In the pictures of the Christian churches, he is surrounded with decapitated heads.

The Mussulmans dread him.] [Footnote 3: _Isaiah_ ii.

9-11.] No doubt this thought of imitation had occupied John's mind.[1] The anchorite life, so opposed to the spirit of the ancient Jewish people, and with which the vows, such as those of the Nazirs and the Rechabites, had no relation, pervaded all parts of Judea.

The Essenes or Therapeutae were grouped near the birthplace of John, on the eastern shores of the Dead Sea.[2] It was imagined that the chiefs of sects ought to be recluses, having rules and institutions of their own, like the founders of religious orders.

The teachers of the young were also at times species of anchorites,[3] somewhat resembling the _gourous_[4] of Brahminism.