Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/699

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doctors for a foreign prince, and the outrage offered to the dignity of their law, which, in their opinion, was only de- figned for themfelves : Non fecit talitcr omni nationi. There is no occafiun to defcribe exactly the various obfervan- ces that accompanied thcfe acts of" humiliation, as being known to every body. 'Tis known their abftinence lafted 27 or 28 hours, beginning, before fun fet, and not ending till fome time after fun let next day. On thefe days they were obliged to wear white robes in token of their grief and repentance ; to cover themfelves with fackcloth, or their worft cloaths; to lie on afhes ; to fprinkle them on their head ; and, on great occasions, upon the ark of the covenant. Some fpent the whole night and day following in the temple, or fynagogue, in prayers and other devotions, barefooted, with a fcourge in their hands, of which they fometimes made good ufe to rouze their zeal. Laftly, in order to compleat their abftinence, at night they were to eat nothing but a little bread dipped in ■water, with fome fait for feafoning ; except they chofe to add to their repaft fome bitter herbs and pulfe. Thofe that would be particularly informed of thefe aufterities may confult Mai- monides, Leo of Modena, and Buxtorf. The Egyptians, Phoenicians and AlTyrians, neighbours to the Jews, had alfo their Fajls. The Fqjl of the Ninivites, oc- cafioned by the preaching of the prophet Jonas, is too well jknown to be infifted on. The Egyptians, fays Herodotus, facrifice a cow to His, after having prepared themfelves by Fajling and Prayer: -a cuftom that, he likewife afcribes to the women of Cyrene. According to Apuleius, whoever had a mind to be initiated in the myfteries of Cybele were obliged to prepare themfelves by fajling ten days. Porphyry carries the matter {till farther, affirming that the Egyptians, before their ftated facrifkes, always fajled a great many days, fome- times for fix weeks, and that the lead behoved to be for feven days ; during all which time the priefts and devotees not only abftained from flefh, fifn, wine and oil, but even from bread and fome kinds of pulfe.

Nor were the Greeks without their Fajls. Ariftotle informs us, that the Lacedaemonians having refolved to fuccour a city of the allies, ordained a general Faji thro' the whole extent of their dominions, without excepting the domeftic animals ; and this they did for two ends, one that they might fpare pro- vision in favour of the befieged, and the other to draw the blefling of heaven on their enterprife. The Athenians among others had the Eleufmian and Thefmophorian Fajls, the ob- fervation of which, was accompanied with itrict fajling, par- ticularly among the women, who fpent one whole day fitting on the ground in a mournful drefs, without taking any nou- xifhment; on which account, this day was called vktho.. The Grecians had thefe religious aufierities from the Egyptians, Eumolpus and Erechtheus having communicated them to the Athenians ; by whofe means they were fpread through all the ftates of Greece. Jupiter too, had his Fa/is, as well as Ceres ; for his priefts in the ifle of Crete were by their rules obliged to abftain all their lives from flefh, fifh and baked meats. In a word, all the Pagan deities, whether of the male or fe- male fex, required this duty of thofe that defired to be initia- ted into their myfteries, of their priefts and priefteffes that gave the oracles, and of thofe that came to confult them. In Italy fajling was obferved much in the fame way. The in- habitants of Tarentum, being befieged by the Romans demand- ed fuccours from their neighbours of Reggium, who immedi- ately ordained a Fajl throughout their whole territories, with the fame intention as the Lacedaemonians, viz. to render the gods favourable, and to fpare provifions for their allies. Their enterprife having had good fuccefs by their throwing a convoy with provifions into the town, the Romans were obliged to raife the fiege: And the Tarentines in memory of this deliver- ance, inftituted a perpetual Fajl. So that here we have two Fajh for the fame event ; that obferved by thofe who were the means of obtaining the deliverance, and that obferved by them who received it. The Roman fenate, Livy tells us, being alarmed by many prodigies happening in a train one af- ter another,order'd the decemviri to confult the Sibylline books ; who having executed their commiffion, declared that to pre- vent the fatal confequences, it was neceffary to eftablifh a Faji in honour of Ceres, to be obferved every fifth year. That Jupiter had ftated Fa/Is at Rome, appears from the fol- lowing paffage of Horace, where a mother is introduced pray- ing to Jupiter for the recovery of her fon from a quartan ague, and promifing that the patient mould purify himfelf in the Tiber, on the morning of the Faji day facred to that god.

Frigida ft puerum quartana reliquirit, illo Mane die quo tu ind'uis jejunia, nuduS In Tiberi jlabit.

Fajling muft have been very facred at Rome ; fmce we find it pradtifed by kings and emperors. Numa Pompihus, Julius Caefar, Auguftus, Vefpafian and others, we are told had their ftated Faji days : and Julian the apoltate was fo exact in this obfervance, as even to outdo the priefts themfelves, and the moil rigid philosophers.

