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Nuns.-Mahometan Paradise

up the day with music and festivity, and the night is cheered by general illuminations. A long period is afterwards employed in making presents and public entertainments to the newly-inducted lama, who, at the time of his accession to the musnud, or pontificate of Teeshoo Loombo, is often not three years of age. The whole ceremony, from its commencement to its consummation, lasts forty days. Some particulars respecting NuNs. -A nun is a woman dedicated to the severer duties of religion, secluded in a cloister from the world, and debarred by a vow from the converse of men. When a woman is to be made a nun, the habit, veil, and ring of the candidate, are carried to the altar; and she herself, accompanied by her nearest relations, is conducted to the bishop, who, after mass and an anthem (the subject of which is," that she ought to have her lamp lighted, because the bridegroom is coming to meet her,") pronounces the benediction: then she rises up, and the bishop consecrates the new habit, sprinkling it with holy water. When the candidate has put on her religious habit, she presents herself before the bishop, and sings on her knees, Ancilla Christi sum, &c.; then she receives the veil, and afterwards the ring, by which she is married to Christ; and lastly, the crown of virginity. When she is crowned, an anathema is denounced against all who shall attempt to make her break her vows.

MAHOMETAN PARADISE.-The paradise of the Mahometans is said by them to be situated above the seven heavens, or in the seventh, and next under the throne of God; and, to express the amenity of the place, they tell us that the earth of it is of the finest wheat flour, or of the purest musk, or of saffron; and that its stones are pearls and jacinths, the walls of its buildings enriched with gold and silver, and the trunks of all its trees of gold, amongst which the most remarkable is the tree luba, or tree of happiness. They pretend that this tree stands in the palace of Mahomet, though a branch of it will reach to the house of every true believer, loaded with pomegranates, grapes, dates, and other fruits, of surprising size, and delicious tastes, unknown to mortals.

If a man desires to eat of any particular kind of fruit, it will immediately be presented to him; or if he chooses flesh, birds ready dressed will be set before him, and such as he may wish for. They add, that this tree will supply the blessed, not only with fruit, but with silk garments also, and beasts to ride on, adorned with rich trappings, all which will burst forth from the fruit; and that the tree is so large, that a person mounted on the fleetest horse would not be able to gallop from one end of its shade to the other in one hundred years Plenty of water being one of the greatest additions to the pleasantness of any place, the Koran often speaks of the rivers of paradise as the principal ornament. Some of these rivers are said to flow with water, some with milk, some with wine, and others with honey: all of them have their sources in the root of this tree of happiness; and, as if these rivers were not sufficient, we are told that the garden of this paradise is also watered by a great number of lesser springs and fountains, whose pebbles are rubies and emeralds, their earth of camphor, their beds of musk, and their sides of saffron. But all these glories will be eclipsed by the resplendent and exquisite beauty of the girls of paradise, the enjoyment of whose company will constitute the principal felicity of the faithful. These (they say) are not formed of clay, as mortal women, but of pure musk, and are, as their prophet often affirms in his Koran, free from all the natural defects and inconveniences incident to the sex. Being also of the strictest modesty, they keep themselves secluded from public view, in pavilions of hollow pearls, so large, that, as some traditions have it, one of them will be no less than sixteen, or, as others say, sixty miles long, and as many broad. With these the inhabitants of paradise may taste pleasures in their height; and for this purpose will be endowed with extraordinary abilities, and enjoy a perpetual youth. OPINIONS RESPECTING HELL. -The hell of the ancient heathens was divided into two mansions: the one called Elysium, on the right hand, pleasant and delightful, appointed for the souls of good men; the other called Tartarus, on the left, a region of misery and torment, appointed for the wicked. The latter only was hell, in the present restrained sense of the word. The philosophers were of opinion, that the infernal regions were at an equal distance from all the parts of the earth; nevertheless, it was the opinion of some, that there were certain passages which led thither, as the river Lethe near the Syrtes, and the Acherusian cave in Epirus. At Hermione, it was thought, that there was a very short way to hell; for which reason the people of that country never put the fare into the mouths of the dead to pay their passage. The Jews placed hell in the centre of the earth, and believed it to be situated under waters and mountains. According to them, there are three passages leading to it: the first is in the wilderness, and by that Korah, Dathan, and Abiram