a festival in honour of Apollo, celebrated every ninth year by the Boeotians. It was then usual to adorn an olive bough with garlands of laurels and other flowers, and to place on the top a brazen globe, on which were suspended smaller ones. In the middle were arranged a number of crowns, and a globe of inferior size, while the bottom was adorned with a saffron-coloured garment. The globe on the top represented the sun, or Apollo, that in the middle was an emblem of the moon, and the others indicated the stars. The crowns, which were sixty-five in number, represented the sun's annual revolution. This bough was carried in solemn procession by a beautiful youth of an illustrious family, whose parents were both living at the time of its celebration. The youth was dressed in rich garments which reached to the ground, his hair hung loose and dishevelled, his head was covered with a golden crown, and he wore on his feet shoes called Iphicratiadai, from Iphicrates, an Athenian, who first invented them. He was called Δαρεικος, laurel-bearer, and on that occasion he held the office of priest of Apollo. He was preceded by one of his nearest relations, bearing a rod adorned with garlands, and behind him followed a train of virgins with branches in their hands. In this order the procession advanced as far as the temple of Apollo, surnamed Ismenius, where supplicatory hymns were sung to the god. This festival owes its origin to the following circumstance. When an oracle advised the Etoleans, who inhabited Atne and the adjacent country, to abandon their ancient possessions, and go in quest of a settlement, they invaded the Theban territories, which at that time were pillaged by an army of Pelasgians. As the celebration of Apollo's festival was near, both nations, who religiously observed it, laid aside their hostilities, and, according to custom, cut down laurel boughs from Mount Helicon, and in the neighbourhood of the river Melas, and walked in procession in honour of the divinity. The day on which this solemnity was observed, Polematas, the general of the Boeotian army, saw in a dream a youth who presented him with a complete suit of armour, and commanded the Boeotians to offer solemn prayers to Apollo, and to walk in procession with laurel boughs in their hands every ninth year. Three days after his dream, the Boeotian general made a sally, and cut off the greater part of the besiegers, who were compelled by this blow to relinquish their enterprise. Polematas immediately instituted a novennial festival to the god, who seemed to be the patron of the Boeotians.