340 CABRERA—C AC H

famous. The mysteries of Isis, Ceres, Mithras, Tro-phouius, Bacchus, Rhea, Adonis, Osiris, and all thesimilar customs of Egypt, Greece, Hindostan, andBritain, seem to be merely varieties of the Samothra-cian rites, which were celebrated in the obscurity ofnight, and with the most profound secresy.

After a previous probation of abstinence, chastity,and silence, the candidates for initiation were purifiedby water and by blood ; they then offered a sacrificeof a bull or ram, and were made to drink of two foun-tains, called Lethe (oblivion), and Mnemosyne (memo-ry), to wash away the memory of their former guilt,and to enable them to remember the new instructions.They were then transported into a dark tower orcavern, where their ears were assailed by the mostappalling sounds, the rushing of waters, the roar ofthunder, dreadful yells, with occasional gleams of lightHashing through the darkness, and displaying the mosthorrible phantoms, with a dead body exposed on abier. Thus filled with terror, they were suddenlyhurried into other scenes; light and cheerful musicsucceeded to darkness and the dismal sounds, the deadbody revived, and the temple resounded with re-joicings. The hidden doctrines and secret rites werenow communicated. Dances and orgies, in which themy dan phallus or lingam, and the yoni were introduced,closed the ceremony.

Cabrera. One of the Balearic isles in the Medi-terranean Sea, belonging to Spain ; Ion. 3° E., lat.39° 7' N.

Cabul, or Caubcl, capital of the kingdom of Af-ghanistan, is a very ancient city, situated in a spaciousand well-watered plain, inclosed on three sides by asemicircular range of hills, on the summit of which isa fortification. The Bala Hissa, or Upper Fort, con-tains the palace and other public buildings. Thehouses are small, but the bazaars are well supplied,and crowded by Usbecks, Afghans and Hindoos. Thevicinity is famous, in the East, for flowers and fruits.Cabul is a great mart for horses from Tartary, w hichare brought for exportation to Hindostan. Lon.69° 15' E., lat. 33° 30' N.

Cabulistan. A country in Afghanistan, w'hich isbounded on the north by Usbeck Tartary, on theeast by Hindostan and Cashmere, on the south byMecran, and on the west by Candahar and Sablestan.The upper part of this country is cold and barren ;but the valleys, which are watered by beautiful rivers,produce the most delicious fruits, flowers, and aro-matic woods.

This delightful country has frequently been thescene of bloodshed and w arfare. In 169*7 it was in-vaded by Khaledbin Abdullah, governor of Schistan,w ho was entirely defeated. In the year 1739 Cabul-istan was conquered and taken from the Mogul em-pire, by Nadir Shah, who retained it until his death,which occurred in 1747, when it was captured byAhmed Khan Durany, who founded the presentkingdom of Afghanistan, which see.

Cachao, Kacho, Hecho, or Bac-king. Capitalof the kingdom of Tonquin, on the river Songkoi,about one hundred miles from its mouth. It is anopen, straggling town, with wide streets, the housesof mud, or wood, thatched with straw. It was for-merly the residence of the king ; and the English andDanes had factories there. It is a commercial placeof some consequence. Gold, beautiful silks, and thefinest lackered w-are, are exported. Lat. 21 u 25' N.,Ion. 105° 12' E.

ET, LETTRES DE.

Cachar. A small province lying between Bengaland Ava, about the 25th degree of northern latitudebounded on the north by Assam, and to the south byCassay, being a mountainous and sterile country. Itretained its independency till about the year 1775when it was invaded by a Birman army, and the rajahcompelled to acknowledge himself a tributary of thatempire. The natives are Hindoos of the Khutritribe, and, contrary to the general character of moun-taineers, are said to be very pusillanimous. Formerlya communication was kept up between this countryand Bengal, and Mr. Veritst with a party advancedin the year 1763 to its capital, Cosspore; but since itfell under the Birman yoke, the intercourse has beenstopped, and it is perhaps for the interest of the Britishthat the road should be shut up, or at least properlyguarded, in case of a war with the court of Ava.

Cachet, Lettres de. Secret warrants, by meansof which, under the former kings of France, and theirministers, any body could be imprisoned or banishedto a certain place, without any reason given. Theintroduction of them is ascribed to the famous Capu-chin padre Joseph, under the ministry of cardinalRichelieu. In this sense the term lettres de cachetis commonly used, but it has, in fact, a more exten-sive signification. All despatches from the royalstate-chancery were issued either openly', as lettrespatentee, or sealed, as lettres closes, or de cachet. Thefirst were always written upon parchment, the nameof the king signed by a minister of state, counter-signed by the minister, not folded, but only the lowerpart turned over, and stamped with the great seal ofstate. They commenced with the words A tompresens et a venir, salut ! and ended with the formCar tel cst notre plaisir. In this shape, all edicts, or-dinances, charters, privileges, &c. were issued, but allhad to be recorded by the parliament of the districtto which they referred.

The representations of the parliament often pre-vented these lettres patentes from being carried intoeffect. The others, the lettres closes, were only writ-ten on paper, some in the name of the king (whospoke in the first person, and concluded with the for-mula Sur cc jc prie Dieu, qu’il vous ait dans sa saintcetdivine garde, and signed with his name), some bycommission from the king. In the latter case, theybegan with the words l)c par le roi: il est ordonne a,and were signed by a minister. They were thenclosed, and sealed with the small royal seal, so thatthe contents could not be seen. The lettres closeswere used for many purposes besides that of arrests.All the orders sent to officers and private individuals(e. g., to report opinions, to repair to a certain place,to leave their place of residence, or go into banish-ment) were issued in this form. Warrants also wereoften issued in this form, because the courts, and par-ticularly the police, could not have acted w ithout suchauthority in urgent cases. To the lieutenant-generalde la police of Paris a number of them were alwaysgiven, to fill out the blanks as occasion might require.Without them, he would not have been authorised toarrest suspected persons. Frequently the arrest bylettre de cachet was a favour on the part of the king,as it withdrew the accused from the severer punish-ment to which he would have been liable upon a trialbefore the courts. See Mirabeau’s Des Lettres deCachet et des Prisons dJFAat, 1782. These letterswere detestable instruments of arbitrary power, hos-tile to every principle of right. See Bastii.e.