Scooping his entrails; nor his hands were free

To chase them thence."

The vulture lays but two eggs in a year. They build their nests along lofty precipices, on the top and in the clefts of high rocks, and in dreary parts of mountains. It is, consequently, very seldom that their nests are found. They may often be seen in the morning sunning themselves upon high bare rocks; and from these places they sally forth to seek their prey. In this position poets have represented them as overlooking battle-fields, waiting for a feast on the bodies of the slain:

"And on some rugged peak

The black-winged vulture's beak

With shrill rejoicing his proud flesh shall tear!"

This bird is also associated with those which the prophet Isaiah foresaw should inhabit and prey amid the lonely desolations of Idumea:

"There shall the vultures also be gathered,
Every one with her mate."

It was anciently believed that vultures are possessed of extraordinary acuteness of smell, and that it is by this means they so readily discover their favorite food. This is still a popular belief. Modern naturalists, however, have proved, by satisfactory experiments, that this is an error. "The experiments instituted upon vultures," says Audubon, "show that not only are they not led to their prey by the sense of smell, but also that they are not made sensible by it of the presence of food when in their immediate proximity." This fact has been discovered also by the Indians, and is well known among them. If it be asked, how then do they so directly discover the existence of a carcass, it is answered, they are gifted with extreme sharpness of sight. It is known that the ancients had discovered this. The word Roah, translated vulture in Deuteronomy, signifies seeing. It is said, also, that the vulture, in the hieroglyphics of Egypt, signifies sharpness of sight. This fact will explain the passage in Job

"There is a path which no fowl knoweth,

And which the vulture's eye hath not seen."

If their superior sight is not alone sufficient to account for the readiness with which they find their food, there are other known facts which, combined with this, will fully explain it. The following interesting passage is fully satisfactory. "Desirous of observing how so great number of vultures could congregate together in so short a space of time, I concealed myself one day in a thicket, after having killed a large gazelle, which I left upon the spot. In an instant a number of ravens made their appearance, fluttering about the animal, and making a great croaking, In less than half a quarter of an hour, these birds were reinforced by the arrival of kites and buzzards; and immediately afterwards

I perceived, on raising my head, a flight of birds at a prodigious height, wheeling round and round in their descent. These I soon recognized to be vultures, which seemed, if I may so express myself, to escape from a cavern in the sky. The first comers fell immediately upon the gazelle, but I did not allow them to tear it in pieces. I left my concealment, and they betook themselves slowly and heavily to flight, rejoining their comrades, whose numbers continued to increase. They seemed almost to precipitate themselves from the clouds to share the spoil, but my presence caused them speedily to disappear.

"Thus it is, then, that the vultures are called upon to participate in their prey; the first carnivorous birds that discover the carcass rouse the others which may happen to be in the environs, by their cries and motions. If the nearest vulture does not spy the prey from the lofty region of the air in which he swims, by means of his wide-spread wings, he perceives the subaltern and more terrestrial birds of prey preparing to take possession of it; but perhaps he has himself sufficient power of vision to enable him to discover it. He descends hastily, and with a wheeling flight, and his fall directs the other vultures who witness his evolutions, and who, no doubt, have their instinct sharpened with regard to everything that concerns their food. A concourse of carnivorous birds speedily takes place in the neighborhood of the carcass, sufficient to attract the vultures of the whole district; nearly in the same manner as the disturbance created by a number of men along the streets of a crowded town attracts the whole population to follow in their train."

Bochart represents the vulture as very tender and affectionate to its young. He says: "We know from Horus Apollo that the she-vulture was sacred to Isis, and adorned the statue of the goddess; that it was the emblem of parental affection; and that it was the hieroglyphic for an affectionate mother." He farther says: "This female vulture, having hatched her young ones, continues with them one hundred and twenty days, providing them with all necessaries; and when the stock of food fails them, she tears off the fleshy parts of her thigh, and feeds them with that, and the blood which flows from the wound!" This is similar to what was attributed, by the ancients, to the pelican: namely, that in great extremities it pierces its own breast to feed its offspring with the blood.

As we are about to close this brief chapter on the vulture, we . only begin to feel, upon a review, how much of our childhood comes back to us with this bird. Though unacquainted with that larger species which is known in the east and south, we are perfectly familiar with those which Audubon calls turkey-vultures. Often have we seen them sitting upon the peaks of rocks along the brow of the mountain, and upon the limbs of dead trees in the vicinity

of a carcass, or hurrying around it with "a clumsy sort of hopping canter.' Often have we watched them, in vast numbers, sailing and circling high in the serene summer air, still higher and more distant, until they seemed to the strained eye but as a thin swarm of bees. Often too, in our boyhood, did we climb along the fearful rocks where they roost and make their nests, in search of those large black feathers or quills which sometimes fall from their wings, and regarded one in our hands, on the way to school, as a trophy to be proud of. One of these quills, cut into an axcellent pen, I now hold in my hand, and with it I have written all that has here been said concerning this Bird of the Bible.

We conclude this sketch of the vulture with a very graphic and beautiful little poem, by our friend the Rev. T. C. Porter, Professor of Natural Science in Franklin and Marshall College; at the same time taking this opportunity of acknowledging our indebtedness to him for valuable suggestions made during the preparation of these articles.

THE VULTURE.

High on a rocky peak,

Jagged and scarred by thunder,

The solitary vulture sits with whetted beak
Gazing far under,

Over the desolate plain that lies beneath.
His cold eye glistens in the setting sun,
Watching until the fight be lost and won,
And silence reigns upon the field of death.

