The _mummers_, in like manner, who went about upon this day, demanding money, and with similar solemnities, as if for the _moon in labour_, were derived from the same origin. In Ceylon this practice is confined to “women alone,”[255] who, as the editor of the _Rites and Ceremonies_, etc., informs us, “go from door to door with the image of _Buddu_ in their hands, calling out as they pass, ‘Pray, remember _Buddu_.’[256] The meaning is, that will enable them to sacrifice to the god. Some of the people give them money, others cotton thread, some rice, and others oil for the lamps. Part of these gifts they carry to the priests of _Buddu_, and the remainder they carry home for their own use.” The money collected in Ireland, on the same occasion, would appear to have been somewhat similarly expended, having been “mostly sacrificed to the jolly god; the remainder given to the poor in the neighbourhood.” “Here, for a while, my proper cares resigned, Here let me sit in sorrow for mankind; Like yon neglected shrub, at random cast, That shades the steep, and sighs at every blast.”[257] CHAPTER XVIII. When I cast back my eye upon this narrative, through the long perspective of ages which it involves, I confess I feel incommoded by some misgivings of self-distrust. When I consider the _mighty_ individuals, of _transcendent_ powers and almost _inexhaustible_ resources, who, having reconnoitred its coast, either _perished_ in the impotency of effecting a landing, or, more wisely, _receded_ from it as impregnable, I am _thrown back_, as it were, upon myself, and impeded by the comparison of my own littleness. But if “God has often chosen the small things of the earth to confound the great”; and if success in past undertakings be any guarantee against the illusiveness of inward promise; if the roads be all chalked, the posts lighted, and the sentinels faithful, why, _then_, allow the influence of petty fears to mar, at all events, the _project_ of an ennobling enterprise? In that cherished volume, whence our first lessons upon religion have been deduced, and which, as embodying the principles of our _happiness_ here, and our _hopes_ hereafter, has been honoured with the _pre-eminent_ and distinctive appellation of the _Bible_, or _Book_, there occur numerous phrases of _mysterious_ import, but _pregnant_ significancy, which pious men, unable to solve, have contented themselves with classifying as under the head of “above reason”--“contrary,” and “according to,” being the two other constituents of their predicamental line.