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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11871-0.txt b/11871-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f338b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/11871-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1435 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11871 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustration. + See 11871-h.htm or 11871-h.zip: + (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/8/7/11871/11871-h/11871-h.htm) + or + (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/8/7/11871/11871-h.zip) + + + + +THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. + +VOL. 19, No. 549] SUPPLEMENTARY NUMBER [PRICE 2_d_. + + + + * * * * * + + + + +THE ALHAMBRA, IN SPAIN + +[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW.] + +[Illustration: Palace of Charles V., see page 340.] + + * * * * * + + Accumulated novelties from Books published within the past month + have led to the publication of the present Supplement. Although + its contents have not been drawn from works of unfettered fancy, + it is hoped they will be found to blend the real with the + imaginative in such a degree as to render their knowledge not the + less useful for its being amusive. The Engravings are perhaps as + appropriate as attractive; since they illustrate, and the artists + hope not unworthily, the _New Sketch Book_ of WASHINGTON IRVING. + + * * * * * + +THE ALHAMBRA. + + by Geoffrey Crayon, Author Of The Sketch Book, &c. + +What! Washington Irving, or, as the title-page will have it, Geoffrey +Crayon, in SPAIN, wandering up and down the deserted halls of the +Alhambra, and weaving its legendary lore with thick coming fancies +into sketches of enchanting interest. The origin of the work, (the +_New Sketch Book_,) as it has been inappropriately styled, is told in +the dedication to David Wilkie, Esq., R.A. Mr. Irving and the great +artist just named were fellow travellers on the continent a few years +since. In their rambles about some of the old cities of Spain, they +were more than once struck with scenes and incidents which reminded +them of passages in the "Arabian Nights." The painter urged Mr. +Irving to write something that should illustrate those peculiarities, +"something in the Haroun Alrasched style" that should have a dash of +that Arabian spice which pervades every thing in Spain. The author set +to work, _con amore,_ and has produced two goodly volumes, with a +few "Arabesque" sketches and tales founded on popular traditions. His +_study_ was THE ALHAMBRA, which must have inspired him for his task. +To quote his own words: "how many legends and traditions, true and +fabulous; how many songs and romances, Spanish and Arabian, of love +and war, and chivalry, are associated with this romantic pile." The +Governor of the Alhambra gave Mr. Irving and his companion, permission +to occupy his vacant apartments in the Moorish Palace. "My companion," +says the author, "was soon summoned away by the duties of his station; +but I remained for several months, spellbound in the old enchanted +pile." + +Such is the plan or frame of the work before us. It has induced us to +select the Embellishments on the annexed page; and their description, +from so graceful a pencil as that of the author, will, we hope, +bespeak the favour of the reader. + +"The Alhambra is an ancient fortress or castellated palace of the +Moorish kings of Granada, where they held dominion over this their +boasted terrestrial paradise, and made their last stand for empire in +Spain. The palace occupies but a portion of the fortress, the walls of +which, studded with towers, stretch irregularly round the whole crest +of a lofty hill that overlooks the city, and forms a spur of the +Sierra Nevada, or snowy mountain. + +"In the time of the Moors, the fortress was capable of containing +an army of forty thousand men within its precincts, and served +occasionally as a stronghold of the sovereigns against their +rebellious subjects. After the kingdom had passed into the hands +of the Christians, the Alhambra continued a royal demesne, and was +occasionally inhabited by the Castilian monarchs. The Emperor Charles +V. began a sumptuous palace within its walls, but was deterred from +completing it by repeated shocks of earthquakes. The last royal +residents were Philip V. and his beautiful queen Elizabetta of Parma, +early in the eighteenth century. Great preparations were made for +their reception. The palace and gardens were placed in a state of +repair, and a new suite of apartments erected, and decorated by +artists brought from Italy. The sojourn of the sovereigns was +transient, and after their departure the palace once more became +desolate. Still the place was maintained with some military state. The +governor held it immediately from the crown, its jurisdiction extended +down into the suburbs of the city, and was independent of the captain +general of Granada. A considerable garrison was kept up, the governor +had his apartments in the front of the old Moorish palace, and never +descended into Granada without some military parade. The fortress, in +fact, was a little town of itself, having several streets of houses +within its walls, together with a Franciscan convent and a parochial +church. + +"The desertion of the court, however, was a fatal blow to the +Alhambra. Its beautiful halls became desolate, and some of them fell +to ruin; the gardens were destroyed, and the fountains ceased to play. +By degrees the dwellings became filled up with a loose and lawless +population; contrabandistas, who availed themselves of its independent +jurisdiction to carry on a wide and daring course of smuggling, and +thieves and rogues of all sorts, who made this their place of refuge +from whence they might depredate upon Granada and its vicinity. The +strong arm of government at length interfered: the whole community was +thoroughly sifted; none were suffered to remain but such as were of +honest character, and had legitimate right to a residence; the greater +part of the houses were demolished and a mere hamlet left, with +the parochial church and the Franciscan convent. During the recent +troubles in Spain, when Granada was in the hands of the French, +the Alhambra was garrisoned by their troops, and the palace was +occasionally inhabited by the French commander. With that enlightened +taste which has ever distinguished the French nation in their +conquests, this monument of Moorish elegance and grandeur was rescued +from the absolute ruin and desolation that were overwhelming it. The +roofs were repaired, the saloons and galleries protected from the +weather, the gardens cultivated, the water courses restored, the +fountains once more made to throw up their sparkling showers; and +Spain may thank her invaders for having preserved to her the most +beautiful and interesting of her historical monuments. + +"On the departure of the French they blew up several towers of the +outer wall, and left the fortifications scarcely tenable. Since that +time the military importance of the post is at an end. The garrison is +a handful of invalid soldiers, whose principal duty is to guard some +of the outer towers, which serve occasionally as a prison of state; +and the governor, abandoning the lofty hill of the Alhambra, resides +in the centre of Granada, for the more convenient dispatch of his +official duties. + + +Interior of the Alhambra + + +"The Alhambra has been so often and so minutely described by +travellers, that a mere sketch will, probably, be sufficient for the +reader to refresh his recollection; I will give, therefore, a brief +account of our visit to it the morning after our arrival in Granada. + +"Leaving our posada of La Espada, we traversed the renowned square of +the Vivarrambla, once the scene of Moorish jousts and tournaments, now +a crowded market-place. From thence we proceeded along the Zacatin, +the main street of what, in the time of the Moors, was the Great +Bazaar, where the small shops and narrow allies still retain the +Oriental character. Crossing an open place in front of the palace of +the captain-general, we ascended a confined and winding street, the +name of which reminded us of the chivalric days of Granada. It is +called the Calle, or street of the Gomeres, from a Moorish family +famous in chronicle and song. This street led up to a massive gateway +of Grecian architecture, built by Charles V. forming the entrance to +the domains of the Alhambra. + +"At the gate were two or three ragged and superannuated soldiers, +dozing on a stone bench, the successors of the Zegris and the +Abencerrages; while a tall meagre varlet, whose rusty-brown cloak was +evidently intended to conceal the ragged state of his nether garments, +was lounging in the sunshine and gossiping with an ancient sentinel on +duty. He joined us as we entered the gate, and offered his services to +show us the fortress. + +"I have a traveller's dislike to officious ciceroni, and did +not-altogether like the garb of the applicant. + +"'You are well acquainted with the place, I presume?' + +"'Ninguno mas; pues Senor, soy hijo de la Alhambra.'--(Nobody better; +in fact, Sir, I am a son of the Alhambra!) + +"The common Spaniards have certainly a most poetical way of expressing +themselves. 'A son of the Alhambra!' the appellation caught me at +once; the very tattered garb of my new acquaintance assumed a dignity +in my eyes. It was emblematic of the fortunes of the place, and +befitted the progeny of a ruin. + +"I put some farther questions to him, and found that his title was +legitimate. His family had lived in the fortress from generation to +generation ever since the time of the conquest. His name was Mateo +Ximenes. 'Then, perhaps,' said I, 'you may be a descendant from the +great Cardinal Ximenes?'--'Dios Sabe! God knows, Senor! It may be so. +We are the oldest family in the Alhambra,--_Christianos Viejos_, old +Christians, without any taint of Moor or Jew. I know we belong to some +great family or other, but I forget whom. My father knows all about +it: he has the coat-of-arms hanging up in his cottage, up in the +fortress.' There is not any Spaniard, however poor, but has some claim +to high pedigree. The first title of this ragged worthy, however, had +completely captivated me, so I gladly accepted the services of the +'son of the Alhambra.' + +"We now found ourselves in a deep narrow ravine, filled with beautiful +groves, with a steep avenue, and various footpaths winding through it, +bordered with stone seats, and ornamented with fountains. To our left, +we beheld the towers of the Alhambra beetling above us; to our right, +on the opposite side of the ravine, we were equally dominated by +rival towers on a rocky eminence. These, we were told, were the Torres +Vermejos, or vermilion towers, so called from their ruddy hue. No one +knows their origin. They are of a date much anterior to the Alhambra: +some suppose them to have been built by the Romans; others, by some +wandering colony of Phoenicians. Ascending the steep and shady avenue, +we arrived at the foot of a huge square Moorish tower; forming a kind +of barbican, through which passed the main entrance to the fortress. +Within the barbican was another group of veteran invalids, one +mounting guard at the portal, while the rest, wrapped in their +tattered cloaks, slept on the stone benches. This portal is called the +Gate of Justice, from the tribunal held within its porch during the +Moslem domination, for the immediate trial of petty causes: a custom +common to the Oriental nations, and occasionally alluded to in the +Sacred Scriptures. + +"The great vestibule or porch of the gate, is formed by an immense +Arabian arch, of the horse-shoe form, which springs to half the height +of the tower. On the key-stone of this arch is engraven a gigantic +hand. Within the vestibule, on the key-stone of the portal, is +sculptured, in like manner, a gigantic key. Those who pretend to some +knowledge of Mahometan symbols, affirm that the hand is the emblem of +doctrine, and the key of faith; the latter, they add, was emblazoned +on the standard of the Moslems when they subdued Andalusia, in +opposition to the Christian emblem of the Cross. A different +explanation, however, was given by the legitimate son of the Alhambra, +and one more in unison with the notions of the common people, who +attach something of mystery and magic to every thing Moorish, and have +all kind of superstitions connected with this old Moslem fortress. + +"According to Mateo, it was a tradition handed down from the oldest +inhabitants, and which he had from his father and grandfather, +that the hand and key were magical devices on which the fate of the +Alhambra depended. The Moorish King who built it was a great magician, +or, as some believed, had sold himself to the devil, and had laid +the whole fortress under a magic spell. By this means it had remained +standing for several hundred years, in defiance of storms and +earthquakes, while almost all other buildings of the Moors had fallen +to ruin, and disappeared. This spell, the tradition went on to say, +would last until the hand on the outer arch should reach down and +grasp the key, when the whole pile would tumble to pieces, and all the +treasures buried beneath it by the Moors would be revealed. + +"Notwithstanding this ominous prediction, we ventured to pass through +the spell-bound gateway, feeling some little assurance against magic +art in the protection of the Virgin, a statue of whom we observed +above the portal. + +"After passing through the barbican, we ascended a narrow lane, +winding between walls, and came on an open esplanade within the +fortress, called the Plaza de los Algibes, or Place of the Cisterns, +from great reservoirs which undermine it, cut in the living rock by +the Moors for the supply of the fortress. Here, also, is a well of +immense depth, furnishing the purest and coldest of water; another +monument of the delicate taste of the Moors, who were indefatigable in +their exertions to obtain that element in its crystal purity. + +"In front of this esplanade is the splendid pile commenced by Charles +V., intended, it is said, to eclipse the residence of the Moslem +kings. With all its grandeur and architectural merit, it appeared +to us like an arrogant intrusion, and, passing by it, we entered +a simple, unostentatious portal, opening into the interior of the +Moorish palace. + +"The transition was almost magical: it seemed as if we were at once +transported into other times and another realm, and were treading the +scenes of Arabian story. We found ourselves in a great court, paved +with white marble, and decorated at each end with light Moorish +peristyles: it is called the Court of the Alberca. In the centre was +an immense basin or fish-pond, a hundred and thirty feet in length by +thirty in breadth, stocked with gold-fish and bordered by hedges of +roses. At the upper end of this court rose the great Tower of Comares. + +"From the lower end we passed through a Moorish archway into the +renowned Court of Lions. There is no part of the edifice that gives +us a more complete idea of its original beauty and magnificence than +this, for none has suffered so little from the ravages of time. In +the centre stands the fountain famous in song and story. The alabaster +basins still shed their diamond drops; and the twelve lions, which +support them, cast forth their crystal streams as in the days of +Boabdil. The court is laid out in flower-beds, and surrounded by light +Arabian arcades of open filagree work, supported by slender pillars +of white marble. The architecture, like that of all the other parts +of the palace, is characterized by elegance rather than grandeur; +bespeaking a delicate and graceful taste, and a disposition to +indolent enjoyment. When one looks upon the fairy tracery of the +peristyles, and the apparently fragile fretwork of the walls, it is +difficult to believe that so much has survived the wear and tear of +centuries, the shocks of earthquakes, the violence of war, and the +quiet, though no less baneful, pilferrings of the tasteful traveller: +it is almost sufficient to excuse the popular tradition, that the +whole is protected by a magic charm. + +"On one side of the court, a portal, richly adorned, opens into a +lofty hall, paved with white marble, and called the Hall of the Two +Sisters. A cupola, or lantern, admits a tempered light from above, and +a free circulation of air. The lower part of the walls is encrusted +with beautiful Moorish tiles, on some of which are emblazoned the +escutcheons of the Moorish monarchs: the upper part is faced with the +fine stucco-work invented at Damascus, consisting of large plates, +cast in moulds, and artfully joined, so as to have the appearance of +having been laboriously sculptured by the hand into light relievos +and fanciful arabesques, intermingled with texts of the Koran, +and poetical inscriptions in Arabian and Cufic character. These +decorations of the walls and cupolas are richly gilded, and the +interstices pencilled with lapis-lazuli, and other brilliant and +enduring colours. On each side of the hall are recesses for ottomans +and couches. Above the inner porch is a balcony, which communicated +with the women's apartments. The latticed 'jalousies' still remain, +from whence the dark-eyed beauties of the haram might gaze unseen upon +the entertainments of the hall below. + +"It is impossible to contemplate this once favourite abode of Oriental +manners without feeling the early associations of Arabian romance, +and almost expecting to see the white arm of some mysterious princess +beckoning from the balcony, or some dark eye sparkling through the +lattice. The abode of beauty is here, as if it had been inhabited but +yesterday; but where are the Zoraydas and Lindaraxas? + +"On the opposite side of the Court of Lions, is the Hall of the +Abencerrages; so called from the gallant cavaliers of that illustrious +line who were here perfidiously massacred. There are some who doubt +the whole truth of this story; but our humble attendant Mateo pointed +out the very wicket of the portal through which they are said to have +been introduced, one by one, and the white marble fountain in the +centre of the hall where they were beheaded. He showed us also certain +broad ruddy stains in the pavement, traces of their blood, which, +according to popular belief, can never be effaced. Finding we listened +to him with easy faith, he added, that there was often heard at night, +in the Court of Lions, a low, confused sound, resembling the murmuring +of a multitude; with now and then a faint tinkling, like the distant +clank of chains. These noises are probably produced by the bubbling +currents and tinkling falls of water, conducted under the pavement, +through pipes and channels, to supply the fountains; but, according to +the legend of the son of the Alhambra, they are made by the spirits +of the murdered Abencerrages, who nightly haunt the scene of their +suffering, and invoke the vengeance of Heaven on their destroyer. + +"From the Court of Lions we retraced our steps through the Court of +the Alberca, or Great Fishpool; crossing which we proceeded to the +Tower of Comares, so called from the name of the Arabian architect. It +is of massive strength and lofty height, domineering over the rest +of the edifice, and overhanging the steep hill-side, which descends +abruptly to the banks of the Darro. A Moorish archway admitted us into +a vast and lofty hall, which occupies the interior of the tower, and +was the grand audience chamber of the Moslem monarchs, thence +called the Hall of Ambassadors. It still bears the traces of past +magnificence. The walls are richly stuccoed and decorated with +arabesques; the vaulted ceiling of cedar-wood, almost lost in +obscurity, from its height, still gleams with rich gilding, and the +brilliant tints of the Arabian pencil. On three sides of the saloon +are deep windows cut through the immense thickness of the walls, the +balconies of which look down upon the verdant valley of the Darro, the +streets and convents of the Albaycin, and command a prospect of the +distant Vega. + +"I might go on to describe minutely the other delightful apartments of +this side of the palace; the Tocador, or toilet of the queen, an +open belvidere, on the summit of a tower, where the Moorish sultanas +enjoyed the pure breezes from the mountain, and the prospect of +the surrounding paradise; the secluded little patio, or garden of +Lindaraxa, with its alabaster fountain, its thickets of roses and +myrtles, of citrons and oranges; the cool halls and grottoes of +the baths, where the glare and heat of day are tempered into a soft +mysterious light, and a pervading freshness. + +"While the city below pants with the noontide heat, and the parched +vega trembles to the eye, the delicate airs from the Sierra Nevada, +play through these lofty halls, bringing with them the sweetness of +the surrounding gardens. Every thing invites to that indolent repose, +the bliss of southern climes; and while the half-shut eye looks out +from shaded balconies upon the glittering landscape, the ear is lulled +by the rustling of groves, and the murmur of running streams." Here we +must end. + +The Sketches bear the very perfection of romance in their titles. Yes, +expectant reader, think of the Alhambra by Moonlight--A Ramble +among the Hills--Legend of the Arabian Astrologer--The Tower of Las +Infantas--Legends of the three beautiful Princesses--The Pilgrim of +Love--The Rose of the Alhambra,--the two discreet Statues, &c. &c. +What hours of spell-bound delight do these two volumes lock up, yet +we hope but for a short season, from all who would vary "life's dull +round" with romantic lore. + + * * * * * + + +NATURAL HISTORY. + +The remarkably attractive Number of the _Magazine of Natural History_ +for the present month enables us to checker our sheet with a page or +two of facts which will be interesting to every inquiring mind. + +Hail at Lausanne. + +"At Lausanne, on the 14th of July, 1831, about 8 P.M., we witnessed +one of those hail-storms which, every summer, cause such ravages in +the south of Europe. A great proportion of the hailstones were as +big as hen's eggs, and some even bigger: seven nearly filled a common +dinner plate. They were mostly oval or globular; but one piece, +brought to us after the storm, was flat and square, full 2 in. long, +as many broad, and three quarters of an inch thick, with several +projecting knobs of ice as big as large hazel nuts. This mass exactly +resembled a piece of uniformly transparent ice, but the oval and +globular masses had the same conformation as has often been described +in these hailstones, and on which Volta founded his ingenious but +untenable theory of their formation. In the centre of each was a +small, white, opaque nucleus, the size of a pea, and evidently one of +the hailstones usually seen in England, to which the French give the +name of _grésil_, confining the term _gréle_ to the larger masses of +ice now under our observation. This nucleus of _gresil_ was +enclosed in a coat about half an inch thick of ice considerably more +transparent than it, but still somewhat opaque, as though of snow +melted and then frozen again, and externally the rest of the mass was +of ice perfectly transparent, and as compact and hard as possible, +resounding like a pebble, and not breaking when thrown on the floor. +The inhabitants of Lausanne, aware that the cinereous and puffed up +appearance of the clouds charged with this tremendous aerial artillery +portended more than a mere thunder-storm, had adopted the precaution +of closing their Venetian shutters; but such windows as were deprived +of this protection had almost every pane broken: and much damage was +done to the tiles of all the houses, and to the gardens and vineyards; +but less than might have been expected, owing to the short duration of +the storm, which did not last longer than seven or eight minutes, and +to the circumstance of the hailstones not being very numerous."--(W. +Spence.) + +Cedar Wood. + +"The _cedar_ has been recommended, among other woods, for the purpose +of constructing drawers for cabinets of insects. Let the inexperienced +collector be warned that this is, perhaps, the _very worst_ wood that +can be employed for the purpose; a strong effluvia, or sometimes +a resinous gum, exudes from the wood of the cedar, which is apt to +settle in blotches on the wings of the specimens, especially of the +more delicate Lepidóptera, and entirely discharges the colour. The +Rev. Mr. Bree once had a whole collection of lepidopterous insects +utterly spoiled from having been deposited in cedar drawers; and +he has understood, also, that the insects in the British Museum, +collected, he believes, chiefly by Dr. Leach, have been greatly +injured from the same cause. Possibly, however, cedar wood, after it +has been thoroughly well seasoned, may be less liable to produce these +injurious effects." + +Habits of the Common Snake in Captivity. + +A Staffordshire Correspondent writes thus familiarly: + +"This has been a remarkably good season, both for vegetables and +animals. It has been a singular time for adders, snakes, and lizards; +I never saw so many as I have seen this year in all my life. I have +been trying, a great part of this summer, to domesticate a common +snake, and make it familiar with me and my children; but all to +no purpose, notwithstanding I favoured it with my most particular +attention. It was a most beautiful creature, only 2 ft. 7 in. long. I +did not know how long it had been without food when I caught it; but +I presented it with frogs, toads, worms, beetles, spiders, mice, and +every other delicacy of the season. I also tried to charm it with +music, and my children stroked and caressed it; but all in vain: +it would be no more familiar with any of us than if we had been the +greatest strangers to it, or even its greatest enemies. I kept it in +an old barrel, out of doors, for the first three weeks: during that +time, I can aver, it ate nothing; but, after a very wet night, it +seemed to suffer from the cold. I then put it into a glass vessel, and +set it on the parlour chimney-piece, covering the vessel with a piece +of silk gauze. I caught two live mice, and put them in to it; but they +would sooner have died of hunger than the snake would have eaten them: +they sat shivering on its back, while it lay coiled up as round as a +ball of worstep. I gave the mice some boiled potatoes, which they eat: +but the snake would eat neither the mice nor the potatoes. My +children frequently took it out in their hands, to show it to their +schoolfellows; but my wife, and some others, could not bear the sight +of it. I one day took it in my hand, and opened its mouth with a +penknife, to show a gentleman how different it was from that of the +adder, which I had dead by me: its teeth being no more formidable +or terrific than the teeth of a trout or eel; while the mouth of the +adder had two fangs, like the claws of a cat, attached to the roof of +the mouth, no way connected with its jaw-teeth. While examining the +snake in this manner, it began to smell most horridly, and filled the +room with an abominable odour; I also felt, or thought I felt, a kind +of prickly numbness in the hand I held it in, and did so for some +weeks afterwards. In struggling for its liberty, it twisted itself +round my arm, and discharged its excrements on my coat-sleeve, which +seemed nothing more than milk, or like the chalkings of a woodcock. +It made its escape from me several times by boring a hole through the +gauze; I had lost it for some days at one time, when at length it was +observed peeping out of a mouse-hole behind one of the cellar steps. +Whether it had caught any beetles or spiders in the cellar, I cannot +say; but it looked as fierce as a hawk, and hissed and shook its +tongue, as in open defiance. I could not think of hurting it by +smoking it out with tobacco or brimstone; but called it my fiery +dragon which guarded my ale cellar. At length I caught it, coiled up +on one of the steps. I put it again into an American flour barrel; +but it happened not to be the same as he had been in, and I observed a +nail protruding through the staves about half way up. This, I suppose, +he had made use of to help his escape; for he was missing one morning +about ten o'clock: I had seen him at nine o'clock; so I thought he +could not be far off. I looked about for him for half an hour, when I +gave up the hunt in despair. However, at one o'clock, as the men were +going from dinner, one of them observed the rogue hiding himself under +a stone, fifty yards from the house. 'Dang my buttons,' said he, 'if +here is not master's snake. He came back and told my wife, who +told him to go and kill it. It happened to be _washing-day_: the +washerwoman gave him a pailful of scalding soapsuds to throw on +it; but whether he was most afraid of me or of the snake is still a +question: however, the washerwoman brought it home with the tongs, +and dropped it into the dolly-tub. It dashed round the tub with the +velocity of lightning; my daughter, seeing its agony, snatched it out +of the scalding liquid, but too late: it died in a few minutes. I +was not at all angry with my wife: I had had my whim, and she had had +hers. I had got all the knowledge I wanted to get; I had learned that +it was of no use for a human being, who requires food three times a +day, to domesticate an animal which can live weeks and months without +food: for, as the saying is, 'Hunger will tame any thing;' and without +hunger you can tame nothing. I have also learned that the serpent, +instead of being the emblem of wisdom, should have been an emblem of +stupidity." + +"The stench emitted by the common snake, when molested, is +superlatively noisome; and is given off so powerfully and copiously, +that it infects the air around to a diameter of several yards. This I +witnessed on observing a bitch dog kill a rather large snake; in which +act two points beside the odour effused were notable. The coils of the +snake formed, as it were, a circular wall; and in the circular space +between it, the snake sunk its head, as if for protection. The dog's +efforts were to catch and crush the head; and, shrivelling up her +fleshy lips, 'which all the while ran froth,' she kept thrusting the +points of her jaws into the circular pit aforesaid, and catching at +and fracturing the head. During the progress of these acts, she, every +few seconds, snorted, and shook off the froth, of which she seemed +sedulously careful to free herself, and barked at the conquered snake. +The dog was a most determined vermin-killer, and in rats, &c., quite +an accomplished one; but snakes did not often come in her way."--J.D. + + * * * * * + +CURIOUS FACTS IN VEGETATION + +(From Part xiv. of _Knowledge for the People, or the Plain Why and +Because._) + +Why is it improper to consider the turnip a real bulb? + +Because it is an intermediate stem which swells into a bulbous form. +Turnips have not been cultivated in England, in fields, more than a +century; but this agricultural practice now yields an annual return +which probably exceeds the interest of our national debt.--_Sir Walter +Scott._ + +Why is the Cauliflower so named? + +Because of its origin from _caulis,_ the stalk of a herb. Colewort is +of a similar origin. + +Why are the stems of the Cabbage tribe considered wholesome food? + +Because their acrid flavour is dipersed among an abundance of +mucilage. Cabbages were commonly used among the ancients, and Cato +wrote volumes on their nature. The Indians had so much veneration for +them, that they swore by cabbages, and were therein as superstitious +as the Egyptians, who gave divine honours to leeks and onions, for the +great benefits which they said they received from them.--_Lemery on +Food._ + +Why do Cabbages emit a strong animal odour? + +Because they contain a great quantity of azote or nitrogen, one of the +ultimate elements of animal matter, and strongly characterized in the +destructive distillation of horn, hoofs, or bones. + +Why do not the leaves of the Cabbage remain wet, after being immersed +in water, and again taken out of it? + +Because they are powdered with a slight layer of resinous matter, +similar to that which covers certain fruits, and, in particular, plums +and grapes. Their sea-green colour is also attributed to this resinous +layer. + +Why is Quassia so called? Because it was named in honour of a negro, +Quassia, a drunken doctor, who discovered the virtue of the wood in +curing malignant fevers. + +Why is the Ice plant so called? + +Because its stem is covered with soft tubercles, or excrescences, +which have a crystalline appearance. + +Why do the leaves of some trees fall very early? + +Because they are articulated to the branch; that is, they do not unite +with it by the whole of their base, but are simply fixed to it by +a kind of contraction or articulation; as in the maple and horse +chestnut. + +Why do leaves fall at the approach of winter? + +Because a separation takes place, either in the foot-stalk, or more +usually at its base, and the dying part quits the vigorous one, which +is promoted by the weight of the leaf itself, or the action of the +gales that blow in autumn on its expanded form. M. Richard explains +the cause more philosophically: "Although the fall of the leaves +generally takes place at the approach of winter, cold is not to be +considered as the principal cause of this phenomenon. It is much more +natural to attribute it to the cessation of vegetation, and the want +of nourishment which the leaves experience at that season, when the +course of the sap is interrupted. The vessels of the leaf contract, +dry up, and soon after, that organ is detached from the twig on which +it had been developed." + +Why do some trees, as the Oak, the Beech, and the Hornbeam, retain +their leaves to a late period of autumn? + +Because the life of the twigs on which they grow is not sufficiently +vigorous to throw them off, after the brown colour indicates that they +are dead. + +Why have some plants been termed the Poor Man's Weather-glass? + +Because they shut up their flowers against the approach of rain. +Linnaeus, however, thinks, that flowers lose their fine sensibility, +after the anthers have performed their office, or when deprived of +them artificially. Sir James Smith also observes, that some species +are sometimes exhausted by continued wet; "and it is evident that +very sudden thunder showers often take such flowers by surprise, the +previous state of the atmosphere not having been such as to give them +due warning." + +Many flowers have a regular time of opening and shutting. We have +already mentioned the Marigold; the goat's-beard is vulgarly called +"John go-to-bed at noon," from its closing at mid-day; and at the Cape +of Good Hope there is a "four o'clock flower," because it invariably +closes at that time. The common daisy is, however, a readier example, +its name being a compound of day's and eye--Day's-eye, in which +way, indeed, it is written by Ben Johnson. It regularly shuts after +sun-set, to expand again with the morning light. Thus,-- + + The little dazie, that at evening closes. + +Spenser. + + By a daisy, whose leaves spread, + Shut when Titian goes to bed.--_G. Withers._ + +Leyden sings of moist or rainy weather foretold by daisies. Thus we +may examine a whole field, and not find a daisy open, except such as +have their flowering nearly over, and have in consequence lost their +sensibility. + +The daisy is one of the pet flowers of the poets. Chaucer is ecstatic +in its praise, and calls it his "owne hartes' rest;" Burns, "Wee, +modest, crimson-tipped flower;" and Wordsworth, in beautiful and +touching simplicity, has addressed several poems to "the poet's +darling." + +Appended to Richard's valuable "Elements," is the _Horologium Florae,_ +(timepiece of Flora,) or a table of the hours at which certain plants +expand and shut, at Upsal, 60 deg. north latitude. The earliest Meadow +Salsafy opens from 3 to 4 A.M.; and closes from 9 to 10 A.M. The +latest A.M. is the _Mesembryanthemum Modiflorum,_ (used in the +manufacture of Maroquin leather,) which opens 10 to 11 A.M., +and closes at 12 P.M. The latest opening P.M. is the _Cactus +Grandiflorus,_ 9 to 10 P.M., and closing at 12 P.M., thus remaining +open only two or three hours. Other flowers, we may add, are +so peculiarly delicate, as scarcely to bear the contact of the +atmosphere. + +Forster, in his "Researches about Atmospheric Phenomena," notices +several prognostics of the weather by plants. Thus, Chickweed has been +said to be an excellent weather-guide. When the flower expands freely, +no rain need be feared for a long time. In showery days the flower +appears half concealed, and this state may be regarded as indicative +of showery weather; when it is entirely shut, we may expect a rainy +day. If the flowers of the Siberian sowthistle remain open all night, +we may expect rain next day. Before showers, the trefoil contracts its +leaves. Lord Bacon observes, that the trefoil has its stalk more +erect against rain. He also mentions a small red flower, growing in +stubble-fields, called by the country people _wincopipe_, which, if it +opens in the morning, assures us of a fine day. + + * * * * * + + +TRAVELS + + _Pen and Pencil Sketches of India, being the Journal of a Tour + in India. By Captain Mundy._ + +These are two very amusing volumes of scenes and situations full of +stirring interest, as their criticships would say--for example the +four extracts immediately following: + +Palankeen Travelling and a Sortie of Tigers. + +"To those unitiated into the mysteries of Indian travelling, the +prospect of a journey of six hundred miles, night and day, in a hot +climate, inclosed in a sort of coffin-like receptacle, carried on the +shoulders of men, is somewhat alarming; but to one more accustomed to +that method of locomotion, the palankeen would, perhaps, prove +less fatiguing and harassing, for a long journey, than any other +conveyance. + +"The horizontal or reclining position is naturally the most easy to +the body; and the exhaustion consequent upon a journey in the heat of +the day, generally secures to the traveller as much sleep during +the cooller hours of the night, as the frequent interruptions of the +bearers at the several stages will allow him to enjoy. I had laid in a +good store of tea, sugar, and biscuits, a novel, some powder and shot, +a gun, and a sword, and plenty of blankets, as a defence against +the coldness of the night. Our baggage consisted of a dozen boxes +(patarras) appended to bamboos, and carried by men: these, with two +torch-bearers (mussalgees) to each palankeen, completed our cavalcade. + +"Nov. 24th, 7 A.M., reached Hazarebaug, a small station, about two +hundred and twenty miles from Calcutta. It is a healthy spot; the +earth sandy and rocky, presenting a strong contrast to the loomy and +alluvial soil of Southern Bengal. From Rogonnâthpore to Hazarebaug the +road runs through an almost uninterrupted jungle, swarming with wild +beasts. At this place we met with a hospitable friend, who stored our +palankeens with provisions, after giving us a capital breakfast. + +"At eleven o'clock at night we entered the famous pass of Dunghye. The +road bears the appearance of a deep sandy ravine; the banks are rocky +and woody, and in many places quite overhung by the forest-trees. We +had accomplished about half the defile, when I was suddenly and rudely +awakened from a dozing sleep by the shock of my palankeen coming to +the ground, and by the most discordant shouts and screams. I jumped +out to ascertain the cause of the uproar, and found, on inquiry, that +a foraging party of tigers--probably speculating upon picking up a +straggling bearer--had sprung off the rocks, and dashed across the +road, bounding between my palankeen and that of Colonel D., who was +scarcely ten yards a-head. The bearers of both palankeens were all +huddled together, bellowing like bedlamites, and the mussalgees waving +their torches most vehemently. On mustering our forces, we discovered +that two of our patarra-bearers were missing, and fearing that the +tigers might pick them up, we dispatched four men with spare torches +to bring them on. Meanwhile my friend and myself, having brought +our palankeens together, armed ourselves with patience and a pair of +pistols to await the result. The whole incident, with the time and +scene, was highly interesting and wild, with just enough of the awful +to give an additional piquancy. The night was dark and stormy, and the +wind roared among the trees above our heads: the torches cast a red +and flickering light on the rocks in our immediate neighbourhood, and +just showed us enough of the depths of the forest to make the back +ground more gloomy and unfathomable. The distant halloos of the men +who were gone in search of their comrades, came faintly and wildly +upon the breeze; and the occasional shots that we fired rang through +the rocky jungle with an almost interminable echo. In about three +quarters of an hour our bearers joined us, together with the two +patarra-bearers. These latter, hearing the vociferations of our men, +and guessing the cause, had quietly placed their boxes on the ground, +about a mile in the rear of us, and seating themselves on their heels, +had determined not to proceed until the break of day. + +"All being reported present, we resumed our journey, the men screaming +chorus to scare our unwelcome visitors, whom I several times fancied +I heard rustling among the brushwood on the road side, as though they +were moving on our flanks in order to cut off any straggler who might +drop astern. I never saw bearers go more expeditiously, or in more +compact order, every man fearing to be the last in the cavalcade.[1] +A sheet would have covered the whole party! The tigers, if they had +calculated upon one of our number for their evening meal, must have +gone supperless to their lair, for we mustered all our twenty-four men +in the morning. A dâk hurkarah (post messenger) had been carried +off in the same spot two days before, probably by the same family of +tigers, which according to the bearer's account, consisted of two old +ones, and three cubs. + +[Footnote 1: It is said, that a tiger lying in wait for a string of +passengers usually selects the last of the party.] + +Wild Beast Fights + +"Early in the morning, the whole party, including ladies, eager for +the novel spectacle, mounted elephants, and repaired to the private +gate of the royal palace, where the King met the Commander-in-Chief, +and conducted him and his company to a palace in the park, in one of +the courts of which the arena for the combats was prepared. In the +centre was erected a gigantic cage of strong bamboos, about fifty +feet high, and of like diameter, and rooffed with rope network. Sundry +smaller cells, communicating by sliding doors with the main theatre, +were tenanted by every species of the savagest inhabitants of +the forest. In the large cage, crowded together, and presenting a +formidable front of broad, shaggy foreheads well armed with horns, +stood a group of buffaloes sternly awaiting the conflict, with their +rear scientifically appuyé against the bamboos. The trap-doors being +lifted, two tigers, and the same number of bears and leopards, rushed +into the centre. The buffaloes instantly commenced hostilities, and +made complete shuttlecocks of the bears, who, however, finally +escaped by climbing up the bamboos beyond the reach of their horned +antagonists. The tigers, one of which was a beautiful animal, fared +scarcely better; indeed, the odds were much against them, there +being five buffaloes. They appeared, however to be no match for these +powerful creatures, even single-handed, and showed little disposition +to be the assaulters. The larger tiger was much gored in the head, and +in return took a mouthful of his enemy's dewlap, but was finally (as +the fancy would describe it) 'bored to the ropes and floored.' The +leopards seemed throughout the conflict sedulously to avoid a breach +of the peace. + +"A rhinoceros was next let loose in open courtyard, and the attendants +attempted to induce him to pick a quarrel with a tiger who was chained +to a ring. The rhinoceros appeared, however, to consider a fettered +foe as quite beneath his enmity; and having once approached the tiger, +and quietly surveyed him, as he writhed and growled, expecting the +attack, turned suddenly round and trotted awkwardly off to the yard +gate, where he capsized a palankeen which was carrying away a lady +fatigued with the sight of these unfeminine sports. + +"A buffalo and tiger were the next combatants: they attacked +furiously, the tiger springing at the first onset on the other's head, +and tearing his neck severely; but he was quickly dismounted, and +thrown with such violence as nearly to break his back, and quite to +disable him from renewing the combat. + +"A small elephant was next impelled to attack a leopard. The battle +was short and decisive; the former falling on his knees, and thrusting +his blunted tusks nearly through his antagonist. + +"On our return from the beast fight a breakfast awaited us at the +royal palace; and the white tablecloth being removed, quails, trained +for the purpose, were placed upon the green cloth, and fought most +gamely, after the manner of the English cockpit. This is an amusement +much in fashion among the natives of rank, and they bet large sums on +their birds, as they lounge luxuriously round, smoking their houkahs. + +Hunting with Leopards + +"The leopards are each accommodated with a flat-topped cart, without +sides, drawn by two bullocks, and each animal has two attendants. They +are loosely bound by a collar and rope to the back of the vehicle, +and are also held by the keeper by a strap round the loins. A leathern +hood covers their eyes. The antelopes being excessively timid and +wild, the best way to enjoy the sport is to sit on the cart alongside +the driver; for the vehicle being built like the hackeries of the +peasants, to the sight of which the deer are accustomed, it is not +difficult, by skilful management, to approach within two hundred yards +of the game. On this occasion we had three chetahs in the field, and +we proceeded towards the spot where the herd had been seen, in a line, +with an interval of about one hundred yards between each cart. On +emerging from a cotton-field, we came in sight of four antelopes, and +my driver managed to get within one hundred yards of them ere they +took alarm. The chetah was quickly unhooded, and loosed from his +bonds; and as soon as he viewed the deer he dropped quietly off +the cart, on the _opposite_ side to that on which they stood, and +approached them at a slow, crouching canter, masking himself by +every bush and inequality of ground which lay in in his way. As soon, +however, as they began to show alarm, he quickened his pace, and was +in the midst of the herd in a few bounds. + +"He singled out a doe, and ran it close for about two hundred yards, +when he reached it with a blow of his paw, rolled it over, and in an +instant was sucking the life-blood from its throat. + +"One of the other chetahs was slipped at the same time, but after +making four or five desperate bounds, by which he nearly reached his +prey, suddenly gave up the pursuit, and came growling sulkily back to +his cart. + +"As soon as the deer is pulled down, a keeper runs up, hoods the +chetah cuts the victim's throat, and receiving some of the blood in +a wooden ladle, thrusts it under the leopard's nose. The antelope +is then dragged away, and placed in a receptacle under the hackery, +whilst the chetah is rewarded with a leg for his pains."[1] + +[Footnote 1: A pair of fine Chetahs, or Hunting Leopards, may be seen +in the Gardens of the Zoological Society.