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of stated feasts in honour of their deities and heroes; such were theSaturnalia, Cerealia, Luperculta, Liberalia, NepUirudia, Cotisualia,Portumnulia, Vulcanalia, Maltha, Divalia, & c. See these art ides.They had also feasts instituted occasionally; as Carmentalia,Guuinulia, Terminalia, Florialia, Compitalia, Lemuria, Vernalia,besides other moveable and occasional ones ; as to give thanks tothe gods for benefits received ; to implore their assistance or to ap-pease their wrath, &c. as the Paganalia, Feralia, Bacchanalia, Am-harvriia, Amburhalia, Suovctaurilia, and divers others, particu-larly denominated Ferise ; as Sementin*, Latin *, Sec. See thesearticles. The feasts were divided into days of sacrifice, and daysof banqueting and feasting: days of games, and days of rest orferiai. There being but litile history written, or at least published,in those days, one end of feasts was to keep up the remembrance ofpast occurrences.

Feasts, Chinese. The Chinese have two solemn religiousfeasts annually, in memory of Confucius , besides several others ofa civil nature, in honour of agriculture, See.

Feasts, Jewish. The principal leasts of the Jews were thefeasts of trumpets, that of the expiation, of tabernacles, of the de-dication, of the passover, of pentecost, and that of purification. SeeExpiation, See. The modern Jews have other leasts marked intheir calendar of modern institution.

Feasts in the Church of England . The four feasts whichthe English laws take particular notice of are, the Annunciation ofthe blessed Virgin Mary, or Lady-day, the 25th March; the na-tivity of St. John the Baptist, held on the 24th of June ; the feast°f St. Michael the Archangel , on the 29th of September; and thatof St. Thomas the Apostle, on the 21st of December ; on whichquarterly days vent on leases is usually paid. (5 andb lidw. VI.Tap. 3. 3 Jac. 1. cap. 112. Car. 11. cap. 30.) Besides these feasts iwhich are general, and enjoined by the church, there are otherslocal and occasional, enjoined by the magistrate, or voluntarilyset on foot by the people ; such are the days of thanksgiving lorvictories, delivery Irom wars, plagues, Sec. Such also are the j■vigils or wakes m commemoration of the dedications of particularchurches. See Vigil, &c. The feasts of the church of England are either Immoveable or Moveable : i

1. f easts, Immoveable, are those constantly celebrated on jthe same day ot the year ; the principal of these are Christmas orthe Nativity, the Circumcision, Epiphany, Candlemas or the Pu- ■iiiicatiun ; the Annunciation, called also ihe Incarnation and Con-ception ; All Saints, anil All Souls; besides the days of the se-vere apostles, St. Thomas, St. Paul , &c. which m the church ofai ’e feasts though not Fen*. See these articles,s.. I' easts, Moveable, are those which are not conlined to thesame day of the year. Oi these the principal is Easter , whichSues law- to all the resi, K 11 of them following and keeping their iI!"?P tJ1 s y'istances from it; such are Balm Sunday, Good Friday, j■p li \\ ednesi’iay, Sexagesimal, Ascension-day, Pentecost , andf runty Sunday. See Easter, Pentecost , Sexaglsima, Tri-

Mty, &c .

P easts jn the Church oe Home. The prodigious increaseof l ' a ' S 111 ^ ie B 0!nl:f h church commenced towards the closethe 4th century, and was occasioned bv the discovery that was>en made of the remains of martyrs and other holy men, for theomniemoratioa of whom they were established. These, instead of jsing set apart for pious exercises, were abused in indolence, vo- )tui \ lousness ’ an( l criminal practices. Many of them were insti- jpi 1 0,1 a Pagan model, and perverted to similar purposes. j

or 'u S ' rs ’ Mohammedan. 'I he Mohammedans, besides their feast ;fir-t ■ "’l llc h is kept on Friday, have two solemn feasts, the‘ jJJ. 01 which is called the Feast of Victims, and celebrated on thep ■ 1 c * a y °f flie Lst month of their year; and the second called“■Dram. See Bairam.

the F '^ STS OI THE Ef.ad, solemn religious ceremonies in use amongev ■'Vmencan Indians. By some nations they are celebrated

10 others ' as ^ le II uro,,s anti Iroquois , every

hiri'^w ' n physiology, a general name for (lie covering of

tiieirwi l i n ? C0lnmon t0 a 'l flie animals of this class to havethers or t K>C - > '’ 01 a l' ' asl t' le greatest part of it, covered with fea-Vi z . u,,, P lluna ge. '! here are two sorts of feathers found on birds,tail ’ ami it 011 ® ' larc ® kind, called quills, found in the wings and

’ Ule °“ ier plumage,, or soit leathers,, serving for the de-

fence and ornament of the whole body. All birds, so far as yetknown, moult the feathers oi their whole body yearly.

