CONSTANTINOPLE. 
aiitient and the modern appearance is even more char 
striking : and perhaps the howling dervishes of 
Scutari f who preserve in their frantic orgies the 
rites of the priests of BaaP, accommodated the 
mercenary exhibition of their pretended miracles 
to a new superstition pervading the temples of 
Chalcedon ; exactly as Pagan miracles, recorded 
and derided by Horace, were adapted to the 
ceremonies of the Roman- Catholic religion*. The 
Psylli of Egypt, mentioned by Herodotus, are 
still found in the serpent-eaters of Cairo and of 
Rosetta: and in all ages, where a successful 
craft, under the name of miracle, has been 
employed to delude and to subdue the human 
understanding, the introducers of a new religion 
have, with considerable policy, appropriated it 
to the same purpose for which it was employed 
by their predecessors. 
The prejudices of the Christians against their 
Turkish conquerors were so difficult to be over- 
come, that while we lament a want of truth, in 
every account which they have given of their 
invaders, we cannot wonder at the falsehood ; 
(3) " And they cried aloud, and cut themselves, after their manner, 
with knives and lancets." 1 Kings, xviii. 28. 
(4) The miracle of the liquefaction of St. Jantiarius's blood is alluded 
to by Horace, as practised, in his time, under a diiferent name. Ilor. 
Sal. lib. I, 5. 