--ED. M.] + +An Alligator in the Ganges. + +"A beautiful specimen of an alligator's head was here given by Mr. +Alexander to Lord Combermere. He was rather a distinguished monster, +having carried off at different occasions, six or eight brace of men +from an indigo factory in the neighbourhood. A native, who had long +laid wait for him, at length succeeded in slaying him with poisoned +arrows. One of these notoriously ghaut-frequenting alligators is well +nigh as rich a prize to the poor native who is fortunate enough to +capture him, as a Spanish galleon is to a British frigate; for on +ripping open his stomach, and over-hauling its freight, it is not +unfrequently found to contain 'a choice assortment'--as the Calcutta +advertisers have it--of gold, silver, or brass bangles and anklets, +which have not been so expeditiously digested as their fair owners, +victims of the monster's voracity. A little fat Brahminee child, +'farci an ris,' must be a tempting and tender _bonne bouche_ to these +river gourmands. Horrific legends such as the above, together with a +great deal of valuable advice on the subject, were quite thrown away +upon me; for ninety degrees of Fahrenheit, and the enticing blueness +of the water generally betrayed me into a plunge every evening during +my Gangetic voyage." + +Nocturnal Bathing. + +"On the occasion of a grand nocturnal bathing ceremony, held at the +great tank called the Indra Damân, I went with a party of three or +four others to witness the spectacle. The walls surrounding the pool +and a cluster of picturesque pavilions in its centre were brilliantly +lighted up with hundreds of cheraugs, or small oil-lamps, casting a +flickering lustre upon the heads and shoulders of about five hundred +men, women, and children, who were ducking and praying, _à corps +perdu,_ in the water. As I glanced over the figures nearest to me, +I discovered floating among the indifferent bathers two dead bodies, +which had either been drowned in the confusion, or had purposely +come to die on the edge of the sacred tank; the cool and apathetic +survivors taking not the slightest notice of their soulless +neighbours." + +King John at the Cape. + +"The largest house in Simon's Town, and, indeed, the greater part of +the town itself, belongs to an Englishman of the name of Osbond, +who, however, is more generally known by the dignified title of 'King +John.' He was carpenter on board the sixty-gun ship Sceptre, which was +wrecked off this coast some yearn ago. Like Juan, he escaped the sea, +and like Juan he found a Haidee. Being well-favoured and sharp-witted, +he won the heart and the hand of a wealthy Dutch widow, whose dollars +he afterwards, in some bold but successful speculations, turned to +good account. He is said to have laid out ten thousand pounds on +these--to every one but himself--_inhospita littora._ King John is +much respected." + +Population of Cape Town. + +"The variety of nations, and the numerous shades of complexion +among the people in the streets of Cape Town, are very striking to +a stranger. First may be remarked the substantial Dutchman, with his +pretty, smiling, round-faced, and particularly well-dressed +daughter: then the knot of 'Qui hi's,' sent to the Cape, per doctor's +certificate, to husband their threadbare constitutions, and lavish +their rupees: next the obsequious, smirking, money-making China-man, +with his poking shoulders, and whip-like pig-tail: then the +stout, squat Hottentots--who resemble the Dutch in but one +characteristic!--and half castes of every intermediate tint between +black and white. These are well relieved and contrasted by the +tall, warlike figures and splendid costume of his Majesty's 72nd +Highlanders, who, with the 98th regiment, form the garrison of Cape +Town." + +Visit to the Residence of Napoleon at St. Helena. + +"We soon came in sight of the level plateau of the Longwood estate, +the residence of the late emperor, and six miles from Plantation +House. Here the country gradually assumes a more desolate and a wilder +look; and the English visitor arrives at the unfortunate and unwelcome +conclusion, that the best part of the island was not given to the +illustrious captive. One cannot avoid agreeing with Sir W. Scott, that +Plantation House should have been accorded to him, in spite of the +detering reasons of its vicinity to the sea, and its sequestered +situation. Longwood, however, has better roads, more space for riding +or driving, and in summer must have been much cooler than the less +sheltered parts of the isle. As we turned through the lodges the old +house appeared at the end of an avenue of scrubby and weather-worn +trees. It bears the exterior of a respectable farm-house, but is now +fast running to decay. On entering a dirty courtyard, and quitting +our horses, we were shown by some idlers into a square building, which +once contained the bed-room, sitting-room, and bath of the _Empereur +des François._ The partitions and floorings are now thrown down, and +torn up, and the apartments occupied for six years by the hero before +whom kings, emperors, and popes had quailed, are now tenanted by +cart-horses! + +"Passing on with a groan, I entered a small chamber, with two windows +looking towards the north. Between these windows are the marks of a +fixed sofa: on that couch Napoleon died. The apartment is now occupied +by a threshing machine; 'No bad emblem of its former tenant!' said +a sacrilegious wag. Hence we were conducted onwards to a large room, +which formerly contained a billiard-table, and whose front looks out +upon a little latticed veranda, where the imperial peripatetic--I +cannot style him philosopher--enjoyed the luxury of six paces to and +fro,--his favourite promenade. The white-washed walls are scored with +names of every nation; and the paper of the ceiling has been torn off +in strips as holy relics. Many couplets, chiefly French, extolling and +lamenting the departed hero, adorn or disfigure (according to their +qualities) the plaster walls. The only lines that I can recall to +mind--few are worth it--are the following, written ever the door, and +signed '---- ----, Officier de la Garde Impériale.' + + "'Du grand Napoléon le nom toujours cité + Ira de bouche en bouche à la postérité!'" + +The writer doubtless possessed more spirit as a sabreur than as a +poet. + +"The emperor's once well-kept garden, + + "'And still where many a garden-flower grows wild,' + +"is now overgrown and choked with weeds. At the end of a walk still +exists a small mound, on which it is said the hero of Lodi, Marengo, +and Austerlitz, amused himself by erecting a mock battery. The little +chunamed tank, in which he fed some fresh-water fish, is quite +dried up; and the mud wall, through a hole in which he reconnoitered +passers-by, is, like the great owner, returned to earth!" + +Captain Mundy's volumes are illustrated chiefly with sketches of +Indian sports from the master-hand of Land-seer; and for spirit of +execution they deserve to rank among the finest productions of this +distinguished artist. + + * * * * * + + +RECENT FRENCH LITERATURE. + +A novel picture of Paris has lately appeared with the taking title +of the _Hundred and One._ Its origin, as well as its subject, is +interesting. It is a voluntary association of almost all the literary +talent of France, for the benefit of an enterprising bookseller, +whose affairs have, it seems, fallen into the sere, since the +commercial embarrassments following on the Revolution. A hundred +and one authors of all ranks and political opinions, philosophers, +academicians, journalists, deputies, poets, artists, have combined +in this work to pass in review before us the humours, follies and +opinions of the French capital, painted in colours gay or grave, +sketchy or elaborate, according to the manner or mood of the artist. A +very amusing work, suitable to all tastes, is the result, and, by +aid of the _Foreign Quarterly Review_, we are enabled to present +the reader with a specimen sketch by Leon Guzlan, an author of some +celebrity in this species of writing.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Several specimens have been ably translated in the +Athenaeum.] + +VISIT TO THE MORGUE, AT PARIS. + +(The Morgue, we should premise, is an establishment in Paris for +the reception of all persons found dead in the City or its environs. +Thither it is the duty of the police to convey the bodies, where they +are exposed in a hall open to the public for a stated time,[1] when, +if not identified, and claimed, they are interred in the neighbouring +cemetery.) + +[Footnote 1: The bodies are stripped, and placed on sloping slabs of +marble; above each are hung the clothes of the deceased.] + +"After describing the exterior, the _Salle de l'Exposition_, which is +the only portion of the building, of course, with which the public +are acquainted, the writer conducts us into the inner recesses of this +house of death, the apartments of the superintendant. + +"M. Perrin, is a little old man, who coughs incessantly. When I +explained to him the object of my visit, he very politely offered to +show me all the details of his administration, regretting much, as he +said, that there was not so much variety as could be desired. 'But I +will show you what I have--be pleased to walk up.' + +"As we were climbing the narrow stairs, and he was informing me that +his establishment was connected both with the prefecture and the +police, with the one on account of the local expenses, with the other +from its connexion with the public health, we were obliged to stand +close against the wall to allow a troop of young girls to pass, well +dressed, gay, but shivering with the cold, which blew from the river +through the chink which lighted the stair. + +"'These are four of my daughters. I have eight children. François, the +keeper, has had four, and he has had the good fortune to get them all +married. François is a kind father.' + +"'So,' said I, 'twelve children then have been born in the Morgue. +Dreams of joy, and conjugal endearments, and parental delights, have +been experienced in this chamber of death. Marriage with its orange +flowers, baptism with its black robed sponsors, the communion, and the +embroidered veil, love, religion, virtue, have had their home here as +elsewhere. God has sown the seeds of happiness every where.' + +"'Papa, we are going to a distribution of prizes. My sisters are sure +to get a prize. Don't weary, we will be back in good time.' + +"'Go, my children,'--and all four embraced him. + +"I thought of the body of the little Norman in the dreary room +beneath, and of the mother who even now, perhaps, was anxiously +looking for her from the window. + +"'This is the apartment of François'. François did the honours with +the activity of a man who is not ashamed of his establishment. His +room is comfortably furnished; two modern pendules mounted on +bronze, a wardrobe with a Medusa's head, a high bed, and a handsome +rose-coloured curtain. If the room was not overburdened with +furniture, if there was not much of luxury, yet, to those not early +accustomed to superfluities, it might even seem gay. It represented +the tastes, opinions, and habits of its master. Vases of flowers threw +a green reflection on the curtains, for François is fond of flowers. +Among his gallery of portraits were those of Augereau and Kleber, both +in long coats, leaning on immense sabres, with peruques and powder. +Napoleon is there three times. + +"'Look at these jars,' said François, 'these are sweetmeats of +my wife's making; she excels in sweetmeats.' I read upon them, +'gooseberries of 1831.' We left François's apartment which forms the +right wing of the Morgue, while the clerk's house is on the left, and +entered the cabinet of administration of M. Perrin. + +"If François is fond of flowers, M. Perrin has the same penchant for +hydraulics and the camera obscura; he draws, he makes jets from the +Seine, by an ingenious piece of machinery of his own invention; while +he was retouching his syphon, I asked permission to turn over the +register, where suicides are ranged in two columns. + +"The fatal 'unknown' was the prevailing designation; 'brought here at +three in the morning, skull fractured, _unknown;_' 'brought at twelve +at night, drowned under the Pont des Arts, cards in his pocket, +_unknown;_'--'young woman, pregnant, crushed by a fiacre at the corner +of the Rue Mandar, _unknown_;'--'new born child found dead of cold, +at the gate of an hotel, _unknown.'_ + +"I said to M. Perrin that he must weary here very much occasionally +during the long nights of winter. + +"'No,' replied he good humouredly, 'the children sing, we all work, +François and I play at draughts or piquet; the worst of it is, we are +sometimes interrupted; a knock comes, we must go down, get a stone +ready, undress the new comer and register him: that spoils the game; +we forget to mark the points.' + +"'And this is the way you generally spend your evenings?'--'Always, +except when François has to go to Vaugirard at four o'clock: then +he must go to bed earlier. Perhaps you do not know that our burying +ground is at Vaugirard: as that burying ground is not much in fashion, +we have been allowed to retain our privilege of having a fosse to +ourselves.' + +"'I understand,--it is a fief of the Morgue.' + +"'You saw that chariot below near the entrance gate, in which the +children were hiding themselves at play,--that is our hearse.' + +"'And rich or poor, all must make use of your conveyance? If for +instance a suicide is recognised, his relations or friends may reclaim +him, take him home, and bestow the rites of sepulture on him at his +own house?' + +"'No, the Morgue does not give back what has been once deposited here. +It allows the funeral ceremonies to be as pompous as they will, but +they must all set out from hence; one end of the procession perhaps +is at Notre Dame, while the other is starting from the Morgue. The +Archbishop of Paris may be there; but François's place is fixed. It is +the first.' + +"'And the priests of Notre Dame, do they never make any difficulty +about administering the funeral rites to your dead?' + +"'Never!' + +"'Not even to the suicides?' + +"'There are no suicides for Notre Dame: one is drowned by accident, +another killed by the bursting of a gun, a third has fallen from +a scaffold. I invent the excuse, and the conscience of the priest +accepts it. That's enough.' + +"So, thought I! Notre Dame, which formerly witnessed the execution at +the stake of sorcerers, alchymists, and gipsies on the Grande Place, +has now no word of reprobation for the carcass of the suicide, once +allowed to rot on the ground, or be devoured by birds. She asks not +here what was his faith. The priest says mildly, 'Peace be with you.' + +"We walked down, and François opened the first room, that which +contains the dresses; habits of all shapes, all dimensions, hideously +jumbled together; gaiters pinned to a sleeve, a shawl shading the neck +of a coat; dresses of peasants, workmen, carters and brewers' frocks, +women's gowns, all faded, discoloured, shapeless, flap against each +other in the current of air which entered through the windows. There +is something here appalling in the sight and sound of these objects, +soulless, body-less, yet moving as if they had life, and presenting +the form without the flesh. Your eye rests on a handkerchief, the +property of some poor labourer, suddenly seized with the idea of +suicide, after some day that he has wanted work. + +"François, who followed the direction of my eyes to see what +impression the picture produced on me sighed heavily. + +"'Does it move you too,' said I? 'Are you discontented with your +lot.--Unhappy?' + +"'Not exactly! But, Sir, formerly, you must know, the dresses, after +being six months exhibited, became a perquisite of ours; we sold them. +Now they talk of taking the dresses from us.' + +"I reassured François as to the intention of government, and assured +him there was no talk of taking away the dresses. + +"The second room, that which adjoins the public exhibition room, is +appropriated for the dissection of those, the mode of whose death +appears to the police to be suspicious. Its only furniture is a marble +table, on which the dissections take place, and a shelf on which are +placed several bottles of chlorate. This room is immediately above +the room of M. Perrin. The dissecting table above just answers to the +girls' piano below. + +"In this room, which I crossed rapidly to avoid as much as possible +the sight of a body extended on the plank, I saw the little girl, who +had been stifled the night before in the diligence; she was a lovely +child. The other figure was frightfully disfigured; scarcely even +would his mother have recognised him. + +"There remained only the public room; it is narrow, ill aired; ten or +twelve black and sloping stones receive the suicides, who are placed +on it almost in a state of nudity; the places are seldom all occupied, +except perhaps during a revolution. Then it is that the Morgue is +recruited; two more days of glory and immortality in July, and the +plague had been in Paris. + +"'It is true,' said M. Perrin, 'we worked hard during the three days, +and we were allowed the use of two assistants. Corpses every where, +within, without, at the gate, on the bank.'-- + +"'And your girls?' + +"'During these days they did not leave their apartment, nor looked +out to the street, nor to the river; besides, you are mistaken if you +think the spectacle would have terrified them. Brought up here, +they will walk at night without a light in front of the glass, which +divides the corpses from the public, without trembling; we become +accustomed to any thing.' + +"Methought I heard the poor children, so familiar with the idea of +death, so accustomed to this domestic spectacle of their existence, +asking innocently of the strangers whom they visited,--as one would +ask where is your garden, your kitchen, or your cabinet,--'where do +_you_ keep your dead here?' + +"These were all the facts I could gather with regard to the +establishment. I was opening the glass door to breathe the fresh air +again, when the entrance of the crowd drove me back into the interior; +they were following a bier, on which lay a body, from which the water +dripped in a long stream. From one of the hands which were closely +clenched, the keeper detached a strip of coloured linen, and a +fragment of lace. 'Ah!' said he, 'let me look, 'tis she!' + +"'Who is it?' + +"'The nurse who was here this morning; the nurse of the little Norman +girl. Good! they may be buried together.' And M. Perrin put on +his spectacles, opened his register, and wrote in his best +current-hand--_unknown!_" + + * * * * * + + +POETRY. + + * * * * * + +The Maid of Elvar. By Allan Cunningham. + +This is one of the most gratifying "appearances" in the literature of +the day. It reminds us that however the poet's harp may have remained +unstrung, it has not lost its vigour or sweetness--its depth of +feeling, or its melody of tone, and these too are ably sustained +through nearly 600 stanzas in an exquisitely embellished narrative. +The poem is "a song of other times;" the story is one of chivalrous +love; the hero is a young warrior and poet; the Maid of Elvar offers +a garland of gold for the best song in honour of one of his victories; +"minstrels meet and sing, but the song of Eustace, though on another +theme, is reckoned the best; the Maid hangs the gold chain round his +neck, and retires, admiring the young stranger;" and thereby hangs the +tale. As our limits will not allow us to detach a scene or incident, +we must be content, for the present, with culling a few of the +choicest flowers of the song. + +CIVIL WAR. + + Woe, woe was ours. Chief drew his sword on chief: + Religion with her relique and her brand, + Made strife between our bosom-bones, and grief + And lawless joy abounded in the land; + Our glass of glory sank nigh its last sand; + Rank with its treason, priesthood with its craft, + Turned Scotland's war-lance to a willow-wand. + But war arose in Scotland--civil war; + Serf warred with chief, and father warred with son, + The church too warred with all: her evil star + That rules o'er sinking realms shone like the sun-- + Her lights waxed dim and died out one by one-- + Woe o'er the land hung like a funeral pall: + The sword the bold could brave, the coward shun, + But famine followed fast and fell on all-- + Pale lips cried oft for food which came not at their call. + +RURAL PEACE. + + Much mirth was theirs--war was no wonder then; + Dread fled with danger, and the cottage cocks, + The shepherd's war-pipe, called the sons of men + When morning's wheel threw bright dew from its spokes, + To pastures green to lead again their flocks; + The horn of harvest followed with its call; + Fast moved the sickle, and swift rose the shocks, + Behind the reapers like a golden wall-- + Gravely the farmer smiled, by turns approving all. + + The ripe corn waved in lone Dalgonar glen, + That, with its bosom basking in the sun, + Lies like a bird; the hum of working men + Joins with the sound of streams that southward run, + With fragrant holms atween: then mix in one + Beside a church, and round two ancient towers + Form a deep fosse. Here sire is heired by son, + And war comes never; ancle deep in flowers + In summer walk its dames among the sunny bowers. + + He rose, find homeward by the slumbering stream + Walked with the morn-dew glistening on his shoon. + The sun was up, and his outbursting beam + Touched tower and tree and pasture hills aboon; + The stars were quenched, and vanished was the moon; + Loud lowed the herds and the glad partridge' cry + Made corn-fields musical as groves at noon; + Birds left the perch, bee following bee hummed by, + And gladness reigned on earth and brightness claimed the sky. + +MINSTRELSY. + + I sing of days in which brave deeds of arms + And deeds of song went hand in hand: our kings + Heroic feelings had and owned the charms + Of minstrel lore--they loved the magic strings + More than the sceptre; still their kingdom rings + With their gay musings and their harpings high. + To noble deeds fair poesie lends wings; + She lifts them up from grovelling earth to sky, + And bids them sit in light, and live and never die. + +FAME. + + Fame, fame--thou warrior's wish, thou poet's thought, + Thou bright delusion; like the rainbow thou + Glitterest, yet none may touch thee; thing of naught, + Star-high with heaven's own brightness on thy brow, + Blazoned and glorious I beheld thee grow-- + Vision, begone,--for I am none of thine. + Of all that fills my heart and fancy now, + From dull oblivion not one word or line + Wilt thou touch with thy light and render it divine. + + Even be it so. I sing not for thy smiles-- + I sing to keep down sighs and ease the smart + Of care and sadness, and the daily toils + Which crush my soul and trample on my heart. + Far mightier spirits of the inspired art + Are mute and nameless, mid the muse in grief + Calls from the eastern to the western airt, + On tale, tradition, ballad, song, and chief + On thee, to give their names one passage bright and brief. + She calls in vain; like to a shooting star + Their storied rhymes shone brightly in their birth, + And shot a dazzling lustre near and far; + Then darkened, died, as all things else on earth. + +EVENING. + + The sun + Behind the mountain's summit slowly sank; + Crows came in clouds down from the moorlands dun, + And darkened all the pine-trees, rank on rank; + The homeward milch-cows at the fountains drank; + Swains dropt the sickle, hinds unloosed the car-- + The twin hares sported on the clover-bank, + And with the shepherd o'er the upland far, + Came out the round pale moon, and star succeeding star. + Star followed star, though yet day's golden light + Upon the hills and headlands faintly stream'd; + To their own pine the twin-doves took their flight; + From crag and cliff the clamorous seamews screamed, + In glade and glen the cottage windows gleam'd; + Larks left the cloud, for flight the grey owl sat; + The founts and lakes up silver radiance steamed; + Winging his twilight journey, hummed the gnat-- + The drowsy beetle droned, and skimmed the wavering bat. + +THE MAID'S FIRST LOVE. + + The maiden heard a light foot on the floor, + And sidelong looked, and there before her stood + Young Eustace Graeme: far from the pasture moor + He came: the fragrance of the dale and wood + Was scenting all his garments green and good. + A sudden flush when tie the maiden saw, + Burned through his temples, kindled up his blood-- + His stifling breath waxed nigh too tight to draw, + He bowed, and silent stood in wonderment and awe. + + The father smiled, the mother smiled. Now why + Are her eyes downcast and his white brow glowing? + Say, have they vowed while heaven was witness by + With all her radiant lights like fountains flowing, + To love while water runs and woods are growing, + And stars glowed conscious of the compact pure? + They never woo'd, nor, love for love bestowing. + Met with the moonshine in the green-wood bow'r, + Nor looked and sighed, and looked and drank love by the hour. + + Yet they have met. Though not fools of the flock, + On whom love like the tiger gives one bound. + And then the heart is rent--a thunderstroke + That makes men dust before they hear the sound-- + A shaft that leaves dark venom in the wound-- + A frost that all the buds of manhood nips-- + A sea of passion in which true love's drowned-- + A demon strangling virtue in his grips-- + A day when reason's son is quenched in dread eclipse. + + True gentle love is like the summer dew, + Which falls around when all is still and hush-- + And falls unseen until its bright drops strew + With odours, herb and flower, and bank, and bush + O love, when womanhood is in the flush, + And man's a young and an unspotted thing! + His first breathed word and her half conscious blush, + Are fair us light in heaven, or flowers in spring-- + The first hour of true love is worth our worshipping. + +LOVE OF COUNTRY. + + "I would not leave old Scotland's mountain gray, + Her hills, her cots, her halls, her groves of pine, + Dark though they be: yon glen, yon broomy brae, + Yon wild fox cleugh, yon eagle cliffs outline + An hour like this--this white right-hand of thine, + And of thy dark eyes such a gracious glance, + As I got now, for all beyond the line, + And all the glory gained by sword or lance, + In gallant England, Spain, or olive vales of France." + + * * * * * + +_Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand. (near Somerset +House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic; +G.G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris, and by all Newsmen +and Booksellers._ + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11871 *** diff --git a/11871-h/11871-h.htm b/11871-h/11871-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a4c41c --- /dev/null +++ b/11871-h/11871-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1489 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 19, Issue 549 (Supplementary issue) , by Various</title> +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[*/ + + <!-- + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + p {text-align: justify;} + blockquote {text-align: justify;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;} + pre {font-size: 0.7em;} + + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + html>body hr {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + html>body hr.full {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;} + hr.short {text-align: center; width: 20%;} + html>body hr.short {margin-right: 40%; margin-left: 40%; width: 20%;} + + .note, .footnote + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + + span.pagenum + {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt;} + + .poem + {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em;} + .poem p.i4 {margin-left: 2em;} + .poem p.i6 {margin-left: 3em;} + .poem p.i8 {margin-left: 4em;} + .poem p.i30 {margin-left: 15em;} + + .figure + {padding: 1em; margin: 0; text-align: center; font-size: 0.8em; margin: auto;} + .figure img + {border: none;} + .figure p + + + .side { float:right; + font-size: 75%; + width: 25%; + padding-left:10px; + border-left: dashed thin; + margin-left: 10px; + text-align: left; + text-indent: 0; + font-weight: bold; + font-style: italic;} + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + pre {font-size: 9pt;} + --> +/*]]>*/ +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11871 ***</div> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and +Instruction, Vol. 19, Issue 549 (Supplementary issue) , by Various</h1> +<br /> +<br /> +<center><b>E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Sandra Brown,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</b></center> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr class="full" /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page337" id="page337"></a>[pg +337]</span> +<h1>THE MIRROR<br /> +OF<br /> +LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.</h1> +<hr class="full" /> +<table width="100%" summary="Volume, Number, and Date"> +<tr> +<td align="left"><b>Vol. 19. No. 549</b></td> +<td align="center"><b>SUPPLEMENTARY NUMBER.</b></td> +<td align="right"><b>[PRICE 2d.</b></td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>THE ALHAMBRA, IN SPAIN</h2> +<div class="figure" style="width:100%;"><a href= +"images/549-1.png"><img width="100%" src="images/549-1.png" alt= +"GENERAL VIEW" /></a> +<h3>GENERAL VIEW.</h3> +</div> +<div class="figure" style="width:100%;"><a href= +"images/549-2.png"><img width="100%" src="images/549-2.png" alt= +"Palace of Charles V." /></a> +<h4><i>Palace of Charles V., see page 340.</i></h4> +</div> +<hr /> +<blockquote> +<p>Accumulated novelties from Books published within the past month +have led to the publication of the present Supplement. Although its +contents have not been drawn from works of unfettered fancy, it is +hoped they will be found to blend the real with the imaginative in +such a degree as to render their knowledge not the less useful for +its being amusive. The Engravings are perhaps as appropriate as +attractive; since they illustrate, and the artists hope not +unworthily, the <i>New Sketch Book</i> of WASHINGTON IRVING.</p> +</blockquote> +<hr /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page338" id="page338"></a>[pg +338]</span> +<h2>THE ALHAMBRA.</h2> +<blockquote> +<h4><i>By Geoffrey Crayon, author of the Sketch Book, +&c.</i></h4> +</blockquote> +<p>What! Washington Irving, or, as the title-page will have it, +Geoffrey Crayon, in SPAIN, wandering up and down the deserted halls +of the Alhambra, and weaving its legendary lore with thick coming +fancies into sketches of enchanting interest. The origin of the +work, (the <i>New Sketch Book</i>,) as it has been inappropriately +styled, is told in the dedication to David Wilkie, Esq., R.A. Mr. +Irving and the great artist just named were fellow travellers on +the continent a few years since. In their rambles about some of the +old cities of Spain, they were more than once struck with scenes +and incidents which reminded them of passages in the "Arabian +Nights." The painter urged Mr. Irving to write something that +should illustrate those peculiarities, "something in the Haroun +Alrasched style" that should have a dash of that Arabian spice +which pervades every thing in Spain. The author set to work, <i>con +amore,</i> and has produced two goodly volumes, with a few +"Arabesque" sketches and tales founded on popular traditions. His +<i>study</i> was THE ALHAMBRA, which must have inspired him for his +task. To quote his own words: "how many legends and traditions, +true and fabulous; how many songs and romances, Spanish and +Arabian, of love and war, and chivalry, are associated with this +romantic pile." The Governor of the Alhambra gave Mr. Irving and +his companion, permission to occupy his vacant apartments in the +Moorish Palace. "My companion," says the author, "was soon summoned +away by the duties of his station; but I remained for several +months, spellbound in the old enchanted pile."</p> +<p>Such is the plan or frame of the work before us. It has induced +us to select the Embellishments on the annexed page; and their +description, from so graceful a pencil as that of the author, will, +we hope, bespeak the favour of the reader.</p> +<p>"The Alhambra is an ancient fortress or castellated palace of +the Moorish kings of Granada, where they held dominion over this +their boasted terrestrial paradise, and made their last stand for +empire in Spain. The palace occupies but a portion of the fortress, +the walls of which, studded with towers, stretch irregularly round +the whole crest of a lofty hill that overlooks the city, and forms +a spur of the Sierra Nevada, or snowy mountain.</p> +<p>"In the time of the Moors, the fortress was capable of +containing an army of forty thousand men within its precincts, and +served occasionally as a stronghold of the sovereigns against their +rebellious subjects. After the kingdom had passed into the hands of +the Christians, the Alhambra continued a royal demesne, and was +occasionally inhabited by the Castilian monarchs. The Emperor +Charles V. began a sumptuous palace within its walls, but was +deterred from completing it by repeated shocks of earthquakes. The +last royal residents were Philip V. and his beautiful queen +Elizabetta of Parma, early in the eighteenth century. Great +preparations were made for their reception. The palace and gardens +were placed in a state of repair, and a new suite of apartments +erected, and decorated by artists brought from Italy. The sojourn +of the sovereigns was transient, and after their departure the +palace once more became desolate. Still the place was maintained +with some military state. The governor held it immediately from the +crown, its jurisdiction extended down into the suburbs of the city, +and was independent of the captain general of Granada. A +considerable garrison was kept up, the governor had his apartments +in the front of the old Moorish palace, and never descended into +Granada without some military parade. The fortress, in fact, was a +little town of itself, having several streets of houses within its +walls, together with a Franciscan convent and a parochial +church.</p> +<p>"The desertion of the court, however, was a fatal blow to the +Alhambra. Its beautiful halls became desolate, and some of them +fell to ruin; the gardens were destroyed, and the fountains ceased +to play. By degrees the dwellings became filled up with a loose and +lawless population; contrabandistas, who availed themselves of its +independent jurisdiction to carry on a wide and daring course of +smuggling, and thieves and rogues of all sorts, who made this their +place of refuge from whence they might depredate upon Granada and +its vicinity. The strong arm of government at length interfered: +the whole community was thoroughly sifted; none were suffered to +remain but such as were of honest character, and had legitimate +right to a residence; the greater part of the houses were +demolished and a mere hamlet left, with the parochial church and +the Franciscan convent. During the recent troubles in Spain, when +Granada was in the hands of the French, the Alhambra was garrisoned +by their troops, and the palace was occasionally <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page339" id="page339"></a>[pg 339]</span> +inhabited by the French commander. With that enlightened taste +which has ever distinguished the French nation in their conquests, +this monument of Moorish elegance and grandeur was rescued from the +absolute ruin and desolation that were overwhelming it. The roofs +were repaired, the saloons and galleries protected from the +weather, the gardens cultivated, the water courses restored, the +fountains once more made to throw up their sparkling showers; and +Spain may thank her invaders for having preserved to her the most +beautiful and interesting of her historical monuments.</p> +<p>"On the departure of the French they blew up several towers of +the outer wall, and left the fortifications scarcely tenable. Since +that time the military importance of the post is at an end. The +garrison is a handful of invalid soldiers, whose principal duty is +to guard some of the outer towers, which serve occasionally as a +prison of state; and the governor, abandoning the lofty hill of the +Alhambra, resides in the centre of Granada, for the more convenient +dispatch of his official duties.</p> +<h4><i>Interior of the Alhambra</i>.</h4> +<p>"The Alhambra has been so often and so minutely described by +travellers, that a mere sketch will, probably, be sufficient for +the reader to refresh his recollection; I will give, therefore, a +brief account of our visit to it the morning after our arrival in +Granada.</p> +<p>"Leaving our posada of La Espada, we traversed the renowned +square of the Vivarrambla, once the scene of Moorish jousts and +tournaments, now a crowded market-place. From thence we proceeded +along the Zacatin, the main street of what, in the time of the +Moors, was the Great Bazaar, where the small shops and narrow +allies still retain the Oriental character. Crossing an open place +in front of the palace of the captain-general, we ascended a +confined and winding street, the name of which reminded us of the +chivalric days of Granada. It is called the Calle, or street of the +Gomeres, from a Moorish family famous in chronicle and song. This +street led up to a massive gateway of Grecian architecture, built +by Charles V. forming the entrance to the domains of the +Alhambra.</p> +<p>"At the gate were two or three ragged and superannuated +soldiers, dozing on a stone bench, the successors of the Zegris and +the Abencerrages; while a tall meagre varlet, whose rusty-brown +cloak was evidently intended to conceal the ragged state of his +nether garments, was lounging in the sunshine and gossiping with an +ancient sentinel on duty. He joined us as we entered the gate, and +offered his services to show us the fortress.</p> +<p>"I have a traveller's dislike to officious ciceroni, and did +not-altogether like the garb of the applicant.</p> +<p>"'You are well acquainted with the place, I presume?'</p> +<p>"'Ninguno mas; pues Senor, soy hijo de la +Alhambra.'—(Nobody better; in fact, Sir, I am a son of the +Alhambra!)</p> +<p>"The common Spaniards have certainly a most poetical way of +expressing themselves. 'A son of the Alhambra!' the appellation +caught me at once; the very tattered garb of my new acquaintance +assumed a dignity in my eyes. It was emblematic of the fortunes of +the place, and befitted the progeny of a ruin.</p> +<p>"I put some farther questions to him, and found that his title +was legitimate. His family had lived in the fortress from +generation to generation ever since the time of the conquest. His +name was Mateo Ximenes. 'Then, perhaps,' said I, 'you may be a +descendant from the great Cardinal Ximenes?'—'Dios Sabe! God +knows, Senor! It may be so. We are the oldest family in the +Alhambra,—<i>Christianos Viejos</i>, old Christians, without +any taint of Moor or Jew. I know we belong to some great family or +other, but I forget whom. My father knows all about it: he has the +coat-of-arms hanging up in his cottage, up in the fortress.' There +is not any Spaniard, however poor, but has some claim to high +pedigree. The first title of this ragged worthy, however, had +completely captivated me, so I gladly accepted the services of the +'son of the Alhambra.'</p> +<p>"We now found ourselves in a deep narrow ravine, filled with +beautiful groves, with a steep avenue, and various footpaths +winding through it, bordered with stone seats, and ornamented with +fountains. To our left, we beheld the towers of the Alhambra +beetling above us; to our right, on the opposite side of the +ravine, we were equally dominated by rival towers on a rocky +eminence. These, we were told, were the Torres Vermejos, or +vermilion towers, so called from their ruddy hue. No one knows +their origin. They are of a date much anterior to the Alhambra: +some suppose them to have been built by the Romans; others, by some +wandering colony of Phoenicians. Ascending the steep and shady +avenue, we arrived at the foot of a huge square Moorish tower; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page340" id="page340"></a>[pg +340]</span> forming a kind of barbican, through which passed the +main entrance to the fortress. Within the barbican was another +group of veteran invalids, one mounting guard at the portal, while +the rest, wrapped in their tattered cloaks, slept on the stone +benches. This portal is called the Gate of Justice, from the +tribunal held within its porch during the Moslem domination, for +the immediate trial of petty causes: a custom common to the +Oriental nations, and occasionally alluded to in the Sacred +Scriptures.</p> +<p>"The great vestibule or porch of the gate, is formed by an +immense Arabian arch, of the horse-shoe form, which springs to half +the height of the tower. On the key-stone of this arch is engraven +a gigantic hand. Within the vestibule, on the key-stone of the +portal, is sculptured, in like manner, a gigantic key. Those who +pretend to some knowledge of Mahometan symbols, affirm that the +hand is the emblem of doctrine, and the key of faith; the latter, +they add, was emblazoned on the standard of the Moslems when they +subdued Andalusia, in opposition to the Christian emblem of the +Cross. A different explanation, however, was given by the +legitimate son of the Alhambra, and one more in unison with the +notions of the common people, who attach something of mystery and +magic to every thing Moorish, and have all kind of superstitions +connected with this old Moslem fortress.</p> +<p>"According to Mateo, it was a tradition handed down from the +oldest inhabitants, and which he had from his father and +grandfather, that the hand and key were magical devices on which +the fate of the Alhambra depended. The Moorish King who built it +was a great magician, or, as some believed, had sold himself to the +devil, and had laid the whole fortress under a magic spell. By this +means it had remained standing for several hundred years, in +defiance of storms and earthquakes, while almost all other +buildings of the Moors had fallen to ruin, and disappeared. This +spell, the tradition went on to say, would last until the hand on +the outer arch should reach down and grasp the key, when the whole +pile would tumble to pieces, and all the treasures buried beneath +it by the Moors would be revealed.</p> +<p>"Notwithstanding this ominous prediction, we ventured to pass +through the spell-bound gateway, feeling some little assurance +against magic art in the protection of the Virgin, a statue of whom +we observed above the portal.</p> +<p>"After passing through the barbican, we ascended a narrow lane, +winding between walls, and came on an open esplanade within the +fortress, called the Plaza de los Algibes, or Place of the +Cisterns, from great reservoirs which undermine it, cut in the +living rock by the Moors for the supply of the fortress. Here, +also, is a well of immense depth, furnishing the purest and coldest +of water; another monument of the delicate taste of the Moors, who +were indefatigable in their exertions to obtain that element in its +crystal purity.</p> +<p>"In front of this esplanade is the splendid pile commenced by +Charles V., intended, it is said, to eclipse the residence of the +Moslem kings. With all its grandeur and architectural merit, it +appeared to us like an arrogant intrusion, and, passing by it, we +entered a simple, unostentatious portal, opening into the interior +of the Moorish palace.</p> +<p>"The transition was almost magical: it seemed as if we were at +once transported into other times and another realm, and were +treading the scenes of Arabian story. We found ourselves in a great +court, paved with white marble, and decorated at each end with +light Moorish peristyles: it is called the Court of the Alberca. In +the centre was an immense basin or fish-pond, a hundred and thirty +feet in length by thirty in breadth, stocked with gold-fish and +bordered by hedges of roses. At the upper end of this court rose +the great Tower of Comares.</p> +<p>"From the lower end we passed through a Moorish archway into the +renowned Court of Lions. There is no part of the edifice that gives +us a more complete idea of its original beauty and magnificence +than this, for none has suffered so little from the ravages of +time. In the centre stands the fountain famous in song and story. +The alabaster basins still shed their diamond drops; and the twelve +lions, which support them, cast forth their crystal streams as in +the days of Boabdil. The court is laid out in flower-beds, and +surrounded by light Arabian arcades of open filagree work, +supported by slender pillars of white marble. The architecture, +like that of all the other parts of the palace, is characterized by +elegance rather than grandeur; bespeaking a delicate and graceful +taste, and a disposition to indolent enjoyment. When one looks upon +the fairy tracery of the peristyles, and the apparently fragile +fretwork of the walls, it is difficult to believe that so much has +survived the wear and tear of centuries, the shocks of earthquakes, +the violence of war, and the quiet, <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page341" id="page341"></a>[pg 341]</span> though no less baneful, +pilferrings of the tasteful traveller: it is almost sufficient to +excuse the popular tradition, that the whole is protected by a +magic charm.</p> +<p>"On one side of the court, a portal, richly adorned, opens into +a lofty hall, paved with white marble, and called the Hall of the +Two Sisters. A cupola, or lantern, admits a tempered light from +above, and a free circulation of air. The lower part of the walls +is encrusted with beautiful Moorish tiles, on some of which are +emblazoned the escutcheons of the Moorish monarchs: the upper part +is faced with the fine stucco-work invented at Damascus, consisting +of large plates, cast in moulds, and artfully joined, so as to have +the appearance of having been laboriously sculptured by the hand +into light relievos and fanciful arabesques, intermingled with +texts of the Koran, and poetical inscriptions in Arabian and Cufic +character. These decorations of the walls and cupolas are richly +gilded, and the interstices pencilled with lapis-lazuli, and other +brilliant and enduring colours. On each side of the hall are +recesses for ottomans and couches. Above the inner porch is a +balcony, which communicated with the women's apartments. The +latticed 'jalousies' still remain, from whence the dark-eyed +beauties of the haram might gaze unseen upon the entertainments of +the hall below.</p> +<p>"It is impossible to contemplate this once favourite abode of +Oriental manners without feeling the early associations of Arabian +romance, and almost expecting to see the white arm of some +mysterious princess beckoning from the balcony, or some dark eye +sparkling through the lattice. The abode of beauty is here, as if +it had been inhabited but yesterday; but where are the Zoraydas and +Lindaraxas?</p> +<p>"On the opposite side of the Court of Lions, is the Hall of the +Abencerrages; so called from the gallant cavaliers of that +illustrious line who were here perfidiously massacred. There are +some who doubt the whole truth of this story; but our humble +attendant Mateo pointed out the very wicket of the portal through +which they are said to have been introduced, one by one, and the +white marble fountain in the centre of the hall where they were +beheaded. He showed us also certain broad ruddy stains in the +pavement, traces of their blood, which, according to popular +belief, can never be effaced. Finding we listened to him with easy +faith, he added, that there was often heard at night, in the Court +of Lions, a low, confused sound, resembling the murmuring of a +multitude; with now and then a faint tinkling, like the distant +clank of chains. These noises are probably produced by the bubbling +currents and tinkling falls of water, conducted under the pavement, +through pipes and channels, to supply the fountains; but, according +to the legend of the son of the Alhambra, they are made by the +spirits of the murdered Abencerrages, who nightly haunt the scene +of their suffering, and invoke the vengeance of Heaven on their +destroyer.</p> +<p>"From the Court of Lions we retraced our steps through the Court +of the Alberca, or Great Fishpool; crossing which we proceeded to +the Tower of Comares, so called from the name of the Arabian +architect. It is of massive strength and lofty height, domineering +over the rest of the edifice, and overhanging the steep hill-side, +which descends abruptly to the banks of the Darro. A Moorish +archway admitted us into a vast and lofty hall, which occupies the +interior of the tower, and was the grand audience chamber of the +Moslem monarchs, thence called the Hall of Ambassadors. It still +bears the traces of past magnificence. The walls are richly +stuccoed and decorated with arabesques; the vaulted ceiling of +cedar-wood, almost lost in obscurity, from its height, still gleams +with rich gilding, and the brilliant tints of the Arabian pencil. +On three sides of the saloon are deep windows cut through the +immense thickness of the walls, the balconies of which look down +upon the verdant valley of the Darro, the streets and convents of +the Albaycin, and command a prospect of the distant Vega.