Feather. Hee Ornithology. Feathers make a considera-ble article in commerce, particularly those of ostriches, herons,swans, peacocks, geese, hens, &c. for plumes, ornaments of thehead, lilluig of beds, writing pens, See. Geese are plucked some-times in Great Britain live times in the year, and in cold seasonsmany of them die by this barbarous custom. The feathers thatare brought Irom Somersetshire are esteemed the best, and thosefrom Ireland the worst. Eider down is imported from Denmark ;the ducks that supply it being inhabitants of Hudson’s Bay,Greenland, Iceland, and Norway . Bee Down. Our own West-ern Islands breed numbers of these birds, which turn out a proiit-able branch of trade to the poor inhabitants. Hudson’s Bay alsofurnishes very fine feathers, supposed to he of the goose kind.The down of the swan is brought from Dantzic, as well as greatquantities of the feathers of the cock and hen. The Loudon poul-terers deal largely in the feathers of tiiose birds, and of ducks andturkies: those of ducks being weaker, are inferior to those of thegoose; and turkies feathers are the worst of any. The best me-thod of curing feathers is to lay them in a room, in an exposure tothe sun ; and when dried, to put them in bags, and beat them wellwith poles to get the dust off.

Feathers are chiefly used for the stuffing of beds, which arecertainly less wholesome than wool or horse hair mattresses, andtend greatly to relax and enervate the human body. Within thelast two or three years, they have been manufactured into hats; amode of employing them far preferable to that we have just men-tioned. See Plume.

Feather, in the manege, a sort of natural frizling of the hair,which in some parts rises above the rest, resembling (he tip of anear of corn. This happens most frequently between the eves;and if lower, it is a sign of a weak sight.

Mid-Feather, in the salt-works^ the partition in the middle ofthe furnace, which it divides into two chambers.

Feather-edged, among carpenters, an appellation given toplanks or boards, which have one side thicker than the other.

FEBR1S, [Lat.] Fever, was worshipped as a goddess by theancient Romans. She hail a temple on mount Palatine, and inother two places in Rome . The following inscription to this god-dess is still extant. Febri. Diva:. Feuri. Sanctis. Febri,Magna. Camilla, amata. pro. fii.io. male, aefecto.

FEBRUA, a feast of atonement held by the ancient Romansfor 12 days together, in February.

Februa, Febru.vi.is, and Ff.UR data, names of the goddessJuno.

FEBRUARY , in chronology, was the second month ofN tuna’s year, and under the protection of the god Neptune. Itwas not in the calendar of Romulus, being added to the year bvNuina. It had its name from Februa, a name of Juno, who pre-sided over llu; purifications of women ; and in this month the Lu-percalia were held in honour of Juno, ami women were purifiedby the priests of Pan Lyceus at that festival. See Lypi.rcai.ia.February, in a common year, consists only of 28 days;, but everybissextile year it has 29, by ihe addition of the intercalary day.

FECAMP, an ancient sea-port of France , in the department ofLower Seine, having 100U houses, and a Benedictine abbey-long famed for its riches. The churcli is one of the largest inFrance . The chief trade of the inhabitants is in linens, serges,laces, hats, and leather. Many vessels are cmplovad in the her-ring fishery. It is 27 miles S.W. of Dieppe , anil 15 N.N.F.. ofMontvilliers.

FF.CES. The excrementitious matter of animals, evacuatedper anum, consists of all that food which cannot be employed forpurposes of nutrition, considerably altered, at least in part, andmixed or united with various bodies employed during digestion toseparate the useless part of the food from the nutritious.

FECJALES, or FOECIALES,. an order of priests or officers,consisting of 20 persons among the ancient Romans, appointed toproclaim war, negotiate peace, Szc. Festus derives the wordirom ferio, I strike; as, ferire fiedus signifies “ to conclude a trea-ty:” and accordingly, instead of fcciales, he would have it writ-ten ferial/s. Others derive it from feedus, which was ancientlywritten jedus', or from fides, “ faith.” Others framjaeio, Jtci, ‘lmake, See. because they made war and peace, Yossius derives it

from i

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