regarded with as much reverence
as the magi, and probably were more worthy of it. Some of them dwelt in
woods, and others in the immediate vicinity of cities. Their skill in
medicine was great; the care which they took in educating youth, in
familiarizing it with generous and virtuous sentiments, did them
peculiar honour; and their maxims and discourses, as recorded by
historians, prove that they were much accustomed to profound reflection
on the principles of civil polity, morality, religion and philosophy.

JEWISH MAGI.

Of the magi of the Jews, it is proved by Lightfoot,[5] that after their
return from Babylon, having entirely forsaken idolatry, and being no
longer favoured with the gift of prophecy, they gradually abandoned
themselves, before the coming of our Saviour, to sorcery and divination.
The Talmud, still regarded with a reverence bordering on idolatry,
abounds with instructions for the due observance of superstitious rites.
After their city and temple were destroyed, many Jewish impostors were
highly esteemed for their pretended skill in magic; and under pretence
of interpreting dreams, they met with daily opportunities of practising
the most shameful frauds. Many Rabbins were quite as well versed in the
school of Zoroaster, as in that of Moses. They prescribed all kinds of
conjuration, some for the cure of wounds, some against the dreaded bite
of serpents, and others against thefts and enchantments. Their
divinations were founded on the influence of the stars, and on the
operations of spirits, they did not, indeed, like the Chaldean magi,
regard the heavenly bodies as gods and genii, but they ascribed to them
a great power over the actions and opinions of men.

The magical rites of the Jews were, and indeed are still, chiefly
performed on various important occasions, as on the birth of a child,
marriages, etc. On such occasions the evil spirits are supposed to be
more than usually active in their malignity, which can only be
counteracted by certain enchantments.[6] They believe that Lilis will
cause all their male children to die on the eighth day after their
birth; girls on the twenty-first.[7] The following are the means adopted
by the German Jews to avert this calamity. They draw arrows in circular
lines with chalk or charcoal on the four walls of the room in which the
accouchement takes place, and write upon each arrow: _Adam, Eve! make
Lilis go away!_ They write also on certain parts of the room t