King, it was well known who was meant; no one was ignorant that this title applied only to the prince who reigned in Asia, and who, de jure or de facto, was sovereign of the world. Notwithstanding the memorable victories of the Greeks, which may be supposed to have been somewhat exaggerated by national vanity, Greece, but for Alexander, would have ended by becoming a province of the Great King. He had already proceeded so far as to secure an obedience to his commands, in interposing in the disputes of the Greeks; he had as many of them as he pleased in his pay, and wanted but little more to be in reality their master. Without Alexander, Greece had submitted to the yoke almost contentedly.

When the King of Macedon triumphed over Darius, he became Monarch of Asia. This is the secret that explains the whole political conduct of the conqueror. The Greeks, little familiar with the public law of the East, could comprehend no part of that conduct, and could never pardon Alexander for having forced them to live in peace: they wished to regard him only as the oppressor of their democracies. The memory of this great man has been transmitted to us through a multitude of frothy declamations; and after more than 2,000 years, we still judge him with all the prejudices that belong to his enemies. If we ought to entertain any esteem for the destructive genius of conquerors, why should we not admire Alexander? other personages, celebrated on the same account, we admire, who scarcely deserved our admiration. The name of this hero seems destined to eclipse for ever the glory of all other conquerors, who undergo a disadvantageous comparison with him. He had one defect, almost a solitary one, and it was a defect belonging to his country; he paid dearly for it, since it cost him his life. Was there ever a man who, with such slender resources, performed so many and such vast undertakings? With 30,000 men he completed the conquest of Asia. Let it not be said, that he triumphed over timid multitudes: his adversaries might have been deficient in military skill, but Darius and the Persians were brave, and this was a matter of moment at a period when valour decided almost solely the fate of battles. The Scythians, the Bactrians, the Indians, opposed him long and re

solutely; Alexander, moreover, had always in arms against him 40,000 Greeks, as experienced as his Macedonians, and animated by all the hatred they were capable of cherishing towards a fellow-countryman, whom they regarded as the oppressor of their native land. Scarcely ar rived at manhood, in the midst of factions, he subjected to the yoke warlike republics, jealous of their liberty; he left Europe; innumerable nations recognized his laws; nothing arrested his progress, neither Libyan sands nor Scythian snows. What are the campaigns of modern times compared with these immense military enterprizes? He left every where striking proofs of his genius; he did not subvert, he founded a new empire. The highest mountains in the world were impotent barriers between him and his enemies; the icy summits of Imaus bowed the head, and expanded before him; our geographers are at a loss how to follow him in his distant career. In the peaceful sovereignty of Asia, still more eminent by his genius than his sword, meditating vaster projects than those he had achieved, he died at Babylon, which he wished to make the capital of the world. The universe lay hushed before him, and he was not thirty-two years old! The army of such a chief must be a nursery of great captains; all were able generals,— all partook of his valour, but not one possessed his genius. In Asia, Alexander wished to become Persian; they continued Greeks: their history is explained in these two words. Alexander would have laid the foundations of a lasting empire; they retained but a precarious sway; miserably supported by foreign mercenaries, and abhorred by the natives. Thus the Arsacides had little difficulty in wresting from their hands the sceptre of Asia.

The Arsacidean monarchy was the centre of a vast political system, connected with the Romans on the western side; whilst on the east, it was in contact with the Chinese empire. Thus on one side the Parthians might be seen stirring up resistance to the Romans, even on the banks of the Danube; and on the other, we might have beheld Chinese monarchs interposing as mediators in the sanguinary disputes of the Arsacidean princes. This powerful feudal monarchy was composed of four principal kingdoms, possessed by one single family. The elder branch had Persia ; and

its chief, decorated with the title of King of Kings, exercised paramount sovereignty over all the princes of his kindred. The Kings of Armenia held the second rank; then followed those of Bactriana, chiefs of all the Alanes and Gothic tribes spread upon the banks of the Indus, or in the unknown regions which extend to the north of Hindostan, and to the eastward of Persia. In the last rank was the Arsacidean King of the Massagetæ, who possessed all Southern Russia, and governed the Gothic, Alanes, Saxon, Median, Persian, and Indian tribes, stationed on the banks of the Volga and the Tanais. We must not be surprised to see these people placed far from the geographical positions which their denominations would appear to denote: it would be difficult to explain and account for this, did we not know how the Alcoran has dissevered the members of the same Arabian tribe, placing some upon the banks of the Ganges, and others at the foot of the Pyrenees. The residence in Europe of the Medes and Indians was less remarkable, their boundary line of demarcation being less remote. Although the earliest origin of the Arsacides must be sought in Asia, yet, when this part of the world was subjected by them, they came from Europe, and formed a portion of a powerful nation, scattered from the banks of the Danube to the most distant countries of Upper Asia. This people were the Dacii; this was the national denomination of the Arsacides, and they communicated it to their subjects. Three centuries before our era, Hungary and Bactriana bore jointly the name of Dacia, a well known term which, though differently modified by the successive idioms which have prevailed in Europe and Asia, still serves to designate the Germans and the descendants of the ancient Persians.

