Their names too have been variously given, but the details are hardly worth repeating:* and even the opinion that they were Persians, though it seems the most credible, has met with some dissentients. One writer will have it that they were Jews, or Jewish legates rather, residing at the time in Persia or Syria;† while the Armenian Haitho, who lived in the fifth century, has left it on record, that they were the rulers of three provinces in Tartary, who chose to call themselves kings, and whose kinsmen are Christians at the present day amongst a people of heathens.§

* Idem. Idem.

+"Cum enim inde ab ultima creditum semper sit ætate hos Magos philosophos fuisse, ex Persia, sive, quod aliis placuit, Arabia oriundos ac a vero Dei cultu alienos, non dubitavit celeberrimus vir aliam complecti sententiam, ac Magos istos pro Judæis, aut Judæorum potius in Persia aut Syria commorantium legatis." DE MAGIS BETHLEHEMUM, STELLA DUCE, PROFECTIS. A Jac. Alb. Hanselmanno, p. 2, 4to. Vitembergiæ. 1716.

It seems strange that so sound a scholar as Hyde should have run into the mistake of calling Haitho, an Armenian king-Armeniæ rex— (p. 376). In the preface to the very work from which Hyde quotes, Salconi expressly says that he was a monk and a relation of the king of Armenia. "Hæ sunt historiæ partium Orientis a religioso viro, fratre Haythono, Domino Curchi, consanguineo Regis Armeniæ, compilatæ.” From this same authority we learn that the work was originally taken down in French by Salconi, from the dictation of Brother Haytho, and subsequently translated by the former into Latin. In a yet earlier edition of the work-1529,—he is styled a brother of the Premonstratensian order, and the title of the work runs somewhat differently, being LIBER HISTORIARUM PARTIUM ORIENTIS, sive PASSAGIUM TERRÆ SANCTE; instead of Historia Orientalis, quæ eadem et de Tartaris inscribitur.

§ In regno Tarsæ sunt tres provinciæ, quarum dominatores se reges faciunt appellari. Homines illius patriæ nominantur Jogour; semper idola coluerunt et adhuc colunt omnes præter decem cognationes illorum regum, qui per demonstrationem stellæ venerunt adorare nativitatem in Bethlehem Judæ. Et adhuc multi magni et nobiles inveni. untur inter Tartaros de cognatione illa qui tenent firmiter fidem Christi."

This day was also called the EPIPHANY,* that is to say the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles; and by some writers, though more rarely, the THEOPHANY,† or manifestation of the Deity. Lastly, it was termed BETHANIA, from a word compounded of Hebrew and Greek, namely Beth, a house," and paiver to show or to appear, "because he appeared in the house by the transformation of wine and water"—a singular derivation, but which is here given on the authority of Belethus. ‡

It may easily be imagined that so important a day in the Christian calendar would not be without its full share of ceremonies, either grave or farcical. These have gone through the usual routine; from pagan rites they have become christian solemnities, and from these again they have degenerated into popular customs, which have

HAITHONI ARMENI HISTORIA ORIENTALIS.-Cap. ii. p. 3. I should almost have doubted under all the circumstances whether by Tarsa Haitho really meant Tartary, had it not been for his subsequent description of its situation.

*

From the Greek wiḍávia a rising as of the sun, the appearance of a God. But in the FESTA ANGLO-ROMANA, another reason is assigned, and another appellation given : "Or 'tis so called from the appearance of the Holy Ghost in the shape of a dove at his baptism thirty years after, for this sixth of January was the day of our Saviour's baptism, and is celebrated as such by the Church, and therefore 'tis termed by Alcas Cyriacus, an Arabick manuscript of astronomical tables in the archbishop's archives in the library of Oxford, the Feast of Epiphanie or BENEDICTION OF WATERS. On this day also is commemorated the first miracle performed by our Saviour at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, where he turned water into wine." FESTA ANGLOROMANA, p. 9, 12mo. London, 1678.

From the Greek Otoç a God, and paiveiv to show or to appear. "Tertia denique nominata est Bethania nomine conflato ab Hæbreo et Græco; videlicet a BETH, quod domus est, quæ item alio anno eodem die contingit; apparuit ñ in domo per transformationem aquæ in vinum." Explicatio Divin. Officior. a Beletho, cap. 73, p.

grown fainter and fainter from year to year, and in all probability will be one day extinguished. Of those that still remain, the drawing for king and queen is the most important. In the olden time it was thus managed in our own country, and the same custom prevailed throughout the continent, with more or less variation in the details."After tea a cake is produced, and two bowls containing the fortunate chances for the different sexes. The host fills up the tickets, and the whole company, except the king and queen, are to be ministers of state, maids of honour, or ladies of the bed-chamber. Often the host and hostess, more by design perhaps than accident become the king and queen. According to Twelfth-Day law, each party is to support his character till midnight."* There was however at one time another mode of electing their Twelfth Night Majesties, of which this seems to be only a corruption. The cake was made full of plums, a bean and a pea being mixed up amongst them; whoever upon the division of it got the bean, he was acknowledged for king; whoever got the pea, she was to be queen. Nothing can be more graphic than Herrick's poetical account of this ceremony.