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In a word 1, every country* nation and religion have had it all times, their priefts, druids, gymnofophifts and philofophersj who diftinguifhed themfelves by their frugality^ aufterity and abftinence. The practice of the Pythagoreans is well known; their whole life was a continued lent, but with this difference between them and us, that they believed the ufe of fifh equal- ly unlawful with' that of flefh. They lived entirely on breads fruits, and pulfe, with great fobrietyj in imitation of their mafter Pythagoras; though in this refpecT: they muft have fal- len far fhort of him, if we may believe Diogenes Laertlusj who fays, that he continued his FaJIs for no lefs than forty days, Apollonius Thyaneus, one of his moft famous difciples^ could never by all his endeavours equal his mafter in this point, though his FaJIs greatly exceeded the ordinary inter- vals.

The gymnofophifts, or brachmans, reckoned fajling among 1 their religious duties. Father le Comte, in his memoirs, tells us, that the Chinefe have at all times had regular Fa/is-, with forms of prayers, for preferving them from barrennefs, inun- dations, earthquakes, and fuch like public calamities; The Mahometans too, who poflefs fo large a part of Afia and A- frica, have times of j%$ihg, called by them Ramadan, as re- gular as we have Lent. And their dervifes are remarkable for their mortification and fajling. Comte, Mem. T. 2. p. 142. It was not unufual among the antients to fajl on account of dreams. Sometimes to have the interpretation of them, fome- times to obtain good and prophetic ones, being perfuaded thai: to obtain fuch they muft oblerve a ftrict regimen both as' to the quantity and quality of their food ; for, according to the rules of the onirocritic art, "it was neceffary they mould' be free from the fumes of meat, and in fuch a calm, ferene ftate, as never fails to accompany a frugal life, that they might receive the impreffions of the aerial fpirits in ail their per- fection.

Fajling was alfo thought an infallible antidote againft the fatal confequences of terrible dreams. A piece of fuperftition that prevails to this day among the Jews, who, though exprefsly forbid to fa/i on Sabbath days, think themfelves at liberty td difpenfe with this duty, when they happen to have frightful and unlucky dreams the night preceeding, that threaten therrt with great misfortunes. On fuch an octafion as this, they obferve a formal Fajl the whole day; and at night the pati- ent having invited three of his friends, addrefles himfelf to them feven times in a very folemn manner, faying, May the dream J have had prove a lucky one ! And his friends anfwer as, many times, faying, Amen, may it be lucky, and God make it jo f After which, in order to encourage him, they conclude the ceremony with thefe words of Ecclefiaftes, Go, eat thy bread with joy, and then fet themfelves down to table. The antients, both Jews and Pagans, had alio their FaJIs for purifying the body, particularly the priefts, and fuch as were any wife employed at the altars : for when nocturnal diforders happened to thefe, it was unlawful for them to approach all the next day, which they were bound to employ in purifying them- felves. On which account, at great festivals, where their mi- ni ftry could not be difpenfed with, it was ufual for them, on the eve thereof, not only to faji, but likewife to abftain from deep for the greater certainty. To this purpofe the high pr'teft had under-officers to wake him, if overtaken with fleep ; againft which other prefervatives were alfo made ufe of. See Mem. Acad. Infcript. T. 5. p. 38, feq. Mr. Bayle obferves, that whole books have been written on long Fa/ling. Cyriacus Lentulus has compofed one, de prodi- giojis inedHs, Fortunius Licetus, ProfeiTor of medicine at Pa- dua, belides a great many others, has published one book in folio, de lis qui diu vivunt jine alimento^ or deferiis altricis eni- mtt.

Among thefe long Fajlers a great many impoftors have been difcovered. Fabricius Hildanus, Langius, and feveral other authors, relate inftances of fuch. Velfchius, a German phy- fician, found in a manufcript of the Augsburg library, a very curious account of a young woman that lived in the time of the emperor Maximilian, who had acquired a great reputation for holinefs, by making people believe that fhe had fajied fix years. The cheat was difcovered by the emperor's filter ; upon which the girl being banifhed, fhe married^ and was guilty of fo many acts of adultery and other crimes, that me made her husband run mad, and was herfelf at laft condemn- ed to be drowned.

We are not however to pafs the fame judgment on the follow- ing remarkable inftance of fa (ling, which is related by a per- fon of credit, and inferted in the Nouvelles de la Repub. de Lett, for February 1685.

A madman of Haerlem, believing himfelf to be the true Mef- fiah, refolved, in imitation of our Saviour, to faji forty days and forty nights. Great pains were taken to make him eat, but all to no purpofe ; for, excepting a little water, which he took rather to wafh his mouth than to drink, and {rooking tobacco, he took no kind of nourifliment from the fixth of December 1684, to the fifteenth of January 1685. He even refufed water wherein they had" put any fpirits or broth. In order to- find out if there was any cheat in the cafe, his cloatbs

and