</p> +<p>"I might go on to describe minutely the other delightful +apartments of this side of the palace; the Tocador, or toilet of +the queen, an open belvidere, on the summit of a tower, where the +Moorish sultanas enjoyed the pure breezes from the mountain, and +the prospect of the surrounding paradise; the secluded little +patio, or garden of Lindaraxa, with its alabaster fountain, its +thickets of roses and myrtles, of citrons and oranges; the cool +halls and grottoes of the baths, where the glare and heat of day +are tempered into a soft mysterious light, and a pervading +freshness.</p> +<p>"While the city below pants with the noontide heat, and the +parched vega trembles to the eye, the delicate airs from the Sierra +Nevada, play through these lofty halls, bringing with them the +sweetness of the surrounding gardens. Every thing invites to that +indolent repose, the bliss of southern climes; and while the +half-shut eye looks out from <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page342" id="page342"></a>[pg 342]</span> shaded balconies upon +the glittering landscape, the ear is lulled by the rustling of +groves, and the murmur of running streams." Here we must end.</p> +<p>The Sketches bear the very perfection of romance in their +titles. Yes, expectant reader, think of the Alhambra by +Moonlight—A Ramble among the Hills—Legend of the +Arabian Astrologer—The Tower of Las Infantas—Legends of +the three beautiful Princesses—The Pilgrim of Love—The +Rose of the Alhambra,—the two discreet Statues, &c. +&c. What hours of spell-bound delight do these two volumes lock +up, yet we hope but for a short season, from all who would vary +"life's dull round" with romantic lore.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>Natural History.</h2> +<hr class="short" /> +<p>The remarkably attractive Number of the <i>Magazine of Natural +History</i> for the present month enables us to checker our sheet +with a page or two of facts which will be interesting to every +inquiring mind.</p> +<h4><i>Hail at Lausanne.</i></h4> +<p>"At Lausanne, on the 14th of July, 1831, about 8 P.M., we +witnessed one of those hail-storms which, every summer, cause such +ravages in the south of Europe. A great proportion of the +hailstones were as big as hen's eggs, and some even bigger: seven +nearly filled a common dinner plate. They were mostly oval or +globular; but one piece, brought to us after the storm, was flat +and square, full 2 in. long, as many broad, and three quarters of +an inch thick, with several projecting knobs of ice as big as large +hazel nuts. This mass exactly resembled a piece of uniformly +transparent ice, but the oval and globular masses had the same +conformation as has often been described in these hailstones, and +on which Volta founded his ingenious but untenable theory of their +formation. In the centre of each was a small, white, opaque +nucleus, the size of a pea, and evidently one of the hailstones +usually seen in England, to which the French give the name of +<i>grésil</i>, confining the term <i>gréle</i> to the +larger masses of ice now under our observation. This nucleus of +<i>gresil</i> was enclosed in a coat about half an inch thick of +ice considerably more transparent than it, but still somewhat +opaque, as though of snow melted and then frozen again, and +externally the rest of the mass was of ice perfectly transparent, +and as compact and hard as possible, resounding like a pebble, and +not breaking when thrown on the floor. The inhabitants of Lausanne, +aware that the cinereous and puffed up appearance of the clouds +charged with this tremendous aerial artillery portended more than a +mere thunder-storm, had adopted the precaution of closing their +Venetian shutters; but such windows as were deprived of this +protection had almost every pane broken: and much damage was done +to the tiles of all the houses, and to the gardens and vineyards; +but less than might have been expected, owing to the short duration +of the storm, which did not last longer than seven or eight +minutes, and to the circumstance of the hailstones not being very +numerous."—(W. Spence.)</p> +<h4><i>Cedar Wood.</i></h4> +<p>"The <i>cedar</i> has been recommended, among other woods, for +the purpose of constructing drawers for cabinets of insects. Let +the inexperienced collector be warned that this is, perhaps, the +<i>very worst</i> wood that can be employed for the purpose; a +strong effluvia, or sometimes a resinous gum, exudes from the wood +of the cedar, which is apt to settle in blotches on the wings of +the specimens, especially of the more delicate Lepidóptera, +and entirely discharges the colour. The Rev. Mr. Bree once had a +whole collection of lepidopterous insects utterly spoiled from +having been deposited in cedar drawers; and he has understood, +also, that the insects in the British Museum, collected, he +believes, chiefly by Dr. Leach, have been greatly injured from the +same cause. Possibly, however, cedar wood, after it has been +thoroughly well seasoned, may be less liable to produce these +injurious effects."</p> +<h4><i>Habits of the Common Snake in Captivity.</i></h4> +<p>A Staffordshire Correspondent writes thus familiarly:</p> +<p>"This has been a remarkably good season, both for vegetables and +animals. It has been a singular time for adders, snakes, and +lizards; I never saw so many as I have seen this year in all my +life. I have been trying, a great part of this summer, to +domesticate a common snake, and make it familiar with me and my +children; but all to no purpose, notwithstanding I favoured it with +my most particular attention. It was a most beautiful creature, +only 2 ft. 7 in. long. I did not know how long it had been without +food when I caught it; but I presented it with frogs, toads, worms, +beetles, spiders, mice, and every other delicacy of the season. I +also tried to charm it with music, and my children <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page343" id="page343"></a>[pg 343]</span> +stroked and caressed it; but all in vain: it would be no more +familiar with any of us than if we had been the greatest strangers +to it, or even its greatest enemies. I kept it in an old barrel, +out of doors, for the first three weeks: during that time, I can +aver, it ate nothing; but, after a very wet night, it seemed to +suffer from the cold. I then put it into a glass vessel, and set it +on the parlour chimney-piece, covering the vessel with a piece of +silk gauze. I caught two live mice, and put them in to it; but they +would sooner have died of hunger than the snake would have eaten +them: they sat shivering on its back, while it lay coiled up as +round as a ball of worstep. I gave the mice some boiled potatoes, +which they eat: but the snake would eat neither the mice nor the +potatoes. My children frequently took it out in their hands, to +show it to their schoolfellows; but my wife, and some others, could +not bear the sight of it. I one day took it in my hand, and opened +its mouth with a penknife, to show a gentleman how different it was +from that of the adder, which I had dead by me: its teeth being no +more formidable or terrific than the teeth of a trout or eel; while +the mouth of the adder had two fangs, like the claws of a cat, +attached to the roof of the mouth, no way connected with its +jaw-teeth. While examining the snake in this manner, it began to +smell most horridly, and filled the room with an abominable odour; +I also felt, or thought I felt, a kind of prickly numbness in the +hand I held it in, and did so for some weeks afterwards. In +struggling for its liberty, it twisted itself round my arm, and +discharged its excrements on my coat-sleeve, which seemed nothing +more than milk, or like the chalkings of a woodcock. It made its +escape from me several times by boring a hole through the gauze; I +had lost it for some days at one time, when at length it was +observed peeping out of a mouse-hole behind one of the cellar +steps. Whether it had caught any beetles or spiders in the cellar, +I cannot say; but it looked as fierce as a hawk, and hissed and +shook its tongue, as in open defiance. I could not think of hurting +it by smoking it out with tobacco or brimstone; but called it my +fiery dragon which guarded my ale cellar. At length I caught it, +coiled up on one of the steps. I put it again into an American +flour barrel; but it happened not to be the same as he had been in, +and I observed a nail protruding through the staves about half way +up. This, I suppose, he had made use of to help his escape; for he +was missing one morning about ten o'clock: I had seen him at nine +o'clock; so I thought he could not be far off. I looked about for +him for half an hour, when I gave up the hunt in despair. However, +at one o'clock, as the men were going from dinner, one of them +observed the rogue hiding himself under a stone, fifty yards from +the house. 'Dang my buttons,' said he, 'if here is not master's +snake. He came back and told my wife, who told him to go and kill +it. It happened to be <i>washing-day</i>: the washerwoman gave him +a pailful of scalding soapsuds to throw on it; but whether he was +most afraid of me or of the snake is still a question: however, the +washerwoman brought it home with the tongs, and dropped it into the +dolly-tub. It dashed round the tub with the velocity of lightning; +my daughter, seeing its agony, snatched it out of the scalding +liquid, but too late: it died in a few minutes. I was not at all +angry with my wife: I had had my whim, and she had had hers. I had +got all the knowledge I wanted to get; I had learned that it was of +no use for a human being, who requires food three times a day, to +domesticate an animal which can live weeks and months without food: +for, as the saying is, 'Hunger will tame any thing;' and without +hunger you can tame nothing. I have also learned that the serpent, +instead of being the emblem of wisdom, should have been an emblem +of stupidity."</p> +<p>"The stench emitted by the common snake, when molested, is +superlatively noisome; and is given off so powerfully and +copiously, that it infects the air around to a diameter of several +yards. This I witnessed on observing a bitch dog kill a rather +large snake; in which act two points beside the odour effused were +notable. The coils of the snake formed, as it were, a circular +wall; and in the circular space between it, the snake sunk its +head, as if for protection. The dog's efforts were to catch and +crush the head; and, shrivelling up her fleshy lips, 'which all the +while ran froth,' she kept thrusting the points of her jaws into +the circular pit aforesaid, and catching at and fracturing the +head. During the progress of these acts, she, every few seconds, +snorted, and shook off the froth, of which she seemed sedulously +careful to free herself, and barked at the conquered snake. The dog +was a most determined vermin-killer, and in rats, &c., quite an +accomplished one; but snakes did not often come in her +way."—J.D.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page344" id="page344"></a>[pg +344]</span> +<h3>CURIOUS FACTS IN VEGETATION</h3> +<p>(From Part xiv. of <i>Knowledge for the People, or the Plain Why +and Because.</i>)</p> + +<p><i>Why is it improper to consider the turnip a real +bulb?</i></p> +<p>Because it is an intermediate stem which swells into a bulbous +form. Turnips have not been cultivated in England, in fields, more +than a century; but this agricultural practice now yields an annual +return which probably exceeds the interest of our national +debt.—<i>Sir Walter Scott.</i></p> +<p><i>Why is the Cauliflower so named?</i></p> +<p>Because of its origin from <i>caulis,</i> the stalk of a herb. +Colewort is of a similar origin.</p> +<p><i>Why are the stems of the Cabbage tribe considered wholesome +food?</i></p> +<p>Because their acrid flavour is dipersed among an abundance of +mucilage. Cabbages were commonly used among the ancients, and Cato +wrote volumes on their nature. The Indians had so much veneration +for them, that they swore by cabbages, and were therein as +superstitious as the Egyptians, who gave divine honours to leeks +and onions, for the great benefits which they said they received +from them.—<i>Lemery on Food.</i></p> +<p><i>Why do Cabbages emit a strong animal odour?</i></p> +<p>Because they contain a great quantity of azote or nitrogen, one +of the ultimate elements of animal matter, and strongly +characterized in the destructive distillation of horn, hoofs, or +bones.</p> +<p><i>Why do not the leaves of the Cabbage remain wet, after being +immersed in water, and again taken out of it?</i></p> +<p>Because they are powdered with a slight layer of resinous +matter, similar to that which covers certain fruits, and, in +particular, plums and grapes. Their sea-green colour is also +attributed to this resinous layer.</p> +<p><i>Why is Quassia so called?</i> Because it was named in honour +of a negro, Quassia, a drunken doctor, who discovered the virtue of +the wood in curing malignant fevers.</p> +<p><i>Why is the Ice plant so called?</i></p> +<p>Because its stem is covered with soft tubercles, or +excrescences, which have a crystalline appearance.</p> +<p><i>Why do the leaves of some trees fall very early?</i></p> +<p>Because they are articulated to the branch; that is, they do not +unite with it by the whole of their base, but are simply fixed to +it by a kind of contraction or articulation; as in the maple and +horse chestnut.</p> +<p><i>Why do leaves fall at the approach of winter?</i></p> +<p>Because a separation takes place, either in the foot-stalk, or +more usually at its base, and the dying part quits the vigorous +one, which is promoted by the weight of the leaf itself, or the +action of the gales that blow in autumn on its expanded form. M. +Richard explains the cause more philosophically: "Although the fall +of the leaves generally takes place at the approach of winter, cold +is not to be considered as the principal cause of this phenomenon. +It is much more natural to attribute it to the cessation of +vegetation, and the want of nourishment which the leaves experience +at that season, when the course of the sap is interrupted. The +vessels of the leaf contract, dry up, and soon after, that organ is +detached from the twig on which it had been developed."</p> +<p><i>Why do some trees, as the Oak, the Beech, and the Hornbeam, +retain their leaves to a late period of autumn?</i></p> +<p>Because the life of the twigs on which they grow is not +sufficiently vigorous to throw them off, after the brown colour +indicates that they are dead.</p> +<p><i>Why have some plants been termed the Poor Man's +Weather-glass?</i></p> +<p>Because they shut up their flowers against the approach of rain. +Linnaeus, however, thinks, that flowers lose their fine +sensibility, after the anthers have performed their office, or when +deprived of them artificially. Sir James Smith also observes, that +some species are sometimes exhausted by continued wet; "and it is +evident that very sudden thunder showers often take such flowers by +surprise, the previous state of the atmosphere not having been such +as to give them due warning."</p> +<p>Many flowers have a regular time of opening and shutting. We +have already mentioned the Marigold; the goat's-beard is vulgarly +called "John go-to-bed at noon," from its closing at mid-day; and +at the Cape of Good Hope there is a "four o'clock flower," because +it invariably closes at that time. The common daisy is, however, a +readier example, its name being a compound of day's and +eye—Day's-eye, in which way, indeed, it is written by Ben +Johnson. It regularly shuts after sun-set, to expand again with the +morning light. Thus,—</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The little dazie, that at evening closes.—<i>Spenser.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>By a daisy, whose leaves spread,</p> +<p>Shut when Titian goes to bed.—<i>G. Withers.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Leyden sings of moist or rainy weather foretold by daisies. Thus +we may examine a whole field, and not find a daisy open, except +such as have their flowering nearly over, and have in consequence +lost their sensibility.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page345" id="page345"></a>[pg +345]</span> <p>The daisy is one of the pet flowers of the poets. +Chaucer is ecstatic in its praise, and calls it his "owne hartes' +rest;" Burns, "Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower;" and Wordsworth, +in beautiful and touching simplicity, has addressed several poems +to "the poet's darling."</p> +<p>Appended to Richard's valuable "Elements," is the <i>Horologium +Florae,</i> (timepiece of Flora,) or a table of the hours at which +certain plants expand and shut, at Upsal, 60 deg. north latitude. +The earliest Meadow Salsafy opens from 3 to 4 A.M.; and closes from +9 to 10 A.M. The latest A.M. is the <i>Mesembryanthemum +Modiflorum,</i> (used in the manufacture of Maroquin leather,) +which opens 10 to 11 A.M., and closes at 12 P.M. The latest opening +P.M. is the <i>Cactus Grandiflorus,</i> 9 to 10 P.M., and closing +at 12 P.M., thus remaining open only two or three hours. Other +flowers, we may add, are so peculiarly delicate, as scarcely to +bear the contact of the atmosphere.</p> +<p>Forster, in his "Researches about Atmospheric Phenomena," +notices several prognostics of the weather by plants. Thus, +Chickweed has been said to be an excellent weather-guide. When the +flower expands freely, no rain need be feared for a long time. In +showery days the flower appears half concealed, and this state may +be regarded as indicative of showery weather; when it is entirely +shut, we may expect a rainy day. If the flowers of the Siberian +sowthistle remain open all night, we may expect rain next day. +Before showers, the trefoil contracts its leaves. Lord Bacon +observes, that the trefoil has its stalk more erect against rain. +He also mentions a small red flower, growing in stubble-fields, +called by the country people <i>wincopipe</i>, which, if it opens +in the morning, assures us of a fine day.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>Travels</h2> +<blockquote> +<p><i>Pen and Pencil Sketches of India, being the Journal of a Tour +in India. By Captain Mundy.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<p>These are two very amusing volumes of scenes and situations full +of stirring interest, as their criticships would say—for +example the four extracts immediately following:</p> +<h4><i>Palankeen Travelling and a Sortie of Tigers.</i></h4> +<p>"To those unitiated into the mysteries of Indian travelling, the +prospect of a journey of six hundred miles, night and day, in a hot +climate, inclosed in a sort of coffin-like receptacle, carried on +the shoulders of men, is somewhat alarming; but to one more +accustomed to that method of locomotion, the palankeen would, +perhaps, prove less fatiguing and harassing, for a long journey, +than any other conveyance.</p> +<p>"The horizontal or reclining position is naturally the most easy +to the body; and the exhaustion consequent upon a journey in the +heat of the day, generally secures to the traveller as much sleep +during the cooller hours of the night, as the frequent +interruptions of the bearers at the several stages will allow him +to enjoy. I had laid in a good store of tea, sugar, and biscuits, a +novel, some powder and shot, a gun, and a sword, and plenty of +blankets, as a defence against the coldness of the night. Our +baggage consisted of a dozen boxes (patarras) appended to bamboos, +and carried by men: these, with two torch-bearers (mussalgees) to +each palankeen, completed our cavalcade.</p> +<p>"Nov. 24th, 7 A.M., reached Hazarebaug, a small station, about +two hundred and twenty miles from Calcutta. It is a healthy spot; +the earth sandy and rocky, presenting a strong contrast to the +loomy and alluvial soil of Southern Bengal. From +Rogonnâthpore to Hazarebaug the road runs through an almost +uninterrupted jungle, swarming with wild beasts. At this place we +met with a hospitable friend, who stored our palankeens with +provisions, after giving us a capital breakfast.</p> +<p>"At eleven o'clock at night we entered the famous pass of +Dunghye. The road bears the appearance of a deep sandy ravine; the +banks are rocky and woody, and in many places quite overhung by the +forest-trees. We had accomplished about half the defile, when I was +suddenly and rudely awakened from a dozing sleep by the shock of my +palankeen coming to the ground, and by the most discordant shouts +and screams. I jumped out to ascertain the cause of the uproar, and +found, on inquiry, that a foraging party of tigers—probably +speculating upon picking up a straggling bearer—had sprung +off the rocks, and dashed across the road, bounding between my +palankeen and that of Colonel D., who was scarcely ten yards +a-head. The bearers of both palankeens were all huddled together, +bellowing like bedlamites, and the mussalgees waving their torches +most vehemently. On mustering our forces, we discovered that two of +our patarra-bearers were missing, and fearing that the tigers might +pick them up, we dispatched four men with spare torches to bring +them on. Meanwhile <span class="pagenum"><a name="page346" id= +"page346"></a>[pg 346]</span> my friend and myself, having brought +our palankeens together, armed ourselves with patience and a pair +of pistols to await the result. The whole incident, with the time +and scene, was highly interesting and wild, with just enough of the +awful to give an additional piquancy. The night was dark and +stormy, and the wind roared among the trees above our heads: the +torches cast a red and flickering light on the rocks in our +immediate neighbourhood, and just showed us enough of the depths of +the forest to make the back ground more gloomy and unfathomable. +The distant halloos of the men who were gone in search of their +comrades, came faintly and wildly upon the breeze; and the +occasional shots that we fired rang through the rocky jungle with +an almost interminable echo. In about three quarters of an hour our +bearers joined us, together with the two patarra-bearers. These +latter, hearing the vociferations of our men, and guessing the +cause, had quietly placed their boxes on the ground, about a mile +in the rear of us, and seating themselves on their heels, had +determined not to proceed until the break of day.</p> +<p>"All being reported present, we resumed our journey, the men +screaming chorus to scare our unwelcome visitors, whom I several +times fancied I heard rustling among the brushwood on the road +side, as though they were moving on our flanks in order to cut off +any straggler who might drop astern. I never saw bearers go more +expeditiously, or in more compact order, every man fearing to be +the last in the cavalcade.<a id="footnotetag1" name= +"footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a> A sheet +would have covered the whole party! The tigers, if they had +calculated upon one of our number for their evening meal, must have +gone supperless to their lair, for we mustered all our twenty-four +men in the morning. A dâk hurkarah (post messenger) had been +carried off in the same spot two days before, probably by the same +family of tigers, which according to the bearer's account, +consisted of two old ones, and three cubs.</p> +<h4><i>Wild Beast Fights</i>.</h4> +<p>"Early in the morning, the whole party, including ladies, eager +for the novel spectacle, mounted elephants, and repaired to the +private gate of the royal palace, where the King met the +Commander-in-Chief, and conducted him and his company to a palace +in the park, in one of the courts of which the arena for the +combats was prepared. In the centre was erected a gigantic cage of +strong bamboos, about fifty feet high, and of like diameter, and +rooffed with rope network. Sundry smaller cells, communicating by +sliding doors with the main theatre, were tenanted by every species +of the savagest inhabitants of the forest. In the large cage, +crowded together, and presenting a formidable front of broad, +shaggy foreheads well armed with horns, stood a group of buffaloes +sternly awaiting the conflict, with their rear scientifically +appuyé against the bamboos. The trap-doors being lifted, two +tigers, and the same number of bears and leopards, rushed into the +centre. The buffaloes instantly commenced hostilities, and made +complete shuttlecocks of the bears, who, however, finally escaped +by climbing up the bamboos beyond the reach of their horned +antagonists. The tigers, one of which was a beautiful animal, fared +scarcely better; indeed, the odds were much against them, there +being five buffaloes. They appeared, however to be no match for +these powerful creatures, even single-handed, and showed little +disposition to be the assaulters. The larger tiger was much gored +in the head, and in return took a mouthful of his enemy's dewlap, +but was finally (as the fancy would describe it) 'bored to the +ropes and floored.' The leopards seemed throughout the conflict +sedulously to avoid a breach of the peace.</p> +<p>"A rhinoceros was next let loose in open courtyard, and the +attendants attempted to induce him to pick a quarrel with a tiger +who was chained to a ring. The rhinoceros appeared, however, to +consider a fettered foe as quite beneath his enmity; and having +once approached the tiger, and quietly surveyed him, as he writhed +and growled, expecting the attack, turned suddenly round and +trotted awkwardly off to the yard gate, where he capsized a +palankeen which was carrying away a lady fatigued with the sight of +these unfeminine sports.</p> +<p>"A buffalo and tiger were the next combatants: they attacked +furiously, the tiger springing at the first onset on the other's +head, and tearing his neck severely; but he was quickly dismounted, +and thrown with such violence as nearly to break his back, and +quite to disable him from renewing the combat.</p> +<p>"A small elephant was next impelled to attack a leopard. The +battle was short and decisive; the former falling on his knees, and +thrusting his blunted tusks nearly through his antagonist.</p> +<p>"On our return from the beast fight a breakfast awaited us at +the royal <span class="pagenum"><a name="page347" id= +"page347"></a>[pg 347]</span> palace; and the white tablecloth +being removed, quails, trained for the purpose, were placed upon +the green cloth, and fought most gamely, after the manner of the +English cockpit. This is an amusement much in fashion among the +natives of rank, and they bet large sums on their birds, as they +lounge luxuriously round, smoking their houkahs.</p> +<h4><i>Hunting with Leopards.</i></h4> +<p>"The leopards are each accommodated with a flat-topped cart, +without sides, drawn by two bullocks, and each animal has two +attendants. They are loosely bound by a collar and rope to the back +of the vehicle, and are also held by the keeper by a strap round +the loins. A leathern hood covers their eyes. The antelopes being +excessively timid and wild, the best way to enjoy the sport is to +sit on the cart alongside the driver; for the vehicle being built +like the hackeries of the peasants, to the sight of which the deer +are accustomed, it is not difficult, by skilful management, to +approach within two hundred yards of the game. On this occasion we +had three chetahs in the field, and we proceeded towards the spot +where the herd had been seen, in a line, with an interval of about +one hundred yards between each cart. On emerging from a +cotton-field, we came in sight of four antelopes, and my driver +managed to get within one hundred yards of them ere they took +alarm. The chetah was quickly unhooded, and loosed from his bonds; +and as soon as he viewed the deer he dropped quietly off the cart, +on the <i>opposite</i> side to that on which they stood, and +approached them at a slow, crouching canter, masking himself by +every bush and inequality of ground which lay in in his way. As +soon, however, as they began to show alarm, he quickened his pace, +and was in the midst of the herd in a few bounds.</p> +<p>"He singled out a doe, and ran it close for about two hundred +yards, when he reached it with a blow of his paw, rolled it over, +and in an instant was sucking the life-blood from its throat.</p> +<p>"One of the other chetahs was slipped at the same time, but +after making four or five desperate bounds, by which he nearly +reached his prey, suddenly gave up the pursuit, and came growling +sulkily back to his cart.</p> +<p>"As soon as the deer is pulled down, a keeper runs up, hoods the +chetah cuts the victim's throat, and receiving some of the blood in +a wooden ladle, thrusts it under the leopard's nose. The antelope +is then dragged away, and placed in a receptacle under the hackery, +whilst the chetah is rewarded with a leg for his pains."<a id= +"footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href= +"#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a></p> +<h4><i>An Alligator in the Ganges.</i></h4> +<p>"A beautiful specimen of an alligator's head was here given by +Mr. Alexander to Lord Combermere. He was rather a distinguished +monster, having carried off at different occasions, six or eight +brace of men from an indigo factory in the neighbourhood. A native, +who had long laid wait for him, at length succeeded in slaying him +with poisoned arrows. One of these notoriously ghaut-frequenting +alligators is well nigh as rich a prize to the poor native who is +fortunate enough to capture him, as a Spanish galleon is to a +British frigate; for on ripping open his stomach, and over-hauling +its freight, it is not unfrequently found to contain 'a choice +assortment'—as the Calcutta advertisers have it—of +gold, silver, or brass bangles and anklets, which have not been so +expeditiously digested as their fair owners, victims of the +monster's voracity. A little fat Brahminee child, 'farci an ris,' +must be a tempting and tender <i>bonne bouche</i> to these river +gourmands. Horrific legends such as the above, together with a +great deal of valuable advice on the subject, were quite thrown +away upon me; for ninety degrees of Fahrenheit, and the enticing +blueness of the water generally betrayed me into a plunge every +evening during my Gangetic voyage."</p> +<h4><i>Nocturnal Bathing.</i></h4> +<p>"On the occasion of a grand nocturnal bathing ceremony, held at +the great tank called the Indra Damân, I went with a party of +three or four others to witness the spectacle. The walls +surrounding the pool and a cluster of picturesque pavilions in its +centre were brilliantly lighted up with hundreds of cheraugs, or +small oil-lamps, casting a flickering lustre upon the heads and +shoulders of about five hundred men, women, and children, who were +ducking and praying, <i>à corps perdu,</i> in the water. As +I glanced over the figures nearest to me, I discovered floating +among the indifferent bathers two dead bodies, which had either +been drowned in the confusion, or had purposely come to die on the +edge of the sacred tank; the cool and apathetic survivors taking +not the slightest notice of their soulless neighbours."</p> +<h4><i>King John at the Cape.</i></h4> +<p>"The largest house in Simon's Town, <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page348" id="page348"></a>[pg 348]</span> and, +indeed, the greater part of the town itself, belongs to an +Englishman of the name of Osbond, who, however, is more generally +known by the dignified title of 'King John.' He was carpenter on +board the sixty-gun ship Sceptre, which was wrecked off this coast +some yearn ago. Like Juan, he escaped the sea, and like Juan he +found a Haidee. Being well-favoured and sharp-witted, he won the +heart and the hand of a wealthy Dutch widow, whose dollars he +afterwards, in some bold but successful speculations, turned to +good account. He is said to have laid out ten thousand pounds on +these—to every one but himself—<i>inhospita +littora.</i> King John is much respected."</p> +<h4><i>Population of Cape Town.</i></h4> +<p>"The variety of nations, and the numerous shades of complexion +among the people in the streets of Cape Town, are very striking to +a stranger. First may be remarked the substantial Dutchman, with +his pretty, smiling, round-faced, and particularly well-dressed +daughter: then the knot of 'Qui hi's,' sent to the Cape, per +doctor's certificate, to husband their threadbare constitutions, +and lavish their rupees: next the obsequious, smirking, +money-making China-man, with his poking shoulders, and whip-like +pig-tail: then the stout, squat Hottentots—who resemble the +Dutch in but one characteristic!—and half castes of every +intermediate tint between black and white. These are well relieved +and contrasted by the tall, warlike figures and splendid costume of +his Majesty's 72nd Highlanders, who, with the 98th regiment, form +the garrison of Cape Town."</p> +<h4><i>Visit to the Residence of Napoleon at St. Helena.</i></h4> +<p>"We soon came in sight of the level plateau of the Longwood +estate, the residence of the late emperor, and six miles from +Plantation House. Here the country gradually assumes a more +desolate and a wilder look; and the English visitor arrives at the +unfortunate and unwelcome conclusion, that the best part of the +island was not given to the illustrious captive. One cannot avoid +agreeing with Sir W. Scott, that Plantation House should have been +accorded to him, in spite of the detering reasons of its vicinity +to the sea, and its sequestered situation. Longwood, however, has +better roads, more space for riding or driving, and in summer must +have been much cooler than the less sheltered parts of the isle. As +we turned through the lodges the old house appeared at the end of +an avenue of scrubby and weather-worn trees. It bears the exterior +of a respectable farm-house, but is now fast running to decay. On +entering a dirty courtyard, and quitting our horses, we were shown +by some idlers into a square building, which once contained the +bed-room, sitting-room, and bath of the <i>Empereur des +François.</i> The partitions and floorings are now thrown +down, and torn up, and the apartments occupied for six years by the +hero before whom kings, emperors, and popes had quailed, are now +tenanted by cart-horses!</p> +<p>"Passing on with a groan, I entered a small chamber, with two +windows looking towards the north. Between these windows are the +marks of a fixed sofa: on that couch Napoleon died. The apartment +is now occupied by a threshing machine; 'No bad emblem of its +former tenant!' said a sacrilegious wag. Hence we were conducted +onwards to a large room, which formerly contained a billiard-table, +and whose front looks out upon a little latticed veranda, where the +imperial peripatetic—I cannot style him +philosopher—enjoyed the luxury of six paces to and +fro,—his favourite promenade. The white-washed walls are +scored with names of every nation; and the paper of the ceiling has +been torn off in strips as holy relics. Many couplets, chiefly +French, extolling and lamenting the departed hero, adorn or +disfigure (according to their qualities) the plaster walls. The +only lines that I can recall to mind—few are worth +it—are the following, written ever the door, and signed +'—— ——, Officier de la Garde +Impériale.'</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"'Du grand Napoléon le nom toujours cité</p> +<p>Ira de bouche en bouche à la +postérité!'"</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The writer doubtless possessed more spirit as a sabreur than as +a poet.</p> +<p>"The emperor's once well-kept garden,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"'And still where many a garden-flower grows wild,'</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>"is now overgrown and choked with weeds. At the end of a walk +still exists a small mound, on which it is said the hero of Lodi, +Marengo, and Austerlitz, amused himself by erecting a mock battery. +The little chunamed tank, in which he fed some fresh-water fish, is +quite dried up; and the mud wall, through a hole in which he +reconnoitered passers-by, is, like the great owner, returned to +earth!"</p> +<p>Captain Mundy's volumes are illustrated chiefly with sketches of +Indian <span class="pagenum"><a name="page349" id="page349"></a>[pg +349]</span> sports from the master-hand of Land-seer; and for +spirit of execution they deserve to rank among the finest +productions of this distinguished artist.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>Recent French Literature.</h2> +<hr class="short" /> +<p>A novel picture of Paris has lately appeared with the taking +title of the <i>Hundred and One.</i> Its origin, as well as its +subject, is interesting. It is a voluntary association of almost +all the literary talent of France, for the benefit of an +enterprising bookseller, whose affairs have, it seems, fallen into +the sere, since the commercial embarrassments following on the +Revolution. A hundred and one authors of all ranks and political +opinions, philosophers, academicians, journalists, deputies, poets, +artists, have combined in this work to pass in review before us the +humours, follies and opinions of the French capital, painted in +colours gay or grave, sketchy or elaborate, according to the manner +or mood of the artist. A very amusing work, suitable to all tastes, +is the result, and, by aid of the <i>Foreign Quarterly Review</i>, +we are enabled to present the reader with a specimen sketch by Leon +Guzlan, an author of some celebrity in this species of +writing.<a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href= +"#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a></p> +<h4>VISIT TO THE MORGUE, AT PARIS.</h4> +<p>(The Morgue, we should premise, is an establishment in Paris for +the reception of all persons found dead in the City or its +environs. Thither it is the duty of the police to convey the +bodies, where they are exposed in a hall open to the public for a +stated time,<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href= +"#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a> when, if not identified, and claimed, +they are interred in the neighbouring cemetery.)</p> +<p>"After describing the exterior, the <i>Salle de +l'Exposition</i>, which is the only portion of the building, of +course, with which the public are acquainted, the writer conducts +us into the inner recesses of this house of death, the apartments +of the superintendant.</p> +<p>"M. Perrin, is a little old man, who coughs incessantly. When I +explained to him the object of my visit, he very politely offered +to show me all the details of his administration, regretting much, +as he said, that there was not so much variety as could be desired. +'But I will show you what I have—be pleased to walk up.'</p> +<p>"As we were climbing the narrow stairs, and he was informing me +that his establishment was connected both with the prefecture and +the police, with the one on account of the local expenses, with the +other from its connexion with the public health, we were obliged to +stand close against the wall to allow a troop of young girls to +pass, well dressed, gay, but shivering with the cold, which blew +from the river through the chink which lighted the stair.</p> +<p>"'These are four of my daughters. I have eight children. +François, the keeper, has had four, and he has had the good +fortune to get them all married. François is a kind +father.'</p> +<p>"'So,' said I, 'twelve children then have been born in the +Morgue. Dreams of joy, and conjugal endearments, and parental +delights, have been experienced in this chamber of death. Marriage +with its orange flowers, baptism with its black robed sponsors, the +communion, and the embroidered veil, love, religion, virtue, have +had their home here as elsewhere. God has sown the seeds of +happiness every where.'</p> +<p>"'Papa, we are going to a distribution of prizes. My sisters are +sure to get a prize. Don't weary, we will be back in good +time.'</p> +<p>"'Go, my children,'—and all four embraced him.</p> +<p>"I thought of the body of the little Norman in the dreary room +beneath, and of the mother who even now, perhaps, was anxiously +looking for her from the window.</p> +<p>"'This is the apartment of François'. François did +the honours with the activity of a man who is not ashamed of his +establishment. His room is comfortably furnished; two modern +pendules mounted on bronze, a wardrobe with a Medusa's head, a high +bed, and a handsome rose-coloured curtain. If the room was not +overburdened with furniture, if there was not much of luxury, yet, +to those not early accustomed to superfluities, it might even seem +gay. It represented the tastes, opinions, and habits of its master. +Vases of flowers threw a green reflection on the curtains, for +François is fond of flowers. Among his gallery of portraits +were those of Augereau and Kleber, both in long coats, leaning on +immense sabres, with peruques and powder. Napoleon is there three +times.</p> +<p>"'Look at these jars,' said François, 'these are +sweetmeats of my wife's making; she excels in sweetmeats.' I read +upon them, 'gooseberries of 1831.' We left François's +apartment <span class="pagenum"><a name="page350" id= +"page350"></a>[pg 350]</span> which forms the right wing of the +Morgue, while the clerk's house is on the left, and entered the +cabinet of administration of M. Perrin.</p> +<p>"If François is fond of flowers, M. Perrin has the same +penchant for hydraulics and the camera obscura; he draws, he makes +jets from the Seine, by an ingenious piece of machinery of his own +invention; while he was retouching his syphon, I asked permission +to turn over the register, where suicides are ranged in two +columns.</p> +<p>"The fatal 'unknown' was the prevailing designation; 'brought +here at three in the morning, skull fractured, <i>unknown;</i>' +'brought at twelve at night, drowned under the Pont des Arts, cards +in his pocket, <i>unknown;</i>'—'young woman, pregnant, +crushed by a fiacre at the corner of the Rue Mandar, +<i>unknown</i>;'—'new born child found dead of cold, at the +gate of an hotel, <i>unknown.'</i></p> +<p>"I said to M. Perrin that he must weary here very much +occasionally during the long nights of winter.</p> +<p>"'No,' replied he good humouredly, 'the children sing, we all +work, François and I play at draughts or piquet; the worst +of it is, we are sometimes interrupted; a knock comes, we must go +down, get a stone ready, undress the new comer and register him: +that spoils the game; we forget to mark the points.'</p> +<p>"'And this is the way you generally spend your +evenings?'—'Always, except when François has to go to +Vaugirard at four o'clock: then he must go to bed earlier. Perhaps +you do not know that our burying ground is at Vaugirard: as that +burying ground is not much in fashion, we have been allowed to +retain our privilege of having a fosse to ourselves.'</p> +<p>"'I understand,—it is a fief of the Morgue.'</p> +<p>"'You saw that chariot below near the entrance gate, in which +the children were hiding themselves at play,—that is our +hearse.'</p> +<p>"'And rich or poor, all must make use of your conveyance? If for +instance a suicide is recognised, his relations or friends may +reclaim him, take him home, and bestow the rites of sepulture on +him at his own house?'</p> +<p>"'No, the Morgue does not give back what has been once deposited +here. It allows the funeral ceremonies to be as pompous as they +will, but they must all set out from hence; one end of the +procession perhaps is at Notre Dame, while the other is starting +from the Morgue. The Archbishop of Paris may be there; but +François's place is fixed. It is the first.'</p> +<p>"'And the priests of Notre Dame, do they never make any +difficulty about administering the funeral rites to your dead?'</p> +<p>"'Never!'</p> +<p>"'Not even to the suicides?'</p> +<p>"'There are no suicides for Notre Dame: one is drowned by +accident, another killed by the bursting of a gun, a third has +fallen from a scaffold. I invent the excuse, and the conscience of +the priest accepts it. That's enough.'</p> +<p>"So, thought I! Notre Dame, which formerly witnessed the +execution at the stake of sorcerers, alchymists, and gipsies on the +Grande Place, has now no word of reprobation for the carcass of the +suicide, once allowed to rot on the ground, or be devoured by +birds. She asks not here what was his faith. The priest says +mildly, 'Peace be with you.'</p> +<p>"We walked down, and François opened the first room, that +which contains the dresses; habits of all shapes, all dimensions, +hideously jumbled together; gaiters pinned to a sleeve, a shawl +shading the neck of a coat; dresses of peasants, workmen, carters +and brewers' frocks, women's gowns, all faded, discoloured, +shapeless, flap against each other in the current of air which +entered through the windows. There is something here appalling in +the sight and sound of these objects, soulless, body-less, yet +moving as if they had life, and presenting the form without the +flesh. Your eye rests on a handkerchief, the property of some poor +labourer, suddenly seized with the idea of suicide, after some day +that he has wanted work.</p> +<p>"François, who followed the direction of my eyes to see +what impression the picture produced on me sighed heavily.</p> +<p>"'Does it move you too,' said I? 'Are you discontented with your +lot.—Unhappy?'</p> +<p>"'Not exactly! But, Sir, formerly, you must know, the dresses, +after being six months exhibited, became a perquisite of ours; we +sold them. Now they talk of taking the dresses from us.'</p> +<p>"I reassured François as to the intention of government, +and assured him there was no talk of taking away the dresses.</p> +<p>"The second room, that which adjoins the public exhibition room, +is appropriated for the dissection of those, the mode of whose +death appears to the police to be suspicious. Its only furniture is +a marble table, on which the dissections take place, and a shelf on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page351" id="page351"></a>[pg +351]</span> which are placed several bottles of chlorate. This room +is immediately above the room of M. Perrin. The dissecting table +above just answers to the girls' piano below.</p> +<p>"In this room, which I crossed rapidly to avoid as much as +possible the sight of a body extended on the plank, I saw the +little girl, who had been stifled the night before in the +diligence; she was a lovely child. The other figure was frightfully +disfigured; scarcely even would his mother have recognised him.</p> +<p>"There remained only the public room; it is narrow, ill aired; +ten or twelve black and sloping stones receive the suicides, who +are placed on it almost in a state of nudity; the places are seldom +all occupied, except perhaps during a revolution. Then it is that +the Morgue is recruited; two more days of glory and immortality in +July, and the plague had been in Paris.</p> +<p>"'It is true,' said M. Perrin, 'we worked hard during the three +days, and we were allowed the use of two assistants. Corpses every +where, within, without, at the gate, on the bank.'—</p> +<p>"'And your girls?'</p> +<p>"'During these days they did not leave their apartment, nor +looked out to the street, nor to the river; besides, you are +mistaken if you think the spectacle would have terrified them. +Brought up here, they will walk at night without a light in front +of the glass, which divides the corpses from the public, without +trembling; we become accustomed to any thing.'</p> +<p>"Methought I heard the poor children, so familiar with the idea +of death, so accustomed to this domestic spectacle of their +existence, asking innocently of the strangers whom they +visited,—as one would ask where is your garden, your kitchen, +or your cabinet,—'where do <i>you</i> keep your dead +here?'</p> +<p>"These were all the facts I could gather with regard to the +establishment. I was opening the glass door to breathe the fresh +air again, when the entrance of the crowd drove me back into the +interior; they were following a bier, on which lay a body, from +which the water dripped in a long stream. From one of the hands +which were closely clenched, the keeper detached a strip of +coloured linen, and a fragment of lace. 'Ah!' said he, 'let me +look, 'tis she!'