and skill which have been displayed by the gallant Sir James Brooke,
unless we make ourselves acquainted with the character and habits of
the extraordinary race of men over whom he triumphed. The Dyaks are a
savage people who inhabit Borneo. They lived there before the Malays
came, and they have been obliged to submit to them. They are savages
indeed. They are darker than the Malays; yet they are not black; their
skin is only the colour of copper. Their hair is cut short in front,
but streams down their backs; their large mouths show a quantity of
black teeth, made black by chewing the betel-nut. They wear but very
little clothing, but they adorn their ears and arms, and legs, with
numbers of brass rings. Their looks are wild and fierce, but not
cunning like the looks of the Malays. They are not Mahomedans; they
have hardly any religion at all. They believe there are some gods, but
they know hardly anything about them, and they do not want to know.
They neither make images to the gods, nor say prayers to them. They
live like the beasts, thinking only of this life; yet they are more
unhappy than beasts, for they imagine there are evil spirits among the
woods and hills, watching to do them harm. It is often hard to persuade
them to go to the top of a mountain, where they say evil spirits dwell.
Such a people would be more ready to listen to a missionary than those
who have idols, and temples, and priests, and sacred books.
[Illustration: Dyak With Heads.]
[Illustration: Head of a Dyak.]
Their wickedness is very great. It is their chief delight to get the
heads of their enemies. There are a great many different tribes of
Dyaks, and each tribe tries to cut off the heads of other tribes. The
Dyaks who live by the sea are the most cruel; they go out into the
boats to rob and bring home, not _slaves_, but HEADS!! And how do they
treat a head when they get it? They take out the brains, and then they
dry it in the smoke, with the flesh and hair still on; then they put a
string through it, and fasten it to their waists. The evening that they
have got some new heads, the warriors dance with delight,--their heads
dangling by their sides;--and they turn round in the dance, and gaze
upon their heads,--and shout,--and yell with triumph! At night they
still keep the heads near them; and in the day they play with them,
as children with their dolls, talking to them, putting food in their
mouths, and the betel-nut between their ghastly lips. After wearing the
heads many days, they hang them up to the ceilings of their rooms.
No English lord thinks so much of his pictures, as the Dyaks do of
their heads. They think these heads are the finest ornaments of their
houses. The man who has _most_ heads, is considered the _greatest_ man.
A man who has _no heads_ is despised! If he wishes to be respected, he
must get a head as soon as he can. Sometimes a man, in order to get a
head, will go out to look for a poor fisherman, who has done him no
harm, and will come back with his head. When the Dyaks fight against
their enemies, they try to get, not only the heads of men, but also
the heads of women and children. How dreadful it must be to see a poor
baby's head hanging from the ceiling! There was a Dyak who lost all
his property by fire, but he cared not for losing anything, so much as
for losing his precious heads; nothing could console him for his loss;
some of them he had cut off himself, and others had been cut off by his
father, and left to him!
[Illustration: House of Sea Dyaks.]
[Illustration: Skull House.]
People who are so bent on killing, as these Dyaks are, must have many
enemies. The Dyaks are always in fear of being attacked by their
enemies. They are afraid of living in lonely cottages; they think it a
better plan for a great many to live together, that they may be able
to defend themselves, if surprised in the night. Four hundred Dyaks
will live together in one house. The house is very large. To make it
more safe, it is built upon very high posts, and there are ladders to
get up by. The posts are sometimes forty feet high; so that when you
are in the house, you find yourself as high as the tall trees. There
is one very large room, where all the men and women sit, and talk,
and do their work in the day. The women pound the rice, and weave the
mats, while the men make weapons of war, and the little children play
about. There is always much noise and confusion in this room. There are
a great many doors along one side of the long room; and each of these
doors leads into a small room where a family lives! the parents, the
babies, and the girls sleep there, while the boys of the family sleep
in the large room, that has just been described.
