he Greek [Greek: mitra], in its primitive notion, means
a long _scarf_, whence it came to signify, in a secondary sense, various
articles of attire composed with a scarf, and amongst others the Oriental
_turban_ (Herod. vii. 62.). But as we descend in time, and remove in
distance from the country where this object was worn, we find that the
Romans affixed another notion to the word, which they used very commonly to
designate the Asiatic or Phrygian cap (Virg. _AEn._ iv. 216.; Servius,
l.c.); and this sense has likewise been adopted in our own language:

"That Paris now with his unmanly sort,
With _mitred_ hat."--Surrey, Virgil, _AEn._ iv.

Thus the word _mitra_ in its later usage came to signify a _cap_ or
_bonnet_, instead of a turban; and it is needless to observe that the
priests of a religion comparatively modern, when they adopted the term,
would have taken it in the sense which was current at their own day. Now,
though the common people were not permitted to wear high bonnets, nor of
any other than a soft and flexible material, the kings and personages of
distinction had theirs of a lofty form, and stiffened for the express
purpose of making them stand up at an imposing elevation above the crown of
the head. In the national collection at Paris there is preserved an antique
gem, engraved by Caylus (_Recueil d'Antiq._, vol. ii. p. 124.), on which is
engraved the head of some Oriental personage, probably a king of Parthia,
Persia, or Armenia, who wears a tall upstanding bonnet, _mitred_ at the top
exactly like a bishop's, with the exception that it has three incisions at
the side instead of a single one. These separate incisions had no doubt a
symbolical meaning amongst the native races, although their allusive
properties are unknown to us; but it is not an unwarrantable inference, nor
inconsistent with the customs of these nations as enduring at this day, to
conclude that the numbers of one, two, or three, were appropriated as
distinctions of different degrees in rank; and that their priests, the
Magi, like those of other countries where the sovereign did not invest
himself with priestly dignities, imitated the habiliments as they assumed
the powers of the sovereign, and wore a bonnet closely resembling his in
form and dignity, with the difference of one large _mitre_ at each side, in
place of the three smaller ones.

If this account be true respecting the origin of the mitre, it will lead us
by an easy step to