalê peristrephomenos. It is possible that the following passage in Lucretius alludes to the same practice-- Nec pietas ulla est velatum sæpe videri Vertier ad lapidem atque omnes accedere ad aras. Dr. Fergusson is of opinion that this movement was a symbol of the cosmical rotation, an imitation of the apparent course of the sun in the heavens. Cp. Hyginus Fable CCV. Arge venatrix, cum cervum sequeretur, cervo dixisse fertur: Tu licet Solis cursum sequaris, tamen te consequar. Sol, iratus, in cervam eam convertit. He quotes, to prove that the practice existed among the ancient Celts, Athenæus IV, p. 142, who adduces from Posidonius the following statement "Tous theous proskynousin epi dexia strephomenoi." The above quotations are but a few scraps from the full feast of Dr. Fergusson's paper. See also the remarks of the Rev. S. Beal in the Indian Antiquary for March 1880, p. 67.