The Hill Dyaks do not live in houses quite so large. Yet several
families inhabit the same house. In the midst of their villages, there
is always one house where the boys sleep. In this house all the heads
of the village are kept. The house is round, and built on posts, and
the entrance is underneath, through the floor. As this is the best
house in the village, travellers are always brought to this house to
sleep. Think how dreadful it must be, when you wake in the night to see
thirty or forty horrible heads, dangling from the ceiling! The wind,
too, which comes in through little doors in the roof, blows the heads
about; so that they knock against each other, and seem almost as if
they were still alive. This is the Dead-house. Such are the men whom
the Rajah Brooke subdued!
SCOTTISH WILD CATTLE.
The wild white cattle, a few of which are still to be found in
Chatelherault Park, belonging to the Duke of Hamilton, in Lanarkshire,
are great objects of curiosity, inasmuch as they are identical with the
primitive source of all our domestic cattle.
The following description of their habits is abridged from an article
by the Rev. W. Patrick, in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture:--
"I am inclined to believe that the Hamilton breed of cattle is the
oldest in Scotland, or perhaps in Britain. Although Lord Tankerville
has said they have 'no wild habits,' I am convinced, from personal
observation, that this is one of their peculiar features. In browsing
their extensive pasture, they always keep close together, never
scattering or straggling over it, a peculiarity which does not belong
to the Kyloe, or any other breed, from the wildest or most inhospitable
regions of the Highlands. The white cows are also remarkable for their
systematic manner of feeding. At different periods of the year their
tactics are different, but by those acquainted with their habits they
are always found about the same part of the forest at the same hour of
the day. In the height of summer, they always bivouac for the night
towards the northern extremity of the forest; from this point they
start in the morning, and browse to the southern extremity, and return
at sunset to their old rendezvous; and during these perambulations they
always feed _en masse_.
"The bulls are seldom ill-natured, but when they are so they display
a disposition more than ordinarily savage, cunning, pertinacious,
and revengeful. A poor bird-catcher, when exercising his vocation
among the 'Old Oaks,' as the park is familiarly called, chanced to be
attacked by a savage bull. By great exertion he gained a tree before
his assailant made up to him. Here he had occasion to observe the
habits of the animal. It did not roar or bellow, but merely grunted,
the whole body quivered with passion and savage rage, and he frequently
attacked the tree with his head and hoofs. Finding all to no purpose,
he left off the vain attempt, began to browse, and removed to some
distance from the tree. The bird-catcher tried to descend, but this
watchful Cerberus was again instantly at his post, and it was not till
after six hours' imprisonment, and various bouts at 'bo-peep' as above,
that the unfortunate man was relieved by some shepherds with their
dogs. A writer's apprentice, who had been at the village of Quarter on
business, and who returned by the 'Oaks' as a 'near-hand cut,' was also
attacked by one of these savage brutes, near the northern extremity of
the forest. He was fortunate, however, in getting up a tree, but was
watched by the bull, and kept there during the whole of the night, and
till near two o'clock the next day.
"These animals are never taken and killed like other cattle, but are
always shot in the field. I once went to see a bull and some cows
destroyed in this manner--not by any means for the sake of the sight,
but to observe the manner and habits of the animal under peculiar
circumstances. When the shooters approached, they, as usual, scampered
off in a body, then stood still, tossed their heads on high, and
seemed to snuff the wind; the manoeuvre was often repeated, till they
got so hard pressed (and seemingly having a sort of half-idea of the
tragedy which was to be performed), that they at length ran furiously
in a mass, always preferring the sides of the fence and sheltered
situations, and dexterously taking advantage of any inequality in
the ground, or other circumstances, to conceal themselves from the
assailing foe. In their flight, the bulls, or stronger of the flock,
always took the lead! a smoke ascended from them which could be seen at
a great distance; and they were often so close together, like sheep,
that a carpet would have covered them. The cows which had young, on the
first 'tug of war,' all retreated to the thickets where their calves
were concealed; from prudential motives, they are never, if possible,
molested. These and other wild habits I can testify to be inherent
in the race, and are well known to all who have an opportunity of
acquainting themselves with them."
BELLS OF THE ANCIENTS.
