542 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



shiped as a demigod. Their temples are 

 singularly devoid of ecclesiastical parapherna- 

 lia. A metal mirror generally stands on the 

 altar as a symbol of purity. The spirit of the 

 enshrined deity is supposed to be in a case, 

 which is exposed to view only on the day of 

 the deity's annual festival. The worship con- 

 sists merely in washing the face in a font, 

 striking a bell, throwing a few cash into the 

 money box, and praying silently for a few sec- 

 onds. In addition to the chief deity, there 

 are a legion of canonized heroes and benefac- 

 tors who are worshiped. Many Japanese 

 temples are magnificent specimens of archi- 

 tecture in wood, and are remarkable for their 

 vast tent-like roofs and their exquisite wood- 

 carving. 



Arundel Marbles are a collection of an- 

 cient sculptures consisting of 37 statues, 128 

 busts, and 250 inscribed stones, which were 

 found on the island of Paros about 1610. 

 They were collected by Mr. W. Pefty, pur- 

 chased by Lord Arundel, and given by his 

 grandson, Henry Howard afterward Duke 

 of Norfolk to the University of Oxford in 

 1667. These sculptures contain inscriptions 

 in the Greek tongue. In their perfect state 

 they evidently contained a chronological table 

 of the principal events of Grecian history from 

 the time of Cecrops, 1582 B. C., to the archon- 

 ship of Diognetus, 264 B. C. The chronicle of 

 the last ninety years of this period, however, 

 is lost, and the portion still extant is much 

 corroded and defaced. 



Babel, Tower of. The distinction of 

 being a remnant of the Tower of Babel has 

 been claimed for three different masses, but 

 the majority of opinions are in favor of the 

 Birs Nimrud in Babylonia, the ruins of this 

 temple appearing to more nearly correspond 

 with the conceived notion of that structure. 

 It is of an oblong form, the total circumfer- 

 ence being 762 yards. At the eastern side it 

 is cloven by a deep furrow, and it is not more 

 than 50 or 60 feet high ; but on the western 

 side it rises in a conical figure to the elevation 

 of 198 feet ; and on its summit is a solid pile 

 of brick 37 feet high by 28 in breadth, dimin- 

 ishing in thickness to the top, which is broken 

 and irregular, and rent by a large fissure ex- 

 tending through a third of its height. The 

 fire-burnt bricks of which it is built have in- 

 scriptions on them ; and so excellent is the ce- 

 ment, which appears to be lime-mortar, that 

 it is nearly impossible to extract a whole brick. 

 The other parts of the summit of the hill are 

 occupied by immense fragments of brickwork 

 of no determinate figure, tumbled together, 

 and converted into solid, vitrified masses, as if 

 they had undergone the action of the fiercest 



fire or had been blown up with gunpowder. 

 These ruins stand on a prodigious mound, the 

 whole of which is itself in ruins, channeled by 

 the weather, and "strewed with fragments of 

 black stone, sandstone, and marble. Taken 

 in connection with the ancient tradition that 

 the Tower of Babel was rent and overthrown 

 by fire from heaven, this is a curious circum- 

 stance. 



Sunday. The name of the first day of 

 the week is derived from the Saxon Sunnan 

 daeg, or day of the sun ; in the Roman calen- 

 dar, dies Solis. We have no definite informa- 

 tion as to when the observance of the first day 

 of the week was substituted by the Christians 

 for that of the seventh day, the ancient Jewish 

 Sabbath. It undoubtedly arose among the 

 earliest practices of the Christian Church, and 

 was regarded as the fittest day to be held as 

 sacred, because, in the words of one of the 

 Fathers, "It is the first day in which God 

 changed darkness and matter, and made the 

 world ; and on the same day, also, Jesus 

 Christ, our Saviour, rose from the dead." 

 Various additional reasons, taken from the 

 Old Testament, were advanced by others of 

 the early Fathers in support of the observance 

 of this day. The first law, either ecclesiastical 

 or civil, by which the sabbatical observance of 

 Sunday is known to have been ordained, is an 

 edict of Constantine, A. D. 321, forbidding all 

 work but necessary husbandry on the " vener- 

 able Sunday." In the Theodosian Code it is 

 enjoined that "on the Sunday, rightfully desig- 

 nated by our ancestors as the Lord's Day, all 

 lawsuits and public business shall cease. " Since 

 the ninth century, Sunday has been a thor- 

 oughly established institution of the Christian 

 Church as a day of rest and religious exer- 

 cises, and one exempt from any occupations of 

 a purely secular character, except such as were 

 absolutely necessary. 



Peri. According to the mythical lore of 

 the East, a Peri is a being begotten by fallen 

 spirits, which spends its life in all imaginary 

 delights ; it is immortal, but is forever excluded 

 from the joys of Paradise. They take an in- 

 termediate place between angels and demons, 

 and are either male or female ; when the latter, 

 they are of surpassing beauty. One of the 

 finest compliments to be paid to a Persian lady 

 is to speak of her as Perizadeh (born of a Peri ; 

 Greek, Parisatis). They belong to the great 

 family of genii, or jin, a belief in whom is en- 

 joined in the Koran, and for whose conversion, 

 as well as for that of man, Mohammed was 

 sent. 



Peter-Pence, the name given to a tribute 

 offered to the Roman pontiff in reverence to 

 the memory of St. Peter, whose successor the 



