50 



together in a vast plain called Lecanica,* offer whole heca- 

 tombs of elephants, rhinoceroses, camels, bulls, &o. The 

 sacred bird makes his appearance annually, surrounded with 

 an immense flock of harpies, vultures, &e. and, singling out 

 for himself a fat elephant or a couple of oxen, flies off with 

 it, leaving the rest of this pious offering to the other birds. 

 When these last have flown away with what they want, the 

 people rush in, and devour the flesh with such avidity that 

 they acquire a loathing for it which continues during forty 

 days, when they feed upon fish, served with every variety of 

 rich sauces and wine. Such, it is remarked, is the fasting 

 observed during Lent in the Roman Catholic countries.. 



The election of the Grand Duke takes place annually in 

 the following manner. First, there is a contest for the im- 

 portant office of High Steward, which is decided, not in 

 favour of the party who excels in tilting, chariot-racing, or 

 rowing ; but in eating. This contest being over, the noble 

 electors go in solemn procession to the Amphitheatre, and 

 amongst them the High Steward, bearing a golden and 

 jewelled girdle of immense length, called the " Sacred Zone 

 of the Empire,*' on which there appears embroidered this 

 motto — " Si nihil ultra." 1 The retiring duke is first invested 

 with it, and the measure of his abdomen carefully marked 

 thereupon. The rest of the nobles go through the same 

 process, when, if any one among them shall be able, without 

 drawing in his breath, to fill up the entire girdle, he is at 

 once proclaimed and saluted by the people as Duke of Cra- 

 jmlia. Then the royal cup-bearer presents him on his knees 

 with an enormous flagon, for the purpose of drinking the 

 people's health. Taking it into his hands, he addresses 

 them in an oily good-humoured speech, if not a very sen- 

 sible one. " But such," continues the writer, " was the 

 " indistinctness of his guttural pronunciation, that with all 

 " my efforts, T was unable to understand. a word of it. On 



• Dishlaud. 



