the hereditary priests of the temple of Apollo, at Didyma, in Ionia. They delivered up the treasures of the temple to Darius or Xerxes; and then, fearing the vengeance of the Greeks, they fled to Bactria or Sogdiana, upon the frontiers of Persia, where they built a city called by their own name. The punishment of their crime, however, fell upon their descendants, who were massacred by the army of Alexander the Great, and their city was destroyed.

BRANDSUNDAY, Dimanche des Brandons, in French ecclesiastical writers, denotes the first Sunday in Lent, which is thus called on account of an ancient practice in the Lyonnais, where the peasants walked by night about their orchards and gardens with lighted torches or firebrands in their hands; visiting every tree, addressing each one in turn, and threatening that if it did not bear well the ensuing season it should be cut down and burnt. This custom prevailed in many places till the middle of the seventeenth century. It was evidently a relic of paganism, akin to the ancient Lupercalia, or shepherd-festival, which was celebrated on the 15th of February, Februarius, i.e. the month of purification.