VOORHEES                                               2°30                                                  VULTURE

vail among the negroes of the West Indies and the southern United States. But careful research has disproven any organized set of beliefs and ceremonials which could properly be regarded as a voodoo religion. The practices were supposed to have been imported from western Africa. A great snake (Voodoo) was the central figure, communicating with his worshipers only through a priest or priestess, who was held in great veneration by all devotees.' Secret nocturnal ceremonies were characterized by prayers to the snake, dancing and the wildest debauchery and indecency. Voodoo doctors among southern negroes were often called to help destroy an enemy, for they were skillful poisoners. Their magic works were performed in secret.

Voorhees (vor'ez), Daniel W., an American politician, was born in Ohio Sept. 26, 1827. He studied at Asbury University in Indiana, and began his law practice in that state, where he was appointed district attorney. He was a representative from Indiana for four terms of Congress, became United States senator in 1877, and was reelected in 1885 and 1891. He died on April 10, 1897.

Vosges (vōzh), a range of mountains on the left bank of the Rhine, in northeastern France and western Germany. The tops are rounded and called balloons, and are covered with snow for several months in the year. Mines of iron, lead, salt and copper abound.

Vot'ing=Machine, a mechanical apparatus, automatically arranged, for use in voting, and devised primarily in the interest of ballot-reform to lessen fraud in the casting and counting of votes. The introduction of the voting-machine has greatly simplified and shortened casting the vote, and their use in recent years and in various types has been widespread. The authorized use of these devices dates about from 1892, and those now in large use are the McTammany (Massachusetts) ballot-machine; the Myers American ballot-machine, first legalized in New York State; the votograph or American ballot-protector and recorder; the Rhines, first legally used in Michigan; the Bardwell votometer; and the Standard. The methods of working these instruments are various, and on the whole suitable, and are a vast improvement on the old methods of casting paper-ballots. The general principle of all is much the same, viz. : the push-button one; and their advantages, besides those of secrecy and simplicity of voting, include impossibility of multiple voting as well as the prevention of fraud in counting the cast votes.

Vul'can (Greek, Hephæstus), in Roman mythology the god of fire, was the son of Jupiter and Juno. He was deformed in his feet from his birth, according to some

stories, while others assert that his lameness was due to his being hurled down to earth by Jupiter for interfering in a family quarrel. He fell on the Island of Lemnos, where he built a palace, with a workshop and anvil. He also had a beautiful palace in Olympus or, according to others, in the heart of an island, where with the help of the Cyclops he made the scepter for Jupiter, the armor of Achilles and the weapons of Hercules. There were a temple to him at Rome and a raised square outside the city, called the Volcanol, where statues of persons struck by lightning were sometimes placed. There also were several festivals in his honor.

Vul'gate, The, is a Latin translation of the Bible which originated in the second century, probably in the Roman province of Syria. The Vulgate appears to have originated out of a number of different Latin translations which were intended rather for private use than for publication. This being the case, there soon were many Latin versions, which often contained dangerous interpolations as well as corruptions. Accordingly the task of a revision of these versions in the light of the original Greek was entrusted by Damasus, Bishop of Rome, to St. Jerome. The Vulgate of St. Jerome appeared about 384 A. D. Owing to the multiplication of manuscript copies, this text also became very corrupt. Alcuin in 801 and Lanfranc about 1070 undertook revision of it. The best extant manuscript of Jerome's Vulgate is the Codex Amiatinus at Florence, which dates perhaps as early as the seventh century. The Vulgate was revised by the authority of the papacy in 1590 and again in 1592. The edition of 1592, known as the Clementine Vulgate for Pope Clement VIII, is the standard Bible in the Roman Catholic church. The most recent critical edition of the Vulgate is that of Wordsworth and White. The Latin of the Vulgate is excellent, and bears the mark of close collation with the Greek version. The language, however, although idiomatic, is not always classical, but occasionally includes later ecclesiastical words and phrases. In some instances it is probable that the Latin version is earlier than the extant Greek. The Vulgate powerfully, though indirectly, influenced the Authorized Version in English, through Wiclif's translation, which was directly from the Vulgate, and through the Douai New Testament.

Vul'ture, the common name for various carrion-eating birds of the Old World. They are birds from two to four feet long, and the largest of them have an expanse of wing from nine to ten feet. Their head and

Çart of the neck are destitute of feathers, here are six species' more or less common about the shores of the Mediterranean. Two of these inhabit Africa, and the other four