Bells were known in the earliest ages of which we have any certain
account. But the bells of the ancients were very small in comparison
with those of modern times, since, according to Polydore Virgil, the
invention of such as are hung in the towers, or steeples of Christian
churches, did not occur till the latter end of the fourth, or beginning
of the fifth century; when they were introduced by Paulinus, Bishop of
Nola. The Jews certainly employed bells, since they are spoken of in
Scriptures; and the mention of them by Thucydides, Diodorus Siculus,
Suidas, Aristophanes, and other ancient writers, proves that they
were used in Greece; while Plautus, Ovid, Tibullus, Statius, and a
variety of Latin authors, speak of bells as in use among the Romans.
But these bells of the ancients were all made for the hand; or were
of a size to be affixed to other musical instruments, like those
which were occasionally appended to the drum. Whether, when detached
from other instruments, they were used on other occasions, or only in
particular ceremonies, or as signals, is not known; nor have we any
clue by which to guess whether they were tuned in concordance with any
scale, or whether they were unisons to each other, or not formed to
any particular pitch, but merely used as sonorous auxiliaries to other
instruments, without any regard to their agreement of tone, either with
one another, or with the instruments they accompanied.
EARTHQUAKE AT NOTTINGHAM IN 1816.
Earthquakes are providentially occurrences of great rarity in England.
The one which took place on the 17th of March, 1816, was one of the
most dangerous that has ever been experienced in this kingdom. It
extended over a vast area of country, and in some localities its
effects were felt very severely. As a proof of this, we have copied the
following paragraph from a Nottingham paper of the day:--
Nottingham, in common with a great part of the North Midland district,
experienced a smart shock of an earthquake. It was felt at half-past
twelve p.m., and as Divine service, it being Sunday, was not over
at the churches, great alarm was expressed by the congregations. At
St. Peter's and St. Nicholas's, the consternation was so great, that
service had to be suspended for a few seconds, and one lady was borne
out in a state of insensibility. The pillars supporting St. Mary's
tower shook very visibly, but, fortunately, the attention of the
crowded congregation was so engrossed by the eloquence of the sheriff's
chaplain, and the presence of the Judge and his retinue, that the alarm
was but slight, or the rush and loss of life might have been great.
In various parts of the town and neighbourhood, glasses were shaken
off of shelves, articles of domestic use displaced, window-casements
thrown open, and other indications manifest of the influence of the
subterranean movement.
SINGULAR STATE OF PRESERVATION OF A DEAD BODY.
According to a statement in Holinshed, in 1495, while digging for a
foundation for the church of St. Mary-at-hill, in London, the body of
Alice Hackney was discovered. It had been buried 175 years, and yet the
skin was whole, and the joint pliable. It was kept above ground four
days without annoyance, and then re-interred.
ASYLUM FOR DESTITUTE CATS.
Of all the curious charitable institutions in the world, the most
curious probably is the Cat Asylum at Aleppo, which is attached to
one of the mosques there, and was founded by a misanthropic old Turk,
who being possessed of large granaries, was much annoyed by rats and
mice, to rid himself of which he employed a legion of cats, who so
effectually rendered him service, that in return he left them a sum
in the Turkish funds, with strict injunctions that all destitute
and sickly cats should be provided for, till such time as they took
themselves off again. In 1845, when a famine was ravaging in all
North Syria--when scores of poor people were dropping down in the
streets from sheer exhaustion and want, and dying there by dozens per
diem before the eyes of their well-to-do fellow creatures, men might
daily be encountered carrying away sack loads of cats to be fed up and
feasted on the proceeds of the last will and testament of that vagabond
old Turk, whilst fellow creatures were permitted to perish.
TOMB OF SAINT GEORGE.
The tomb of Saint George, England's patron-saint, is situated in the
Bay of Kesrouan, between the Nahr-et-Kelb and Batroun, surrounded by
luxuriant gardens and groups of romantic-looking villages and convents.
The Arabs venerate St. George, whom they style Mar Djurios, and point
to a small ruined chapel (as in our engraving), originally dedicated to
him to commemorate his victory over the dragon, which, they say, took
place near to the spot. The tradition is, that the dragon was about to
devour the king of Beyrout's daughter, when St. George slew him, and
thus saved the lady fair; and the credulous natives point to a kind of
well, upwards of sixty feet deep, where they stoutly affirm that the
dragon used to come out to feed upon his victims.
