Joam de Mello, Bishop of Coimbra, with grottos, fountain jets, and fantas tic stone-work, less unpleasing, however, in a country where the value of water is so great, and the sound so peculiarly grateful, than they would be in our own. The Portugueze writers describe these ornaments with delight. The water, which is called the Fonte Fria, or Cold Spring, is supposed to possess great virtues. The highest point of the Serra is within the limits of the Desart: from hence there is a most extensive command of prospect. Cardoso says in the Diccionario Geografico, that to the east the Serra de Castello Rodrigo may be distinguished, which is thirty leagues off; the Serra de Minde is seen to the south, that of Grijo to the North, fifteen leagues distant; westward is the mouth of the Mondego and the coast. On this point a large wooden cross was erected, by Francisco Pereira de Miranda, some time before the Carmelites settled here:

ร

it had acquired some celebrity, and the Fathers therefore dedicated their esta blishment to this cross, which gave name to the convent, and was in the place of a Patron Saint to it*.

This cross was destroyed by lightning

1

*Desta Cruz tomou o nome aquelle sitio, e se começou chumar Santa Cruz de Busaco, e ficou sendo o Orage do Mosteyro que os Padres aly edificaram. Benedic tina Lusitana, T. 2, P. 284. We have no word in our language which will apply equally to a Patron Saint or a Wooden Cross.

+D. Bernarda has a poem upon the Effectos del rayo espantoso que cayo en Buçaco el ano de 1630. The woods, it seems, were set on fire by lightning. This the poetess ascribes, after the manner of poets, to the Devil, who convokes a council, and details his causes of complaint against the Carmelites.

Danme guerra en toda parte
Estos mis perseguidores
Inermes ganan ciudades,
Humildes allanan montés.

Que no solo se contentan
Con vivir entre los hombres,
Mas havitan como fieras,
Los duros riscos y robles.

in 1645, and the rocks about it are said to have been splintered in an extraordinary manner. The Rector of Coimbra, Manoel Saldanha, erected one of stone in its place, at a great expence. First he made a huge foundation work of masonry, about five and twenty feet* high, which he whitened, that it might be visible at a greater distance, and surrounded with battlements, in the manner of a mural crown, because it was the summit, or crown, of the mountain. Upon this five steps were raised, and upon this the pedestal. The foot of the cross, (which was' hewn out of

Part of his complaint against them is for their services in Great Britain and Ireland,

Por Anglias y por Hybernias

Van a buscar ocasiones

De combatir la heregia,

Que rinde a sus pies errores.”

• De altura de trinta até quarenta palmos. The pal

mo is 8 inches.

one stone,) was in girth as much as a man could clasp: its height was twenty palms,.. about fourteen feet. More than three thousand cart-loads of stone were employed in this work: they were chiefly brought from the ruins of the Monastery of St. Euphemia, which was near at hand.

The first cedars which were planted in Portugal+ are said to have been in the little garden belonging to St. Joseph's Hermitage in this Desart. Cardoso says that Grisley the Botanist found upon this Serra almost every plant which Laguna has described in his Commentary upon Dioscorides: he speaks of it also as abounding with flowers.

244. Ophites.

The Ophites must have been just

Fr. Leam de St. Thomas says that a croso of Carabaca was set in it on the top, as a protection against lightning. I do not understand the word. + Benedictina Lusitana, T. 2, P. 283,

such jugglers as always have existed, and still exist in the same countries; they are classed among heretics, because when Christianity became prevalent in Egypt, they made their snakes christian divinities, as they had before been demigods, and now are sheiks. St. Augustine's account of them makes this quite clear. "They have a snake (he says) whom they feed and worship, who, at the incantation of the priest, comes out of his cavern, and gets upon the altar, which is placed close thereto, and licks their oblations, and turning himself round them, returns into his hole. They then break the oblations for the Eucharist, as having been sanctified by the serpent Christ." St. Epiphanius adds, that each of them kissed the snake, who had either been tamed by charms, or by some operation of the devil.

The Jacob Briantists believe that the devil invented snake worship, by way of commemorating his victory over Eve.