It is easy to perceive, from what has been said, that the origin of the Arsacides is connected with another question of the utmost importance, a question often discussed, but still far from being resolved, and the solution of which would explain the intimate relation in respect to language, grammar, institutions, manners, religion, and physical organization, which assimilate to each other all the people of ancient and modern Europe. It is well known, that the barbarians who demolished the Roman empire, came from the frontiers of Asia;

their proximity to Asiatic nations explains the remarkable resemblance between them. But is it imagined, that this was the only time such a revolution took place? Is it supposed that it has not often happened, and at more early periods; before there existed empires sufficiently powerful to check these formidable emigrations? The classic land is still under the yoke of the Turks, who were once neighbours of the Chinese; they govern still in Lesser Asia and in Egypt. Well, long before the epochs distinguished in common history, men who were not of the same race, but who came from nearly as great a distance, subjected Asia and Europe to their rule, and the Nile acknowledged their laws. They invaded, through the present empire of Russia, Greece, and Germany, penetrated into Spain, and, as the Vandals did since, passed beyond the pillars of Hercules, and crossed into Africa, where they extended to the distant borders of the Senegal. An India, distinct from Asiatic India, existed in Europe; the rites and institutions of the Brahmins flourished there in full vigour; there, likewise, men at the age of sixty had completed their earthly career, and thenceforward, disengaged from all duties towards the world and their families, only aspired to return into the bosom of the Deity, from whom their souls were but an emanation, and hastened this happy moment by a voluntary death. By a more painful path, others arrived at the same end; separated from the rest of mankind, confined in secluded monasteries, subjected to severe mortifications, buried in profound meditations on the divine essence, these pious monks believed they became one with the being whose nature they investigated; and the people, struck by their sanctity of life, decreed them divine honours whilst they lived, and conceived, whilst acknowledging them for kings, that they had God himself for their ruler. Many traces of this portrait of European India still subsist in that of Asia, and the adjacent regions. Wherever we turn, in referring to periods far distant from our own, we recognize in Europe, and in Asia, at immense distances, and with the same denominations, fragments of the same nature dispersed by the astonishing revolutions which we have referred to.

The people are the only personages, if

we may so express it, who figure in this interesting part of history, the history of our ancestors. We scarcely know the names of any of the leaders of these ancient and powerful colonies: it is only as they approach our time, that the gloom gradually disappears, and that historical facts are perceived with all their detail. The power

of the Arsacides is the first of those mighty governments of which an historical narrative can be afforded. Materials are not wanting; but let us imagine a magnificent temple, which has long been suffering from the destructive scythe of time, whose imperfect ruins, heaped confusedly together, or dispersed at a distance, seem to forbid our distinguishing even the plan of the building; such is the object which the history of the Arsacides presents to us. There remain no chronicles. A number of brief passages, mangled, corrupted, dispersed, belonging to authors of separate periods, of different languages, and of various nations, are the only means left of establishing their history. The Greeks, the Latins, the Armenians, the Syrians, the Arabs, the Persians, medals, inscriptions, profane and ecclesiastical antiquities, must be laid under contribution to restore this great portion of the annals of the human race. Every link in this long concatenation of facts must be carefully discussed and examined in all its bearings, in order to assign it the proper place in the series. It was in the year 250 before Christ, that the Parthians first endeavoured to snatch the sceptre of Asia from the successors of Alexander. Arsaces fell in this attempt; but his brother Tiridates was more fortunate. With the assistance of the barbarians of the North, he succeeded in obtaining the acknow. ledgment of his independence. Less than a century after, Mithridates, not the formidable enemy of the Romans, (he was but a vassal of the Arsacides,) but the sixth king of the Parthians, who bore that name, put a finishing stroke to the Grecian power. A conqueror and legislator, he governed from the Euphrates to the Indus, and princes of his blood ruled in India, in Scythia, and Armenia. After his death, the Greeks made a last effort: fortune smiled upon them for a moment; but speedily, the imprudence of their chief, and some allies who came from the frontiers of China to fight under the banners