"TWELFE NIGHT, OR KING AND QUEENE.

Now, now the mirth comes

With the cake full of plums,

Where Beane's the king of the sport here;
Besides we must know

The Pea also

Must revell as Queene in the court here.

Begin then to chuse,

(This night as ye use,)

Who shall for the present delight here
Be a king by the lot

And who shall not

Be Twelve-day Queene for the night here.

Brand, vol. i. p. 12.

Which knowne let us make
Joy-sops with the cake;

And let not a man then be seen here,
Who unurg'd will not drinke

To the base from the brink

A health to the king and the queene here.

Next crowne the bowle full

With gentle lamb's-wooll;

Adde sugar, nutmeg, and ginger,

With store of ale too;

And thus ye must doe

To make the wassaile a swinger.

Give then to the king

And Queene wassailing;

And though with ale ye be whet here;
Yet part ye from hence

As free from offence

As when ye innocent met here." *

This has generally been supposed to be in honour of the Three Kings of Cologne; but in all probability owes its origin to the Greek and Roman custom of casting lots at their banquets, † for who should be the rex convivii, or, as Horace calls him, the arbiter bibendi. The lucky cast was termed Venus or Basilicus, and whoever threw it, gave

* HERRICK'S HESPERIDES, p. 376, 8vo. London, 1648. See also Speeches to the Queen at Sudley, p. 8-NICHOL'S PROGRESSES OF QUEEN ELIZABETH, sig. b. 3.

†This however was not always the case; sometimes the symposiarch, or KING, as he was also termed of the compotation, was elected solely by imposition of a coronet of flowers upon his head. Both customs are fully explained by Rosinus, or as I should rather call him Roszfeld, for he was a native of Eisenach, in Germany, and has therefore better claims to the last appellation-"Jam et hoc notandum in cōviviis moris fuisse, ut talis astragalis ve sorte missis Symposiarcha, quem alii REGEM, alii magistrum convivii, Varro Modimperatorem appellat, duceretur. Nonnunquam etiam sola corollæ impositione diceretur." Rosini Antiquitates Romanæ, lib. v. cap. xxx. Those who wish for more minute information upon this topic should consult the SYMPOSIACON of Plutarch, lib. i. Quæstio quarta.

laws for the night to his competitors. The unlucky throw was called canicula and chius.*

In some parts of France the Bean-King—le Roi de la Feve is elected by another process. A child is placed under a table where he can see nothing, and the master of the feast holding up a piece of cake demands, whose portion it is to be. The child replies according to his own fancy, and this game continues 'till the piece, which contains the bean, has been allotted. A whole court is thus formed, the fool not being forgotten; and every time either of their majesties is seen to drink, the company are bound to cry out, under pain of a forfeit, "the king (or the queen) drinks."‡

There is little more to be said of this day except that

"Talorum vero canis damnosus; senio medius et anceps, siquidem modo lucra, nonnunquam damnum afferebat: is vero quaternarium numerum facit, chius verò ternarium. Venus autem, quæ summum continet numerum, multum lucri affert; semperque felici exitu ludum terminavit." ALEXANDER AB ALEXANDRO-Geniales Dies, lib. iii.

cap. xxi. p. 791.

"Celui, qui est le maistre du banquet, a un grand gasteau, dans lequel y a une febue cachée,-gasteau, dy je, que l'on coupe en autant de parts qu'il y a de gens conviez au festin. Cela fait en met un petit enfant sous la table, lequel le maistre interroge sous ce nom de Phebé, comme si ce fut un qui en l' innocence de son ange representast une forme d'oracle d'Apollon. A cét interrogatoire l'enfant respond d'un mot Latin, Domine; sur cela le maistre l'adjure de dire à qui il distribuera la portion du gasteau qu'il tient en sa main; l'enfant le nomme ainsi qu'il luy tombe en la pensèe, sans acception de la dignité des personnes, jusques à ce que la part est donnée à celuy ou est la febue, et par ce moyen il est reputè Roy de la compagnie, ancores qu'il fust le moindre. Qu'il n'y ait en ceci beaucoup de l'ancien paganisme, je n'en fais doute. Ce que nous representons ce jous là est le feste des Saturnales que l'on celebroit dedans Rome sur la fin du mois de Decembre et commencement de Janvier." LES RECHERCHES DE LA FRANCE D'ESTIENNE PASQUIER, livre iv. chap. ix. p. 375.

DICTIONAIRE COMIQUE, par P. J. LEROUX, tom. ii. p. 431, Roi de

la Feve.