[Illustration [++] Tomb of Saint George.]
All this is very curious, inasmuch as it gives an Arabian interest to
the career of the patron saint of England, whose portrait, in the act
of slaying the dragon, constitutes the reverse of most English coin,
and is regarded as the embodiment of English valour.
BEGGARS SELECTED AS MODELS BY PAINTERS.
Michael Angelo Buonarotti often drew from beggars; and report says,
that in the early part of his life, when he had not the means of paying
them in money, he would make an additional sketch, and, presenting it
to the party, desire him to take it to some particular person, who
would purchase it. Fuseli, in his life of Michael Angelo, says that "a
beggar rose from his hand the patriarch of poverty." The same artist,
in one of his lectures, delivered at the Royal Academy, also observes,
that "Michael Angelo ennobled his beggars into Patriarchs and Prophets,
in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel."
Annibal Caracci frequently drew subjects in low life. His _Cries of
Bologna_, etched by Giuseppe Maria Mitelli: pub. 1660, in folio, are
evidently from real characters. It will also be recollected, that some
of the finest productions of Murillo, Jan Miel, and Drogsloot, are
beggars. Callot's twenty-four beggars are evidently from nature; and
among Rembrandt's etchings are to be found twenty-three plates of this
description.
Sir Joshua Reynolds frequently painted from beggars, and from these
people have originated some of his finest pictures, particularly
his "Mercury as a Pickpocket," and "Cupid as a Link-boy." His Count
Ugolino was painted from a paviour, soon after he had left St. George's
Hospital, from a severe fever. Mr. West painted the portrait of a
beggar, on the day when he became a hundred years old; and considered
him as a pensioner for several years afterwards. The same person was
used also as a model, by Copley, Opie, &c. Who can forget the lovely
countenance of Gainsborough's "Shepherd's Boy," that has once seen
Earlom's excellent engraving from it? He was a lad, well known as a
beggar to those who walked St. James's-street seventy years ago. The
model for the celebrated picture of the "Woodman," by the same artist,
died in the Borough, at the venerable age of 107.
Mr. Nollekens, in 1778, when modelling the bust of Dr. Johnson,
who then wore a wig, called in a beggar to sit for the hair. The
same artist was not equally fortunate in the locks of another great
character; for on his application to a beggar for the like purpose, the
fellow declined to sit, with an observation that three half-crowns were
not sufficient for the trouble.
SUPPLY OF WATER FOR OLD LONDON.
Leaden pipes conveyed spring water to London city from Tyburn in 1236;
and in 1285 the first great conduit of lead was begun there. In 1442
Henry VI. granted to John Hatherley, Mayor, license to take up 200
fother of lead. The pipes from Highbury brought in the water in 1483.
We may learn how much was thought of this useful work by the fact that
the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and many worshipful persons used to ride and
view the conduit heads at Tyburn; and after dinner there, somewhat
different from recent sportsmen, they hunted a fox.
The water-works at London Bridge were established in 1512. In 1534,
two-fifteenths were granted by the Common Council for defraying the
expense of bringing water from Hackney to Aldgate to a conduit. But
Peter Morris did not bring his supply of water to the highest parts of
London till the year 1569, and Sir Hugh Middleton's far-famed New River
was only rendered available in 1618, that is, a space of sixty-eight
years after the introduction of a stream of pure water into the western
parts of the town of Lyme in Dorset.
COMBINATION OF INSTINCT AND FORCE OF HABIT IN A DOG.
A dog which had been accustomed to go with his master regularly for
some time to Penkridge church, still continued to go there by himself
every Sunday for a whole year, while the edifice was under repair, and
divine service was not held. Whenever he could, he would get into the
family pew and there pass the proper time. His instinct enabled him to
perceive the occasion, and to measure the regular time, but it could
carry him no further. A remarkable exemplification of the difference
between instinct and reason.
YORKSHIRE IN THE LAST CENTURY.