</p> +<p>"'Who is it?'</p> +<p>"'The nurse who was here this morning; the nurse of the little +Norman girl. Good! they may be buried together.' And M. Perrin put +on his spectacles, opened his register, and wrote in his best +current-hand—<i>unknown!</i>"</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>Poetry.</h2> +<hr class="short" /> +<h4><i>The Maid of Elvar. By Allan Cunningham.</i></h4> +<p>This is one of the most gratifying "appearances" in the +literature of the day. It reminds us that however the poet's harp +may have remained unstrung, it has not lost its vigour or +sweetness—its depth of feeling, or its melody of tone, and +these too are ably sustained through nearly 600 stanzas in an +exquisitely embellished narrative. The poem is "a song of other +times;" the story is one of chivalrous love; the hero is a young +warrior and poet; the Maid of Elvar offers a garland of gold for +the best song in honour of one of his victories; "minstrels meet +and sing, but the song of Eustace, though on another theme, is +reckoned the best; the Maid hangs the gold chain round his neck, +and retires, admiring the young stranger;" and thereby hangs the +tale. As our limits will not allow us to detach a scene or +incident, we must be content, for the present, with culling a few +of the choicest flowers of the song.</p> +<h4>CIVIL WAR.</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Woe, woe was ours. Chief drew his sword on chief:</p> +<p>Religion with her relique and her brand,</p> +<p>Made strife between our bosom-bones, and grief</p> +<p>And lawless joy abounded in the land;</p> +<p>Our glass of glory sank nigh its last sand;</p> +<p>Rank with its treason, priesthood with its craft,</p> +<p>Turned Scotland's war-lance to a willow-wand.</p> +<p>But war arose in Scotland—civil war;</p> +<p>Serf warred with chief, and father warred with son,</p> +<p>The church too warred with all: her evil star</p> +<p>That rules o'er sinking realms shone like the sun—</p> +<p>Her lights waxed dim and died out one by one—</p> +<p>Woe o'er the land hung like a funeral pall:</p> +<p>The sword the bold could brave, the coward shun,</p> +<p>But famine followed fast and fell on all—</p> +<p>Pale lips cried oft for food which came not at their call.</p> +</div> +</div> +<h4>RURAL PEACE.</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Much mirth was theirs—war was no wonder then;</p> +<p>Dread fled with danger, and the cottage cocks,</p> +<p>The shepherd's war-pipe, called the sons of men</p> +<p>When morning's wheel threw bright dew from its spokes,</p> +<p>To pastures green to lead again their flocks;</p> +<p>The horn of harvest followed with its call;</p> +<p>Fast moved the sickle, and swift rose the shocks,</p> +<p>Behind the reapers like a golden wall—</p> +<p>Gravely the farmer smiled, by turns approving all.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The ripe corn waved in lone Dalgonar glen,</p> +<p>That, with its bosom basking in the sun,</p> +<p>Lies like a bird; the hum of working men</p> +<p>Joins with the sound of streams that southward run,</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page352" id="page352"></a>[pg +352]</span> +<p>With fragrant holms atween: then mix in one</p> +<p>Beside a church, and round two ancient towers</p> +<p>Form a deep fosse. Here sire is heired by son,</p> +<p>And war comes never; ancle deep in flowers</p> +<p>In summer walk its dames among the sunny bowers.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>He rose, find homeward by the slumbering stream</p> +<p>Walked with the morn-dew glistening on his shoon.</p> +<p>The sun was up, and his outbursting beam</p> +<p>Touched tower and tree and pasture hills aboon;</p> +<p>The stars were quenched, and vanished was the moon;</p> +<p>Loud lowed the herds and the glad partridge' cry</p> +<p>Made corn-fields musical as groves at noon;</p> +<p>Birds left the perch, bee following bee hummed by,</p> +<p>And gladness reigned on earth and brightness claimed the +sky.</p> +</div> +</div> +<h4>MINSTRELSY.</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I sing of days in which brave deeds of arms</p> +<p>And deeds of song went hand in hand: our kings</p> +<p>Heroic feelings had and owned the charms</p> +<p>Of minstrel lore—they loved the magic strings</p> +<p>More than the sceptre; still their kingdom rings</p> +<p>With their gay musings and their harpings high.</p> +<p>To noble deeds fair poesie lends wings;</p> +<p>She lifts them up from grovelling earth to sky,</p> +<p>And bids them sit in light, and live and never die.</p> +</div> +</div> +<h4>FAME.</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Fame, fame—thou warrior's wish, thou poet's thought,</p> +<p>Thou bright delusion; like the rainbow thou</p> +<p>Glitterest, yet none may touch thee; thing of naught,</p> +<p>Star-high with heaven's own brightness on thy brow,</p> +<p>Blazoned and glorious I beheld thee grow—</p> +<p>Vision, begone,—for I am none of thine.</p> +<p>Of all that fills my heart and fancy now,</p> +<p>From dull oblivion not one word or line</p> +<p>Wilt thou touch with thy light and render it divine.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Even be it so. I sing not for thy smiles—</p> +<p>I sing to keep down sighs and ease the smart</p> +<p>Of care and sadness, and the daily toils</p> +<p>Which crush my soul and trample on my heart.</p> +<p>Far mightier spirits of the inspired art</p> +<p>Are mute and nameless, mid the muse in grief</p> +<p>Calls from the eastern to the western airt,</p> +<p>On tale, tradition, ballad, song, and chief</p> +<p>On thee, to give their names one passage bright and brief.</p> +<p>She calls in vain; like to a shooting star</p> +<p>Their storied rhymes shone brightly in their birth,</p> +<p>And shot a dazzling lustre near and far;</p> +<p>Then darkened, died, as all things else on earth.</p> +</div> +</div> +<h4>EVENING.</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i30">The sun</p> +<p>Behind the mountain's summit slowly sank;</p> +<p>Crows came in clouds down from the moorlands dun,</p> +<p>And darkened all the pine-trees, rank on rank;</p> +<p>The homeward milch-cows at the fountains drank;</p> +<p>Swains dropt the sickle, hinds unloosed the car—</p> +<p>The twin hares sported on the clover-bank,</p> +<p>And with the shepherd o'er the upland far,</p> +<p>Came out the round pale moon, and star succeeding star.</p> +<p>Star followed star, though yet day's golden light</p> +<p>Upon the hills and headlands faintly stream'd;</p> +<p>To their own pine the twin-doves took their flight;</p> +<p>From crag and cliff the clamorous seamews screamed,</p> +<p>In glade and glen the cottage windows gleam'd;</p> +<p>Larks left the cloud, for flight the grey owl sat;</p> +<p>The founts and lakes up silver radiance steamed;</p> +<p>Winging his twilight journey, hummed the gnat—</p> +<p>The drowsy beetle droned, and skimmed the wavering bat.</p> +</div> +</div> +<h4>THE MAID'S FIRST LOVE.</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The maiden heard a light foot on the floor,</p> +<p>And sidelong looked, and there before her stood</p> +<p>Young Eustace Graeme: far from the pasture moor</p> +<p>He came: the fragrance of the dale and wood</p> +<p>Was scenting all his garments green and good.</p> +<p>A sudden flush when tie the maiden saw,</p> +<p>Burned through his temples, kindled up his blood—</p> +<p>His stifling breath waxed nigh too tight to draw,</p> +<p>He bowed, and silent stood in wonderment and awe.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The father smiled, the mother smiled. Now why</p> +<p>Are her eyes downcast and his white brow glowing?</p> +<p>Say, have they vowed while heaven was witness by</p> +<p>With all her radiant lights like fountains flowing,</p> +<p>To love while water runs and woods are growing,</p> +<p>And stars glowed conscious of the compact pure?</p> +<p>They never woo'd, nor, love for love bestowing.</p> +<p>Met with the moonshine in the green-wood bow'r,</p> +<p>Nor looked and sighed, and looked and drank love by the +hour.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Yet they have met. Though not fools of the flock,</p> +<p>On whom love like the tiger gives one bound.</p> +<p>And then the heart is rent—a thunderstroke</p> +<p>That makes men dust before they hear the sound—</p> +<p>A shaft that leaves dark venom in the wound—</p> +<p>A frost that all the buds of manhood nips—</p> +<p>A sea of passion in which true love's drowned—</p> +<p>A demon strangling virtue in his grips—</p> +<p>A day when reason's son is quenched in dread eclipse.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>True gentle love is like the summer dew,</p> +<p>Which falls around when all is still and hush—</p> +<p>And falls unseen until its bright drops strew</p> +<p>With odours, herb and flower, and bank, and bush</p> +<p>O love, when womanhood is in the flush,</p> +<p>And man's a young and an unspotted thing!</p> +<p>His first breathed word and her half conscious blush,</p> +<p>Are fair us light in heaven, or flowers in spring—</p> +<p>The first hour of true love is worth our worshipping.</p> +</div> +</div> +<h4>LOVE OF COUNTRY.</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"I would not leave old Scotland's mountain gray,</p> +<p>Her hills, her cots, her halls, her groves of pine,</p> +<p>Dark though they be: yon glen, yon broomy brae,</p> +<p>Yon wild fox cleugh, yon eagle cliffs outline</p> +<p>An hour like this—this white right-hand of thine,</p> +<p>And of thy dark eyes such a gracious glance,</p> +<p>As I got now, for all beyond the line,</p> +<p>And all the glory gained by sword or lance,</p> +<p>In gallant England, Spain, or olive vales of France."</p> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="full" /> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1" name= +"footnote1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b> <a href= +"#footnotetag1">(return)</a> +<p>It is said, that a tiger lying in wait for a string of +passengers usually selects the last of the party.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2" name= +"footnote2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b> <a href= +"#footnotetag2">(return)</a> +<p>A pair of fine Chetahs, or Hunting Leopards, may be seen in the +Gardens of the Zoological Society.—ED. M.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3" name= +"footnote3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b> <a href= +"#footnotetag3">(return)</a> +<p>Several specimens have been ably translated in the +Athenaeum.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4" name= +"footnote4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b> <a href= +"#footnotetag4">(return)</a> +<p>The bodies are stripped, and placed on sloping slabs of marble; +above each are hung the clothes of the deceased.</p> +</blockquote> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><i>Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand. (near +Somerset House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, +Leipsic; G.G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris, and by +all Newsmen and Booksellers.</i></p> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11871 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/11871-h/images/549-1.png b/11871-h/images/549-1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6041a98 --- /dev/null +++ b/11871-h/images/549-1.png diff --git a/11871-h/images/549-2.png b/11871-h/images/549-2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d23a8d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/11871-h/images/549-2.png diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d938d2c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11871 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11871) diff --git a/old/11871-8.txt b/old/11871-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f743c0a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11871-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1864 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and +Instruction, Vol. 19, Issue 549 (Supplementary issue) , by Various + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 19, +Issue 549 (Supplementary issue) + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 2, 2004 [eBook #11871] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: iso-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, +AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION, VOL. 19, ISSUE 549 (SUPPLEMENTARY ISSUE) *** + + +E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Sandra Brown, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustration. + See 11871-h.htm or 11871-h.zip: + (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/8/7/11871/11871-h/11871-h.htm) + or + (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/8/7/11871/11871-h.zip) + + + + +THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. + +VOL. 19, No. 549] SUPPLEMENTARY NUMBER [PRICE 2_d_. + + + + * * * * * + + + + +THE ALHAMBRA, IN SPAIN + +[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW.] + +[Illustration: Palace of Charles V., see page 340.] + + * * * * * + + Accumulated novelties from Books published within the past month + have led to the publication of the present Supplement. Although + its contents have not been drawn from works of unfettered fancy, + it is hoped they will be found to blend the real with the + imaginative in such a degree as to render their knowledge not the + less useful for its being amusive. The Engravings are perhaps as + appropriate as attractive; since they illustrate, and the artists + hope not unworthily, the _New Sketch Book_ of WASHINGTON IRVING. + + * * * * * + +THE ALHAMBRA. + + by Geoffrey Crayon, Author Of The Sketch Book, &c. + +What! Washington Irving, or, as the title-page will have it, Geoffrey +Crayon, in SPAIN, wandering up and down the deserted halls of the +Alhambra, and weaving its legendary lore with thick coming fancies +into sketches of enchanting interest. The origin of the work, (the +_New Sketch Book_,) as it has been inappropriately styled, is told in +the dedication to David Wilkie, Esq., R.A. Mr. Irving and the great +artist just named were fellow travellers on the continent a few years +since. In their rambles about some of the old cities of Spain, they +were more than once struck with scenes and incidents which reminded +them of passages in the "Arabian Nights." The painter urged Mr. +Irving to write something that should illustrate those peculiarities, +"something in the Haroun Alrasched style" that should have a dash of +that Arabian spice which pervades every thing in Spain. The author set +to work, _con amore,_ and has produced two goodly volumes, with a +few "Arabesque" sketches and tales founded on popular traditions. His +_study_ was THE ALHAMBRA, which must have inspired him for his task. +To quote his own words: "how many legends and traditions, true and +fabulous; how many songs and romances, Spanish and Arabian, of love +and war, and chivalry, are associated with this romantic pile." The +Governor of the Alhambra gave Mr. Irving and his companion, permission +to occupy his vacant apartments in the Moorish Palace. "My companion," +says the author, "was soon summoned away by the duties of his station; +but I remained for several months, spellbound in the old enchanted +pile." + +Such is the plan or frame of the work before us. It has induced us to +select the Embellishments on the annexed page; and their description, +from so graceful a pencil as that of the author, will, we hope, +bespeak the favour of the reader. + +"The Alhambra is an ancient fortress or castellated palace of the +Moorish kings of Granada, where they held dominion over this their +boasted terrestrial paradise, and made their last stand for empire in +Spain. The palace occupies but a portion of the fortress, the walls of +which, studded with towers, stretch irregularly round the whole crest +of a lofty hill that overlooks the city, and forms a spur of the +Sierra Nevada, or snowy mountain. + +"In the time of the Moors, the fortress was capable of containing +an army of forty thousand men within its precincts, and served +occasionally as a stronghold of the sovereigns against their +rebellious subjects. After the kingdom had passed into the hands +of the Christians, the Alhambra continued a royal demesne, and was +occasionally inhabited by the Castilian monarchs. The Emperor Charles +V. began a sumptuous palace within its walls, but was deterred from +completing it by repeated shocks of earthquakes. The last royal +residents were Philip V. and his beautiful queen Elizabetta of Parma, +early in the eighteenth century. Great preparations were made for +their reception. The palace and gardens were placed in a state of +repair, and a new suite of apartments erected, and decorated by +artists brought from Italy. The sojourn of the sovereigns was +transient, and after their departure the palace once more became +desolate. Still the place was maintained with some military state. The +governor held it immediately from the crown, its jurisdiction extended +down into the suburbs of the city, and was independent of the captain +general of Granada. A considerable garrison was kept up, the governor +had his apartments in the front of the old Moorish palace, and never +descended into Granada without some military parade. The fortress, in +fact, was a little town of itself, having several streets of houses +within its walls, together with a Franciscan convent and a parochial +church. + +"The desertion of the court, however, was a fatal blow to the +Alhambra. Its beautiful halls became desolate, and some of them fell +to ruin; the gardens were destroyed, and the fountains ceased to play. +By degrees the dwellings became filled up with a loose and lawless +population; contrabandistas, who availed themselves of its independent +jurisdiction to carry on a wide and daring course of smuggling, and +thieves and rogues of all sorts, who made this their place of refuge +from whence they might depredate upon Granada and its vicinity. The +strong arm of government at length interfered: the whole community was +thoroughly sifted; none were suffered to remain but such as were of +honest character, and had legitimate right to a residence; the greater +part of the houses were demolished and a mere hamlet left, with +the parochial church and the Franciscan convent. During the recent +troubles in Spain, when Granada was in the hands of the French, +the Alhambra was garrisoned by their troops, and the palace was +occasionally inhabited by the French commander. With that enlightened +taste which has ever distinguished the French nation in their +conquests, this monument of Moorish elegance and grandeur was rescued +from the absolute ruin and desolation that were overwhelming it. The +roofs were repaired, the saloons and galleries protected from the +weather, the gardens cultivated, the water courses restored, the +fountains once more made to throw up their sparkling showers; and +Spain may thank her invaders for having preserved to her the most +beautiful and interesting of her historical monuments. + +"On the departure of the French they blew up several towers of the +outer wall, and left the fortifications scarcely tenable. Since that +time the military importance of the post is at an end. The garrison is +a handful of invalid soldiers, whose principal duty is to guard some +of the outer towers, which serve occasionally as a prison of state; +and the governor, abandoning the lofty hill of the Alhambra, resides +in the centre of Granada, for the more convenient dispatch of his +official duties. + + +Interior of the Alhambra + + +"The Alhambra has been so often and so minutely described by +travellers, that a mere sketch will, probably, be sufficient for the +reader to refresh his recollection; I will give, therefore, a brief +account of our visit to it the morning after our arrival in Granada. + +"Leaving our posada of La Espada, we traversed the renowned square of +the Vivarrambla, once the scene of Moorish jousts and tournaments, now +a crowded market-place. From thence we proceeded along the Zacatin, +the main street of what, in the time of the Moors, was the Great +Bazaar, where the small shops and narrow allies still retain the +Oriental character. Crossing an open place in front of the palace of +the captain-general, we ascended a confined and winding street, the +name of which reminded us of the chivalric days of Granada. It is +called the Calle, or street of the Gomeres, from a Moorish family +famous in chronicle and song. This street led up to a massive gateway +of Grecian architecture, built by Charles V. forming the entrance to +the domains of the Alhambra. + +"At the gate were two or three ragged and superannuated soldiers, +dozing on a stone bench, the successors of the Zegris and the +Abencerrages; while a tall meagre varlet, whose rusty-brown cloak was +evidently intended to conceal the ragged state of his nether garments, +was lounging in the sunshine and gossiping with an ancient sentinel on +duty. He joined us as we entered the gate, and offered his services to +show us the fortress. + +"I have a traveller's dislike to officious ciceroni, and did +not-altogether like the garb of the applicant. + +"'You are well acquainted with the place, I presume?' + +"'Ninguno mas; pues Senor, soy hijo de la Alhambra.'--(Nobody better; +in fact, Sir, I am a son of the Alhambra!) + +"The common Spaniards have certainly a most poetical way of expressing +themselves. 'A son of the Alhambra!' the appellation caught me at +once; the very tattered garb of my new acquaintance assumed a dignity +in my eyes. It was emblematic of the fortunes of the place, and +befitted the progeny of a ruin. + +"I put some farther questions to him, and found that his title was +legitimate. His family had lived in the fortress from generation to +generation ever since the time of the conquest. His name was Mateo +Ximenes. 'Then, perhaps,' said I, 'you may be a descendant from the +great Cardinal Ximenes?'--'Dios Sabe! God knows, Senor! It may be so. +We are the oldest family in the Alhambra,--_Christianos Viejos_, old +Christians, without any taint of Moor or Jew. I know we belong to some +great family or other, but I forget whom. My father knows all about +it: he has the coat-of-arms hanging up in his cottage, up in the +fortress.' There is not any Spaniard, however poor, but has some claim +to high pedigree. The first title of this ragged worthy, however, had +completely captivated me, so I gladly accepted the services of the +'son of the Alhambra.' + +"We now found ourselves in a deep narrow ravine, filled with beautiful +groves, with a steep avenue, and various footpaths winding through it, +bordered with stone seats, and ornamented with fountains. To our left, +we beheld the towers of the Alhambra beetling above us; to our right, +on the opposite side of the ravine, we were equally dominated by +rival towers on a rocky eminence. These, we were told, were the Torres +Vermejos, or vermilion towers, so called from their ruddy hue. No one +knows their origin. They are of a date much anterior to the Alhambra: +some suppose them to have been built by the Romans; others, by some +wandering colony of Phoenicians. Ascending the steep and shady avenue, +we arrived at the foot of a huge square Moorish tower; forming a kind +of barbican, through which passed the main entrance to the fortress. +Within the barbican was another group of veteran invalids, one +mounting guard at the portal, while the rest, wrapped in their +tattered cloaks, slept on the stone benches. This portal is called the +Gate of Justice, from the tribunal held within its porch during the +Moslem domination, for the immediate trial of petty causes: a custom +common to the Oriental nations, and occasionally alluded to in the +Sacred Scriptures. + +"The great vestibule or porch of the gate, is formed by an immense +Arabian arch, of the horse-shoe form, which springs to half the height +of the tower. On the key-stone of this arch is engraven a gigantic +hand. Within the vestibule, on the key-stone of the portal, is +sculptured, in like manner, a gigantic key. Those who pretend to some +knowledge of Mahometan symbols, affirm that the hand is the emblem of +doctrine, and the key of faith; the latter, they add, was emblazoned +on the standard of the Moslems when they subdued Andalusia, in +opposition to the Christian emblem of the Cross. A different +explanation, however, was given by the legitimate son of the Alhambra, +and one more in unison with the notions of the common people, who +attach something of mystery and magic to every thing Moorish, and have +all kind of superstitions connected with this old Moslem fortress. + +"According to Mateo, it was a tradition handed down from the oldest +inhabitants, and which he had from his father and grandfather, +that the hand and key were magical devices on which the fate of the +Alhambra depended. The Moorish King who built it was a great magician, +or, as some believed, had sold himself to the devil, and had laid +the whole fortress under a magic spell. By this means it had remained +standing for several hundred years, in defiance of storms and +earthquakes, while almost all other buildings of the Moors had fallen +to ruin, and disappeared. This spell, the tradition went on to say, +would last until the hand on the outer arch should reach down and +grasp the key, when the whole pile would tumble to pieces, and all the +treasures buried beneath it by the Moors would be revealed. + +"Notwithstanding this ominous prediction, we ventured to pass through +the spell-bound gateway, feeling some little assurance against magic +art in the protection of the Virgin, a statue of whom we observed +above the portal. + +"After passing through the barbican, we ascended a narrow lane, +winding between walls, and came on an open esplanade within the +fortress, called the Plaza de los Algibes, or Place of the Cisterns, +from great reservoirs which undermine it, cut in the living rock by +the Moors for the supply of the fortress. Here, also, is a well of +immense depth, furnishing the purest and coldest of water; another +monument of the delicate taste of the Moors, who were indefatigable in +their exertions to obtain that element in its crystal purity. + +"In front of this esplanade is the splendid pile commenced by Charles +V., intended, it is said, to eclipse the residence of the Moslem +kings. With all its grandeur and architectural merit, it appeared +to us like an arrogant intrusion, and, passing by it, we entered +a simple, unostentatious portal, opening into the interior of the +Moorish palace. + +"The transition was almost magical: it seemed as if we were at once +transported into other times and another realm, and were treading the +scenes of Arabian story. We found ourselves in a great court, paved +with white marble, and decorated at each end with light Moorish +peristyles: it is called the Court of the Alberca. In the centre was +an immense basin or fish-pond, a hundred and thirty feet in length by +thirty in breadth, stocked with gold-fish and bordered by hedges of +roses. At the upper end of this court rose the great Tower of Comares. + +"From the lower end we passed through a Moorish archway into the +renowned Court of Lions. There is no part of the edifice that gives +us a more complete idea of its original beauty and magnificence than +this, for none has suffered so little from the ravages of time. In +the centre stands the fountain famous in song and story. The alabaster +basins still shed their diamond drops; and the twelve lions, which +support them, cast forth their crystal streams as in the days of +Boabdil. The court is laid out in flower-beds, and surrounded by light +Arabian arcades of open filagree work, supported by slender pillars +of white marble. The architecture, like that of all the other parts +of the palace, is characterized by elegance rather than grandeur; +bespeaking a delicate and graceful taste, and a disposition to +indolent enjoyment. When one looks upon the fairy tracery of the +peristyles, and the apparently fragile fretwork of the walls, it is +difficult to believe that so much has survived the wear and tear of +centuries, the shocks of earthquakes, the violence of war, and the +quiet, though no less baneful, pilferrings of the tasteful traveller: +it is almost sufficient to excuse the popular tradition, that the +whole is protected by a magic charm. + +"On one side of the court, a portal, richly adorned, opens into a +lofty hall, paved with white marble, and called the Hall of the Two +Sisters. A cupola, or lantern, admits a tempered light from above, and +a free circulation of air. The lower part of the walls is encrusted +with beautiful Moorish tiles, on some of which are emblazoned the +escutcheons of the Moorish monarchs: the upper part is faced with the +fine stucco-work invented at Damascus, consisting of large plates, +cast in moulds, and artfully joined, so as to have the appearance of +having been laboriously sculptured by the hand into light relievos +and fanciful arabesques, intermingled with texts of the Koran, +and poetical inscriptions in Arabian and Cufic character. These +decorations of the walls and cupolas are richly gilded, and the +interstices pencilled with lapis-lazuli, and other brilliant and +enduring colours. On each side of the hall are recesses for ottomans +and couches. Above the inner porch is a balcony, which communicated +with the women's apartments. The latticed 'jalousies' still remain, +from whence the dark-eyed beauties of the haram might gaze unseen upon +the entertainments of the hall below. + +"It is impossible to contemplate this once favourite abode of Oriental +manners without feeling the early associations of Arabian romance, +and almost expecting to see the white arm of some mysterious princess +beckoning from the balcony, or some dark eye sparkling through the +lattice. The abode of beauty is here, as if it had been inhabited but +yesterday; but where are the Zoraydas and Lindaraxas? + +"On the opposite side of the Court of Lions, is the Hall of the +Abencerrages; so called from the gallant cavaliers of that illustrious +line who were here perfidiously massacred. There are some who doubt +the whole truth of this story; but our humble attendant Mateo pointed +out the very wicket of the portal through which they are said to have +been introduced, one by one, and the white marble fountain in the +centre of the hall where they were beheaded. He showed us also certain +broad ruddy stains in the pavement, traces of their blood, which, +according to popular belief, can never be effaced. Finding we listened +to him with easy faith, he added, that there was often heard at night, +in the Court of Lions, a low, confused sound, resembling the murmuring +of a multitude; with now and then a faint tinkling, like the distant +clank of chains. These noises are probably produced by the bubbling +currents and tinkling falls of water, conducted under the pavement, +through pipes and channels, to supply the fountains; but, according to +the legend of the son of the Alhambra, they are made by the spirits +of the murdered Abencerrages, who nightly haunt the scene of their +suffering, and invoke the vengeance of Heaven on their destroyer. + +"From the Court of Lions we retraced our steps through the Court of +the Alberca, or Great Fishpool; crossing which we proceeded to the +Tower of Comares, so called from the name of the Arabian architect. It +is of massive strength and lofty height, domineering over the rest +of the edifice, and overhanging the steep hill-side, which descends +abruptly to the banks of the Darro. A Moorish archway admitted us into +a vast and lofty hall, which occupies the interior of the tower, and +was the grand audience chamber of the Moslem monarchs, thence +called the Hall of Ambassadors. It still bears the traces of past +magnificence. The walls are richly stuccoed and decorated with +arabesques; the vaulted ceiling of cedar-wood, almost lost in +obscurity, from its height, still gleams with rich gilding, and the +brilliant tints of the Arabian pencil. On three sides of the saloon +are deep windows cut through the immense thickness of the walls, the +balconies of which look down upon the verdant valley of the Darro, the +streets and convents of the Albaycin, and command a prospect of the +distant Vega. + +"I might go on to describe minutely the other delightful apartments of +this side of the palace; the Tocador, or toilet of the queen, an +open belvidere, on the summit of a tower, where the Moorish sultanas +enjoyed the pure breezes from the mountain, and the prospect of +the surrounding paradise; the secluded little patio, or garden of +Lindaraxa, with its alabaster fountain, its thickets of roses and +myrtles, of citrons and oranges; the cool halls and grottoes of +the baths, where the glare and heat of day are tempered into a soft +mysterious light, and a pervading freshness. + +"While the city below pants with the noontide heat, and the parched +vega trembles to the eye, the delicate airs from the Sierra Nevada, +play through these lofty halls, bringing with them the sweetness of +the surrounding gardens. Every thing invites to that indolent repose, +the bliss of southern climes; and while the half-shut eye looks out +from shaded balconies upon the glittering landscape, the ear is lulled +by the rustling of groves, and the murmur of running streams." Here we +must end. + +The Sketches bear the very perfection of romance in their titles. Yes, +expectant reader, think of the Alhambra by Moonlight--A Ramble +among the Hills--Legend of the Arabian Astrologer--The Tower of Las +Infantas--Legends of the three beautiful Princesses--The Pilgrim of +Love--The Rose of the Alhambra,--the two discreet Statues, &c. &c. +What hours of spell-bound delight do these two volumes lock up, yet +we hope but for a short season, from all who would vary "life's dull +round" with romantic lore. + + * * * * * + + +NATURAL HISTORY. + +The remarkably attractive Number of the _Magazine of Natural History_ +for the present month enables us to checker our sheet with a page or +two of facts which will be interesting to every inquiring mind. + +Hail at Lausanne. + +"At Lausanne, on the 14th of July, 1831, about 8 P.M., we witnessed +one of those hail-storms which, every summer, cause such ravages in +the south of Europe. A great proportion of the hailstones were as +big as hen's eggs, and some even bigger: seven nearly filled a common +dinner plate. They were mostly oval or globular; but one piece, +brought to us after the storm, was flat and square, full 2 in. long, +as many broad, and three quarters of an inch thick, with several +projecting knobs of ice as big as large hazel nuts. This mass exactly +resembled a piece of uniformly transparent ice, but the oval and +globular masses had the same conformation as has often been described +in these hailstones, and on which Volta founded his ingenious but +untenable theory of their formation. In the centre of each was a +small, white, opaque nucleus, the size of a pea, and evidently one of +the hailstones usually seen in England, to which the French give the +name of _grésil_, confining the term _gréle_ to the larger masses of +ice now under our observation. This nucleus of _gresil_ was +enclosed in a coat about half an inch thick of ice considerably more +transparent than it, but still somewhat opaque, as though of snow +melted and then frozen again, and externally the rest of the mass was +of ice perfectly transparent, and as compact and hard as possible, +resounding like a pebble, and not breaking when thrown on the floor. +The inhabitants of Lausanne, aware that the cinereous and puffed up +appearance of the clouds charged with this tremendous aerial artillery +portended more than a mere thunder-storm, had adopted the precaution +of closing their Venetian shutters; but such windows as were deprived +of this protection had almost every pane broken: and much damage was +done to the tiles of all the houses, and to the gardens and vineyards; +but less than might have been expected, owing to the short duration of +the storm, which did not last longer than seven or eight minutes, and +to the circumstance of the hailstones not being very numerous."--(W. +Spence.) + +Cedar Wood. + +"The _cedar_ has been recommended, among other woods, for the purpose +of constructing drawers for cabinets of insects. Let the inexperienced +collector be warned that this is, perhaps, the _very worst_ wood that +can be employed for the purpose; a strong effluvia, or sometimes +a resinous gum, exudes from the wood of the cedar, which is apt to +settle in blotches on the wings of the specimens, especially of the +more delicate Lepidóptera, and entirely discharges the colour. The +Rev. Mr. Bree once had a whole collection of lepidopterous insects +utterly spoiled from having been deposited in cedar drawers; and +he has understood, also, that the insects in the British Museum, +collected, he believes, chiefly by Dr. Leach, have been greatly +injured from the same cause. Possibly, however, cedar wood, after it +has been thoroughly well seasoned, may be less liable to produce these +injurious effects." + +Habits of the Common Snake in Captivity. + +A Staffordshire Correspondent writes thus familiarly: + +"This has been a remarkably good season, both for vegetables and +animals. It has been a singular time for adders, snakes, and lizards; +I never saw so many as I have seen this year in all my life. I have +been trying, a great part of this summer, to domesticate a common +snake, and make it familiar with me and my children; but all to +no purpose, notwithstanding I favoured it with my most particular +attention. It was a most beautiful creature, only 2 ft. 7 in. long. I +did not know how long it had been without food when I caught it; but +I presented it with frogs, toads, worms, beetles, spiders, mice, and +every other delicacy of the season. I also tried to charm it with +music, and my children stroked and caressed it; but all in vain: +it would be no more familiar with any of us than if we had been the +greatest strangers to it, or even its greatest enemies. I kept it in +an old barrel, out of doors, for the first three weeks: during that +time, I can aver, it ate nothing; but, after a very wet night, it +seemed to suffer from the cold. I then put it into a glass vessel, and +set it on the parlour chimney-piece, covering the vessel with a piece +of silk gauze. I caught two live mice, and put them in to it; but they +would sooner have died of hunger than the snake would have eaten them: +they sat shivering on its back, while it lay coiled up as round as a +ball of worstep. I gave the mice some boiled potatoes, which they eat: +but the snake would eat neither the mice nor the potatoes. My +children frequently took it out in their hands, to show it to their +schoolfellows; but my wife, and some others, could not bear the sight +of it. I one day took it in my hand, and opened its mouth with a +penknife, to show a gentleman how different it was from that of the +adder, which I had dead by me: its teeth being no more formidable +or terrific than the teeth of a trout or eel; while the mouth of the +adder had two fangs, like the claws of a cat, attached to the roof of +the mouth, no way connected with its jaw-teeth. While examining the +snake in this manner, it began to smell most horridly, and filled the +room with an abominable odour; I also felt, or thought I felt, a kind +of prickly numbness in the hand I held it in, and did so for some +weeks afterwards. In struggling for its liberty, it twisted itself +round my arm, and discharged its excrements on my coat-sleeve, which +seemed nothing more than milk, or like the chalkings of a woodcock. +It made its escape from me several times by boring a hole through the +gauze; I had lost it for some days at one time, when at length it was +observed peeping out of a mouse-hole behind one of the cellar steps. +Whether it had caught any beetles or spiders in the cellar, I cannot +say; but it looked as fierce as a hawk, and hissed and shook its +tongue, as in open defiance. I could not think of hurting it by +smoking it out with tobacco or brimstone; but called it my fiery +dragon which guarded my ale cellar. At length I caught it, coiled up +on one of the steps. I put it again into an American flour barrel; +but it happened not to be the same as he had been in, and I observed a +nail protruding through the staves about half way up. This, I suppose, +he had made use of to help his escape; for he was missing one morning +about ten o'clock: I had seen him at nine o'clock; so I thought he +could not be far off. I looked about for him for half an hour, when I +gave up the hunt in despair. However, at one o'clock, as the men were +going from dinner, one of them observed the rogue hiding himself under +a stone, fifty yards from the house. 'Dang my buttons,' said he, 'if +here is not master's snake. He came back and told my wife, who +told him to go and kill it. It happened to be _washing-day_: the +washerwoman gave him a pailful of scalding soapsuds to throw on +it; but whether he was most afraid of me or of the snake is still a +question: however, the washerwoman brought it home with the tongs, +and dropped it into the dolly-tub. It dashed round the tub with the +velocity of lightning; my daughter, seeing its agony, snatched it out +of the scalding liquid, but too late: it died in a few minutes. I +was not at all angry with my wife: I had had my whim, and she had had +hers. I had got all the knowledge I wanted to get; I had learned that +it was of no use for a human being, who requires food three times a +day, to domesticate an animal which can live weeks and months without +food: for, as the saying is, 'Hunger will tame any thing;' and without +hunger you can tame nothing. I have also learned that the serpent, +instead of being the emblem of wisdom, should have been an emblem of +stupidity." + +"The stench emitted by the common snake, when molested, is +superlatively noisome; and is given off so powerfully and copiously, +that it infects the air around to a diameter of several yards. This I +witnessed on observing a bitch dog kill a rather large snake; in which +act two points beside the odour effused were notable. The coils of the +snake formed, as it were, a circular wall; and in the circular space +between it, the snake sunk its head, as if for protection. The dog's +efforts were to catch and crush the head; and, shrivelling up her +fleshy lips, 'which all the while ran froth,' she kept thrusting the +points of her jaws into the circular pit aforesaid, and catching at +and fracturing the head. During the progress of these acts, she, every +few seconds, snorted, and shook off the froth, of which she seemed +sedulously careful to free herself, and barked at the conquered snake. +The dog was a most determined vermin-killer, and in rats, &c., quite +an accomplished one; but snakes did not often come in her way."--J.D. + + * * * * * + +CURIOUS FACTS IN VEGETATION + +(From Part xiv. of _Knowledge for the People, or the Plain Why and +Because._) + +Why is it improper to consider the turnip a real bulb? + +Because it is an intermediate stem which swells into a bulbous form. +Turnips have not been cultivated in England, in fields, more than a +century; but this agricultural practice now yields an annual return +which probably exceeds the interest of our national debt.--_Sir Walter +Scott._ + +Why is the Cauliflower so named? + +Because of its origin from _caulis,_ the stalk of a herb. Colewort is +of a similar origin. + +Why are the stems of the Cabbage tribe considered wholesome food? + +Because their acrid flavour is dipersed among an abundance of +mucilage. Cabbages were commonly used among the ancients, and Cato +wrote volumes on their nature. The Indians had so much veneration for +them, that they swore by cabbages, and were therein as superstitious +as the Egyptians, who gave divine honours to leeks and onions, for the +great benefits which they said they received from them.--_Lemery on +Food._ + +Why do Cabbages emit a strong animal odour? + +Because they contain a great quantity of azote or nitrogen, one of the +ultimate elements of animal matter, and strongly characterized in the +destructive distillation of horn, hoofs, or bones. + +Why do not the leaves of the Cabbage remain wet, after being immersed +in water, and again taken out of it? + +Because they are powdered with a slight layer of resinous matter, +similar to that which covers certain fruits, and, in particular, plums +and grapes. Their sea-green colour is also attributed to this resinous +layer. + +Why is Quassia so called? Because it was named in honour of a negro, +Quassia, a drunken doctor, who discovered the virtue of the wood in +curing malignant fevers. + +Why is the Ice plant so called? + +Because its stem is covered with soft tubercles, or excrescences, +which have a crystalline appearance. + +Why do the leaves of some trees fall very early? + +Because they are articulated to the branch; that is, they do not unite +with it by the whole of their base, but are simply fixed to it by +a kind of contraction or articulation; as in the maple and horse +chestnut. + +Why do leaves fall at the approach of winter? + +Because a separation takes place, either in the foot-stalk, or more +usually at its base, and the dying part quits the vigorous one, which +is promoted by the weight of the leaf itself, or the action of the +gales that blow in autumn on its expanded form. M. Richard explains +the cause more philosophically: "Although the fall of the leaves +generally takes place at the approach of winter, cold is not to be +considered as the principal cause of this phenomenon. It is much more +natural to attribute it to the cessation of vegetation, and the want +of nourishment which the leaves experience at that season, when the +course of the sap is interrupted. The vessels of the leaf contract, +dry up, and soon after, that organ is detached from the twig on which +it had been developed." + +Why do some trees, as the Oak, the Beech, and the Hornbeam, retain +their leaves to a late period of autumn? + +Because the life of the twigs on which they grow is not sufficiently +vigorous to throw them off, after the brown colour indicates that they +are dead. + +Why have some plants been termed the Poor Man's Weather-glass? + +Because they shut up their flowers against the approach of rain. +Linnaeus, however, thinks, that flowers lose their fine sensibility, +after the anthers have performed their office, or when deprived of +them artificially. Sir James Smith also observes, that some species +are sometimes exhausted by continued wet; "and it is evident that +very sudden thunder showers often take such flowers by surprise, the +previous state of the atmosphere not having been such as to give them +due warning." + +Many flowers have a regular time of opening and shutting. We have +already mentioned the Marigold; the goat's-beard is vulgarly called +"John go-to-bed at noon," from its closing at mid-day; and at the Cape +of Good Hope there is a "four o'clock flower," because it invariably +closes at that time. The common daisy is, however, a readier example, +its name being a compound of day's and eye--Day's-eye, in which +way, indeed, it is written by Ben Johnson. It regularly shuts after +sun-set, to expand again with the morning light. Thus,-- + + The little dazie, that at evening closes. + +Spenser. + + By a daisy, whose leaves spread, + Shut when Titian goes to bed.