Prophet of evil! bird of omen, foul!
Unstained by living blood,
Corruption is thy food;

How man abhors thee, horrid ghoul !

And yet thou art a minister of God

To rid the world of pestilence and taint;

Thou sparest both the sinner and the saint

Under the sod.

But the glad day will dawn, when death shall die

And life be clothed with immortality;

Then thou, with all thy troop, shalt take thy flight
Into the realm of everlasting night.

LIFE.

LIFE! we've been long together,

Through pleasant and through cloudy weather:
'Tis hard to part when friends are dear,

Perhaps 't will cost a sigh, a tear:

Then steal away, give little warning,

Choose thine own time;

Say not good night, but, in some happier clime,
Bid me good morning.

HEXEREI-WITCHCRAFT.*

THE belief in some sort of supernatural agency was and is prevalent among Jews, Christians and Pagans. With this belief superstitious notions have been and still are blended. Absurd as it may appear, many believed—the belief is still entertained by some, that there are fiendish, blood-thirsty creatures, whose only business it is to tempt, seduce and then inflict upon mortals ills of every kind, by controlling at their pleasure, the elements; to reverse the laws of nature, the ordinary course of organic life, and thus create diseases of an irremediable character. With all the powers ascribed to these fiendish creatures, it is believed by some, paradoxical as it is, that these evil beings are themselves subjected to certain mysterious influences, and, in their turn, become the passive slaves of mortals who, by their profound penetration, obtained a knowledge of those influences. With this belief, many were led to put their trust in magicians, and to fear the influence of witches-two forms in which this belief manifested itself among the heathens, and found its advocates, at a later period, among Jews and Christians, and the world at large.

Magic prevailed among the heathens. Some of the most celebrated Greek philosophers-Pythagoras is one of them-took no small pains to attain the knowledge of this. Ephesus was noted for its numbers skilled in magic; and it was a marked triumph of the Gospel, that many of the Christian converts at Ephesus, who had previously used curious arts, brought their books together, and burned them before all men. (Acts xix, 19.) The magic art was still taught at a later period. Several schools were established in Europe. The most celebrated one flourished at Toledo, in Spain.

Magicians were generally considered beneficent rather than malficient to man; only when unduly provoked, did they inflict injury. Magicians practiced for gain.

Witches were viewed as ignorant instruments in the hands of demons-mere slaves without recompense-who sold themselves to the devil without an object, except that for doing evil only. They pretended to bring down certain celestial influences by means of herbs, drugs and perfumes. Their art is called Pharmakeia, witchcraft. (Gal. v, 20.)

* We have been kindly permitted to publish this interesting chapter on an interesting subject from the MS. of a work in course of preparation, by I. D. Rupp, Esq., entitled "An Original History of the Germans in the United States," &c. Mr. Rupp is a laborious author, and has done more to bring out and preserve the local history of our State than any other man. His history of the Germans will meet a want long felt. The extent to which the German element enters into our civilization as a State, is neither generally known nor appreciated. We await with much interest the appearance of Mr. Rupp's work.-ED. GUARDIAN.

Wizards (male witches) were men possessing the same malficient powers as witches; but were seldom induced to exercise them for evil purposes, but usually exerted them, if well paid, to counteract the fatal influences of witches. After the Christian era, some ten or twelve centuries, these witches and wizards arrogated to themselves enlarged powers. They became a terror. They had the power to send storms, to destroy crops, raze houses, sink ships, cast charms at peoples' cattle, carried away children from their cradles, struck children, men and women, with noxious diseasesslew men asleep, devoured their hearts, &c.

Witches were more common than wizards. This was, perhaps, owing to the popular belief "that women are more easily brought in connection with the spiritual world than men." It is a well known historical fact, that priestesses were favored agents of the deities of paganism.

According to the popular belief, witches possessed different spirits. "In the reign of Henry VI., A. D. 1441, a witch on trial, confessed she had three spirits-one like a cat, which would kill kine; another like a toad, to plague men in their bodies; and a third, like a weazel, that will kill horses."

Witches were believed in, by some, in every country. Germany had, at an early day, its Wolen and Trollen, or, as they are now called, Hexen. "Manglaubte," says Mentzel, "boshafte Weiber schloessen einen Bund mit dem Teufel, von dem sie lernten boeses Wetter zumachen, fremden Kuehe die Milch zu entziehen, u. s. f. i. e. It was believed that malicious women made a covenant with the devil, from whom they learned to cause bad weather, milk strange cows, &c. Thousands of these had to pass the ordeal of the Hexenprocesse, trial of witches. "It has been calculated that in Germany alone the number of victims who suffered for the supposed crime of witchcraft, from 1484, the date of the bull of Pope Innocent VIII. against witchcraft, to the beginning of the eighteenth century, considerably exceeded one hundred thousand.' Dick's Christian Philosopher, page 261.

Mentzel, in his Geschicte der Deutschen, page 900, says: "Bis tief ins achzente Jahrhundret rauchten der Scheiterhaufen," u. s. f. i. e. Funeral piles smoked till late in the eighteenth century, and he concludes: "Und erst im Jahre, 1783, wurde zu Glarus in der Schweitz Anna Goeldin, als die letzte Hexe verbraunt," i.

e.

And only in the year 1783 Anna Goeldin was burnt as the last witch at Glarus, in Switzerland.

In England, France, Spain, Italy, and among every nation in Europe, thousands of accused witches shared a similar fate. In America, especially in New England, many were charged with the erime of witchcraft, tried and executed, as early as 1645, and as late as 1688 the phrenzy ran high. "Old women, and children of ten years of age, were put to death; young girls denuded, and