r, it involved a danger. The wives of the late king were
likely to be acquainted with the person of the king's brother; Atossa,
at any rate, could not fail to know him intimately. If the Magus allowed
them to associate together freely, according to the ordinary practice,
they would detect his imposture and probably find a way to divulge it.
He therefore introduced a new system into the seraglio. Instead of the
free intercourse one with another which the royal consorts had enjoyed
previously, he established at once the principle of complete isolation.
Each wife was assigned her own portion of the palace; and no visiting
of one wife by another was permitted. Access to them from without was
altogether forbidden, even to their nearest relations; and the wives
were thus cut off wholly from the external world, unless they could
manage to communicate with it by means of secret messages. But
precautions of this kind, though necessary, were in themselves
suspicious; they naturally suggested an inquiry into their cause and
object. It was a possible explanation of them that they proceeded from
an extreme and morbid jealousy; but the thought could not fail to occur
to some that they might be occasioned by the fear of detection.

However, as time went on, and no discovery was actually made, the Magus
grew bolder, and ventured to commence that reformation of religion which
he and his order had so much at heart. He destroyed the Zoroastrian
temples in various places, and seems to have put down the old worship,
with its hymns in praise of the Zoroastrian deities. He instituted
Magian rites in lieu of the old ceremonies, and established his
brother Magians as the priest-caste of the Persian nation. The changes
introduced were no doubt satisfactory to the Medes, and to many of
the subject races throughout the Empire. They were even agreeable to a
portion of the Persian people, who leant towards a more material worship
and a more gorgeous ceremonial than had contented their ancestors. If
the faithful worshippers of Ormazd saw them with dismay, they were too
timid to resist, and tacitly acquiesced in the religious revolution.

In one remote province the change gave a fresh impulse to a religious
struggle which was there going on, adding strength to the side of
intolerance. The Jews had now been engaged for fifteen or sixteen years
in the restoration of their temple, according to the permission granted
them by Cyrus. Their enterprise was di