--_G. Withers._ + +Leyden sings of moist or rainy weather foretold by daisies. Thus we +may examine a whole field, and not find a daisy open, except such as +have their flowering nearly over, and have in consequence lost their +sensibility. + +The daisy is one of the pet flowers of the poets. Chaucer is ecstatic +in its praise, and calls it his "owne hartes' rest;" Burns, "Wee, +modest, crimson-tipped flower;" and Wordsworth, in beautiful and +touching simplicity, has addressed several poems to "the poet's +darling." + +Appended to Richard's valuable "Elements," is the _Horologium Florae,_ +(timepiece of Flora,) or a table of the hours at which certain plants +expand and shut, at Upsal, 60 deg. north latitude. The earliest Meadow +Salsafy opens from 3 to 4 A.M.; and closes from 9 to 10 A.M. The +latest A.M. is the _Mesembryanthemum Modiflorum,_ (used in the +manufacture of Maroquin leather,) which opens 10 to 11 A.M., +and closes at 12 P.M. The latest opening P.M. is the _Cactus +Grandiflorus,_ 9 to 10 P.M., and closing at 12 P.M., thus remaining +open only two or three hours. Other flowers, we may add, are +so peculiarly delicate, as scarcely to bear the contact of the +atmosphere. + +Forster, in his "Researches about Atmospheric Phenomena," notices +several prognostics of the weather by plants. Thus, Chickweed has been +said to be an excellent weather-guide. When the flower expands freely, +no rain need be feared for a long time. In showery days the flower +appears half concealed, and this state may be regarded as indicative +of showery weather; when it is entirely shut, we may expect a rainy +day. If the flowers of the Siberian sowthistle remain open all night, +we may expect rain next day. Before showers, the trefoil contracts its +leaves. Lord Bacon observes, that the trefoil has its stalk more +erect against rain. He also mentions a small red flower, growing in +stubble-fields, called by the country people _wincopipe_, which, if it +opens in the morning, assures us of a fine day. + + * * * * * + + +TRAVELS + + _Pen and Pencil Sketches of India, being the Journal of a Tour + in India. By Captain Mundy._ + +These are two very amusing volumes of scenes and situations full of +stirring interest, as their criticships would say--for example the +four extracts immediately following: + +Palankeen Travelling and a Sortie of Tigers. + +"To those unitiated into the mysteries of Indian travelling, the +prospect of a journey of six hundred miles, night and day, in a hot +climate, inclosed in a sort of coffin-like receptacle, carried on the +shoulders of men, is somewhat alarming; but to one more accustomed to +that method of locomotion, the palankeen would, perhaps, prove +less fatiguing and harassing, for a long journey, than any other +conveyance. + +"The horizontal or reclining position is naturally the most easy to +the body; and the exhaustion consequent upon a journey in the heat of +the day, generally secures to the traveller as much sleep during +the cooller hours of the night, as the frequent interruptions of the +bearers at the several stages will allow him to enjoy. I had laid in a +good store of tea, sugar, and biscuits, a novel, some powder and shot, +a gun, and a sword, and plenty of blankets, as a defence against +the coldness of the night. Our baggage consisted of a dozen boxes +(patarras) appended to bamboos, and carried by men: these, with two +torch-bearers (mussalgees) to each palankeen, completed our cavalcade. + +"Nov. 24th, 7 A.M., reached Hazarebaug, a small station, about two +hundred and twenty miles from Calcutta. It is a healthy spot; the +earth sandy and rocky, presenting a strong contrast to the loomy and +alluvial soil of Southern Bengal. From Rogonnâthpore to Hazarebaug the +road runs through an almost uninterrupted jungle, swarming with wild +beasts. At this place we met with a hospitable friend, who stored our +palankeens with provisions, after giving us a capital breakfast. + +"At eleven o'clock at night we entered the famous pass of Dunghye. The +road bears the appearance of a deep sandy ravine; the banks are rocky +and woody, and in many places quite overhung by the forest-trees. We +had accomplished about half the defile, when I was suddenly and rudely +awakened from a dozing sleep by the shock of my palankeen coming to +the ground, and by the most discordant shouts and screams. I jumped +out to ascertain the cause of the uproar, and found, on inquiry, that +a foraging party of tigers--probably speculating upon picking up a +straggling bearer--had sprung off the rocks, and dashed across the +road, bounding between my palankeen and that of Colonel D., who was +scarcely ten yards a-head. The bearers of both palankeens were all +huddled together, bellowing like bedlamites, and the mussalgees waving +their torches most vehemently. On mustering our forces, we discovered +that two of our patarra-bearers were missing, and fearing that the +tigers might pick them up, we dispatched four men with spare torches +to bring them on. Meanwhile my friend and myself, having brought +our palankeens together, armed ourselves with patience and a pair of +pistols to await the result. The whole incident, with the time and +scene, was highly interesting and wild, with just enough of the awful +to give an additional piquancy. The night was dark and stormy, and the +wind roared among the trees above our heads: the torches cast a red +and flickering light on the rocks in our immediate neighbourhood, and +just showed us enough of the depths of the forest to make the back +ground more gloomy and unfathomable. The distant halloos of the men +who were gone in search of their comrades, came faintly and wildly +upon the breeze; and the occasional shots that we fired rang through +the rocky jungle with an almost interminable echo. In about three +quarters of an hour our bearers joined us, together with the two +patarra-bearers. These latter, hearing the vociferations of our men, +and guessing the cause, had quietly placed their boxes on the ground, +about a mile in the rear of us, and seating themselves on their heels, +had determined not to proceed until the break of day. + +"All being reported present, we resumed our journey, the men screaming +chorus to scare our unwelcome visitors, whom I several times fancied +I heard rustling among the brushwood on the road side, as though they +were moving on our flanks in order to cut off any straggler who might +drop astern. I never saw bearers go more expeditiously, or in more +compact order, every man fearing to be the last in the cavalcade.[1] +A sheet would have covered the whole party! The tigers, if they had +calculated upon one of our number for their evening meal, must have +gone supperless to their lair, for we mustered all our twenty-four men +in the morning. A dâk hurkarah (post messenger) had been carried +off in the same spot two days before, probably by the same family of +tigers, which according to the bearer's account, consisted of two old +ones, and three cubs. + +[Footnote 1: It is said, that a tiger lying in wait for a string of +passengers usually selects the last of the party.] + +Wild Beast Fights + +"Early in the morning, the whole party, including ladies, eager for +the novel spectacle, mounted elephants, and repaired to the private +gate of the royal palace, where the King met the Commander-in-Chief, +and conducted him and his company to a palace in the park, in one of +the courts of which the arena for the combats was prepared. In the +centre was erected a gigantic cage of strong bamboos, about fifty +feet high, and of like diameter, and rooffed with rope network. Sundry +smaller cells, communicating by sliding doors with the main theatre, +were tenanted by every species of the savagest inhabitants of +the forest. In the large cage, crowded together, and presenting a +formidable front of broad, shaggy foreheads well armed with horns, +stood a group of buffaloes sternly awaiting the conflict, with their +rear scientifically appuyé against the bamboos. The trap-doors being +lifted, two tigers, and the same number of bears and leopards, rushed +into the centre. The buffaloes instantly commenced hostilities, and +made complete shuttlecocks of the bears, who, however, finally +escaped by climbing up the bamboos beyond the reach of their horned +antagonists. The tigers, one of which was a beautiful animal, fared +scarcely better; indeed, the odds were much against them, there +being five buffaloes. They appeared, however to be no match for these +powerful creatures, even single-handed, and showed little disposition +to be the assaulters. The larger tiger was much gored in the head, and +in return took a mouthful of his enemy's dewlap, but was finally (as +the fancy would describe it) 'bored to the ropes and floored.' The +leopards seemed throughout the conflict sedulously to avoid a breach +of the peace. + +"A rhinoceros was next let loose in open courtyard, and the attendants +attempted to induce him to pick a quarrel with a tiger who was chained +to a ring. The rhinoceros appeared, however, to consider a fettered +foe as quite beneath his enmity; and having once approached the tiger, +and quietly surveyed him, as he writhed and growled, expecting the +attack, turned suddenly round and trotted awkwardly off to the yard +gate, where he capsized a palankeen which was carrying away a lady +fatigued with the sight of these unfeminine sports. + +"A buffalo and tiger were the next combatants: they attacked +furiously, the tiger springing at the first onset on the other's head, +and tearing his neck severely; but he was quickly dismounted, and +thrown with such violence as nearly to break his back, and quite to +disable him from renewing the combat. + +"A small elephant was next impelled to attack a leopard. The battle +was short and decisive; the former falling on his knees, and thrusting +his blunted tusks nearly through his antagonist. + +"On our return from the beast fight a breakfast awaited us at the +royal palace; and the white tablecloth being removed, quails, trained +for the purpose, were placed upon the green cloth, and fought most +gamely, after the manner of the English cockpit. This is an amusement +much in fashion among the natives of rank, and they bet large sums on +their birds, as they lounge luxuriously round, smoking their houkahs. + +Hunting with Leopards + +"The leopards are each accommodated with a flat-topped cart, without +sides, drawn by two bullocks, and each animal has two attendants. They +are loosely bound by a collar and rope to the back of the vehicle, +and are also held by the keeper by a strap round the loins. A leathern +hood covers their eyes. The antelopes being excessively timid and +wild, the best way to enjoy the sport is to sit on the cart alongside +the driver; for the vehicle being built like the hackeries of the +peasants, to the sight of which the deer are accustomed, it is not +difficult, by skilful management, to approach within two hundred yards +of the game. On this occasion we had three chetahs in the field, and +we proceeded towards the spot where the herd had been seen, in a line, +with an interval of about one hundred yards between each cart. On +emerging from a cotton-field, we came in sight of four antelopes, and +my driver managed to get within one hundred yards of them ere they +took alarm. The chetah was quickly unhooded, and loosed from his +bonds; and as soon as he viewed the deer he dropped quietly off +the cart, on the _opposite_ side to that on which they stood, and +approached them at a slow, crouching canter, masking himself by +every bush and inequality of ground which lay in in his way. As soon, +however, as they began to show alarm, he quickened his pace, and was +in the midst of the herd in a few bounds. + +"He singled out a doe, and ran it close for about two hundred yards, +when he reached it with a blow of his paw, rolled it over, and in an +instant was sucking the life-blood from its throat. + +"One of the other chetahs was slipped at the same time, but after +making four or five desperate bounds, by which he nearly reached his +prey, suddenly gave up the pursuit, and came growling sulkily back to +his cart. + +"As soon as the deer is pulled down, a keeper runs up, hoods the +chetah cuts the victim's throat, and receiving some of the blood in +a wooden ladle, thrusts it under the leopard's nose. The antelope +is then dragged away, and placed in a receptacle under the hackery, +whilst the chetah is rewarded with a leg for his pains."[1] + +[Footnote 1: A pair of fine Chetahs, or Hunting Leopards, may be seen +in the Gardens of the Zoological Society.--ED. M.] + +An Alligator in the Ganges. + +"A beautiful specimen of an alligator's head was here given by Mr. +Alexander to Lord Combermere. He was rather a distinguished monster, +having carried off at different occasions, six or eight brace of men +from an indigo factory in the neighbourhood. A native, who had long +laid wait for him, at length succeeded in slaying him with poisoned +arrows. One of these notoriously ghaut-frequenting alligators is well +nigh as rich a prize to the poor native who is fortunate enough to +capture him, as a Spanish galleon is to a British frigate; for on +ripping open his stomach, and over-hauling its freight, it is not +unfrequently found to contain 'a choice assortment'--as the Calcutta +advertisers have it--of gold, silver, or brass bangles and anklets, +which have not been so expeditiously digested as their fair owners, +victims of the monster's voracity. A little fat Brahminee child, +'farci an ris,' must be a tempting and tender _bonne bouche_ to these +river gourmands. Horrific legends such as the above, together with a +great deal of valuable advice on the subject, were quite thrown away +upon me; for ninety degrees of Fahrenheit, and the enticing blueness +of the water generally betrayed me into a plunge every evening during +my Gangetic voyage." + +Nocturnal Bathing. + +"On the occasion of a grand nocturnal bathing ceremony, held at the +great tank called the Indra Damân, I went with a party of three or +four others to witness the spectacle. The walls surrounding the pool +and a cluster of picturesque pavilions in its centre were brilliantly +lighted up with hundreds of cheraugs, or small oil-lamps, casting a +flickering lustre upon the heads and shoulders of about five hundred +men, women, and children, who were ducking and praying, _à corps +perdu,_ in the water. As I glanced over the figures nearest to me, +I discovered floating among the indifferent bathers two dead bodies, +which had either been drowned in the confusion, or had purposely +come to die on the edge of the sacred tank; the cool and apathetic +survivors taking not the slightest notice of their soulless +neighbours." + +King John at the Cape. + +"The largest house in Simon's Town, and, indeed, the greater part of +the town itself, belongs to an Englishman of the name of Osbond, +who, however, is more generally known by the dignified title of 'King +John.' He was carpenter on board the sixty-gun ship Sceptre, which was +wrecked off this coast some yearn ago. Like Juan, he escaped the sea, +and like Juan he found a Haidee. Being well-favoured and sharp-witted, +he won the heart and the hand of a wealthy Dutch widow, whose dollars +he afterwards, in some bold but successful speculations, turned to +good account. He is said to have laid out ten thousand pounds on +these--to every one but himself--_inhospita littora._ King John is +much respected." + +Population of Cape Town. + +"The variety of nations, and the numerous shades of complexion +among the people in the streets of Cape Town, are very striking to +a stranger. First may be remarked the substantial Dutchman, with his +pretty, smiling, round-faced, and particularly well-dressed +daughter: then the knot of 'Qui hi's,' sent to the Cape, per doctor's +certificate, to husband their threadbare constitutions, and lavish +their rupees: next the obsequious, smirking, money-making China-man, +with his poking shoulders, and whip-like pig-tail: then the +stout, squat Hottentots--who resemble the Dutch in but one +characteristic!--and half castes of every intermediate tint between +black and white. These are well relieved and contrasted by the +tall, warlike figures and splendid costume of his Majesty's 72nd +Highlanders, who, with the 98th regiment, form the garrison of Cape +Town." + +Visit to the Residence of Napoleon at St. Helena. + +"We soon came in sight of the level plateau of the Longwood estate, +the residence of the late emperor, and six miles from Plantation +House. Here the country gradually assumes a more desolate and a wilder +look; and the English visitor arrives at the unfortunate and unwelcome +conclusion, that the best part of the island was not given to the +illustrious captive. One cannot avoid agreeing with Sir W. Scott, that +Plantation House should have been accorded to him, in spite of the +detering reasons of its vicinity to the sea, and its sequestered +situation. Longwood, however, has better roads, more space for riding +or driving, and in summer must have been much cooler than the less +sheltered parts of the isle. As we turned through the lodges the old +house appeared at the end of an avenue of scrubby and weather-worn +trees. It bears the exterior of a respectable farm-house, but is now +fast running to decay. On entering a dirty courtyard, and quitting +our horses, we were shown by some idlers into a square building, which +once contained the bed-room, sitting-room, and bath of the _Empereur +des François._ The partitions and floorings are now thrown down, and +torn up, and the apartments occupied for six years by the hero before +whom kings, emperors, and popes had quailed, are now tenanted by +cart-horses! + +"Passing on with a groan, I entered a small chamber, with two windows +looking towards the north. Between these windows are the marks of a +fixed sofa: on that couch Napoleon died. The apartment is now occupied +by a threshing machine; 'No bad emblem of its former tenant!' said +a sacrilegious wag. Hence we were conducted onwards to a large room, +which formerly contained a billiard-table, and whose front looks out +upon a little latticed veranda, where the imperial peripatetic--I +cannot style him philosopher--enjoyed the luxury of six paces to and +fro,--his favourite promenade. The white-washed walls are scored with +names of every nation; and the paper of the ceiling has been torn off +in strips as holy relics. Many couplets, chiefly French, extolling and +lamenting the departed hero, adorn or disfigure (according to their +qualities) the plaster walls. The only lines that I can recall to +mind--few are worth it--are the following, written ever the door, and +signed '---- ----, Officier de la Garde Impériale.' + + "'Du grand Napoléon le nom toujours cité + Ira de bouche en bouche à la postérité!'" + +The writer doubtless possessed more spirit as a sabreur than as a +poet. + +"The emperor's once well-kept garden, + + "'And still where many a garden-flower grows wild,' + +"is now overgrown and choked with weeds. At the end of a walk still +exists a small mound, on which it is said the hero of Lodi, Marengo, +and Austerlitz, amused himself by erecting a mock battery. The little +chunamed tank, in which he fed some fresh-water fish, is quite +dried up; and the mud wall, through a hole in which he reconnoitered +passers-by, is, like the great owner, returned to earth!" + +Captain Mundy's volumes are illustrated chiefly with sketches of +Indian sports from the master-hand of Land-seer; and for spirit of +execution they deserve to rank among the finest productions of this +distinguished artist. + + * * * * * + + +RECENT FRENCH LITERATURE. + +A novel picture of Paris has lately appeared with the taking title +of the _Hundred and One._ Its origin, as well as its subject, is +interesting. It is a voluntary association of almost all the literary +talent of France, for the benefit of an enterprising bookseller, +whose affairs have, it seems, fallen into the sere, since the +commercial embarrassments following on the Revolution. A hundred +and one authors of all ranks and political opinions, philosophers, +academicians, journalists, deputies, poets, artists, have combined +in this work to pass in review before us the humours, follies and +opinions of the French capital, painted in colours gay or grave, +sketchy or elaborate, according to the manner or mood of the artist. A +very amusing work, suitable to all tastes, is the result, and, by +aid of the _Foreign Quarterly Review_, we are enabled to present +the reader with a specimen sketch by Leon Guzlan, an author of some +celebrity in this species of writing.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Several specimens have been ably translated in the +Athenaeum.] + +VISIT TO THE MORGUE, AT PARIS. + +(The Morgue, we should premise, is an establishment in Paris for +the reception of all persons found dead in the City or its environs. +Thither it is the duty of the police to convey the bodies, where they +are exposed in a hall open to the public for a stated time,[1] when, +if not identified, and claimed, they are interred in the neighbouring +cemetery.) + +[Footnote 1: The bodies are stripped, and placed on sloping slabs of +marble; above each are hung the clothes of the deceased.] + +"After describing the exterior, the _Salle de l'Exposition_, which is +the only portion of the building, of course, with which the public +are acquainted, the writer conducts us into the inner recesses of this +house of death, the apartments of the superintendant. + +"M. Perrin, is a little old man, who coughs incessantly. When I +explained to him the object of my visit, he very politely offered to +show me all the details of his administration, regretting much, as he +said, that there was not so much variety as could be desired. 'But I +will show you what I have--be pleased to walk up.' + +"As we were climbing the narrow stairs, and he was informing me that +his establishment was connected both with the prefecture and the +police, with the one on account of the local expenses, with the other +from its connexion with the public health, we were obliged to stand +close against the wall to allow a troop of young girls to pass, well +dressed, gay, but shivering with the cold, which blew from the river +through the chink which lighted the stair. + +"'These are four of my daughters. I have eight children. François, the +keeper, has had four, and he has had the good fortune to get them all +married. François is a kind father.' + +"'So,' said I, 'twelve children then have been born in the Morgue. +Dreams of joy, and conjugal endearments, and parental delights, have +been experienced in this chamber of death. Marriage with its orange +flowers, baptism with its black robed sponsors, the communion, and the +embroidered veil, love, religion, virtue, have had their home here as +elsewhere. God has sown the seeds of happiness every where.' + +"'Papa, we are going to a distribution of prizes. My sisters are sure +to get a prize. Don't weary, we will be back in good time.' + +"'Go, my children,'--and all four embraced him. + +"I thought of the body of the little Norman in the dreary room +beneath, and of the mother who even now, perhaps, was anxiously +looking for her from the window. + +"'This is the apartment of François'. François did the honours with +the activity of a man who is not ashamed of his establishment. His +room is comfortably furnished; two modern pendules mounted on +bronze, a wardrobe with a Medusa's head, a high bed, and a handsome +rose-coloured curtain. If the room was not overburdened with +furniture, if there was not much of luxury, yet, to those not early +accustomed to superfluities, it might even seem gay. It represented +the tastes, opinions, and habits of its master. Vases of flowers threw +a green reflection on the curtains, for François is fond of flowers. +Among his gallery of portraits were those of Augereau and Kleber, both +in long coats, leaning on immense sabres, with peruques and powder. +Napoleon is there three times. + +"'Look at these jars,' said François, 'these are sweetmeats of +my wife's making; she excels in sweetmeats.' I read upon them, +'gooseberries of 1831.' We left François's apartment which forms the +right wing of the Morgue, while the clerk's house is on the left, and +entered the cabinet of administration of M. Perrin. + +"If François is fond of flowers, M. Perrin has the same penchant for +hydraulics and the camera obscura; he draws, he makes jets from the +Seine, by an ingenious piece of machinery of his own invention; while +he was retouching his syphon, I asked permission to turn over the +register, where suicides are ranged in two columns. + +"The fatal 'unknown' was the prevailing designation; 'brought here at +three in the morning, skull fractured, _unknown;_' 'brought at twelve +at night, drowned under the Pont des Arts, cards in his pocket, +_unknown;_'--'young woman, pregnant, crushed by a fiacre at the corner +of the Rue Mandar, _unknown_;'--'new born child found dead of cold, +at the gate of an hotel, _unknown.'_ + +"I said to M. Perrin that he must weary here very much occasionally +during the long nights of winter. + +"'No,' replied he good humouredly, 'the children sing, we all work, +François and I play at draughts or piquet; the worst of it is, we are +sometimes interrupted; a knock comes, we must go down, get a stone +ready, undress the new comer and register him: that spoils the game; +we forget to mark the points.' + +"'And this is the way you generally spend your evenings?'--'Always, +except when François has to go to Vaugirard at four o'clock: then +he must go to bed earlier. Perhaps you do not know that our burying +ground is at Vaugirard: as that burying ground is not much in fashion, +we have been allowed to retain our privilege of having a fosse to +ourselves.' + +"'I understand,--it is a fief of the Morgue.' + +"'You saw that chariot below near the entrance gate, in which the +children were hiding themselves at play,--that is our hearse.' + +"'And rich or poor, all must make use of your conveyance? If for +instance a suicide is recognised, his relations or friends may reclaim +him, take him home, and bestow the rites of sepulture on him at his +own house?' + +"'No, the Morgue does not give back what has been once deposited here. +It allows the funeral ceremonies to be as pompous as they will, but +they must all set out from hence; one end of the procession perhaps +is at Notre Dame, while the other is starting from the Morgue. The +Archbishop of Paris may be there; but François's place is fixed. It is +the first.' + +"'And the priests of Notre Dame, do they never make any difficulty +about administering the funeral rites to your dead?' + +"'Never!' + +"'Not even to the suicides?' + +"'There are no suicides for Notre Dame: one is drowned by accident, +another killed by the bursting of a gun, a third has fallen from +a scaffold. I invent the excuse, and the conscience of the priest +accepts it. That's enough.' + +"So, thought I! Notre Dame, which formerly witnessed the execution at +the stake of sorcerers, alchymists, and gipsies on the Grande Place, +has now no word of reprobation for the carcass of the suicide, once +allowed to rot on the ground, or be devoured by birds. She asks not +here what was his faith. The priest says mildly, 'Peace be with you.' + +"We walked down, and François opened the first room, that which +contains the dresses; habits of all shapes, all dimensions, hideously +jumbled together; gaiters pinned to a sleeve, a shawl shading the neck +of a coat; dresses of peasants, workmen, carters and brewers' frocks, +women's gowns, all faded, discoloured, shapeless, flap against each +other in the current of air which entered through the windows. There +is something here appalling in the sight and sound of these objects, +soulless, body-less, yet moving as if they had life, and presenting +the form without the flesh. Your eye rests on a handkerchief, the +property of some poor labourer, suddenly seized with the idea of +suicide, after some day that he has wanted work. + +"François, who followed the direction of my eyes to see what +impression the picture produced on me sighed heavily. + +"'Does it move you too,' said I? 'Are you discontented with your +lot.--Unhappy?' + +"'Not exactly! But, Sir, formerly, you must know, the dresses, after +being six months exhibited, became a perquisite of ours; we sold them. +Now they talk of taking the dresses from us.' + +"I reassured François as to the intention of government, and assured +him there was no talk of taking away the dresses. + +"The second room, that which adjoins the public exhibition room, is +appropriated for the dissection of those, the mode of whose death +appears to the police to be suspicious. Its only furniture is a marble +table, on which the dissections take place, and a shelf on which are +placed several bottles of chlorate. This room is immediately above +the room of M. Perrin. The dissecting table above just answers to the +girls' piano below. + +"In this room, which I crossed rapidly to avoid as much as possible +the sight of a body extended on the plank, I saw the little girl, who +had been stifled the night before in the diligence; she was a lovely +child. The other figure was frightfully disfigured; scarcely even +would his mother have recognised him. + +"There remained only the public room; it is narrow, ill aired; ten or +twelve black and sloping stones receive the suicides, who are placed +on it almost in a state of nudity; the places are seldom all occupied, +except perhaps during a revolution. Then it is that the Morgue is +recruited; two more days of glory and immortality in July, and the +plague had been in Paris. + +"'It is true,' said M. Perrin, 'we worked hard during the three days, +and we were allowed the use of two assistants. Corpses every where, +within, without, at the gate, on the bank.'-- + +"'And your girls?' + +"'During these days they did not leave their apartment, nor looked +out to the street, nor to the river; besides, you are mistaken if you +think the spectacle would have terrified them. Brought up here, +they will walk at night without a light in front of the glass, which +divides the corpses from the public, without trembling; we become +accustomed to any thing.' + +"Methought I heard the poor children, so familiar with the idea of +death, so accustomed to this domestic spectacle of their existence, +asking innocently of the strangers whom they visited,--as one would +ask where is your garden, your kitchen, or your cabinet,--'where do +_you_ keep your dead here?' + +"These were all the facts I could gather with regard to the +establishment. I was opening the glass door to breathe the fresh air +again, when the entrance of the crowd drove me back into the interior; +they were following a bier, on which lay a body, from which the water +dripped in a long stream. From one of the hands which were closely +clenched, the keeper detached a strip of coloured linen, and a +fragment of lace. 'Ah!' said he, 'let me look, 'tis she!' + +"'Who is it?' + +"'The nurse who was here this morning; the nurse of the little Norman +girl. Good! they may be buried together.' And M. Perrin put on +his spectacles, opened his register, and wrote in his best +current-hand--_unknown!_" + + * * * * * + + +POETRY. + + * * * * * + +The Maid of Elvar. By Allan Cunningham. + +This is one of the most gratifying "appearances" in the literature of +the day. It reminds us that however the poet's harp may have remained +unstrung, it has not lost its vigour or sweetness--its depth of +feeling, or its melody of tone, and these too are ably sustained +through nearly 600 stanzas in an exquisitely embellished narrative. +The poem is "a song of other times;" the story is one of chivalrous +love; the hero is a young warrior and poet; the Maid of Elvar offers +a garland of gold for the best song in honour of one of his victories; +"minstrels meet and sing, but the song of Eustace, though on another +theme, is reckoned the best; the Maid hangs the gold chain round his +neck, and retires, admiring the young stranger;" and thereby hangs the +tale. As our limits will not allow us to detach a scene or incident, +we must be content, for the present, with culling a few of the +choicest flowers of the song. + +CIVIL WAR. + + Woe, woe was ours. Chief drew his sword on chief: + Religion with her relique and her brand, + Made strife between our bosom-bones, and grief + And lawless joy abounded in the land; + Our glass of glory sank nigh its last sand; + Rank with its treason, priesthood with its craft, + Turned Scotland's war-lance to a willow-wand. + But war arose in Scotland--civil war; + Serf warred with chief, and father warred with son, + The church too warred with all: her evil star + That rules o'er sinking realms shone like the sun-- + Her lights waxed dim and died out one by one-- + Woe o'er the land hung like a funeral pall: + The sword the bold could brave, the coward shun, + But famine followed fast and fell on all-- + Pale lips cried oft for food which came not at their call. + +RURAL PEACE. + + Much mirth was theirs--war was no wonder then; + Dread fled with danger, and the cottage cocks, + The shepherd's war-pipe, called the sons of men + When morning's wheel threw bright dew from its spokes, + To pastures green to lead again their flocks; + The horn of harvest followed with its call; + Fast moved the sickle, and swift rose the shocks, + Behind the reapers like a golden wall-- + Gravely the farmer smiled, by turns approving all. + + The ripe corn waved in lone Dalgonar glen, + That, with its bosom basking in the sun, + Lies like a bird; the hum of working men + Joins with the sound of streams that southward run, + With fragrant holms atween: then mix in one + Beside a church, and round two ancient towers + Form a deep fosse. Here sire is heired by son, + And war comes never; ancle deep in flowers + In summer walk its dames among the sunny bowers. + + He rose, find homeward by the slumbering stream + Walked with the morn-dew glistening on his shoon. + The sun was up, and his outbursting beam + Touched tower and tree and pasture hills aboon; + The stars were quenched, and vanished was the moon; + Loud lowed the herds and the glad partridge' cry + Made corn-fields musical as groves at noon; + Birds left the perch, bee following bee hummed by, + And gladness reigned on earth and brightness claimed the sky. + +MINSTRELSY. + + I sing of days in which brave deeds of arms + And deeds of song went hand in hand: our kings + Heroic feelings had and owned the charms + Of minstrel lore--they loved the magic strings + More than the sceptre; still their kingdom rings + With their gay musings and their harpings high. + To noble deeds fair poesie lends wings; + She lifts them up from grovelling earth to sky, + And bids them sit in light, and live and never die. + +FAME. + + Fame, fame--thou warrior's wish, thou poet's thought, + Thou bright delusion; like the rainbow thou + Glitterest, yet none may touch thee; thing of naught, + Star-high with heaven's own brightness on thy brow, + Blazoned and glorious I beheld thee grow-- + Vision, begone,--for I am none of thine. + Of all that fills my heart and fancy now, + From dull oblivion not one word or line + Wilt thou touch with thy light and render it divine. + + Even be it so. I sing not for thy smiles-- + I sing to keep down sighs and ease the smart + Of care and sadness, and the daily toils + Which crush my soul and trample on my heart. + Far mightier spirits of the inspired art + Are mute and nameless, mid the muse in grief + Calls from the eastern to the western airt, + On tale, tradition, ballad, song, and chief + On thee, to give their names one passage bright and brief. + She calls in vain; like to a shooting star + Their storied rhymes shone brightly in their birth, + And shot a dazzling lustre near and far; + Then darkened, died, as all things else on earth. + +EVENING. + + The sun + Behind the mountain's summit slowly sank; + Crows came in clouds down from the moorlands dun, + And darkened all the pine-trees, rank on rank; + The homeward milch-cows at the fountains drank; + Swains dropt the sickle, hinds unloosed the car-- + The twin hares sported on the clover-bank, + And with the shepherd o'er the upland far, + Came out the round pale moon, and star succeeding star. + Star followed star, though yet day's golden light + Upon the hills and headlands faintly stream'd; + To their own pine the twin-doves took their flight; + From crag and cliff the clamorous seamews screamed, + In glade and glen the cottage windows gleam'd; + Larks left the cloud, for flight the grey owl sat; + The founts and lakes up silver radiance steamed; + Winging his twilight journey, hummed the gnat-- + The drowsy beetle droned, and skimmed the wavering bat. + +THE MAID'S FIRST LOVE. + + The maiden heard a light foot on the floor, + And sidelong looked, and there before her stood + Young Eustace Graeme: far from the pasture moor + He came: the fragrance of the dale and wood + Was scenting all his garments green and good. + A sudden flush when tie the maiden saw, + Burned through his temples, kindled up his blood-- + His stifling breath waxed nigh too tight to draw, + He bowed, and silent stood in wonderment and awe. + + The father smiled, the mother smiled. Now why + Are her eyes downcast and his white brow glowing? + Say, have they vowed while heaven was witness by + With all her radiant lights like fountains flowing, + To love while water runs and woods are growing, + And stars glowed conscious of the compact pure? + They never woo'd, nor, love for love bestowing. + Met with the moonshine in the green-wood bow'r, + Nor looked and sighed, and looked and drank love by the hour. + + Yet they have met. Though not fools of the flock, + On whom love like the tiger gives one bound. + And then the heart is rent--a thunderstroke + That makes men dust before they hear the sound-- + A shaft that leaves dark venom in the wound-- + A frost that all the buds of manhood nips-- + A sea of passion in which true love's drowned-- + A demon strangling virtue in his grips-- + A day when reason's son is quenched in dread eclipse. + + True gentle love is like the summer dew, + Which falls around when all is still and hush-- + And falls unseen until its bright drops strew + With odours, herb and flower, and bank, and bush + O love, when womanhood is in the flush, + And man's a young and an unspotted thing! + His first breathed word and her half conscious blush, + Are fair us light in heaven, or flowers in spring-- + The first hour of true love is worth our worshipping. + +LOVE OF COUNTRY. + + "I would not leave old Scotland's mountain gray, + Her hills, her cots, her halls, her groves of pine, + Dark though they be: yon glen, yon broomy brae, + Yon wild fox cleugh, yon eagle cliffs outline + An hour like this--this white right-hand of thine, + And of thy dark eyes such a gracious glance, + As I got now, for all beyond the line, + And all the glory gained by sword or lance, + In gallant England, Spain, or olive vales of France." + + * * * * * + +_Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand. (near Somerset +House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic; +G.G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris, and by all Newsmen +and Booksellers._ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, +AND INSTRUCTION, VOL. 19, ISSUE 549 (SUPPLEMENTARY ISSUE) *** + + +******* This file should be named 11871-8.txt or 11871-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/8/7/11871 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 19, Issue 549 (Supplementary issue) </p> +<p>Author: Various</p> +<p>Release Date: April 2, 2004 [eBook #11871]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: iso-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION, VOL. 19, ISSUE 549 (SUPPLEMENTARY ISSUE) ***</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<center><b>E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Sandra Brown,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</b></center> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr class="full" /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page337" id="page337"></a>[pg +337]</span> +<h1>THE MIRROR<br /> +OF<br /> +LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.</h1> +<hr class="full" /> +<table width="100%" summary="Volume, Number, and Date"> +<tr> +<td align="left"><b>Vol. 19. No. 549</b></td> +<td align="center"><b>SUPPLEMENTARY NUMBER.</b></td> +<td align="right"><b>[PRICE 2d.</b></td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>THE ALHAMBRA, IN SPAIN</h2> +<div class="figure" style="width:100%;"><a href= +"images/549-1.png"><img width="100%" src="images/549-1.png" alt= +"GENERAL VIEW" /></a> +<h3>GENERAL VIEW.</h3> +</div> +<div class="figure" style="width:100%;"><a href= +"images/549-2.png"><img width="100%" src="images/549-2.png" alt= +"Palace of Charles V." /></a> +<h4><i>Palace of Charles V., see page 340.</i></h4> +</div> +<hr /> +<blockquote> +<p>Accumulated novelties from Books published within the past month +have led to the publication of the present Supplement. Although its +contents have not been drawn from works of unfettered fancy, it is +hoped they will be found to blend the real with the imaginative in +such a degree as to render their knowledge not the less useful for +its being amusive. The Engravings are perhaps as appropriate as +attractive; since they illustrate, and the artists hope not +unworthily, the <i>New Sketch Book</i> of WASHINGTON IRVING.</p> +</blockquote> +<hr /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page338" id="page338"></a>[pg +338]</span> +<h2>THE ALHAMBRA.</h2> +<blockquote> +<h4><i>By Geoffrey Crayon, author of the Sketch Book, +&c.</i></h4> +</blockquote> +<p>What! Washington Irving, or, as the title-page will have it, +Geoffrey Crayon, in SPAIN, wandering up and down the deserted halls +of the Alhambra, and weaving its legendary lore with thick coming +fancies into sketches of enchanting interest. The origin of the +work, (the <i>New Sketch Book</i>,) as it has been inappropriately +styled, is told in the dedication to David Wilkie, Esq., R.A. Mr. +Irving and the great artist just named were fellow travellers on +the continent a few years since. In their rambles about some of the +old cities of Spain, they were more than once struck with scenes +and incidents which reminded them of passages in the "Arabian +Nights." The painter urged Mr. Irving to write something that +should illustrate those peculiarities, "something in the Haroun +Alrasched style" that should have a dash of that Arabian spice +which pervades every thing in Spain. The author set to work, <i>con +amore,</i> and has produced two goodly volumes, with a few +"Arabesque" sketches and tales founded on popular traditions. His +<i>study</i> was THE ALHAMBRA, which must have inspired him for his +task. To quote his own words: "how many legends and traditions, +true and fabulous; how many songs and romances, Spanish and +Arabian, of love and war, and chivalry, are associated with this +romantic pile." The Governor of the Alhambra gave Mr. Irving and +his companion, permission to occupy his vacant apartments in the +Moorish Palace. "My companion," says the author, "was soon summoned +away by the duties of his station; but I remained for several +months, spellbound in the old enchanted pile."</p> +<p>Such is the plan or frame of the work before us. It has induced +us to select the Embellishments on the annexed page; and their +description, from so graceful a pencil as that of the author, will, +we hope, bespeak the favour of the reader.</p> +<p>"The Alhambra is an ancient fortress or castellated palace of +the Moorish kings of Granada, where they held dominion over this +their boasted terrestrial paradise, and made their last stand for +empire in Spain. The palace occupies but a portion of the fortress, +the walls of which, studded with towers, stretch irregularly round +the whole crest of a lofty hill that overlooks the city, and forms +a spur of the Sierra Nevada, or snowy mountain.</p> +<p>"In the time of the Moors, the fortress was capable of +containing an army of forty thousand men within its precincts, and +served occasionally as a stronghold of the sovereigns against their +rebellious subjects. After the kingdom had passed into the hands of +the Christians, the Alhambra continued a royal demesne, and was +occasionally inhabited by the Castilian monarchs. The Emperor +Charles V. began a sumptuous palace within its walls, but was +deterred from completing it by repeated shocks of earthquakes. The +last royal residents were Philip V. and his beautiful queen +Elizabetta of Parma, early in the eighteenth century. Great +preparations were made for their reception. The palace and gardens +were placed in a state of repair, and a new suite of apartments +erected, and decorated by artists brought from Italy. The sojourn +of the sovereigns was transient, and after their departure the +palace once more became desolate. Still the place was maintained +with some military state. The governor held it immediately from the +crown, its jurisdiction extended down into the suburbs of the city, +and was independent of the captain general of Granada. A +considerable garrison was kept up, the governor had his apartments +in the front of the old Moorish palace, and never descended into +Granada without some military parade. The fortress, in fact, was a +little town of itself, having several streets of houses within its +walls, together with a Franciscan convent and a parochial +church.</p> +<p>"The desertion of the court, however, was a fatal blow to the +Alhambra. Its beautiful halls became desolate, and some of them +fell to ruin; the gardens were destroyed, and the fountains ceased +to play. By degrees the dwellings became filled up with a loose and +lawless population; contrabandistas, who availed themselves of its +independent jurisdiction to carry on a wide and daring course of +smuggling, and thieves and rogues of all sorts, who made this their +place of refuge from whence they might depredate upon Granada and +its vicinity. The strong arm of government at length interfered: +the whole community was thoroughly sifted; none were suffered to +remain but such as were of honest character, and had legitimate +right to a residence; the greater part of the houses were +demolished and a mere hamlet left, with the parochial church and +the Franciscan convent. During the recent troubles in Spain, when +Granada was in the hands of the French, the Alhambra was garrisoned +by their troops, and the palace was occasionally <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page339" id="page339"></a>[pg 339]</span> +inhabited by the French commander. With that enlightened taste +which has ever distinguished the French nation in their conquests, +this monument of Moorish elegance and grandeur was rescued from the +absolute ruin and desolation that were overwhelming it. The roofs +were repaired, the saloons and galleries protected from the +weather, the gardens cultivated, the water courses restored, the +fountains once more made to throw up their sparkling showers; and +Spain may thank her invaders for having preserved to her the most +beautiful and interesting of her historical monuments.</p> +<p>"On the departure of the French they blew up several towers of +the outer wall, and left the fortifications scarcely tenable. Since +that time the military importance of the post is at an end. The +garrison is a handful of invalid soldiers, whose principal duty is +to guard some of the outer towers, which serve occasionally as a +prison of state; and the governor, abandoning the lofty hill of the +Alhambra, resides in the centre of Granada, for the more convenient +dispatch of his official duties.</p> +<h4><i>Interior of the Alhambra</i>.</h4> +<p>"The Alhambra has been so often and so minutely described by +travellers, that a mere sketch will, probably, be sufficient for +the reader to refresh his recollection; I will give, therefore, a +brief account of our visit to it the morning after our arrival in +Granada.</p> +<p>"Leaving our posada of La Espada, we traversed the renowned +square of the Vivarrambla, once the scene of Moorish jousts and +tournaments, now a crowded market-place. From thence we proceeded +along the Zacatin, the main street of what, in the time of the +Moors, was the Great Bazaar, where the small shops and narrow +allies still retain the Oriental character. Crossing an open place +in front of the palace of the captain-general, we ascended a +confined and winding street, the name of which reminded us of the +chivalric days of Granada. It is called the Calle, or street of the +Gomeres, from a Moorish family famous in chronicle and song. This +street led up to a massive gateway of Grecian architecture, built +by Charles V. forming the entrance to the domains of the +Alhambra.</p> +<p>"At the gate were two or three ragged and superannuated +soldiers, dozing on a stone bench, the successors of the Zegris and +the Abencerrages; while a tall meagre varlet, whose rusty-brown +cloak was evidently intended to conceal the ragged state of his +nether garments, was lounging in the sunshine and gossiping with an +ancient sentinel on duty. He joined us as we entered the gate, and +offered his services to show us the fortress.</p> +<p>"I have a traveller's dislike to officious ciceroni, and did +not-altogether like the garb of the applicant.</p> +<p>"'You are well acquainted with the place, I presume?'</p> +<p>"'Ninguno mas; pues Senor, soy hijo de la +Alhambra.'—(Nobody better; in fact, Sir, I am a son of the +Alhambra!)</p> +<p>"The common Spaniards have certainly a most poetical way of +expressing themselves. 'A son of the Alhambra!' the appellation +caught me at once; the very tattered garb of my new acquaintance +assumed a dignity in my eyes. It was emblematic of the fortunes of +the place, and befitted the progeny of a ruin.</p> +<p>"I put some farther questions to him, and found that his title +was legitimate. His family had lived in the fortress from +generation to generation ever since the time of the conquest. His +name was Mateo Ximenes. 'Then, perhaps,' said I, 'you may be a +descendant from the great Cardinal Ximenes?'—'Dios Sabe! God +knows, Senor! It may be so. We are the oldest family in the +Alhambra,—<i>Christianos Viejos</i>, old Christians, without +any taint of Moor or Jew. I know we belong to some great family or +other, but I forget whom. My father knows all about it: he has the +coat-of-arms hanging up in his cottage, up in the fortress.' There +is not any Spaniard, however poor, but has some claim to high +pedigree. The first title of this ragged worthy, however, had +completely captivated me, so I gladly accepted the services of the +'son of the Alhambra.'</p> +<p>"We now found ourselves in a deep narrow ravine, filled with +beautiful groves, with a steep avenue, and various footpaths +winding through it, bordered with stone seats, and ornamented with +fountains. To our left, we beheld the towers of the Alhambra +beetling above us; to our right, on the opposite side of the +ravine, we were equally dominated by rival towers on a rocky +eminence. These, we were told, were the Torres Vermejos, or +vermilion towers, so called from their ruddy hue. No one knows +their origin. They are of a date much anterior to the Alhambra: +some suppose them to have been built by the Romans; others, by some +wandering colony of Phoenicians. Ascending the steep and shady +avenue, we arrived at the foot of a huge square Moorish tower; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page340" id="page340"></a>[pg +340]</span> forming a kind of barbican, through which passed the +main entrance to the fortress. Within the barbican was another +group of veteran invalids, one mounting guard at the portal, while +the rest, wrapped in their tattered cloaks, slept on the stone +benches. This portal is called the Gate of Justice, from the +tribunal held within its porch during the Moslem domination, for +the immediate trial of petty causes: a custom common to the +Oriental nations, and occasionally alluded to in the Sacred +Scriptures.</p> +<p>"The great vestibule or porch of the gate, is formed by an +immense Arabian arch, of the horse-shoe form, which springs to half +the height of the tower. On the key-stone of this arch is engraven +a gigantic hand. Within the vestibule, on the key-stone of the +portal, is sculptured, in like manner, a gigantic key. Those who +pretend to some knowledge of Mahometan symbols, affirm that the +hand is the emblem of doctrine, and the key of faith; the latter, +they add, was emblazoned on the standard of the Moslems when they +subdued Andalusia, in opposition to the Christian emblem of the +Cross. A different explanation, however, was given by the +legitimate son of the Alhambra, and one more in unison with the +notions of the common people, who attach something of mystery and +magic to every thing Moorish, and have all kind of superstitions +connected with this old Moslem fortress.</p> +<p>"According to Mateo, it was a tradition handed down from the +oldest inhabitants, and which he had from his father and +grandfather, that the hand and key were magical devices on which +the fate of the Alhambra depended. The Moorish King who built it +was a great magician, or, as some believed, had sold himself to the +devil, and had laid the whole fortress under a magic spell. By this +means it had remained standing for several hundred years, in +defiance of storms and earthquakes, while almost all other +buildings of the Moors had fallen to ruin, and disappeared. This +spell, the tradition went on to say, would last until the hand on +the outer arch should reach down and grasp the key, when the whole +pile would tumble to pieces, and all the treasures buried beneath +it by the Moors would be revealed.</p> +<p>"Notwithstanding this ominous prediction, we ventured to pass +through the spell-bound gateway, feeling some little assurance +against magic art in the protection of the Virgin, a statue of whom +we observed above the portal.</p> +<p>"After passing through the barbican, we ascended a narrow lane, +winding between walls, and came on an open esplanade within the +fortress, called the Plaza de los Algibes, or Place of the +Cisterns, from great reservoirs which undermine it, cut in the +living rock by the Moors for the supply of the fortress. Here, +also, is a well of immense depth, furnishing the purest and coldest +of water; another monument of the delicate taste of the Moors, who +were indefatigable in their exertions to obtain that element in its +crystal purity.</p> +<p>"In front of this esplanade is the splendid pile commenced by +Charles V., intended, it is said, to eclipse the residence of the +Moslem kings. With all its grandeur and architectural merit, it +appeared to us like an arrogant intrusion, and, passing by it, we +entered a simple, unostentatious portal, opening into the interior +of the Moorish palace.</p> +<p>"The transition was almost magical: it seemed as if we were at +once transported into other times and another realm, and were +treading the scenes of Arabian story. We found ourselves in a great +court, paved with white marble, and decorated at each end with +light Moorish peristyles: it is called the Court of the Alberca. In +the centre was an immense basin or fish-pond, a hundred and thirty +feet in length by thirty in breadth, stocked with gold-fish and +bordered by hedges of roses. At the upper end of this court rose +the great Tower of Comares.</p> +<p>"From the lower end we passed through a Moorish archway into the +renowned Court of Lions. There is no part of the edifice that gives +us a more complete idea of its original beauty and magnificence +than this, for none has suffered so little from the ravages of +time. In the centre stands the fountain famous in song and story. +The alabaster basins still shed their diamond drops; and the twelve +lions, which support them, cast forth their crystal streams as in +the days of Boabdil. The court is laid out in flower-beds, and +surrounded by light Arabian arcades of open filagree work, +supported by slender pillars of white marble. The architecture, +like that of all the other parts of the palace, is characterized by +elegance rather than grandeur; bespeaking a delicate and graceful +taste, and a disposition to indolent enjoyment. When one looks upon +the fairy tracery of the peristyles, and the apparently fragile +fretwork of the walls, it is difficult to believe that so much has +survived the wear and tear of centuries, the shocks of earthquakes, +the violence of war, and the quiet, <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page341" id="page341"></a>[pg 341]</span> though no less baneful, +pilferrings of the tasteful traveller: it is almost sufficient to +excuse the popular tradition, that the whole is protected by a +magic charm.</p> +<p>"On one side of the court, a portal, richly adorned, opens into +a lofty hall, paved with white marble, and called the Hall of the +Two Sisters. A cupola, or lantern, admits a tempered light from +above, and a free circulation of air. The lower part of the walls +is encrusted with beautiful Moorish tiles, on some of which are +emblazoned the escutcheons of the Moorish monarchs: the upper part +is faced with the fine stucco-work invented at Damascus, consisting +of large plates, cast in moulds, and artfully joined, so as to have +the appearance of having been laboriously sculptured by the hand +into light relievos and fanciful arabesques, intermingled with +texts of the Koran, and poetical inscriptions in Arabian and Cufic +character. These decorations of the walls and cupolas are richly +gilded, and the interstices pencilled with lapis-lazuli, and other +brilliant and enduring colours. On each side of the hall are +recesses for ottomans and couches. Above the inner porch is a +balcony, which communicated with the women's apartments. The +latticed 'jalousies' still remain, from whence the dark-eyed +beauties of the haram might gaze unseen upon the entertainments of +the hall below.</p> +<p>"It is impossible to contemplate this once favourite abode of +Oriental manners without feeling the early associations of Arabian +romance, and almost expecting to see the white arm of some +mysterious princess beckoning from the balcony, or some dark eye +sparkling through the lattice. The abode of beauty is here, as if +it had been inhabited but yesterday; but where are the Zoraydas and +Lindaraxas?</p> +<p>"On the opposite side of the Court of Lions, is the Hall of the +Abencerrages; so called from the gallant cavaliers of that +illustrious line who were here perfidiously massacred. There are +some who doubt the whole truth of this story; but our humble +attendant Mateo pointed out the very wicket of the portal through +which they are said to have been introduced, one by one, and the +white marble fountain in the centre of the hall where they were +beheaded. He showed us also certain broad ruddy stains in the +pavement, traces of their blood, which, according to popular +belief, can never be effaced. Finding we listened to him with easy +faith, he added, that there was often heard at night, in the Court +of Lions, a low, confused sound, resembling the murmuring of a +multitude; with now and then a faint tinkling, like the distant +clank of chains. These noises are probably produced by the bubbling +currents and tinkling falls of water, conducted under the pavement, +through pipes and channels, to supply the fountains; but, according +to the legend of the son of the Alhambra, they are made by the +spirits of the murdered Abencerrages, who nightly haunt the scene +of their suffering, and invoke the vengeance of Heaven on their +destroyer.</p> +<p>"From the Court of Lions we retraced our steps through the Court +of the Alberca, or Great Fishpool; crossing which we proceeded to +the Tower of Comares, so called from the name of the Arabian +architect. It is of massive strength and lofty height, domineering +over the rest of the edifice, and overhanging the steep hill-side, +which descends abruptly to the banks of the Darro. A Moorish +archway admitted us into a vast and lofty hall, which occupies the +interior of the tower, and was the grand audience chamber of the +Moslem monarchs, thence called the Hall of Ambassadors. It still +bears the traces of past magnificence. The walls are richly +stuccoed and decorated with arabesques; the vaulted ceiling of +cedar-wood, almost lost in obscurity, from its height, still gleams +with rich gilding, and the brilliant tints of the Arabian pencil. +On three sides of the saloon are deep windows cut through the +immense thickness of the walls, the balconies of which look down +upon the verdant valley of the Darro, the streets and convents of +the Albaycin, and command a prospect of the distant Vega.</p> +<p>"I might go on to describe minutely the other delightful +apartments of this side of the palace; the Tocador, or toilet of +the queen, an open belvidere, on the summit of a tower, where the +Moorish sultanas enjoyed the pure breezes from the mountain, and +the prospect of the surrounding paradise; the secluded little +patio, or garden of Lindaraxa, with its alabaster fountain, its +thickets of roses and myrtles, of citrons and oranges; the cool +halls and grottoes of the baths, where the glare and heat of day +are tempered into a soft mysterious light, and a pervading +freshness.</p> +<p>"While the city below pants with the noontide heat, and the +parched vega trembles to the eye, the delicate airs from the Sierra +Nevada, play through these lofty halls, bringing with them the +sweetness of the surrounding gardens. Every thing invites to that +indolent repose, the bliss of southern climes; and while the +half-shut eye looks out from <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page342" id="page342"></a>[pg 342]</span> shaded balconies upon +the glittering landscape, the ear is lulled by the rustling of +groves, and the murmur of running streams." Here we must end.</p> +<p>The Sketches bear the very perfection of romance in their +titles. Yes, expectant reader, think of the Alhambra by +Moonlight—A Ramble among the Hills—Legend of the +Arabian Astrologer—The Tower of Las Infantas—Legends of +the three beautiful Princesses—The Pilgrim of Love—The +Rose of the Alhambra,—the two discreet Statues, &c. +&c. What hours of spell-bound delight do these two volumes lock +up, yet we hope but for a short season, from all who would vary +"life's dull round" with romantic lore.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>Natural History.</h2> +<hr class="short" /> +<p>The remarkably attractive Number of the <i>Magazine of Natural +History</i> for the present month enables us to checker our sheet +with a page or two of facts which will be interesting to every +inquiring mind.</p> +<h4><i>Hail at Lausanne.</i></h4> +<p>"At Lausanne, on the 14th of July, 1831, about 8 P.M., we +witnessed one of those hail-storms which, every summer, cause such +ravages in the south of Europe. A great proportion of the +hailstones were as big as hen's eggs, and some even bigger: seven +nearly filled a common dinner plate. They were mostly oval or +globular; but one piece, brought to us after the storm, was flat +and square, full 2 in. long, as many broad, and three quarters of +an inch thick, with several projecting knobs of ice as big as large +hazel nuts. This mass exactly resembled a piece of uniformly +transparent ice, but the oval and globular masses had the same +conformation as has often been described in these hailstones, and +on which Volta founded his ingenious but untenable theory of their +formation. In the centre of each was a small, white, opaque +nucleus, the size of a pea, and evidently one of the hailstones +usually seen in England, to which the French give the name of +<i>grésil</i>, confining the term <i>gréle</i> to the +larger masses of ice now under our observation. This nucleus of +<i>gresil</i> was enclosed in a coat about half an inch thick of +ice considerably more transparent than it, but still somewhat +opaque, as though of snow melted and then frozen again, and +externally the rest of the mass was of ice perfectly transparent, +and as compact and hard as possible, resounding like a pebble, and +not breaking when thrown on the floor. The inhabitants of Lausanne, +aware that the cinereous and puffed up appearance of the clouds +charged with this tremendous aerial artillery portended more than a +mere thunder-storm, had adopted the precaution of closing their +Venetian shutters; but such windows as were deprived of this +protection had almost every pane broken: and much damage was done +to the tiles of all the houses, and to the gardens and vineyards; +but less than might have been expected, owing to the short duration +of the storm, which did not last longer than seven or eight +minutes, and to the circumstance of the hailstones not being very +numerous."—(W. Spence.)</p> +<h4><i>Cedar Wood.</i></h4> +<p>"The <i>cedar</i> has been recommended, among other woods, for +the purpose of constructing drawers for cabinets of insects. Let +the inexperienced collector be warned that this is, perhaps, the +<i>very worst</i> wood that can be employed for the purpose; a +strong effluvia, or sometimes a resinous gum, exudes from the wood +of the cedar, which is apt to settle in blotches on the wings of +the specimens, especially of the more delicate Lepidóptera, +and entirely discharges the colour. The Rev. Mr. Bree once had a +whole collection of lepidopterous insects utterly spoiled from +having been deposited in cedar drawers; and he has understood, +also, that the insects in the British Museum, collected, he +believes, chiefly by Dr. Leach, have been greatly injured from the +same cause. Possibly, however, cedar wood, after it has been +thoroughly well seasoned, may be less liable to produce these +injurious effects."</p> +<h4><i>Habits of the Common Snake in Captivity.</i></h4> +<p>A Staffordshire Correspondent writes thus familiarly:</p> +<p>"This has been a remarkably good season, both for vegetables and +animals. It has been a singular time for adders, snakes, and +lizards; I never saw so many as I have seen this year in all my +life. I have been trying, a great part of this summer, to +domesticate a common snake, and make it familiar with me and my +children; but all to no purpose, notwithstanding I favoured it with +my most particular attention. It was a most beautiful creature, +only 2 ft. 7 in. long. I did not know how long it had been without +food when I caught it; but I presented it with frogs, toads, worms, +beetles, spiders, mice, and every other delicacy of the season. I +also tried to charm it with music, and my children <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page343" id="page343"></a>[pg 343]</span> +stroked and caressed it; but all in vain: it would be no more +familiar with any of us than if we had been the greatest strangers +to it, or even its greatest enemies. I kept it in an old barrel, +out of doors, for the first three weeks: during that time, I can +aver, it ate nothing; but, after a very wet night, it seemed to +suffer from the cold. I then put it into a glass vessel, and set it +on the parlour chimney-piece, covering the vessel with a piece of +silk gauze. I caught two live mice, and put them in to it; but they +would sooner have died of hunger than the snake would have eaten +them: they sat shivering on its back, while it lay coiled up as +round as a ball of worstep. I gave the mice some boiled potatoes, +which they eat: but the snake would eat neither the mice nor the +potatoes. My children frequently took it out in their hands, to +show it to their schoolfellows; but my wife, and some others, could +not bear the sight of it. I one day took it in my hand, and opened +its mouth with a penknife, to show a gentleman how different it was +from that of the adder, which I had dead by me: its teeth being no +more formidable or terrific than the teeth of a trout or eel; while +the mouth of the adder had two fangs, like the claws of a cat, +attached to the roof of the mouth, no way connected with its +jaw-teeth. While examining the snake in this manner, it began to +smell most horridly, and filled the room with an abominable odour; +I also felt, or thought I felt, a kind of prickly numbness in the +hand I held it in, and did so for some weeks afterwards. In +struggling for its liberty, it twisted itself round my arm, and +discharged its excrements on my coat-sleeve, which seemed nothing +more than milk, or like the chalkings of a woodcock. It made its +escape from me several times by boring a hole through the gauze; I +had lost it for some days at one time, when at length it was +observed peeping out of a mouse-hole behind one of the cellar +steps. Whether it had caught any beetles or spiders in the cellar, +I cannot say; but it looked as fierce as a hawk, and hissed and +shook its tongue, as in open defiance. I could not think of hurting +it by smoking it out with tobacco or brimstone; but called it my +fiery dragon which guarded my ale cellar. At length I caught it, +coiled up on one of the steps. I put it again into an American +flour barrel; but it happened not to be the same as he had been in, +and I observed a nail protruding through the staves about half way +up. This, I suppose, he had made use of to help his escape; for he +was missing one morning about ten o'clock: I had seen him at nine +o'clock; so I thought he could not be far off. I looked about for +him for half an hour, when I gave up the hunt in despair. However, +at one o'clock, as the men were going from dinner, one of them +observed the rogue hiding himself under a stone, fifty yards from +the house. 'Dang my buttons,' said he, 'if here is not master's +snake. He came back and told my wife, who told him to go and kill +it. It happened to be <i>washing-day</i>: the washerwoman gave him +a pailful of scalding soapsuds to throw on it; but whether he was +most afraid of me or of the snake is still a question: however, the +washerwoman brought it home with the tongs, and dropped it into the +dolly-tub. It dashed round the tub with the velocity of lightning; +my daughter, seeing its agony, snatched it out of the scalding +liquid, but too late: it died in a few minutes. I was not at all +angry with my wife: I had had my whim, and she had had hers. I had +got all the knowledge I wanted to get; I had learned that it was of +no use for a human being, who requires food three times a day, to +domesticate an animal which can live weeks and months without food: +for, as the saying is, 'Hunger will tame any thing;' and without +hunger you can tame nothing. I have also learned that the serpent, +instead of being the emblem of wisdom, should have been an emblem +of stupidity."</p> +<p>"The stench emitted by the common snake, when molested, is +superlatively noisome; and is given off so powerfully and +copiously, that it infects the air around to a diameter of several +yards. This I witnessed on observing a bitch dog kill a rather +large snake; in which act two points beside the odour effused were +notable. The coils of the snake formed, as it were, a circular +wall; and in the circular space between it, the snake sunk its +head, as if for protection. The dog's efforts were to catch and +crush the head; and, shrivelling up her fleshy lips, 'which all the +while ran froth,' she kept thrusting the points of her jaws into +the circular pit aforesaid, and catching at and fracturing the +head. During the progress of these acts, she, every few seconds, +snorted, and shook off the froth, of which she seemed sedulously +careful to free herself, and barked at the conquered snake. The dog +was a most determined vermin-killer, and in rats, &c., quite an +accomplished one; but snakes did not often come in her +way."—J.D.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page344" id="page344"></a>[pg +344]</span> +<h3>CURIOUS FACTS IN VEGETATION</h3> +<p>(From Part xiv. of <i>Knowledge for the People, or the Plain Why +and Because.</i>)</p> + +<p><i>Why is it improper to consider the turnip a real +bulb?</i></p> +<p>Because it is an intermediate stem which swells into a bulbous +form. Turnips have not been cultivated in England, in fields, more +than a century; but this agricultural practice now yields an annual +return which probably exceeds the interest of our national +debt.—<i>Sir Walter Scott.</i></p> +<p><i>Why is the Cauliflower so named?</i></p> +<p>Because of its origin from <i>caulis,</i> the stalk of a herb. +Colewort is of a similar origin.</p> +<p><i>Why are the stems of the Cabbage tribe considered wholesome +food?</i></p> +<p>Because their acrid flavour is dipersed among an abundance of +mucilage. Cabbages were commonly used among the ancients, and Cato +wrote volumes on their nature. The Indians had so much veneration +for them, that they swore by cabbages, and were therein as +superstitious as the Egyptians, who gave divine honours to leeks +and onions, for the great benefits which they said they received +from them.—<i>Lemery on Food.</i></p> +<p><i>Why do Cabbages emit a strong animal odour?</i></p> +<p>Because they contain a great quantity of azote or nitrogen, one +of the ultimate elements of animal matter, and strongly +characterized in the destructive distillation of horn, hoofs, or +bones.</p> +<p><i>Why do not the leaves of the Cabbage remain wet, after being +immersed in water, and again taken out of it?</i></p> +<p>Because they are powdered with a slight layer of resinous +matter, similar to that which covers certain fruits, and, in +particular, plums and grapes. Their sea-green colour is also +attributed to this resinous layer.</p> +<p><i>Why is Quassia so called?</i> Because it was named in honour +of a negro, Quassia, a drunken doctor, who discovered the virtue of +the wood in curing malignant fevers.</p> +<p><i>Why is the Ice plant so called?</i></p> +<p>Because its stem is covered with soft tubercles, or +excrescences, which have a crystalline appearance.</p> +<p><i>Why do the leaves of some trees fall very early?</i></p> +<p>Because they are articulated to the branch; that is, they do not +unite with it by the whole of their base, but are simply fixed to +it by a kind of contraction or articulation; as in the maple and +horse chestnut.</p> +<p><i>Why do leaves fall at the approach of winter?</i></p> +<p>Because a separation takes place, either in the foot-stalk, or +more usually at its base, and the dying part quits the vigorous +one, which is promoted by the weight of the leaf itself, or the +action of the gales that blow in autumn on its expanded form. M. +Richard explains the cause more philosophically: "Although the fall +of the leaves generally takes place at the approach of winter, cold +is not to be considered as the principal cause of this phenomenon. +It is much more natural to attribute it to the cessation of +vegetation, and the want of nourishment which the leaves experience +at that season, when the course of the sap is interrupted. The +vessels of the leaf contract, dry up, and soon after, that organ is +detached from the twig on which it had been developed."</p> +<p><i>Why do some trees, as the Oak, the Beech, and the Hornbeam, +retain their leaves to a late period of autumn?</i></p> +<p>Because the life of the twigs on which they grow is not +sufficiently vigorous to throw them off, after the brown colour +indicates that they are dead.</p> +<p><i>Why have some plants been termed the Poor Man's +Weather-glass?</i></p> +<p>Because they shut up their flowers against the approach of rain. +Linnaeus, however, thinks, that flowers lose their fine +sensibility, after the anthers have performed their office, or when +deprived of them artificially. Sir James Smith also observes, that +some species are sometimes exhausted by continued wet; "and it is +evident that very sudden thunder showers often take such flowers by +surprise, the previous state of the atmosphere not having been such +as to give them due warning."</p> +<p>Many flowers have a regular time of opening and shutting. We +have already mentioned the Marigold; the goat's-beard is vulgarly +called "John go-to-bed at noon," from its closing at mid-day; and +at the Cape of Good Hope there is a "four o'clock flower," because +it invariably closes at that time. The common daisy is, however, a +readier example, its name being a compound of day's and +eye—Day's-eye, in which way, indeed, it is written by Ben +Johnson. It regularly shuts after sun-set, to expand again with the +morning light. Thus,—</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The little dazie, that at evening closes.—<i>Spenser.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>By a daisy, whose leaves spread,</p> +<p>Shut when Titian goes to bed.—<i>G. Withers.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Leyden sings of moist or rainy weather foretold by daisies. Thus +we may examine a whole field, and not find a daisy open, except +such as have their flowering nearly over, and have in consequence +lost their sensibility.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page345" id="page345"></a>[pg +345]</span> <p>The daisy is one of the pet flowers of the poets. +Chaucer is ecstatic in its praise, and calls it his "owne hartes' +rest;" Burns, "Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower;" and Wordsworth, +in beautiful and touching simplicity, has addressed several poems +to "the poet's darling."</p> +<p>Appended to Richard's valuable "Elements," is the <i>Horologium +Florae,</i> (timepiece of Flora,) or a table of the hours at which +certain plants expand and shut, at Upsal, 60 deg. north latitude. +The earliest Meadow Salsafy opens from 3 to 4 A.M.; and closes from +9 to 10 A.M. The latest A.M. is the <i>Mesembryanthemum +Modiflorum,</i> (used in the manufacture of Maroquin leather,) +which opens 10 to 11 A.M., and closes at 12 P.M. The latest opening +P.M. is the <i>Cactus Grandiflorus,</i> 9 to 10 P.M., and closing +at 12 P.M., thus remaining open only two or three hours. Other +flowers, we may add, are so peculiarly delicate, as scarcely to +bear the contact of the atmosphere.</p> +<p>Forster, in his "Researches about Atmospheric Phenomena," +notices several prognostics of the weather by plants. Thus, +Chickweed has been said to be an excellent weather-guide. When the +flower expands freely, no rain need be feared for a long time. In +showery days the flower appears half concealed, and this state may +be regarded as indicative of showery weather; when it is entirely +shut, we may expect a rainy day. If the flowers of the Siberian +sowthistle remain open all night, we may expect rain next day. +Before showers, the trefoil contracts its leaves. Lord Bacon +observes, that the trefoil has its stalk more erect against rain. +He also mentions a small red flower, growing in stubble-fields, +called by the country people <i>wincopipe</i>, which, if it opens +in the morning, assures us of a fine day.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>Travels</h2> +<blockquote> +<p><i>Pen and Pencil Sketches of India, being the Journal of a Tour +in India. By Captain Mundy.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<p>These are two very amusing volumes of scenes and situations full +of stirring interest, as their criticships would say—for +example the four extracts immediately following:</p> +<h4><i>Palankeen Travelling and a Sortie of Tigers.</i></h4> +<p>"To those unitiated into the mysteries of Indian travelling, the +prospect of a journey of six hundred miles, night and day, in a hot +climate, inclosed in a sort of coffin-like receptacle, carried on +the shoulders of men, is somewhat alarming; but to one more +accustomed to that method of locomotion, the palankeen would, +perhaps, prove less fatiguing and harassing, for a long journey, +than any other conveyance.</p> +<p>"The horizontal or reclining position is naturally the most easy +to the body; and the exhaustion consequent upon a journey in the +heat of the day, generally secures to the traveller as much sleep +during the cooller hours of the night, as the frequent +interruptions of the bearers at the several stages will allow him +to enjoy. I had laid in a good store of tea, sugar, and biscuits, a +novel, some powder and shot, a gun, and a sword, and plenty of +blankets, as a defence against the coldness of the night. Our +baggage consisted of a dozen boxes (patarras) appended to bamboos, +and carried by men: these, with two torch-bearers (mussalgees) to +each palankeen, completed our cavalcade.</p> +<p>"Nov. 24th, 7 A.M., reached Hazarebaug, a small station, about +two hundred and twenty miles from Calcutta. It is a healthy spot; +the earth sandy and rocky, presenting a strong contrast to the +loomy and alluvial soil of Southern Bengal. From +Rogonnâthpore to Hazarebaug the road runs through an almost +uninterrupted jungle, swarming with wild beasts. At this place we +met with a hospitable friend, who stored our palankeens with +provisions, after giving us a capital breakfast.</p> +<p>"At eleven o'clock at night we entered the famous pass of +Dunghye. The road bears the appearance of a deep sandy ravine; the +banks are rocky and woody, and in many places quite overhung by the +forest-trees. We had accomplished about half the defile, when I was +suddenly and rudely awakened from a dozing sleep by the shock of my +palankeen coming to the ground, and by the most discordant shouts +and screams. I jumped out to ascertain the cause of the uproar, and +found, on inquiry, that a foraging party of tigers—probably +speculating upon picking up a straggling bearer—had sprung +off the rocks, and dashed across the road, bounding between my +palankeen and that of Colonel D., who was scarcely ten yards +a-head. The bearers of both palankeens were all huddled together, +bellowing like bedlamites, and the mussalgees waving their torches +most vehemently. On mustering our forces, we discovered that two of +our patarra-bearers were missing, and fearing that the tigers might +pick them up, we dispatched four men with spare torches to bring +them on. Meanwhile <span class="pagenum"><a name="page346" id= +"page346"></a>[pg 346]</span> my friend and myself, having brought +our palankeens together, armed ourselves with patience and a pair +of pistols to await the result. The whole incident, with the time +and scene, was highly interesting and wild, with just enough of the +awful to give an additional piquancy. The night was dark and +stormy, and the wind roared among the trees above our heads: the +torches cast a red and flickering light on the rocks in our +immediate neighbourhood, and just showed us enough of the depths of +the forest to make the back ground more gloomy and unfathomable. +The distant halloos of the men who were gone in search of their +comrades, came faintly and wildly upon the breeze; and the +occasional shots that we fired rang through the rocky jungle with +an almost interminable echo. In about three quarters of an hour our +bearers joined us, together with the two patarra-bearers. These +latter, hearing the vociferations of our men, and guessing the +cause, had quietly placed their boxes on the ground, about a mile +in the rear of us, and seating themselves on their heels, had +determined not to proceed until the break of day.</p> +<p>"All being reported present, we resumed our journey, the men +screaming chorus to scare our unwelcome visitors, whom I several +times fancied I heard rustling among the brushwood on the road +side, as though they were moving on our flanks in order to cut off +any straggler who might drop astern. I never saw bearers go more +expeditiously, or in more compact order, every man fearing to be +the last in the cavalcade.<a id="footnotetag1" name= +"footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a> A sheet +would have covered the whole party! The tigers, if they had +calculated upon one of our number for their evening meal, must have +gone supperless to their lair, for we mustered all our twenty-four +men in the morning. A dâk hurkarah (post messenger) had been +carried off in the same spot two days before, probably by the same +family of tigers, which according to the bearer's account, +consisted of two old ones, and three cubs.</p> +<h4><i>Wild Beast Fights</i>.</h4> +<p>"Early in the morning, the whole party, including ladies, eager +for the novel spectacle, mounted elephants, and repaired to the +private gate of the royal palace, where the King met the +Commander-in-Chief, and conducted him and his company to a palace +in the park, in one of the courts of which the arena for the +combats was prepared. In the centre was erected a gigantic cage of +strong bamboos, about fifty feet high, and of like diameter, and +rooffed with rope network. Sundry smaller cells, communicating by +sliding doors with the main theatre, were tenanted by every species +of the savagest inhabitants of the forest. In the large cage, +crowded together, and presenting a formidable front of broad, +shaggy foreheads well armed with horns, stood a group of buffaloes +sternly awaiting the conflict, with their rear scientifically +appuyé against the bamboos. The trap-doors being lifted, two +tigers, and the same number of bears and leopards, rushed into the +centre. The buffaloes instantly commenced hostilities, and made +complete shuttlecocks of the bears, who, however, finally escaped +by climbing up the bamboos beyond the reach of their horned +antagonists. The tigers, one of which was a beautiful animal, fared +scarcely better; indeed, the odds were much against them, there +being five buffaloes. They appeared, however to be no match for +these powerful creatures, even single-handed, and showed little +disposition to be the assaulters. The larger tiger was much gored +in the head, and in return took a mouthful of his enemy's dewlap, +but was finally (as the fancy would describe it) 'bored to the +ropes and floored.' The leopards seemed throughout the conflict +sedulously to avoid a breach of the peace.</p> +<p>"A rhinoceros was next let loose in open courtyard, and the +attendants attempted to induce him to pick a quarrel with a tiger +who was chained to a ring. The rhinoceros appeared, however, to +consider a fettered foe as quite beneath his enmity; and having +once approached the tiger, and quietly surveyed him, as he writhed +and growled, expecting the attack, turned suddenly round and +trotted awkwardly off to the yard gate, where he capsized a +palankeen which was carrying away a lady fatigued with the sight of +these unfeminine sports.</p> +<p>"A buffalo and tiger were the next combatants: they attacked +furiously, the tiger springing at the first onset on the other's +head, and tearing his neck severely; but he was quickly dismounted, +and thrown with such violence as nearly to break his back, and +quite to disable him from renewing the combat.</p> +<p>"A small elephant was next impelled to attack a leopard. The +battle was short and decisive; the former falling on his knees, and +thrusting his blunted tusks nearly through his antagonist.</p> +<p>"On our return from the beast fight a breakfast awaited us at +the royal <span class="pagenum"><a name="page347" id= +"page347"></a>[pg 347]</span> palace; and the white tablecloth +being removed, quails, trained for the purpose, were placed upon +the green cloth, and fought most gamely, after the manner of the +English cockpit. This is an amusement much in fashion among the +natives of rank, and they bet large sums on their birds, as they +lounge luxuriously round, smoking their houkahs.</p> +<h4><i>Hunting with Leopards.</i></h4> +<p>"The leopards are each accommodated with a flat-topped cart, +without sides, drawn by two bullocks, and each animal has two +attendants. They are loosely bound by a collar and rope to the back +of the vehicle, and are also held by the keeper by a strap round +the loins. A leathern hood covers their eyes. The antelopes being +excessively timid and wild, the best way to enjoy the sport is to +sit on the cart alongside the driver; for the vehicle being built +like the hackeries of the peasants, to the sight of which the deer +are accustomed, it is not difficult, by skilful management, to +approach within two hundred yards of the game. On this occasion we +had three chetahs in the field, and we proceeded towards the spot +where the herd had been seen, in a line, with an interval of about +one hundred yards between each cart. On emerging from a +cotton-field, we came in sight of four antelopes, and my driver +managed to get within one hundred yards of them ere they took +alarm. The chetah was quickly unhooded, and loosed from his bonds; +and as soon as he viewed the deer he dropped quietly off the cart, +on the <i>opposite</i> side to that on which they stood, and +approached them at a slow, crouching canter, masking himself by +every bush and inequality of ground which lay in in his way. As +soon, however, as they began to show alarm, he quickened his pace, +and was in the midst of the herd in a few bounds.</p> +<p>"He singled out a doe, and ran it close for about two hundred +yards, when he reached it with a blow of his paw, rolled it over, +and in an instant was sucking the life-blood from its throat.</p> +<p>"One of the other chetahs was slipped at the same time, but +after making four or five desperate bounds, by which he nearly +reached his prey, suddenly gave up the pursuit, and came growling +sulkily back to his cart.</p> +<p>"As soon as the deer is pulled down, a keeper runs up, hoods the +chetah cuts the victim's throat, and receiving some of the blood in +a wooden ladle, thrusts it under the leopard's nose. The antelope +is then dragged away, and placed in a receptacle under the hackery, +whilst the chetah is rewarded with a leg for his pains."<a id= +"footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href= +"#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a></p> +<h4><i>An Alligator in the Ganges.</i></h4> +<p>"A beautiful specimen of an alligator's head was here given by +Mr. Alexander to Lord Combermere. He was rather a distinguished +monster, having carried off at different occasions, six or eight +brace of men from an indigo factory in the neighbourhood. A native, +who had long laid wait for him, at length succeeded in slaying him +with poisoned arrows. One of these notoriously ghaut-frequenting +alligators is well nigh as rich a prize to the poor native who is +fortunate enough to capture him, as a Spanish galleon is to a +British frigate; for on ripping open his stomach, and over-hauling +its freight, it is not unfrequently found to contain 'a choice +assortment'—as the Calcutta advertisers have it—of +gold, silver, or brass bangles and anklets, which have not been so +expeditiously digested as their fair owners, victims of the +monster's voracity. A little fat Brahminee child, 'farci an ris,' +must be a tempting and tender <i>bonne bouche</i> to these river +gourmands. Horrific legends such as the above, together with a +great deal of valuable advice on the subject, were quite thrown +away upon me; for ninety degrees of Fahrenheit, and the enticing +blueness of the water generally betrayed me into a plunge every +evening during my Gangetic voyage."</p> +<h4><i>Nocturnal Bathing.</i></h4> +<p>"On the occasion of a grand nocturnal bathing ceremony, held at +the great tank called the Indra Damân, I went with a party of +three or four others to witness the spectacle. The walls +surrounding the pool and a cluster of picturesque pavilions in its +centre were brilliantly lighted up with hundreds of cheraugs, or +small oil-lamps, casting a flickering lustre upon the heads and +shoulders of about five hundred men, women, and children, who were +ducking and praying, <i>à corps perdu,</i> in the water. As +I glanced over the figures nearest to me, I discovered floating +among the indifferent bathers two dead bodies, which had either +been drowned in the confusion, or had purposely come to die on the +edge of the sacred tank; the cool and apathetic survivors taking +not the slightest notice of their soulless neighbours."</p> +<h4><i>King John at the Cape.</i></h4> +<p>"The largest house in Simon's Town, <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page348" id="page348"></a>[pg 348]</span> and, +indeed, the greater part of the town itself, belongs to an +Englishman of the name of Osbond, who, however, is more generally +known by the dignified title of 'King John.' He was carpenter on +board the sixty-gun ship Sceptre, which was wrecked off this coast +some yearn ago. Like Juan, he escaped the sea, and like Juan he +found a Haidee. Being well-favoured and sharp-witted, he won the +heart and the hand of a wealthy Dutch widow, whose dollars he +afterwards, in some bold but successful speculations, turned to +good account. He is said to have laid out ten thousand pounds on +these—to every one but himself—<i>inhospita +littora.</i> King John is much respected."</p> +<h4><i>Population of Cape Town.</i></h4> +<p>"The variety of nations, and the numerous shades of complexion +among the people in the streets of Cape Town, are very striking to +a stranger. First may be remarked the substantial Dutchman, with +his pretty, smiling, round-faced, and particularly well-dressed +daughter: then the knot of 'Qui hi's,' sent to the Cape, per +doctor's certificate, to husband their threadbare constitutions, +and lavish their rupees: next the obsequious, smirking, +money-making China-man, with his poking shoulders, and whip-like +pig-tail: then the stout, squat Hottentots—who resemble the +Dutch in but one characteristic!—and half castes of every +intermediate tint between black and white. These are well relieved +and contrasted by the tall, warlike figures and splendid costume of +his Majesty's 72nd Highlanders, who, with the 98th regiment, form +the garrison of Cape Town."</p> +<h4><i>Visit to the Residence of Napoleon at St. Helena.</i></h4> +<p>"We soon came in sight of the level plateau of the Longwood +estate, the residence of the late emperor, and six miles from +Plantation House. Here the country gradually assumes a more +desolate and a wilder look; and the English visitor arrives at the +unfortunate and unwelcome conclusion, that the best part of the +island was not given to the illustrious captive. One cannot avoid +agreeing with Sir W. Scott, that Plantation House should have been +accorded to him, in spite of the detering reasons of its vicinity +to the sea, and its sequestered situation. Longwood, however, has +better roads, more space for riding or driving, and in summer must +have been much cooler than the less sheltered parts of the isle. As +we turned through the lodges the old house appeared at the end of +an avenue of scrubby and weather-worn trees. It bears the exterior +of a respectable farm-house, but is now fast running to decay. On +entering a dirty courtyard, and quitting our horses, we were shown +by some idlers into a square building, which once contained the +bed-room, sitting-room, and bath of the <i>Empereur des +François.</i> The partitions and floorings are now thrown +down, and torn up, and the apartments occupied for six years by the +hero before whom kings, emperors, and popes had quailed, are now +tenanted by cart-horses!</p> +<p>"Passing on with a groan, I entered a small chamber, with two +windows looking towards the north. Between these windows are the +marks of a fixed sofa: on that couch Napoleon died. The apartment +is now occupied by a threshing machine; 'No bad emblem of its +former tenant!' said a sacrilegious wag. Hence we were conducted +onwards to a large room, which formerly contained a billiard-table, +and whose front looks out upon a little latticed veranda, where the +imperial peripatetic—I cannot style him +philosopher—enjoyed the luxury of six paces to and +fro,—his favourite promenade. The white-washed walls are +scored with names of every nation; and the paper of the ceiling has +been torn off in strips as holy relics. Many couplets, chiefly +French, extolling and lamenting the departed hero, adorn or +disfigure (according to their qualities) the plaster walls. The +only lines that I can recall to mind—few are worth +it—are the following, written ever the door, and signed +'—— ——, Officier de la Garde +Impériale.'</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"'Du grand Napoléon le nom toujours cité</p> +<p>Ira de bouche en bouche à la +postérité!'"</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The writer doubtless possessed more spirit as a sabreur than as +a poet.</p> +<p>"The emperor's once well-kept garden,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"'And still where many a garden-flower grows wild,'</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>"is now overgrown and choked with weeds. At the end of a walk +still exists a small mound, on which it is said the hero of Lodi, +Marengo, and Austerlitz, amused himself by erecting a mock battery. +The little chunamed tank, in which he fed some fresh-water fish, is +quite dried up; and the mud wall, through a hole in which he +reconnoitered passers-by, is, like the great owner, returned to +earth!"</p> +<p>Captain Mundy's volumes are illustrated chiefly with sketches of +Indian <span class="pagenum"><a name="page349" id="page349"></a>[pg +349]</span> sports from the master-hand of Land-seer; and for +spirit of execution they deserve to rank among the finest +productions of this distinguished artist.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>Recent French Literature.</h2> +<hr class="short" /> +<p>A novel picture of Paris has lately appeared with the taking +title of the <i>Hundred and One.</i> Its origin, as well as its +subject, is interesting. It is a voluntary association of almost +all the literary talent of France, for the benefit of an +enterprising bookseller, whose affairs have, it seems, fallen into +the sere, since the commercial embarrassments following on the +Revolution. A hundred and one authors of all ranks and political +opinions, philosophers, academicians, journalists, deputies, poets, +artists, have combined in this work to pass in review before us the +humours, follies and opinions of the French capital, painted in +colours gay or grave, sketchy or elaborate, according to the manner +or mood of the artist. A very amusing work, suitable to all tastes, +is the result, and, by aid of the <i>Foreign Quarterly Review</i>, +we are enabled to present the reader with a specimen sketch by Leon +Guzlan, an author of some celebrity in this species of +writing.