Lafitau's conjecture as to the connexion between these American Enareans and the worshippers of Venus Urania, seems to receive some confirmation from our next evidence, viz. in Major Long's Expedition to St. Peter's River, some of these people were met with, and inquiry being made concerning them, it was ascertained that—
"The Indians believe the moon is the residence of a hostile female deity, and should she appear to them in their dreams, it is an injunction to become Cinædi, and they immediately assume feminine attire."—Vol. i. p. 216.
Farther it is stated, that two of these people whom they found among the Sauks, though generally held in contempt, were pitied by many—
"As labouring under an unfortunate destiny that they cannot avoid, being supposed to be impelled to this course by a vision from the female spirit that resides in the moon," &c.—Vol. i. p. 227.
Venus Urania is placed among the Scythian deities by Herodotus, under the name "Artimpasa." We are, for obvious reasons, at liberty to conjecture that the adoption of her worship, and the development of "the female disease," may have been contemporaneous, or nearly so. It were needless entering on a long story to show the connexion between Venus and the moon, which was styled Urania, Juno, Jana, Diana, Venus, &c. Should it be conceded that the American Mongolidæ brought with them this curse of Scythia, the date of their emigration will be approximated, since it must have taken place subsequently to the affair of Ascalon, or between 400 or 500 years b.c.
The adoption of female attire by the priesthood, however, was not confined to the worshippers of Venus Urania; it was widely spread throughout Heathendom; so widely that, as we learn from Tacitus, the priests of the Naharvali (in modern Denmark) officiated in the dress of women. Like many other heathenish customs and costumes, traces of this have descended to our own times; such, for example, may have been the exchange of dresses on New Year's Eve, &c.: see Drake's Shakspeare and his Times, vol. i. p. 124., ed. 4to. And what else is the effeminate costume of the clergy in many parts of Europe, the girded waist, and the petticoat-like cassock, but a relique of the ancient priestly predilection for female attire?
A. C. M.
Minor Notes.
Russia and Turkey.—The following paragraph from an old newspaper reads with a strange significance at the present time: