f the fat into the fire as
emblematic of the souls of the victims being imbibed by the gods,
while the grosser portions are rejected.

The sacrifices and those who offer them are always crowned with
flowers, but the pontifical robes of the Magi, though of pure white
silk, are severely plain in style and utterly devoid of ornament. In
their lives the Magi claim to practice a rigid asceticism, making the
earth their bed and subsisting wholly on fruit, vegetables and
bread, besides submitting to frequent painful penances from fasting,
scourging and the endurance of fatiguing exercises. "Wine, women and
flesh" they are commanded to eschew as "special abominations to those
who aspire to minister before the gods." The most remarkable feast of
the ancient Parsees was one called by them the "sack-feast." On the
appointed day a condemned malefactor was clothed in royal robes,
seated on a kingly throne and the sceptre of regal power placed in
his hand. Princes and people bowed the knee in mock homage before
this king of a day, and he was suffered to glut his appetite with all
manner of sensual delights till the sun went down, and then he was
cruelly beaten with rods, and forthwith executed. (Were the crown and
sceptre, the purple robe and mock reverence, that were the antecedents
of the Redeemer's crucifixion, a reproduction of this barbarous
custom?) The modern Parsees, though recognizing this feast as a
legitimate part of their worship, say that they have not observed it
since their flight from Persia in the eighth century, because since
then, being under a foreign yoke, they have had no jurisdiction over
human life, and durst not sacrifice even those who chanced to be
in their power. This may be one reason for the renunciation of this
barbarous practice of the olden time, but there has been wonderful
progress in civilization during the last twelve hundred years; and
certain it is that scenes of cruelty that suited the ferocious
tastes of the eighth century could not possibly be repeated in the
nineteenth.

FANNIE ROPER FEUDGE.

OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.

A SWEDISH PROVINCIAL THEATRE.

It is not so magnificent as the Scala and San Carlo, and still, after
seeing both those famous theatres, I must confess I preferred that
of Carlstad to either. It is small and different in form from the
generality: it reminded me, in fact, of a hall in a certain New
England town where I used to go to the panorama as a child. There
was a