<a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href= +"#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a></p> +<h4>VISIT TO THE MORGUE, AT PARIS.</h4> +<p>(The Morgue, we should premise, is an establishment in Paris for +the reception of all persons found dead in the City or its +environs. Thither it is the duty of the police to convey the +bodies, where they are exposed in a hall open to the public for a +stated time,<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href= +"#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a> when, if not identified, and claimed, +they are interred in the neighbouring cemetery.)</p> +<p>"After describing the exterior, the <i>Salle de +l'Exposition</i>, which is the only portion of the building, of +course, with which the public are acquainted, the writer conducts +us into the inner recesses of this house of death, the apartments +of the superintendant.</p> +<p>"M. Perrin, is a little old man, who coughs incessantly. When I +explained to him the object of my visit, he very politely offered +to show me all the details of his administration, regretting much, +as he said, that there was not so much variety as could be desired. +'But I will show you what I have—be pleased to walk up.'</p> +<p>"As we were climbing the narrow stairs, and he was informing me +that his establishment was connected both with the prefecture and +the police, with the one on account of the local expenses, with the +other from its connexion with the public health, we were obliged to +stand close against the wall to allow a troop of young girls to +pass, well dressed, gay, but shivering with the cold, which blew +from the river through the chink which lighted the stair.</p> +<p>"'These are four of my daughters. I have eight children. +François, the keeper, has had four, and he has had the good +fortune to get them all married. François is a kind +father.'</p> +<p>"'So,' said I, 'twelve children then have been born in the +Morgue. Dreams of joy, and conjugal endearments, and parental +delights, have been experienced in this chamber of death. Marriage +with its orange flowers, baptism with its black robed sponsors, the +communion, and the embroidered veil, love, religion, virtue, have +had their home here as elsewhere. God has sown the seeds of +happiness every where.'</p> +<p>"'Papa, we are going to a distribution of prizes. My sisters are +sure to get a prize. Don't weary, we will be back in good +time.'</p> +<p>"'Go, my children,'—and all four embraced him.</p> +<p>"I thought of the body of the little Norman in the dreary room +beneath, and of the mother who even now, perhaps, was anxiously +looking for her from the window.</p> +<p>"'This is the apartment of François'. François did +the honours with the activity of a man who is not ashamed of his +establishment. His room is comfortably furnished; two modern +pendules mounted on bronze, a wardrobe with a Medusa's head, a high +bed, and a handsome rose-coloured curtain. If the room was not +overburdened with furniture, if there was not much of luxury, yet, +to those not early accustomed to superfluities, it might even seem +gay. It represented the tastes, opinions, and habits of its master. +Vases of flowers threw a green reflection on the curtains, for +François is fond of flowers. Among his gallery of portraits +were those of Augereau and Kleber, both in long coats, leaning on +immense sabres, with peruques and powder. Napoleon is there three +times.</p> +<p>"'Look at these jars,' said François, 'these are +sweetmeats of my wife's making; she excels in sweetmeats.' I read +upon them, 'gooseberries of 1831.' We left François's +apartment <span class="pagenum"><a name="page350" id= +"page350"></a>[pg 350]</span> which forms the right wing of the +Morgue, while the clerk's house is on the left, and entered the +cabinet of administration of M. Perrin.</p> +<p>"If François is fond of flowers, M. Perrin has the same +penchant for hydraulics and the camera obscura; he draws, he makes +jets from the Seine, by an ingenious piece of machinery of his own +invention; while he was retouching his syphon, I asked permission +to turn over the register, where suicides are ranged in two +columns.</p> +<p>"The fatal 'unknown' was the prevailing designation; 'brought +here at three in the morning, skull fractured, <i>unknown;</i>' +'brought at twelve at night, drowned under the Pont des Arts, cards +in his pocket, <i>unknown;</i>'—'young woman, pregnant, +crushed by a fiacre at the corner of the Rue Mandar, +<i>unknown</i>;'—'new born child found dead of cold, at the +gate of an hotel, <i>unknown.'</i></p> +<p>"I said to M. Perrin that he must weary here very much +occasionally during the long nights of winter.</p> +<p>"'No,' replied he good humouredly, 'the children sing, we all +work, François and I play at draughts or piquet; the worst +of it is, we are sometimes interrupted; a knock comes, we must go +down, get a stone ready, undress the new comer and register him: +that spoils the game; we forget to mark the points.'</p> +<p>"'And this is the way you generally spend your +evenings?'—'Always, except when François has to go to +Vaugirard at four o'clock: then he must go to bed earlier. Perhaps +you do not know that our burying ground is at Vaugirard: as that +burying ground is not much in fashion, we have been allowed to +retain our privilege of having a fosse to ourselves.'</p> +<p>"'I understand,—it is a fief of the Morgue.'</p> +<p>"'You saw that chariot below near the entrance gate, in which +the children were hiding themselves at play,—that is our +hearse.'</p> +<p>"'And rich or poor, all must make use of your conveyance? If for +instance a suicide is recognised, his relations or friends may +reclaim him, take him home, and bestow the rites of sepulture on +him at his own house?'</p> +<p>"'No, the Morgue does not give back what has been once deposited +here. It allows the funeral ceremonies to be as pompous as they +will, but they must all set out from hence; one end of the +procession perhaps is at Notre Dame, while the other is starting +from the Morgue. The Archbishop of Paris may be there; but +François's place is fixed. It is the first.'</p> +<p>"'And the priests of Notre Dame, do they never make any +difficulty about administering the funeral rites to your dead?'</p> +<p>"'Never!'</p> +<p>"'Not even to the suicides?'</p> +<p>"'There are no suicides for Notre Dame: one is drowned by +accident, another killed by the bursting of a gun, a third has +fallen from a scaffold. I invent the excuse, and the conscience of +the priest accepts it. That's enough.'</p> +<p>"So, thought I! Notre Dame, which formerly witnessed the +execution at the stake of sorcerers, alchymists, and gipsies on the +Grande Place, has now no word of reprobation for the carcass of the +suicide, once allowed to rot on the ground, or be devoured by +birds. She asks not here what was his faith. The priest says +mildly, 'Peace be with you.'</p> +<p>"We walked down, and François opened the first room, that +which contains the dresses; habits of all shapes, all dimensions, +hideously jumbled together; gaiters pinned to a sleeve, a shawl +shading the neck of a coat; dresses of peasants, workmen, carters +and brewers' frocks, women's gowns, all faded, discoloured, +shapeless, flap against each other in the current of air which +entered through the windows. There is something here appalling in +the sight and sound of these objects, soulless, body-less, yet +moving as if they had life, and presenting the form without the +flesh. Your eye rests on a handkerchief, the property of some poor +labourer, suddenly seized with the idea of suicide, after some day +that he has wanted work.</p> +<p>"François, who followed the direction of my eyes to see +what impression the picture produced on me sighed heavily.</p> +<p>"'Does it move you too,' said I? 'Are you discontented with your +lot.—Unhappy?'</p> +<p>"'Not exactly! But, Sir, formerly, you must know, the dresses, +after being six months exhibited, became a perquisite of ours; we +sold them. Now they talk of taking the dresses from us.'</p> +<p>"I reassured François as to the intention of government, +and assured him there was no talk of taking away the dresses.</p> +<p>"The second room, that which adjoins the public exhibition room, +is appropriated for the dissection of those, the mode of whose +death appears to the police to be suspicious. Its only furniture is +a marble table, on which the dissections take place, and a shelf on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page351" id="page351"></a>[pg +351]</span> which are placed several bottles of chlorate. This room +is immediately above the room of M. Perrin. The dissecting table +above just answers to the girls' piano below.</p> +<p>"In this room, which I crossed rapidly to avoid as much as +possible the sight of a body extended on the plank, I saw the +little girl, who had been stifled the night before in the +diligence; she was a lovely child. The other figure was frightfully +disfigured; scarcely even would his mother have recognised him.</p> +<p>"There remained only the public room; it is narrow, ill aired; +ten or twelve black and sloping stones receive the suicides, who +are placed on it almost in a state of nudity; the places are seldom +all occupied, except perhaps during a revolution. Then it is that +the Morgue is recruited; two more days of glory and immortality in +July, and the plague had been in Paris.</p> +<p>"'It is true,' said M. Perrin, 'we worked hard during the three +days, and we were allowed the use of two assistants. Corpses every +where, within, without, at the gate, on the bank.'—</p> +<p>"'And your girls?'</p> +<p>"'During these days they did not leave their apartment, nor +looked out to the street, nor to the river; besides, you are +mistaken if you think the spectacle would have terrified them. +Brought up here, they will walk at night without a light in front +of the glass, which divides the corpses from the public, without +trembling; we become accustomed to any thing.'</p> +<p>"Methought I heard the poor children, so familiar with the idea +of death, so accustomed to this domestic spectacle of their +existence, asking innocently of the strangers whom they +visited,—as one would ask where is your garden, your kitchen, +or your cabinet,—'where do <i>you</i> keep your dead +here?'</p> +<p>"These were all the facts I could gather with regard to the +establishment. I was opening the glass door to breathe the fresh +air again, when the entrance of the crowd drove me back into the +interior; they were following a bier, on which lay a body, from +which the water dripped in a long stream. From one of the hands +which were closely clenched, the keeper detached a strip of +coloured linen, and a fragment of lace. 'Ah!' said he, 'let me +look, 'tis she!'</p> +<p>"'Who is it?'</p> +<p>"'The nurse who was here this morning; the nurse of the little +Norman girl. Good! they may be buried together.' And M. Perrin put +on his spectacles, opened his register, and wrote in his best +current-hand—<i>unknown!</i>"</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>Poetry.</h2> +<hr class="short" /> +<h4><i>The Maid of Elvar. By Allan Cunningham.</i></h4> +<p>This is one of the most gratifying "appearances" in the +literature of the day. It reminds us that however the poet's harp +may have remained unstrung, it has not lost its vigour or +sweetness—its depth of feeling, or its melody of tone, and +these too are ably sustained through nearly 600 stanzas in an +exquisitely embellished narrative. The poem is "a song of other +times;" the story is one of chivalrous love; the hero is a young +warrior and poet; the Maid of Elvar offers a garland of gold for +the best song in honour of one of his victories; "minstrels meet +and sing, but the song of Eustace, though on another theme, is +reckoned the best; the Maid hangs the gold chain round his neck, +and retires, admiring the young stranger;" and thereby hangs the +tale. As our limits will not allow us to detach a scene or +incident, we must be content, for the present, with culling a few +of the choicest flowers of the song.</p> +<h4>CIVIL WAR.</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Woe, woe was ours. Chief drew his sword on chief:</p> +<p>Religion with her relique and her brand,</p> +<p>Made strife between our bosom-bones, and grief</p> +<p>And lawless joy abounded in the land;</p> +<p>Our glass of glory sank nigh its last sand;</p> +<p>Rank with its treason, priesthood with its craft,</p> +<p>Turned Scotland's war-lance to a willow-wand.</p> +<p>But war arose in Scotland—civil war;</p> +<p>Serf warred with chief, and father warred with son,</p> +<p>The church too warred with all: her evil star</p> +<p>That rules o'er sinking realms shone like the sun—</p> +<p>Her lights waxed dim and died out one by one—</p> +<p>Woe o'er the land hung like a funeral pall:</p> +<p>The sword the bold could brave, the coward shun,</p> +<p>But famine followed fast and fell on all—</p> +<p>Pale lips cried oft for food which came not at their call.</p> +</div> +</div> +<h4>RURAL PEACE.</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Much mirth was theirs—war was no wonder then;</p> +<p>Dread fled with danger, and the cottage cocks,</p> +<p>The shepherd's war-pipe, called the sons of men</p> +<p>When morning's wheel threw bright dew from its spokes,</p> +<p>To pastures green to lead again their flocks;</p> +<p>The horn of harvest followed with its call;</p> +<p>Fast moved the sickle, and swift rose the shocks,</p> +<p>Behind the reapers like a golden wall—</p> +<p>Gravely the farmer smiled, by turns approving all.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The ripe corn waved in lone Dalgonar glen,</p> +<p>That, with its bosom basking in the sun,</p> +<p>Lies like a bird; the hum of working men</p> +<p>Joins with the sound of streams that southward run,</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page352" id="page352"></a>[pg +352]</span> +<p>With fragrant holms atween: then mix in one</p> +<p>Beside a church, and round two ancient towers</p> +<p>Form a deep fosse. Here sire is heired by son,</p> +<p>And war comes never; ancle deep in flowers</p> +<p>In summer walk its dames among the sunny bowers.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>He rose, find homeward by the slumbering stream</p> +<p>Walked with the morn-dew glistening on his shoon.</p> +<p>The sun was up, and his outbursting beam</p> +<p>Touched tower and tree and pasture hills aboon;</p> +<p>The stars were quenched, and vanished was the moon;</p> +<p>Loud lowed the herds and the glad partridge' cry</p> +<p>Made corn-fields musical as groves at noon;</p> +<p>Birds left the perch, bee following bee hummed by,</p> +<p>And gladness reigned on earth and brightness claimed the +sky.</p> +</div> +</div> +<h4>MINSTRELSY.</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I sing of days in which brave deeds of arms</p> +<p>And deeds of song went hand in hand: our kings</p> +<p>Heroic feelings had and owned the charms</p> +<p>Of minstrel lore—they loved the magic strings</p> +<p>More than the sceptre; still their kingdom rings</p> +<p>With their gay musings and their harpings high.</p> +<p>To noble deeds fair poesie lends wings;</p> +<p>She lifts them up from grovelling earth to sky,</p> +<p>And bids them sit in light, and live and never die.</p> +</div> +</div> +<h4>FAME.</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Fame, fame—thou warrior's wish, thou poet's thought,</p> +<p>Thou bright delusion; like the rainbow thou</p> +<p>Glitterest, yet none may touch thee; thing of naught,</p> +<p>Star-high with heaven's own brightness on thy brow,</p> +<p>Blazoned and glorious I beheld thee grow—</p> +<p>Vision, begone,—for I am none of thine.</p> +<p>Of all that fills my heart and fancy now,</p> +<p>From dull oblivion not one word or line</p> +<p>Wilt thou touch with thy light and render it divine.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Even be it so. I sing not for thy smiles—</p> +<p>I sing to keep down sighs and ease the smart</p> +<p>Of care and sadness, and the daily toils</p> +<p>Which crush my soul and trample on my heart.</p> +<p>Far mightier spirits of the inspired art</p> +<p>Are mute and nameless, mid the muse in grief</p> +<p>Calls from the eastern to the western airt,</p> +<p>On tale, tradition, ballad, song, and chief</p> +<p>On thee, to give their names one passage bright and brief.</p> +<p>She calls in vain; like to a shooting star</p> +<p>Their storied rhymes shone brightly in their birth,</p> +<p>And shot a dazzling lustre near and far;</p> +<p>Then darkened, died, as all things else on earth.</p> +</div> +</div> +<h4>EVENING.</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i30">The sun</p> +<p>Behind the mountain's summit slowly sank;</p> +<p>Crows came in clouds down from the moorlands dun,</p> +<p>And darkened all the pine-trees, rank on rank;</p> +<p>The homeward milch-cows at the fountains drank;</p> +<p>Swains dropt the sickle, hinds unloosed the car—</p> +<p>The twin hares sported on the clover-bank,</p> +<p>And with the shepherd o'er the upland far,</p> +<p>Came out the round pale moon, and star succeeding star.</p> +<p>Star followed star, though yet day's golden light</p> +<p>Upon the hills and headlands faintly stream'd;</p> +<p>To their own pine the twin-doves took their flight;</p> +<p>From crag and cliff the clamorous seamews screamed,</p> +<p>In glade and glen the cottage windows gleam'd;</p> +<p>Larks left the cloud, for flight the grey owl sat;</p> +<p>The founts and lakes up silver radiance steamed;</p> +<p>Winging his twilight journey, hummed the gnat—</p> +<p>The drowsy beetle droned, and skimmed the wavering bat.</p> +</div> +</div> +<h4>THE MAID'S FIRST LOVE.</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The maiden heard a light foot on the floor,</p> +<p>And sidelong looked, and there before her stood</p> +<p>Young Eustace Graeme: far from the pasture moor</p> +<p>He came: the fragrance of the dale and wood</p> +<p>Was scenting all his garments green and good.</p> +<p>A sudden flush when tie the maiden saw,</p> +<p>Burned through his temples, kindled up his blood—</p> +<p>His stifling breath waxed nigh too tight to draw,</p> +<p>He bowed, and silent stood in wonderment and awe.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The father smiled, the mother smiled. Now why</p> +<p>Are her eyes downcast and his white brow glowing?</p> +<p>Say, have they vowed while heaven was witness by</p> +<p>With all her radiant lights like fountains flowing,</p> +<p>To love while water runs and woods are growing,</p> +<p>And stars glowed conscious of the compact pure?</p> +<p>They never woo'd, nor, love for love bestowing.</p> +<p>Met with the moonshine in the green-wood bow'r,</p> +<p>Nor looked and sighed, and looked and drank love by the +hour.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Yet they have met. Though not fools of the flock,</p> +<p>On whom love like the tiger gives one bound.</p> +<p>And then the heart is rent—a thunderstroke</p> +<p>That makes men dust before they hear the sound—</p> +<p>A shaft that leaves dark venom in the wound—</p> +<p>A frost that all the buds of manhood nips—</p> +<p>A sea of passion in which true love's drowned—</p> +<p>A demon strangling virtue in his grips—</p> +<p>A day when reason's son is quenched in dread eclipse.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>True gentle love is like the summer dew,</p> +<p>Which falls around when all is still and hush—</p> +<p>And falls unseen until its bright drops strew</p> +<p>With odours, herb and flower, and bank, and bush</p> +<p>O love, when womanhood is in the flush,</p> +<p>And man's a young and an unspotted thing!</p> +<p>His first breathed word and her half conscious blush,</p> +<p>Are fair us light in heaven, or flowers in spring—</p> +<p>The first hour of true love is worth our worshipping.</p> +</div> +</div> +<h4>LOVE OF COUNTRY.</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"I would not leave old Scotland's mountain gray,</p> +<p>Her hills, her cots, her halls, her groves of pine,</p> +<p>Dark though they be: yon glen, yon broomy brae,</p> +<p>Yon wild fox cleugh, yon eagle cliffs outline</p> +<p>An hour like this—this white right-hand of thine,</p> +<p>And of thy dark eyes such a gracious glance,</p> +<p>As I got now, for all beyond the line,</p> +<p>And all the glory gained by sword or lance,</p> +<p>In gallant England, Spain, or olive vales of France."</p> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="full" /> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1" name= +"footnote1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b> <a href= +"#footnotetag1">(return)</a> +<p>It is said, that a tiger lying in wait for a string of +passengers usually selects the last of the party.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2" name= +"footnote2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b> <a href= +"#footnotetag2">(return)</a> +<p>A pair of fine Chetahs, or Hunting Leopards, may be seen in the +Gardens of the Zoological Society.—ED. M.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3" name= +"footnote3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b> <a href= +"#footnotetag3">(return)</a> +<p>Several specimens have been ably translated in the +Athenaeum.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4" name= +"footnote4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b> <a href= +"#footnotetag4">(return)</a> +<p>The bodies are stripped, and placed on sloping slabs of marble; +above each are hung the clothes of the deceased.</p> +</blockquote> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><i>Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand. (near +Somerset House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, +Leipsic; G.G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris, and by +all Newsmen and Booksellers.</i></p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION, VOL. 19, ISSUE 549 (SUPPLEMENTARY ISSUE) ***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 11871-h.txt or 11871-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/8/7/11871">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/8/7/11871</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 19, +Issue 549 (Supplementary issue) + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 2, 2004 [eBook #11871] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, +AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION, VOL. 19, ISSUE 549 (SUPPLEMENTARY ISSUE) *** + + +E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Sandra Brown, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustration. + See 11871-h.htm or 11871-h.zip: + (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/8/7/11871/11871-h/11871-h.htm) + or + (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/8/7/11871/11871-h.zip) + + + + +THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. + +VOL. 19, No. 549] SUPPLEMENTARY NUMBER [PRICE 2_d_. + + + + * * * * * + + + + +THE ALHAMBRA, IN SPAIN + +[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW.] + +[Illustration: Palace of Charles V., see page 340.] + + * * * * * + + Accumulated novelties from Books published within the past month + have led to the publication of the present Supplement. Although + its contents have not been drawn from works of unfettered fancy, + it is hoped they will be found to blend the real with the + imaginative in such a degree as to render their knowledge not the + less useful for its being amusive. The Engravings are perhaps as + appropriate as attractive; since they illustrate, and the artists + hope not unworthily, the _New Sketch Book_ of WASHINGTON IRVING. + + * * * * * + +THE ALHAMBRA. + + by Geoffrey Crayon, Author Of The Sketch Book, &c. + +What! Washington Irving, or, as the title-page will have it, Geoffrey +Crayon, in SPAIN, wandering up and down the deserted halls of the +Alhambra, and weaving its legendary lore with thick coming fancies +into sketches of enchanting interest. The origin of the work, (the +_New Sketch Book_,) as it has been inappropriately styled, is told in +the dedication to David Wilkie, Esq., R.A. Mr. Irving and the great +artist just named were fellow travellers on the continent a few years +since. In their rambles about some of the old cities of Spain, they +were more than once struck with scenes and incidents which reminded +them of passages in the "Arabian Nights." The painter urged Mr. +Irving to write something that should illustrate those peculiarities, +"something in the Haroun Alrasched style" that should have a dash of +that Arabian spice which pervades every thing in Spain. The author set +to work, _con amore,_ and has produced two goodly volumes, with a +few "Arabesque" sketches and tales founded on popular traditions. His +_study_ was THE ALHAMBRA, which must have inspired him for his task. +To quote his own words: "how many legends and traditions, true and +fabulous; how many songs and romances, Spanish and Arabian, of love +and war, and chivalry, are associated with this romantic pile." The +Governor of the Alhambra gave Mr. Irving and his companion, permission +to occupy his vacant apartments in the Moorish Palace. "My companion," +says the author, "was soon summoned away by the duties of his station; +but I remained for several months, spellbound in the old enchanted +pile." + +Such is the plan or frame of the work before us. It has induced us to +select the Embellishments on the annexed page; and their description, +from so graceful a pencil as that of the author, will, we hope, +bespeak the favour of the reader. + +"The Alhambra is an ancient fortress or castellated palace of the +Moorish kings of Granada, where they held dominion over this their +boasted terrestrial paradise, and made their last stand for empire in +Spain. The palace occupies but a portion of the fortress, the walls of +which, studded with towers, stretch irregularly round the whole crest +of a lofty hill that overlooks the city, and forms a spur of the +Sierra Nevada, or snowy mountain. + +"In the time of the Moors, the fortress was capable of containing +an army of forty thousand men within its precincts, and served +occasionally as a stronghold of the sovereigns against their +rebellious subjects. After the kingdom had passed into the hands +of the Christians, the Alhambra continued a royal demesne, and was +occasionally inhabited by the Castilian monarchs. The Emperor Charles +V. began a sumptuous palace within its walls, but was deterred from +completing it by repeated shocks of earthquakes. The last royal +residents were Philip V. and his beautiful queen Elizabetta of Parma, +early in the eighteenth century. Great preparations were made for +their reception. The palace and gardens were placed in a state of +repair, and a new suite of apartments erected, and decorated by +artists brought from Italy. The sojourn of the sovereigns was +transient, and after their departure the palace once more became +desolate. Still the place was maintained with some military state. The +governor held it immediately from the crown, its jurisdiction extended +down into the suburbs of the city, and was independent of the captain +general of Granada. A considerable garrison was kept up, the governor +had his apartments in the front of the old Moorish palace, and never +descended into Granada without some military parade. The fortress, in +fact, was a little town of itself, having several streets of houses +within its walls, together with a Franciscan convent and a parochial +church. + +"The desertion of the court, however, was a fatal blow to the +Alhambra. Its beautiful halls became desolate, and some of them fell +to ruin; the gardens were destroyed, and the fountains ceased to play. +By degrees the dwellings became filled up with a loose and lawless +population; contrabandistas, who availed themselves of its independent +jurisdiction to carry on a wide and daring course of smuggling, and +thieves and rogues of all sorts, who made this their place of refuge +from whence they might depredate upon Granada and its vicinity. The +strong arm of government at length interfered: the whole community was +thoroughly sifted; none were suffered to remain but such as were of +honest character, and had legitimate right to a residence; the greater +part of the houses were demolished and a mere hamlet left, with +the parochial church and the Franciscan convent. During the recent +troubles in Spain, when Granada was in the hands of the French, +the Alhambra was garrisoned by their troops, and the palace was +occasionally inhabited by the French commander. With that enlightened +taste which has ever distinguished the French nation in their +conquests, this monument of Moorish elegance and grandeur was rescued +from the absolute ruin and desolation that were overwhelming it. The +roofs were repaired, the saloons and galleries protected from the +weather, the gardens cultivated, the water courses restored, the +fountains once more made to throw up their sparkling showers; and +Spain may thank her invaders for having preserved to her the most +beautiful and interesting of her historical monuments. + +"On the departure of the French they blew up several towers of the +outer wall, and left the fortifications scarcely tenable. Since that +time the military importance of the post is at an end. The garrison is +a handful of invalid soldiers, whose principal duty is to guard some +of the outer towers, which serve occasionally as a prison of state; +and the governor, abandoning the lofty hill of the Alhambra, resides +in the centre of Granada, for the more convenient dispatch of his +official duties. + + +Interior of the Alhambra + + +"The Alhambra has been so often and so minutely described by +travellers, that a mere sketch will, probably, be sufficient for the +reader to refresh his recollection; I will give, therefore, a brief +account of our visit to it the morning after our arrival in Granada. + +"Leaving our posada of La Espada, we traversed the renowned square of +the Vivarrambla, once the scene of Moorish jousts and tournaments, now +a crowded market-place. From thence we proceeded along the Zacatin, +the main street of what, in the time of the Moors, was the Great +Bazaar, where the small shops and narrow allies still retain the +Oriental character. Crossing an open place in front of the palace of +the captain-general, we ascended a confined and winding street, the +name of which reminded us of the chivalric days of Granada. It is +called the Calle, or street of the Gomeres, from a Moorish family +famous in chronicle and song. This street led up to a massive gateway +of Grecian architecture, built by Charles V. forming the entrance to +the domains of the Alhambra. + +"At the gate were two or three ragged and superannuated soldiers, +dozing on a stone bench, the successors of the Zegris and the +Abencerrages; while a tall meagre varlet, whose rusty-brown cloak was +evidently intended to conceal the ragged state of his nether garments, +was lounging in the sunshine and gossiping with an ancient sentinel on +duty. He joined us as we entered the gate, and offered his services to +show us the fortress. + +"I have a traveller's dislike to officious ciceroni, and did +not-altogether like the garb of the applicant. + +"'You are well acquainted with the place, I presume?' + +"'Ninguno mas; pues Senor, soy hijo de la Alhambra.'--(Nobody better; +in fact, Sir, I am a son of the Alhambra!) + +"The common Spaniards have certainly a most poetical way of expressing +themselves. 'A son of the Alhambra!' the appellation caught me at +once; the very tattered garb of my new acquaintance assumed a dignity +in my eyes. It was emblematic of the fortunes of the place, and +befitted the progeny of a ruin. + +"I put some farther questions to him, and found that his title was +legitimate. His family had lived in the fortress from generation to +generation ever since the time of the conquest. His name was Mateo +Ximenes. 'Then, perhaps,' said I, 'you may be a descendant from the +great Cardinal Ximenes?'--'Dios Sabe! God knows, Senor! It may be so. +We are the oldest family in the Alhambra,--_Christianos Viejos_, old +Christians, without any taint of Moor or Jew. I know we belong to some +great family or other, but I forget whom. My father knows all about +it: he has the coat-of-arms hanging up in his cottage, up in the +fortress.' There is not any Spaniard, however poor, but has some claim +to high pedigree. The first title of this ragged worthy, however, had +completely captivated me, so I gladly accepted the services of the +'son of the Alhambra.' + +"We now found ourselves in a deep narrow ravine, filled with beautiful +groves, with a steep avenue, and various footpaths winding through it, +bordered with stone seats, and ornamented with fountains. To our left, +we beheld the towers of the Alhambra beetling above us; to our right, +on the opposite side of the ravine, we were equally dominated by +rival towers on a rocky eminence. These, we were told, were the Torres +Vermejos, or vermilion towers, so called from their ruddy hue. No one +knows their origin. They are of a date much anterior to the Alhambra: +some suppose them to have been built by the Romans; others, by some +wandering colony of Phoenicians. Ascending the steep and shady avenue, +we arrived at the foot of a huge square Moorish tower; forming a kind +of barbican, through which passed the main entrance to the fortress. +Within the barbican was another group of veteran invalids, one +mounting guard at the portal, while the rest, wrapped in their +tattered cloaks, slept on the stone benches. This portal is called the +Gate of Justice, from the tribunal held within its porch during the +Moslem domination, for the immediate trial of petty causes: a custom +common to the Oriental nations, and occasionally alluded to in the +Sacred Scriptures. + +"The great vestibule or porch of the gate, is formed by an immense +Arabian arch, of the horse-shoe form, which springs to half the height +of the tower. On the key-stone of this arch is engraven a gigantic +hand. Within the vestibule, on the key-stone of the portal, is +sculptured, in like manner, a gigantic key. Those who pretend to some +knowledge of Mahometan symbols, affirm that the hand is the emblem of +doctrine, and the key of faith; the latter, they add, was emblazoned +on the standard of the Moslems when they subdued Andalusia, in +opposition to the Christian emblem of the Cross. A different +explanation, however, was given by the legitimate son of the Alhambra, +and one more in unison with the notions of the common people, who +attach something of mystery and magic to every thing Moorish, and have +all kind of superstitions connected with this old Moslem fortress. + +"According to Mateo, it was a tradition handed down from the oldest +inhabitants, and which he had from his father and grandfather, +that the hand and key were magical devices on which the fate of the +Alhambra depended. The Moorish King who built it was a great magician, +or, as some believed, had sold himself to the devil, and had laid +the whole fortress under a magic spell. By this means it had remained +standing for several hundred years, in defiance of storms and +earthquakes, while almost all other buildings of the Moors had fallen +to ruin, and disappeared. This spell, the tradition went on to say, +would last until the hand on the outer arch should reach down and +grasp the key, when the whole pile would tumble to pieces, and all the +treasures buried beneath it by the Moors would be revealed. + +"Notwithstanding this ominous prediction, we ventured to pass through +the spell-bound gateway, feeling some little assurance against magic +art in the protection of the Virgin, a statue of whom we observed +above the portal. + +"After passing through the barbican, we ascended a narrow lane, +winding between walls, and came on an open esplanade within the +fortress, called the Plaza de los Algibes, or Place of the Cisterns, +from great reservoirs which undermine it, cut in the living rock by +the Moors for the supply of the fortress. Here, also, is a well of +immense depth, furnishing the purest and coldest of water; another +monument of the delicate taste of the Moors, who were indefatigable in +their exertions to obtain that element in its crystal purity. + +"In front of this esplanade is the splendid pile commenced by Charles +V., intended, it is said, to eclipse the residence of the Moslem +kings. With all its grandeur and architectural merit, it appeared +to us like an arrogant intrusion, and, passing by it, we entered +a simple, unostentatious portal, opening into the interior of the +Moorish palace. + +"The transition was almost magical: it seemed as if we were at once +transported into other times and another realm, and were treading the +scenes of Arabian story. We found ourselves in a great court, paved +with white marble, and decorated at each end with light Moorish +peristyles: it is called the Court of the Alberca. In the centre was +an immense basin or fish-pond, a hundred and thirty feet in length by +thirty in breadth, stocked with gold-fish and bordered by hedges of +roses. At the upper end of this court rose the great Tower of Comares. + +"From the lower end we passed through a Moorish archway into the +renowned Court of Lions. There is no part of the edifice that gives +us a more complete idea of its original beauty and magnificence than +this, for none has suffered so little from the ravages of time. In +the centre stands the fountain famous in song and story. The alabaster +basins still shed their diamond drops; and the twelve lions, which +support them, cast forth their crystal streams as in the days of +Boabdil. The court is laid out in flower-beds, and surrounded by light +Arabian arcades of open filagree work, supported by slender pillars +of white marble. The architecture, like that of all the other parts +of the palace, is characterized by elegance rather than grandeur; +bespeaking a delicate and graceful taste, and a disposition to +indolent enjoyment. When one looks upon the fairy tracery of the +peristyles, and the apparently fragile fretwork of the walls, it is +difficult to believe that so much has survived the wear and tear of +centuries, the shocks of earthquakes, the violence of war, and the +quiet, though no less baneful, pilferrings of the tasteful traveller: +it is almost sufficient to excuse the popular tradition, that the +whole is protected by a magic charm. + +"On one side of the court, a portal, richly adorned, opens into a +lofty hall, paved with white marble, and called the Hall of the Two +Sisters. A cupola, or lantern, admits a tempered light from above, and +a free circulation of air. The lower part of the walls is encrusted +with beautiful Moorish tiles, on some of which are emblazoned the +escutcheons of the Moorish monarchs: the upper part is faced with the +fine stucco-work invented at Damascus, consisting of large plates, +cast in moulds, and artfully joined, so as to have the appearance of +having been laboriously sculptured by the hand into light relievos +and fanciful arabesques, intermingled with texts of the Koran, +and poetical inscriptions in Arabian and Cufic character. These +decorations of the walls and cupolas are richly gilded, and the +interstices pencilled with lapis-lazuli, and other brilliant and +enduring colours. On each side of the hall are recesses for ottomans +and couches. Above the inner porch is a balcony, which communicated +with the women's apartments. The latticed 'jalousies' still remain, +from whence the dark-eyed beauties of the haram might gaze unseen upon +the entertainments of the hall below. + +"It is impossible to contemplate this once favourite abode of Oriental +manners without feeling the early associations of Arabian romance, +and almost expecting to see the white arm of some mysterious princess +beckoning from the balcony, or some dark eye sparkling through the +lattice. The abode of beauty is here, as if it had been inhabited but +yesterday; but where are the Zoraydas and Lindaraxas? + +"On the opposite side of the Court of Lions, is the Hall of the +Abencerrages; so called from the gallant cavaliers of that illustrious +line who were here perfidiously massacred. There are some who doubt +the whole truth of this story; but our humble attendant Mateo pointed +out the very wicket of the portal through which they are said to have +been introduced, one by one, and the white marble fountain in the +centre of the hall where they were beheaded. He showed us also certain +broad ruddy stains in the pavement, traces of their blood, which, +according to popular belief, can never be effaced. Finding we listened +to him with easy faith, he added, that there was often heard at night, +in the Court of Lions, a low, confused sound, resembling the murmuring +of a multitude; with now and then a faint tinkling, like the distant +clank of chains. These noises are probably produced by the bubbling +currents and tinkling falls of water, conducted under the pavement, +through pipes and channels, to supply the fountains; but, according to +the legend of the son of the Alhambra, they are made by the spirits +of the murdered Abencerrages, who nightly haunt the scene of their +suffering, and invoke the vengeance of Heaven on their destroyer. + +"From the Court of Lions we retraced our steps through the Court of +the Alberca, or Great Fishpool; crossing which we proceeded to the +Tower of Comares, so called from the name of the Arabian architect. It +is of massive strength and lofty height, domineering over the rest +of the edifice, and overhanging the steep hill-side, which descends +abruptly to the banks of the Darro. A Moorish archway admitted us into +a vast and lofty hall, which occupies the interior of the tower, and +was the grand audience chamber of the Moslem monarchs, thence +called the Hall of Ambassadors. It still bears the traces of past +magnificence. The walls are richly stuccoed and decorated with +arabesques; the vaulted ceiling of cedar-wood, almost lost in +obscurity, from its height, still gleams with rich gilding, and the +brilliant tints of the Arabian pencil. On three sides of the saloon +are deep windows cut through the immense thickness of the walls, the +balconies of which look down upon the verdant valley of the Darro, the +streets and convents of the Albaycin, and command a prospect of the +distant Vega. + +"I might go on to describe minutely the other delightful apartments of +this side of the palace; the Tocador, or toilet of the queen, an +open belvidere, on the summit of a tower, where the Moorish sultanas +enjoyed the pure breezes from the mountain, and the prospect of +the surrounding paradise; the secluded little patio, or garden of +Lindaraxa, with its alabaster fountain, its thickets of roses and +myrtles, of citrons and oranges; the cool halls and grottoes of +the baths, where the glare and heat of day are tempered into a soft +mysterious light, and a pervading freshness. + +"While the city below pants with the noontide heat, and the parched +vega trembles to the eye, the delicate airs from the Sierra Nevada, +play through these lofty halls, bringing with them the sweetness of +the surrounding gardens. Every thing invites to that indolent repose, +the bliss of southern climes; and while the half-shut eye looks out +from shaded balconies upon the glittering landscape, the ear is lulled +by the rustling of groves, and the murmur of running streams." Here we +must end. + +The Sketches bear the very perfection of romance in their titles. Yes, +expectant reader, think of the Alhambra by Moonlight--A Ramble +among the Hills--Legend of the Arabian Astrologer--The Tower of Las +Infantas--Legends of the three beautiful Princesses--The Pilgrim of +Love--The Rose of the Alhambra,--the two discreet Statues, &c. &c. +What hours of spell-bound delight do these two volumes lock up, yet +we hope but for a short season, from all who would vary "life's dull +round" with romantic lore. + + * * * * * + + +NATURAL HISTORY. + +The remarkably attractive Number of the _Magazine of Natural History_ +for the present month enables us to checker our sheet with a page or +two of facts which will be interesting to every inquiring mind. + +Hail at Lausanne. + +"At Lausanne, on the 14th of July, 1831, about 8 P.M., we witnessed +one of those hail-storms which, every summer, cause such ravages in +the south of Europe. A great proportion of the hailstones were as +big as hen's eggs, and some even bigger: seven nearly filled a common +dinner plate. They were mostly oval or globular; but one piece, +brought to us after the storm, was flat and square, full 2 in. long, +as many broad, and three quarters of an inch thick, with several +projecting knobs of ice as big as large hazel nuts. This mass exactly +resembled a piece of uniformly transparent ice, but the oval and +globular masses had the same conformation as has often been described +in these hailstones, and on which Volta founded his ingenious but +untenable theory of their formation. In the centre of each was a +small, white, opaque nucleus, the size of a pea, and evidently one of +the hailstones usually seen in England, to which the French give the +name of _gresil_, confining the term _grele_ to the larger masses of +ice now under our observation. This nucleus of _gresil_ was +enclosed in a coat about half an inch thick of ice considerably more +transparent than it, but still somewhat opaque, as though of snow +melted and then frozen again, and externally the rest of the mass was +of ice perfectly transparent, and as compact and hard as possible, +resounding like a pebble, and not breaking when thrown on the floor. +The inhabitants of Lausanne, aware that the cinereous and puffed up +appearance of the clouds charged with this tremendous aerial artillery +portended more than a mere thunder-storm, had adopted the precaution +of closing their Venetian shutters; but such windows as were deprived +of this protection had almost every pane broken: and much damage was +done to the tiles of all the houses, and to the gardens and vineyards; +but less than might have been expected, owing to the short duration of +the storm, which did not last longer than seven or eight minutes, and +to the circumstance of the hailstones not being very numerous."