Anecdotes which are apparently trifling in themselves, are often of
importance, as exhibiting in a striking light the dialect and social
condition of the people, and the period they refer to. An instance of
this is the following, which has been recorded as the bellman's cry at
Ripon, on the occasion of a great frost and fall of snow, about 1780:--
"I is to gie notidge, that Joanie Pickersgill yeats yewn to neit, to
moarn at moarn, an to moarn at neit, an nea langer, as lang as storm
hods, 'cause he can git na mare eldin."
_The Translation._
I am to give notice, that John Pickersgill heats his oven to-night,
to-morrow morning, and to-morrow at night, and no longer as long as the
storm lasts, because he can get no more fuel.
INSTANCE OF MANY AGED PERSONS DYING ABOUT THE SAME DATE.
The following is taken from a copy of Nile's "Weekly Register,"
published at Baltimore, in the month of January, 1823. It is the list
of deaths which had been notified to the paper within one week, and we
give it, as a singular instance of the decease of so many persons above
one hundred years old being announced in the same paragraph.
"In Franklin co. Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Campbell, aged 104--several
of her relatives had reached 100.--At Troy, N. Y., Ann Fowler,
100.--At Tyngsboro', N. Y., Abigail Hadlock, 104.--At Somers, N. Y.,
Michael Makeel, 103.--At Rutland, Oswego, N. Y., Mrs. Buroy, 110.--At
Brunswick, Maine, Gen. James W. Ryan, 107--his wife is yet living,
aged 94; they were married together 75 years before his death.--At
Georgetown, Col. Yarrow, a Moor, (supposed) 135!--At the city of New
York, a woman, a native of St. Domingo, 106. At Sargus, Mass., Mrs.
Edwards, 101.--In Edgecomb county, N. C., William Spicer, aged about
112.--In Boston, William Homer, 116."
CORPSE BEARERS DURING THE PLAGUE.
Of all the calamities with which a great city is infested, there can
be none so truly awful as that of a plague, when the street doors of
the houses that were visited with the dreadful pest were padlocked up,
and only accessible to the surgeons and medical men, whose melancholy
duty frequently exposed them even to death itself; and when the
fronts of the houses were pasted over with large bills exhibiting red
crosses, to denote that in such houses the pestilence was raging, and
requesting the solitary passenger, to pray that the Lord might have
mercy upon those who were confined within. Of these bills there are
many extant in the libraries of the curious, some of which have borders
engraved on wood printed in black, displaying figures of skeletons,
bones, and coffins They also contain various recipes for the cure of
the distemper. The Lady Arundel, and other persons of distinction,
published their methods for making what was then called plague-water,
and which are to be found in many of the rare books on cookery of
the time; but happily for London, it has not been visited by this
affliction since 1665, a circumstance owing probably to the Great Fire
in the succeeding year, which consumed so many old and deplorable
buildings, then standing in narrow streets and places so confined, that
it was hardly possible to know where any pest would stop.
[Illustration [++] Corpse Bearer.]
Every one who inspects Agas's Plan of London, engraved in the reign of
Elizabeth, as well as those published subsequently to the rebuilding
of the City after the fire, must acknowledge the great improvements
as to the houses, the widening of the streets, and the free admission
of fresh air. It is to be hoped, and indeed we may conclude from the
very great and daily improvements on that most excellent plan of
widening streets, that this great city will never again witness such
visitations.
When the plague was at its height, perhaps nothing could have been more
silently or solemnly conducted than the removal of the dead to the
various pits round London, that were opened for their reception; and it
was the business of Corpse Bearers, such as the one exhibited in the
preceding engraving, to give directions to the carmen, who went through
the city with bells, which they rang, at the same time crying "Bring
out your Dead." This melancholy description may be closed, by observing
that many parts of London, particularly those leading to the Courts of
Westminster, were so little trodden down, that the grass grew in the
middle of the streets.
A MEMENTO-MORI WATCH.
The curious relic, of which we herewith give an engraving, was
presented by Mary, Queen of Scots, to her Maid of Honour, Mary Seaton,
of the house of Wintoun, one of the four celebrated Maries, who were
Maids of Honour to her Majesty.
"Yestreen the Queen had four Maries,
The night she'll hae but three;
There was Marie Seaton, and Marie Beaton,
And Marie Carmichael and me."
[Illustration [++] Memento-Mori Watch.]