of the Arsacides, put an end to the unequal struggle, and the empire of Asia devolved without dispute to the descendants of Arsaces. The defeat of Crassus, and that of Antony, the disgrace of which could not be effaced by the victories of Corbalo and of Trajan, proved that the Parthians had not degenerated. So long as the empire subsisted, they were the terror of the Romans; the projects of strangers were never favoured by their dissentions. The enemy destined to overcome them was to spring up among them. selves. One of their weakest vassals, Ardeschir, lord of a little district in Persia, gradually increased his strength, by reduc ing other petty lords; then dexterously, taking advantage of the religious enthusiasm of the people, and the hatred which they cherished against the Parthians, whose foreign extraction they had not forgotten, he contrived to render himself formidable to the great king, who fell A. D. 226, leaving the empire to the dynasty of the Sassanides, after his family had occupied the Persian throne for 476 years. The death of the King of Kings did not complete the downfall of the Arsacides: the princes of Bactriana, in concert with those of Scythia and Armenia, combined more than once their efforts with those of the Romans, against the new possessors of Persia; but their power insensibly decayed. The Bactriani, already nearly overcome by the Persians, submitted, at the beginning of the fifth century, to the Ephthalite Huns; and the Arsacides of the North sunk before Attila. Part of their subjects sought an asylum in the passes of Caucasus, and on the shores of the Baltic, where their descendants remain to this day; whilst another part, blended with the tribes that overturned the Roman empire, in flying from the victorious troops of the terrible king of the Huns, planted themselves upon the borders of the Atlantic ocean. The Arsacides of Armenia subsisted longer; they embraced Christianity, thirty years before Constantine had raised it to the throne; so that the kingdom of Armenia was, in fact, the first Christian monarchy: it terminated in 428. Some of the Arsacides, fallen from the height of royal rank, maintained themselves in Persia, where they reigned in the tenth century under the name of Samanides: others, taking a direction westward, acquired, by

their exploits in Africa and Italy, a high renown there in fighting under the banners of Belisarius: they ended by mounting the throne of Constantinople. Finally, we again behold them shining among the

last defenders of the Christian Faith in Armenia, where their actions are confounded with those of our crusaders. Such was the fate of the Arsacides!

JUGGERNAUTH is one of the most celebrated places in India. All the land within twenty miles is considered holy; but the most sacred spot is enclosed within a stone wall, twenty-one feet high, and forms nearly a square: two sides measuring each 656 feet, and the other two 626 feet in length. Within this area are about fifty temples, dedicated to various idols; but the most conspicuous building consists of one lofty stone tower, 184 feet high and twentyeight feet eight inches square inside, and is called the Bur Dewal, and two adjoining stone buildings with pyramidical roofs. The idol Juggernauth, his brother Bulbudra, and his sister Shubudra, occupy the tower. The first pyramidical building, which is forty feet square inside, is connected with the tower, and is the place where the idol is worshipped during the bathing festival. Adjoining this temple is a low building on pillars, (with a fabulous animal in the centre,) which is intended as an awning to shelter the entrance from the rays of the sun; and after this is a second building, with a pyramidical stone roof, where the food prepared for the pilgrims, or others, is daily brought, previous to distribution. This latter building is said to have been removed from Kanaruck, or the Black Pagoda, and is called the Beg Mundeep.

The temple of Juggernauth was erected by Rajah Anung Bheern Deo, and completed in A. D. 1198. The art of arch. ing appears to have been unknown even at a much later period, in Orissa; as these buildings, as well as similar ones erected by the two succeeding Rajahs, have large massive iron beams, wherever a flat surface was required; and the roofs consist of successive layers of stones, projecting a few inches, till the opening is very considerably reduced; iron beams were then put across, to support larger stones, laid ffat, or, in some instances, the successively projecting layers were continued, till stones could reach across the opening and close it

up. The roofs are ornamented in a singular style, with representations of monsters, which can only be understood by a drawing: but the walls of the temples, which are not visible beyond the enclosure, are covered with statues of stone. Several represent a famous Hindoo god, Mahadeo, with his wife Parbuttee, attitudes so grossly indecent, that it seems surprising how any superstition could debase its votaries to such a degree, as to make them introduce into their most sacred places such filthy and obscene representations.