--(W. +Spence.) + +Cedar Wood. + +"The _cedar_ has been recommended, among other woods, for the purpose +of constructing drawers for cabinets of insects. Let the inexperienced +collector be warned that this is, perhaps, the _very worst_ wood that +can be employed for the purpose; a strong effluvia, or sometimes +a resinous gum, exudes from the wood of the cedar, which is apt to +settle in blotches on the wings of the specimens, especially of the +more delicate Lepidoptera, and entirely discharges the colour. The +Rev. Mr. Bree once had a whole collection of lepidopterous insects +utterly spoiled from having been deposited in cedar drawers; and +he has understood, also, that the insects in the British Museum, +collected, he believes, chiefly by Dr. Leach, have been greatly +injured from the same cause. Possibly, however, cedar wood, after it +has been thoroughly well seasoned, may be less liable to produce these +injurious effects." + +Habits of the Common Snake in Captivity. + +A Staffordshire Correspondent writes thus familiarly: + +"This has been a remarkably good season, both for vegetables and +animals. It has been a singular time for adders, snakes, and lizards; +I never saw so many as I have seen this year in all my life. I have +been trying, a great part of this summer, to domesticate a common +snake, and make it familiar with me and my children; but all to +no purpose, notwithstanding I favoured it with my most particular +attention. It was a most beautiful creature, only 2 ft. 7 in. long. I +did not know how long it had been without food when I caught it; but +I presented it with frogs, toads, worms, beetles, spiders, mice, and +every other delicacy of the season. I also tried to charm it with +music, and my children stroked and caressed it; but all in vain: +it would be no more familiar with any of us than if we had been the +greatest strangers to it, or even its greatest enemies. I kept it in +an old barrel, out of doors, for the first three weeks: during that +time, I can aver, it ate nothing; but, after a very wet night, it +seemed to suffer from the cold. I then put it into a glass vessel, and +set it on the parlour chimney-piece, covering the vessel with a piece +of silk gauze. I caught two live mice, and put them in to it; but they +would sooner have died of hunger than the snake would have eaten them: +they sat shivering on its back, while it lay coiled up as round as a +ball of worstep. I gave the mice some boiled potatoes, which they eat: +but the snake would eat neither the mice nor the potatoes. My +children frequently took it out in their hands, to show it to their +schoolfellows; but my wife, and some others, could not bear the sight +of it. I one day took it in my hand, and opened its mouth with a +penknife, to show a gentleman how different it was from that of the +adder, which I had dead by me: its teeth being no more formidable +or terrific than the teeth of a trout or eel; while the mouth of the +adder had two fangs, like the claws of a cat, attached to the roof of +the mouth, no way connected with its jaw-teeth. While examining the +snake in this manner, it began to smell most horridly, and filled the +room with an abominable odour; I also felt, or thought I felt, a kind +of prickly numbness in the hand I held it in, and did so for some +weeks afterwards. In struggling for its liberty, it twisted itself +round my arm, and discharged its excrements on my coat-sleeve, which +seemed nothing more than milk, or like the chalkings of a woodcock. +It made its escape from me several times by boring a hole through the +gauze; I had lost it for some days at one time, when at length it was +observed peeping out of a mouse-hole behind one of the cellar steps. +Whether it had caught any beetles or spiders in the cellar, I cannot +say; but it looked as fierce as a hawk, and hissed and shook its +tongue, as in open defiance. I could not think of hurting it by +smoking it out with tobacco or brimstone; but called it my fiery +dragon which guarded my ale cellar. At length I caught it, coiled up +on one of the steps. I put it again into an American flour barrel; +but it happened not to be the same as he had been in, and I observed a +nail protruding through the staves about half way up. This, I suppose, +he had made use of to help his escape; for he was missing one morning +about ten o'clock: I had seen him at nine o'clock; so I thought he +could not be far off. I looked about for him for half an hour, when I +gave up the hunt in despair. However, at one o'clock, as the men were +going from dinner, one of them observed the rogue hiding himself under +a stone, fifty yards from the house. 'Dang my buttons,' said he, 'if +here is not master's snake. He came back and told my wife, who +told him to go and kill it. It happened to be _washing-day_: the +washerwoman gave him a pailful of scalding soapsuds to throw on +it; but whether he was most afraid of me or of the snake is still a +question: however, the washerwoman brought it home with the tongs, +and dropped it into the dolly-tub. It dashed round the tub with the +velocity of lightning; my daughter, seeing its agony, snatched it out +of the scalding liquid, but too late: it died in a few minutes. I +was not at all angry with my wife: I had had my whim, and she had had +hers. I had got all the knowledge I wanted to get; I had learned that +it was of no use for a human being, who requires food three times a +day, to domesticate an animal which can live weeks and months without +food: for, as the saying is, 'Hunger will tame any thing;' and without +hunger you can tame nothing. I have also learned that the serpent, +instead of being the emblem of wisdom, should have been an emblem of +stupidity." + +"The stench emitted by the common snake, when molested, is +superlatively noisome; and is given off so powerfully and copiously, +that it infects the air around to a diameter of several yards. This I +witnessed on observing a bitch dog kill a rather large snake; in which +act two points beside the odour effused were notable. The coils of the +snake formed, as it were, a circular wall; and in the circular space +between it, the snake sunk its head, as if for protection. The dog's +efforts were to catch and crush the head; and, shrivelling up her +fleshy lips, 'which all the while ran froth,' she kept thrusting the +points of her jaws into the circular pit aforesaid, and catching at +and fracturing the head. During the progress of these acts, she, every +few seconds, snorted, and shook off the froth, of which she seemed +sedulously careful to free herself, and barked at the conquered snake. +The dog was a most determined vermin-killer, and in rats, &c., quite +an accomplished one; but snakes did not often come in her way."--J.D. + + * * * * * + +CURIOUS FACTS IN VEGETATION + +(From Part xiv. of _Knowledge for the People, or the Plain Why and +Because._) + +Why is it improper to consider the turnip a real bulb? + +Because it is an intermediate stem which swells into a bulbous form. +Turnips have not been cultivated in England, in fields, more than a +century; but this agricultural practice now yields an annual return +which probably exceeds the interest of our national debt.--_Sir Walter +Scott._ + +Why is the Cauliflower so named? + +Because of its origin from _caulis,_ the stalk of a herb. Colewort is +of a similar origin. + +Why are the stems of the Cabbage tribe considered wholesome food? + +Because their acrid flavour is dipersed among an abundance of +mucilage. Cabbages were commonly used among the ancients, and Cato +wrote volumes on their nature. The Indians had so much veneration for +them, that they swore by cabbages, and were therein as superstitious +as the Egyptians, who gave divine honours to leeks and onions, for the +great benefits which they said they received from them.--_Lemery on +Food._ + +Why do Cabbages emit a strong animal odour? + +Because they contain a great quantity of azote or nitrogen, one of the +ultimate elements of animal matter, and strongly characterized in the +destructive distillation of horn, hoofs, or bones. + +Why do not the leaves of the Cabbage remain wet, after being immersed +in water, and again taken out of it? + +Because they are powdered with a slight layer of resinous matter, +similar to that which covers certain fruits, and, in particular, plums +and grapes. Their sea-green colour is also attributed to this resinous +layer. + +Why is Quassia so called? Because it was named in honour of a negro, +Quassia, a drunken doctor, who discovered the virtue of the wood in +curing malignant fevers. + +Why is the Ice plant so called? + +Because its stem is covered with soft tubercles, or excrescences, +which have a crystalline appearance. + +Why do the leaves of some trees fall very early? + +Because they are articulated to the branch; that is, they do not unite +with it by the whole of their base, but are simply fixed to it by +a kind of contraction or articulation; as in the maple and horse +chestnut. + +Why do leaves fall at the approach of winter? + +Because a separation takes place, either in the foot-stalk, or more +usually at its base, and the dying part quits the vigorous one, which +is promoted by the weight of the leaf itself, or the action of the +gales that blow in autumn on its expanded form. M. Richard explains +the cause more philosophically: "Although the fall of the leaves +generally takes place at the approach of winter, cold is not to be +considered as the principal cause of this phenomenon. It is much more +natural to attribute it to the cessation of vegetation, and the want +of nourishment which the leaves experience at that season, when the +course of the sap is interrupted. The vessels of the leaf contract, +dry up, and soon after, that organ is detached from the twig on which +it had been developed." + +Why do some trees, as the Oak, the Beech, and the Hornbeam, retain +their leaves to a late period of autumn? + +Because the life of the twigs on which they grow is not sufficiently +vigorous to throw them off, after the brown colour indicates that they +are dead. + +Why have some plants been termed the Poor Man's Weather-glass? + +Because they shut up their flowers against the approach of rain. +Linnaeus, however, thinks, that flowers lose their fine sensibility, +after the anthers have performed their office, or when deprived of +them artificially. Sir James Smith also observes, that some species +are sometimes exhausted by continued wet; "and it is evident that +very sudden thunder showers often take such flowers by surprise, the +previous state of the atmosphere not having been such as to give them +due warning." + +Many flowers have a regular time of opening and shutting. We have +already mentioned the Marigold; the goat's-beard is vulgarly called +"John go-to-bed at noon," from its closing at mid-day; and at the Cape +of Good Hope there is a "four o'clock flower," because it invariably +closes at that time. The common daisy is, however, a readier example, +its name being a compound of day's and eye--Day's-eye, in which +way, indeed, it is written by Ben Johnson. It regularly shuts after +sun-set, to expand again with the morning light. Thus,-- + + The little dazie, that at evening closes. + +Spenser. + + By a daisy, whose leaves spread, + Shut when Titian goes to bed.--_G. Withers._ + +Leyden sings of moist or rainy weather foretold by daisies. Thus we +may examine a whole field, and not find a daisy open, except such as +have their flowering nearly over, and have in consequence lost their +sensibility. + +The daisy is one of the pet flowers of the poets. Chaucer is ecstatic +in its praise, and calls it his "owne hartes' rest;" Burns, "Wee, +modest, crimson-tipped flower;" and Wordsworth, in beautiful and +touching simplicity, has addressed several poems to "the poet's +darling." + +Appended to Richard's valuable "Elements," is the _Horologium Florae,_ +(timepiece of Flora,) or a table of the hours at which certain plants +expand and shut, at Upsal, 60 deg. north latitude. The earliest Meadow +Salsafy opens from 3 to 4 A.M.; and closes from 9 to 10 A.M. The +latest A.M. is the _Mesembryanthemum Modiflorum,_ (used in the +manufacture of Maroquin leather,) which opens 10 to 11 A.M., +and closes at 12 P.M. The latest opening P.M. is the _Cactus +Grandiflorus,_ 9 to 10 P.M., and closing at 12 P.M., thus remaining +open only two or three hours. Other flowers, we may add, are +so peculiarly delicate, as scarcely to bear the contact of the +atmosphere. + +Forster, in his "Researches about Atmospheric Phenomena," notices +several prognostics of the weather by plants. Thus, Chickweed has been +said to be an excellent weather-guide. When the flower expands freely, +no rain need be feared for a long time. In showery days the flower +appears half concealed, and this state may be regarded as indicative +of showery weather; when it is entirely shut, we may expect a rainy +day. If the flowers of the Siberian sowthistle remain open all night, +we may expect rain next day. Before showers, the trefoil contracts its +leaves. Lord Bacon observes, that the trefoil has its stalk more +erect against rain. He also mentions a small red flower, growing in +stubble-fields, called by the country people _wincopipe_, which, if it +opens in the morning, assures us of a fine day. + + * * * * * + + +TRAVELS + + _Pen and Pencil Sketches of India, being the Journal of a Tour + in India. By Captain Mundy._ + +These are two very amusing volumes of scenes and situations full of +stirring interest, as their criticships would say--for example the +four extracts immediately following: + +Palankeen Travelling and a Sortie of Tigers. + +"To those unitiated into the mysteries of Indian travelling, the +prospect of a journey of six hundred miles, night and day, in a hot +climate, inclosed in a sort of coffin-like receptacle, carried on the +shoulders of men, is somewhat alarming; but to one more accustomed to +that method of locomotion, the palankeen would, perhaps, prove +less fatiguing and harassing, for a long journey, than any other +conveyance. + +"The horizontal or reclining position is naturally the most easy to +the body; and the exhaustion consequent upon a journey in the heat of +the day, generally secures to the traveller as much sleep during +the cooller hours of the night, as the frequent interruptions of the +bearers at the several stages will allow him to enjoy. I had laid in a +good store of tea, sugar, and biscuits, a novel, some powder and shot, +a gun, and a sword, and plenty of blankets, as a defence against +the coldness of the night. Our baggage consisted of a dozen boxes +(patarras) appended to bamboos, and carried by men: these, with two +torch-bearers (mussalgees) to each palankeen, completed our cavalcade. + +"Nov. 24th, 7 A.M., reached Hazarebaug, a small station, about two +hundred and twenty miles from Calcutta. It is a healthy spot; the +earth sandy and rocky, presenting a strong contrast to the loomy and +alluvial soil of Southern Bengal. From Rogonnathpore to Hazarebaug the +road runs through an almost uninterrupted jungle, swarming with wild +beasts. At this place we met with a hospitable friend, who stored our +palankeens with provisions, after giving us a capital breakfast. + +"At eleven o'clock at night we entered the famous pass of Dunghye. The +road bears the appearance of a deep sandy ravine; the banks are rocky +and woody, and in many places quite overhung by the forest-trees. We +had accomplished about half the defile, when I was suddenly and rudely +awakened from a dozing sleep by the shock of my palankeen coming to +the ground, and by the most discordant shouts and screams. I jumped +out to ascertain the cause of the uproar, and found, on inquiry, that +a foraging party of tigers--probably speculating upon picking up a +straggling bearer--had sprung off the rocks, and dashed across the +road, bounding between my palankeen and that of Colonel D., who was +scarcely ten yards a-head. The bearers of both palankeens were all +huddled together, bellowing like bedlamites, and the mussalgees waving +their torches most vehemently. On mustering our forces, we discovered +that two of our patarra-bearers were missing, and fearing that the +tigers might pick them up, we dispatched four men with spare torches +to bring them on. Meanwhile my friend and myself, having brought +our palankeens together, armed ourselves with patience and a pair of +pistols to await the result. The whole incident, with the time and +scene, was highly interesting and wild, with just enough of the awful +to give an additional piquancy. The night was dark and stormy, and the +wind roared among the trees above our heads: the torches cast a red +and flickering light on the rocks in our immediate neighbourhood, and +just showed us enough of the depths of the forest to make the back +ground more gloomy and unfathomable. The distant halloos of the men +who were gone in search of their comrades, came faintly and wildly +upon the breeze; and the occasional shots that we fired rang through +the rocky jungle with an almost interminable echo. In about three +quarters of an hour our bearers joined us, together with the two +patarra-bearers. These latter, hearing the vociferations of our men, +and guessing the cause, had quietly placed their boxes on the ground, +about a mile in the rear of us, and seating themselves on their heels, +had determined not to proceed until the break of day. + +"All being reported present, we resumed our journey, the men screaming +chorus to scare our unwelcome visitors, whom I several times fancied +I heard rustling among the brushwood on the road side, as though they +were moving on our flanks in order to cut off any straggler who might +drop astern. I never saw bearers go more expeditiously, or in more +compact order, every man fearing to be the last in the cavalcade.[1] +A sheet would have covered the whole party! The tigers, if they had +calculated upon one of our number for their evening meal, must have +gone supperless to their lair, for we mustered all our twenty-four men +in the morning. A dak hurkarah (post messenger) had been carried +off in the same spot two days before, probably by the same family of +tigers, which according to the bearer's account, consisted of two old +ones, and three cubs. + +[Footnote 1: It is said, that a tiger lying in wait for a string of +passengers usually selects the last of the party.] + +Wild Beast Fights + +"Early in the morning, the whole party, including ladies, eager for +the novel spectacle, mounted elephants, and repaired to the private +gate of the royal palace, where the King met the Commander-in-Chief, +and conducted him and his company to a palace in the park, in one of +the courts of which the arena for the combats was prepared. In the +centre was erected a gigantic cage of strong bamboos, about fifty +feet high, and of like diameter, and rooffed with rope network. Sundry +smaller cells, communicating by sliding doors with the main theatre, +were tenanted by every species of the savagest inhabitants of +the forest. In the large cage, crowded together, and presenting a +formidable front of broad, shaggy foreheads well armed with horns, +stood a group of buffaloes sternly awaiting the conflict, with their +rear scientifically appuye against the bamboos. The trap-doors being +lifted, two tigers, and the same number of bears and leopards, rushed +into the centre. The buffaloes instantly commenced hostilities, and +made complete shuttlecocks of the bears, who, however, finally +escaped by climbing up the bamboos beyond the reach of their horned +antagonists. The tigers, one of which was a beautiful animal, fared +scarcely better; indeed, the odds were much against them, there +being five buffaloes. They appeared, however to be no match for these +powerful creatures, even single-handed, and showed little disposition +to be the assaulters. The larger tiger was much gored in the head, and +in return took a mouthful of his enemy's dewlap, but was finally (as +the fancy would describe it) 'bored to the ropes and floored.' The +leopards seemed throughout the conflict sedulously to avoid a breach +of the peace. + +"A rhinoceros was next let loose in open courtyard, and the attendants +attempted to induce him to pick a quarrel with a tiger who was chained +to a ring. The rhinoceros appeared, however, to consider a fettered +foe as quite beneath his enmity; and having once approached the tiger, +and quietly surveyed him, as he writhed and growled, expecting the +attack, turned suddenly round and trotted awkwardly off to the yard +gate, where he capsized a palankeen which was carrying away a lady +fatigued with the sight of these unfeminine sports. + +"A buffalo and tiger were the next combatants: they attacked +furiously, the tiger springing at the first onset on the other's head, +and tearing his neck severely; but he was quickly dismounted, and +thrown with such violence as nearly to break his back, and quite to +disable him from renewing the combat. + +"A small elephant was next impelled to attack a leopard. The battle +was short and decisive; the former falling on his knees, and thrusting +his blunted tusks nearly through his antagonist. + +"On our return from the beast fight a breakfast awaited us at the +royal palace; and the white tablecloth being removed, quails, trained +for the purpose, were placed upon the green cloth, and fought most +gamely, after the manner of the English cockpit. This is an amusement +much in fashion among the natives of rank, and they bet large sums on +their birds, as they lounge luxuriously round, smoking their houkahs. + +Hunting with Leopards + +"The leopards are each accommodated with a flat-topped cart, without +sides, drawn by two bullocks, and each animal has two attendants. They +are loosely bound by a collar and rope to the back of the vehicle, +and are also held by the keeper by a strap round the loins. A leathern +hood covers their eyes. The antelopes being excessively timid and +wild, the best way to enjoy the sport is to sit on the cart alongside +the driver; for the vehicle being built like the hackeries of the +peasants, to the sight of which the deer are accustomed, it is not +difficult, by skilful management, to approach within two hundred yards +of the game. On this occasion we had three chetahs in the field, and +we proceeded towards the spot where the herd had been seen, in a line, +with an interval of about one hundred yards between each cart. On +emerging from a cotton-field, we came in sight of four antelopes, and +my driver managed to get within one hundred yards of them ere they +took alarm. The chetah was quickly unhooded, and loosed from his +bonds; and as soon as he viewed the deer he dropped quietly off +the cart, on the _opposite_ side to that on which they stood, and +approached them at a slow, crouching canter, masking himself by +every bush and inequality of ground which lay in in his way. As soon, +however, as they began to show alarm, he quickened his pace, and was +in the midst of the herd in a few bounds. + +"He singled out a doe, and ran it close for about two hundred yards, +when he reached it with a blow of his paw, rolled it over, and in an +instant was sucking the life-blood from its throat. + +"One of the other chetahs was slipped at the same time, but after +making four or five desperate bounds, by which he nearly reached his +prey, suddenly gave up the pursuit, and came growling sulkily back to +his cart. + +"As soon as the deer is pulled down, a keeper runs up, hoods the +chetah cuts the victim's throat, and receiving some of the blood in +a wooden ladle, thrusts it under the leopard's nose. The antelope +is then dragged away, and placed in a receptacle under the hackery, +whilst the chetah is rewarded with a leg for his pains."[1] + +[Footnote 1: A pair of fine Chetahs, or Hunting Leopards, may be seen +in the Gardens of the Zoological Society.--ED. M.] + +An Alligator in the Ganges. + +"A beautiful specimen of an alligator's head was here given by Mr. +Alexander to Lord Combermere. He was rather a distinguished monster, +having carried off at different occasions, six or eight brace of men +from an indigo factory in the neighbourhood. A native, who had long +laid wait for him, at length succeeded in slaying him with poisoned +arrows. One of these notoriously ghaut-frequenting alligators is well +nigh as rich a prize to the poor native who is fortunate enough to +capture him, as a Spanish galleon is to a British frigate; for on +ripping open his stomach, and over-hauling its freight, it is not +unfrequently found to contain 'a choice assortment'--as the Calcutta +advertisers have it--of gold, silver, or brass bangles and anklets, +which have not been so expeditiously digested as their fair owners, +victims of the monster's voracity. A little fat Brahminee child, +'farci an ris,' must be a tempting and tender _bonne bouche_ to these +river gourmands. Horrific legends such as the above, together with a +great deal of valuable advice on the subject, were quite thrown away +upon me; for ninety degrees of Fahrenheit, and the enticing blueness +of the water generally betrayed me into a plunge every evening during +my Gangetic voyage." + +Nocturnal Bathing. + +"On the occasion of a grand nocturnal bathing ceremony, held at the +great tank called the Indra Daman, I went with a party of three or +four others to witness the spectacle. The walls surrounding the pool +and a cluster of picturesque pavilions in its centre were brilliantly +lighted up with hundreds of cheraugs, or small oil-lamps, casting a +flickering lustre upon the heads and shoulders of about five hundred +men, women, and children, who were ducking and praying, _a corps +perdu,_ in the water. As I glanced over the figures nearest to me, +I discovered floating among the indifferent bathers two dead bodies, +which had either been drowned in the confusion, or had purposely +come to die on the edge of the sacred tank; the cool and apathetic +survivors taking not the slightest notice of their soulless +neighbours." + +King John at the Cape. + +"The largest house in Simon's Town, and, indeed, the greater part of +the town itself, belongs to an Englishman of the name of Osbond, +who, however, is more generally known by the dignified title of 'King +John.' He was carpenter on board the sixty-gun ship Sceptre, which was +wrecked off this coast some yearn ago. Like Juan, he escaped the sea, +and like Juan he found a Haidee. Being well-favoured and sharp-witted, +he won the heart and the hand of a wealthy Dutch widow, whose dollars +he afterwards, in some bold but successful speculations, turned to +good account. He is said to have laid out ten thousand pounds on +these--to every one but himself--_inhospita littora._ King John is +much respected." + +Population of Cape Town. + +"The variety of nations, and the numerous shades of complexion +among the people in the streets of Cape Town, are very striking to +a stranger. First may be remarked the substantial Dutchman, with his +pretty, smiling, round-faced, and particularly well-dressed +daughter: then the knot of 'Qui hi's,' sent to the Cape, per doctor's +certificate, to husband their threadbare constitutions, and lavish +their rupees: next the obsequious, smirking, money-making China-man, +with his poking shoulders, and whip-like pig-tail: then the +stout, squat Hottentots--who resemble the Dutch in but one +characteristic!--and half castes of every intermediate tint between +black and white. These are well relieved and contrasted by the +tall, warlike figures and splendid costume of his Majesty's 72nd +Highlanders, who, with the 98th regiment, form the garrison of Cape +Town." + +Visit to the Residence of Napoleon at St. Helena. + +"We soon came in sight of the level plateau of the Longwood estate, +the residence of the late emperor, and six miles from Plantation +House. Here the country gradually assumes a more desolate and a wilder +look; and the English visitor arrives at the unfortunate and unwelcome +conclusion, that the best part of the island was not given to the +illustrious captive. One cannot avoid agreeing with Sir W. Scott, that +Plantation House should have been accorded to him, in spite of the +detering reasons of its vicinity to the sea, and its sequestered +situation. Longwood, however, has better roads, more space for riding +or driving, and in summer must have been much cooler than the less +sheltered parts of the isle. As we turned through the lodges the old +house appeared at the end of an avenue of scrubby and weather-worn +trees. It bears the exterior of a respectable farm-house, but is now +fast running to decay. On entering a dirty courtyard, and quitting +our horses, we were shown by some idlers into a square building, which +once contained the bed-room, sitting-room, and bath of the _Empereur +des Francois._ The partitions and floorings are now thrown down, and +torn up, and the apartments occupied for six years by the hero before +whom kings, emperors, and popes had quailed, are now tenanted by +cart-horses! + +"Passing on with a groan, I entered a small chamber, with two windows +looking towards the north. Between these windows are the marks of a +fixed sofa: on that couch Napoleon died. The apartment is now occupied +by a threshing machine; 'No bad emblem of its former tenant!' said +a sacrilegious wag. Hence we were conducted onwards to a large room, +which formerly contained a billiard-table, and whose front looks out +upon a little latticed veranda, where the imperial peripatetic--I +cannot style him philosopher--enjoyed the luxury of six paces to and +fro,--his favourite promenade. The white-washed walls are scored with +names of every nation; and the paper of the ceiling has been torn off +in strips as holy relics. Many couplets, chiefly French, extolling and +lamenting the departed hero, adorn or disfigure (according to their +qualities) the plaster walls. The only lines that I can recall to +mind--few are worth it--are the following, written ever the door, and +signed '---- ----, Officier de la Garde Imperiale.' + + "'Du grand Napoleon le nom toujours cite + Ira de bouche en bouche a la posterite!'" + +The writer doubtless possessed more spirit as a sabreur than as a +poet. + +"The emperor's once well-kept garden, + + "'And still where many a garden-flower grows wild,' + +"is now overgrown and choked with weeds. At the end of a walk still +exists a small mound, on which it is said the hero of Lodi, Marengo, +and Austerlitz, amused himself by erecting a mock battery. The little +chunamed tank, in which he fed some fresh-water fish, is quite +dried up; and the mud wall, through a hole in which he reconnoitered +passers-by, is, like the great owner, returned to earth!" + +Captain Mundy's volumes are illustrated chiefly with sketches of +Indian sports from the master-hand of Land-seer; and for spirit of +execution they deserve to rank among the finest productions of this +distinguished artist. + + * * * * * + + +RECENT FRENCH LITERATURE. + +A novel picture of Paris has lately appeared with the taking title +of the _Hundred and One._ Its origin, as well as its subject, is +interesting. It is a voluntary association of almost all the literary +talent of France, for the benefit of an enterprising bookseller, +whose affairs have, it seems, fallen into the sere, since the +commercial embarrassments following on the Revolution. A hundred +and one authors of all ranks and political opinions, philosophers, +academicians, journalists, deputies, poets, artists, have combined +in this work to pass in review before us the humours, follies and +opinions of the French capital, painted in colours gay or grave, +sketchy or elaborate, according to the manner or mood of the artist. A +very amusing work, suitable to all tastes, is the result, and, by +aid of the _Foreign Quarterly Review_, we are enabled to present +the reader with a specimen sketch by Leon Guzlan, an author of some +celebrity in this species of writing.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Several specimens have been ably translated in the +Athenaeum.] + +VISIT TO THE MORGUE, AT PARIS. + +(The Morgue, we should premise, is an establishment in Paris for +the reception of all persons found dead in the City or its environs. +Thither it is the duty of the police to convey the bodies, where they +are exposed in a hall open to the public for a stated time,[1] when, +if not identified, and claimed, they are interred in the neighbouring +cemetery.) + +[Footnote 1: The bodies are stripped, and placed on sloping slabs of +marble; above each are hung the clothes of the deceased.] + +"After describing the exterior, the _Salle de l'Exposition_, which is +the only portion of the building, of course, with which the public +are acquainted, the writer conducts us into the inner recesses of this +house of death, the apartments of the superintendant. + +"M. Perrin, is a little old man, who coughs incessantly. When I +explained to him the object of my visit, he very politely offered to +show me all the details of his administration, regretting much, as he +said, that there was not so much variety as could be desired. 'But I +will show you what I have--be pleased to walk up.' + +"As we were climbing the narrow stairs, and he was informing me that +his establishment was connected both with the prefecture and the +police, with the one on account of the local expenses, with the other +from its connexion with the public health, we were obliged to stand +close against the wall to allow a troop of young girls to pass, well +dressed, gay, but shivering with the cold, which blew from the river +through the chink which lighted the stair. + +"'These are four of my daughters. I have eight children. Francois, the +keeper, has had four, and he has had the good fortune to get them all +married. Francois is a kind father.' + +"'So,' said I, 'twelve children then have been born in the Morgue. +Dreams of joy, and conjugal endearments, and parental delights, have +been experienced in this chamber of death. Marriage with its orange +flowers, baptism with its black robed sponsors, the communion, and the +embroidered veil, love, religion, virtue, have had their home here as +elsewhere. God has sown the seeds of happiness every where.' + +"'Papa, we are going to a distribution of prizes. My sisters are sure +to get a prize. Don't weary, we will be back in good time.' + +"'Go, my children,'--and all four embraced him. + +"I thought of the body of the little Norman in the dreary room +beneath, and of the mother who even now, perhaps, was anxiously +looking for her from the window. + +"'This is the apartment of Francois'. Francois did the honours with +the activity of a man who is not ashamed of his establishment. His +room is comfortably furnished; two modern pendules mounted on +bronze, a wardrobe with a Medusa's head, a high bed, and a handsome +rose-coloured curtain. If the room was not overburdened with +furniture, if there was not much of luxury, yet, to those not early +accustomed to superfluities, it might even seem gay. It represented +the tastes, opinions, and habits of its master. Vases of flowers threw +a green reflection on the curtains, for Francois is fond of flowers. +Among his gallery of portraits were those of Augereau and Kleber, both +in long coats, leaning on immense sabres, with peruques and powder. +Napoleon is there three times. + +"'Look at these jars,' said Francois, 'these are sweetmeats of +my wife's making; she excels in sweetmeats.' I read upon them, +'gooseberries of 1831.' We left Francois's apartment which forms the +right wing of the Morgue, while the clerk's house is on the left, and +entered the cabinet of administration of M. Perrin. + +"If Francois is fond of flowers, M. Perrin has the same penchant for +hydraulics and the camera obscura; he draws, he makes jets from the +Seine, by an ingenious piece of machinery of his own invention; while +he was retouching his syphon, I asked permission to turn over the +register, where suicides are ranged in two columns. + +"The fatal 'unknown' was the prevailing designation; 'brought here at +three in the morning, skull fractured, _unknown;_' 'brought at twelve +at night, drowned under the Pont des Arts, cards in his pocket, +_unknown;_'--'young woman, pregnant, crushed by a fiacre at the corner +of the Rue Mandar, _unknown_;'--'new born child found dead of cold, +at the gate of an hotel, _unknown.'_ + +"I said to M. Perrin that he must weary here very much occasionally +during the long nights of winter. + +"'No,' replied he good humouredly, 'the children sing, we all work, +Francois and I play at draughts or piquet; the worst of it is, we are +sometimes interrupted; a knock comes, we must go down, get a stone +ready, undress the new comer and register him: that spoils the game; +we forget to mark the points.' + +"'And this is the way you generally spend your evenings?'--'Always, +except when Francois has to go to Vaugirard at four o'clock: then +he must go to bed earlier. Perhaps you do not know that our burying +ground is at Vaugirard: as that burying ground is not much in fashion, +we have been allowed to retain our privilege of having a fosse to +ourselves.' + +"'I understand,--it is a fief of the Morgue.' + +"'You saw that chariot below near the entrance gate, in which the +children were hiding themselves at play,--that is our hearse.' + +"'And rich or poor, all must make use of your conveyance? If for +instance a suicide is recognised, his relations or friends may reclaim +him, take him home, and bestow the rites of sepulture on him at his +own house?' + +"'No, the Morgue does not give back what has been once deposited here. +It allows the funeral ceremonies to be as pompous as they will, but +they must all set out from hence; one end of the procession perhaps +is at Notre Dame, while the other is starting from the Morgue. The +Archbishop of Paris may be there; but Francois's place is fixed. It is +the first.' + +"'And the priests of Notre Dame, do they never make any difficulty +about administering the funeral rites to your dead?' + +"'Never!' + +"'Not even to the suicides?' + +"'There are no suicides for Notre Dame: one is drowned by accident, +another killed by the bursting of a gun, a third has fallen from +a scaffold. I invent the excuse, and the conscience of the priest +accepts it. That's enough.' + +"So, thought I! Notre Dame, which formerly witnessed the execution at +the stake of sorcerers, alchymists, and gipsies on the Grande Place, +has now no word of reprobation for the carcass of the suicide, once +allowed to rot on the ground, or be devoured by birds. She asks not +here what was his faith. The priest says mildly, 'Peace be with you.' + +"We walked down, and Francois opened the first room, that which +contains the dresses; habits of all shapes, all dimensions, hideously +jumbled together; gaiters pinned to a sleeve, a shawl shading the neck +of a coat; dresses of peasants, workmen, carters and brewers' frocks, +women's gowns, all faded, discoloured, shapeless, flap against each +other in the current of air which entered through the windows. There +is something here appalling in the sight and sound of these objects, +soulless, body-less, yet moving as if they had life, and presenting +the form without the flesh. Your eye rests on a handkerchief, the +property of some poor labourer, suddenly seized with the idea of +suicide, after some day that he has wanted work. + +"Francois, who followed the direction of my eyes to see what +impression the picture produced on me sighed heavily. + +"'Does it move you too,' said I? 'Are you discontented with your +lot.--Unhappy?' + +"'Not exactly! But, Sir, formerly, you must know, the dresses, after +being six months exhibited, became a perquisite of ours; we sold them. +Now they talk of taking the dresses from us.' + +"I reassured Francois as to the intention of government, and assured +him there was no talk of taking away the dresses. + +"The second room, that which adjoins the public exhibition room, is +appropriated for the dissection of those, the mode of whose death +appears to the police to be suspicious. Its only furniture is a marble +table, on which the dissections take place, and a shelf on which are +placed several bottles of chlorate. This room is immediately above +the room of M. Perrin. The dissecting table above just answers to the +girls' piano below. + +"In this room, which I crossed rapidly to avoid as much as possible +the sight of a body extended on the plank, I saw the little girl, who +had been stifled the night before in the diligence; she was a lovely +child. The other figure was frightfully disfigured; scarcely even +would his mother have recognised him. + +"There remained only the public room; it is narrow, ill aired; ten or +twelve black and sloping stones receive the suicides, who are placed +on it almost in a state of nudity; the places are seldom all occupied, +except perhaps during a revolution. Then it is that the Morgue is +recruited; two more days of glory and immortality in July, and the +plague had been in Paris. + +"'It is true,' said M. Perrin, 'we worked hard during the three days, +and we were allowed the use of two assistants. Corpses every where, +within, without, at the gate, on the bank.'-- + +"'And your girls?' + +"'During these days they did not leave their apartment, nor looked +out to the street, nor to the river; besides, you are mistaken if you +think the spectacle would have terrified them. Brought up here, +they will walk at night without a light in front of the glass, which +divides the corpses from the public, without trembling; we become +accustomed to any thing.' + +"Methought I heard the poor children, so familiar with the idea of +death, so accustomed to this domestic spectacle of their existence, +asking innocently of the strangers whom they visited,--as one would +ask where is your garden, your kitchen, or your cabinet,--'where do +_you_ keep your dead here?' + +"These were all the facts I could gather with regard to the +establishment. I was opening the glass door to breathe the fresh air +again, when the entrance of the crowd drove me back into the interior; +they were following a bier, on which lay a body, from which the water +dripped in a long stream. From one of the hands which were closely +clenched, the keeper detached a strip of coloured linen, and a +fragment of lace. 'Ah!' said he, 'let me look, 'tis she!' + +"'Who is it?' + +"'The nurse who was here this morning; the nurse of the little Norman +girl. Good! they may be buried together.' And M. Perrin put on +his spectacles, opened his register, and wrote in his best +current-hand--_unknown!_" + + * * * * * + + +POETRY. + + * * * * * + +The Maid of Elvar. By Allan Cunningham. + +This is one of the most gratifying "appearances" in the literature of +the day. It reminds us that however the poet's harp may have remained +unstrung, it has not lost its vigour or sweetness--its depth of +feeling, or its melody of tone, and these too are ably sustained +through nearly 600 stanzas in an exquisitely embellished narrative. +The poem is "a song of other times;" the story is one of chivalrous +love; the hero is a young warrior and poet; the Maid of Elvar offers +a garland of gold for the best song in honour of one of his victories; +"minstrels meet and sing, but the song of Eustace, though on another +theme, is reckoned the best; the Maid hangs the gold chain round his +neck, and retires, admiring the young stranger;" and thereby hangs the +tale. As our limits will not allow us to detach a scene or incident, +we must be content, for the present, with culling a few of the +choicest flowers of the song. + +CIVIL WAR. + + Woe, woe was ours. Chief drew his sword on chief: + Religion with her relique and her brand, + Made strife between our bosom-bones, and grief + And lawless joy abounded in the land; + Our glass of glory sank nigh its last sand; + Rank with its treason, priesthood with its craft, + Turned Scotland's war-lance to a willow-wand. + But war arose in Scotland--civil war; + Serf warred with chief, and father warred with son, + The church too warred with all: her evil star + That rules o'er sinking realms shone like the sun-- + Her lights waxed dim and died out one by one-- + Woe o'er the land hung like a funeral pall: + The sword the bold could brave, the coward shun, + But famine followed fast and fell on all-- + Pale lips cried oft for food which came not at their call. + +RURAL PEACE. + + Much mirth was theirs--war was no wonder then; + Dread fled with danger, and the cottage cocks, + The shepherd's war-pipe, called the sons of men + When morning's wheel threw bright dew from its spokes, + To pastures green to lead again their flocks; + The horn of harvest followed with its call; + Fast moved the sickle, and swift rose the shocks, + Behind the reapers like a golden wall-- + Gravely the farmer smiled, by turns approving all. + + The ripe corn waved in lone Dalgonar glen, + That, with its bosom basking in the sun, + Lies like a bird; the hum of working men + Joins with the sound of streams that southward run, + With fragrant holms atween: then mix in one + Beside a church, and round two ancient towers + Form a deep fosse. Here sire is heired by son, + And war comes never; ancle deep in flowers + In summer walk its dames among the sunny bowers. + + He rose, find homeward by the slumbering stream + Walked with the morn-dew glistening on his shoon. + The sun was up, and his outbursting beam + Touched tower and tree and pasture hills aboon; + The stars were quenched, and vanished was the moon; + Loud lowed the herds and the glad partridge' cry + Made corn-fields musical as groves at noon; + Birds left the perch, bee following bee hummed by, + And gladness reigned on earth and brightness claimed the sky. + +MINSTRELSY. + + I sing of days in which brave deeds of arms + And deeds of song went hand in hand: our kings + Heroic feelings had and owned the charms + Of minstrel lore--they loved the magic strings + More than the sceptre; still their kingdom rings + With their gay musings and their harpings high. + To noble deeds fair poesie lends wings; + She lifts them up from grovelling earth to sky, + And bids them sit in light, and live and never die. + +FAME. + + Fame, fame--thou warrior's wish, thou poet's thought, + Thou bright delusion; like the rainbow thou + Glitterest, yet none may touch thee; thing of naught, + Star-high with heaven's own brightness on thy brow, + Blazoned and glorious I beheld thee grow-- + Vision, begone,--for I am none of thine. + Of all that fills my heart and fancy now, + From dull oblivion not one word or line + Wilt thou touch with thy light and render it divine. + + Even be it so. I sing not for thy smiles-- + I sing to keep down sighs and ease the smart + Of care and sadness, and the daily toils + Which crush my soul and trample on my heart. + Far mightier spirits of the inspired art + Are mute and nameless, mid the muse in grief + Calls from the eastern to the western airt, + On tale, tradition, ballad, song, and chief + On thee, to give their names one passage bright and brief. + She calls in vain; like to a shooting star + Their storied rhymes shone brightly in their birth, + And shot a dazzling lustre near and far; + Then darkened, died, as all things else on earth. + +EVENING. + + The sun + Behind the mountain's summit slowly sank; + Crows came in clouds down from the moorlands dun, + And darkened all the pine-trees, rank on rank; + The homeward milch-cows at the fountains drank; + Swains dropt the sickle, hinds unloosed the car-- + The twin hares sported on the clover-bank, + And with the shepherd o'er the upland far, + Came out the round pale moon, and star succeeding star. + Star followed star, though yet day's golden light + Upon the hills and headlands faintly stream'd; + To their own pine the twin-doves took their flight; + From crag and cliff the clamorous seamews screamed, + In glade and glen the cottage windows gleam'd; + Larks left the cloud, for flight the grey owl sat; + The founts and lakes up silver radiance steamed; + Winging his twilight journey, hummed the gnat-- + The drowsy beetle droned, and skimmed the wavering bat. + +THE MAID'S FIRST LOVE. + + The maiden heard a light foot on the floor, + And sidelong looked, and there before her stood + Young Eustace Graeme: far from the pasture moor + He came: the fragrance of the dale and wood + Was scenting all his garments green and good. + A sudden flush when tie the maiden saw, + Burned through his temples, kindled up his blood-- + His stifling breath waxed nigh too tight to draw, + He bowed, and silent stood in wonderment and awe. + + The father smiled, the mother smiled. Now why + Are her eyes downcast and his white brow glowing? + Say, have they vowed while heaven was witness by + With all her radiant lights like fountains flowing, + To love while water runs and woods are growing, + And stars glowed conscious of the compact pure? + They never woo'd, nor, love for love bestowing. + Met with the moonshine in the green-wood bow'r, + Nor looked and sighed, and looked and drank love by the hour. + + Yet they have met. Though not fools of the flock, + On whom love like the tiger gives one bound. + And then the heart is rent--a thunderstroke + That makes men dust before they hear the sound-- + A shaft that leaves dark venom in the wound-- + A frost that all the buds of manhood nips-- + A sea of passion in which true love's drowned-- + A demon strangling virtue in his grips-- + A day when reason's son is quenched in dread eclipse. + + True gentle love is like the summer dew, + Which falls around when all is still and hush-- + And falls unseen until its bright drops strew + With odours, herb and flower, and bank, and bush + O love, when womanhood is in the flush, + And man's a young and an unspotted thing! + His first breathed word and her half conscious blush, + Are fair us light in heaven, or flowers in spring-- + The first hour of true love is worth our worshipping. + +LOVE OF COUNTRY. + + "I would not leave old Scotland's mountain gray, + Her hills, her cots, her halls, her groves of pine, + Dark though they be: yon glen, yon broomy brae, + Yon wild fox cleugh, yon eagle cliffs outline + An hour like this--this white right-hand of thine, + And of thy dark eyes such a gracious glance, + As I got now, for all beyond the line, + And all the glory gained by sword or lance, + In gallant England, Spain, or olive vales of France." + + * * * * * + +_Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand. (near Somerset +House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic; +G.G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris, and by all Newsmen +and Booksellers._ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, +AND INSTRUCTION, VOL. 19, ISSUE 549 (SUPPLEMENTARY ISSUE) *** + + +******* This file should be named 11871.txt or 11871.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/8/7/11871 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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