( Ml ) 



on this head. Accident has fometimes 

 made me unavoidably a fpeftator of 

 Icenes I fliould have chofen to have v^ith- 

 drawn myfelf from 5 and fo far I am in- 

 ftrufted. As there are no fixed feafons 

 for their religious exercifes, the younger 

 people wait till the elders find themfelves 

 devoutly difpofed ; who begin the cere- 

 mony by feveral deep and difmal groanSj^ 

 which rife gradually to a hideous kind 

 of finging, from which they proceed to 

 enthufiafm, and work themfeives into a 

 difpofition that borders on madnefs j for 

 fuddenly jumping up, they fnatch fire- 

 brands from the fire, put them in their 

 mouths, and run about burning every 

 body they come near: at other times, it 

 is a cuftom with them to wound one 

 another with (harp mufcle-fliells till 

 ■ they are befmeared with blood. Thefe 

 .orgies continue till thofe who prefide in 

 them foam at the mouthy grow faint, are 

 exhaufted with fatigue, and diflblve in a 



L profufioa 