Each side of the boundary wall has a large gateway in the centre; but the grand entrance is in the castern face. There is a second enclosure within, the area of which is raised about fifteen feet. Close to the outer wall, there is a very elegant stone column of basalt; the pedestal is highly ornamented; the shaft is of a single stone exhibiting sixteen sides; the diameter is seven feet, and the whole column measures thirty-five feet; on the top is a figure of Hoonoomaun, a Hindoo deity, who assumed the shape of a monkey. This well executed pillar was originally erected be fore the great gate of the temple of the sun at Kanaruck, usually called the Black Pagoda, and when most of the buildings of that temple fell down, it was removed to Juggernauth. The priests relate, that the present statue of Hoonoomaun was put there since its removal, The original ornament is said to have been the figure of Aroona, the charioteer of the sun, and the pillar is thence called Aroonkhumba.

Near the north-east angle of the boundary wall of the temple, there is a lofty arch of pot-stone. It is used by the Hin doos during the festival of the Dole Jattra, when three silver images are swung backwards and forwards. The swing is fastened to the stone arch by brass chains. The arch stands on an elevated platform, and the images are sprinkled with rose water and a red powder, like what is used during the hooly. This arch was origi

nally at Kanaruck, and subsequently removed to this place.

The idol of Juggernauth, which is so celebrated that pilgrims resort to worship it from the remotest parts of India, is probably the coarsest image in the country. The figure does not extend below the loins, and it has no hands, but two stumps in lieu of arms, on which the priests occasionally fasten hands of gold. A Christian is almost led to think that it was an attempt to see how low idolatry could debase the human mind. The priests endeavour to account for the deformity by a strange legendary tale. Some thousands of years ago, in the Sut Jog, or Sutya Yuga, Maharajah Indradyumna, of Oojein, in Malwa, applied to the celebrated manufacturer of gods to make a new idol. This request was granted, on condition that the Maharajah should be very patient, and not interrupt the work, as it could never be completed if any attempt was made to see the process. This caution was not duly attended to. The prince endeavoured to see what progress had been made and it became necessary that he should be satisfied with the imperfect image.

It may be easily supposed that a very large establishment of priests and others, is attached to such a temple. One of the head men stated the number to consist of 3,900 families, including 400 families of cooks to prepare holy food. The provisions furnished daily for the idol and his attendants, consist of 220 pounds of rice, 97 pounds of kullye (a pulse), twentyfour pounds of moong (a small grain), 188 pounds of clarified buffalo's butter, eighty pounds of molasses, 32 pounds of vegetables, ten pounds of sour milk, two and half pounds of spices, two pounds of sandal wood, some camphor (two tolahs), twenty pounds of salt, four rupees or ten shillings worth of firewood: also twenty. two pounds of lamp oil for lights at night. This holy food is presented to the idol three times a day. The gates are shut, and no one but a few personal servants are allowed to be present. This meal lasts about an hour, during which period the dancing girls attached to the temple, dance in the room with many pillars. On the ringing of a bell the doors are thrown open, and the food is removed.

The food prepared for sale, or bespoken by the inhabitants, is not brought into the

large tower, but collected in the Begue Mundeer, where it can be seen and sanctified by the idol from his distant throne.

In addition to this food, a very considerable extra quantity is allowed for the great festivals and in order to make this superstition as profitable as possible, the priests have decided that nothing can pollute the food prepared in the temple; it may be conveyed to any place-it may be touched by a Mussulman, or a Christian, without becoming unfit for a Hindoo. Nothing can be more convenient than such a belief, as Hindoos in general must eat their food where it is cooked, and a thousand things may pollute it. The consequence is, that the cooks are employed to prepare food for most of the pilgrims, at a price which varies according to the demand, and is always highest during the festivals. It is said, that a few days before the festival of the Rath Jattra, food is cooked within the court of the temple for at least 100,000 pilgrims; and it will easily be credited, that on these occasions the 400 families of cooks have full employment. The potters make earthen pots of three sizes; the food is carried away in them, and they form a kind of standard measure; and, as none but new pots can be used, the consumption is very great, and supports a great many families. The only interrup. tion to this cooking, is during the time the idol is travelling in his car to the place where he was formed, and returning to the temple; about a fortnight in all.

There are twelve festivals celebrated at Juggernauth during the year, but by far the most important season is the Ruth Jattra; when the idol is placed on a car, and visits the place where he was originally formed, called Junnuckpore. This happens either in June or July, and the number of pilgrims who attend, is very much regulated by the season. When the new moon of Assaur occurs early in June, there is a prospect of fair weather, and about 150,000 are supposed to attend the ceremonies; but when it is late in the month, many are deterred, by the dread of encountering the periodical rains, which destroy a great many of the poor deluded creatures, the greater part of whom are exposed night and day to the inclemency of the weather. A good many Hindoos undertake this pilgrimage during the driest weather, and arrive to celebrate the Chund