among social amusements. The history of this game has exercised
many able pens. According to Sir William Jones, it is decidedly
of Hindoo invention. "If," says he, in a learned memoir on this
subject inserted in the second volume of the _Asiatic Researches_,
"evidence were required to prove this fact, we may be satisfied with
the testimony of the Persians, who, though as much inclined as other
nations to appropriate the ingenious inventions of a foreign people,
unanimously agree that the game was imported from the west of India
in the sixth century of our era. It seems to have been immemorially
known in Hindoostan by the name of _Cheturanga_, the four _angas_, or
members of an army, which are _elephants_, _horses_, _chariots_, and
_foot-soldiers_; and in this sense, the word is frequently used by epic
poets in their description of real armies. By a natural corruption
of the pure Sanscrit word, it was changed by the old Persians into
_chetrang_; but the Arabs, who soon after took possession of their
country, had neither the initial nor the final letter of that word in
their alphabet, and consequently altered it farther into _shetranj_,
which presently found its way into the modern Persian, and at length
into the dialects of India, where the true derivation of the name is
known only to the learned. Thus has a very significant word in the
sacred language of the Brahmins been transformed by successive changes
into _axedrez_, _scacchi_, _echecs_, chess, and by a whimsical
concurrence of circumstances given birth to the English word _check_,
and even a name to the _exchequer_ of Great Britain."
Of the origin of this game various accounts are given. Some Hindoo
legends relate, that it was invented by the wife of Ravanen, king of
Lanca, or Ceylon, to amuse her husband with an image of war, when
Rama, in the second age of the world, was besieging his capital. The
high degree of civilization which the court of Ravanen had attained
at so remote a period is worthy of notice. An ancient Hindoo painting
represents his capital regularly fortified with embattled towers. He
there defended himself with equal skill and valour, whence he and
his subjects were denominated magicians and giants. Ravanen seems to
have been the Archimedes of Lanca; and his science must have appeared
supernatural to the invader, Rama, and his wild horde of mountaineers,
who were termed in derision satyrs or apes, whence the fable of the
divine Hanooman.
According to another account, the occasion of this invention was as
follows:--Behub, a young and dissolute Indian prince, oppressed his
people in the most cruel manner. Nassir, a Brahmin, deeply afflicted
by his excesses, and the lamentations of his subjects, undertook to
recal the tyrant to reason. With this view he invented a game, in which
the king, impotent by himself, is protected only by his subjects, even
of the lowest class, and frequently ruined by the loss of a single
individual.
The fame of this extraordinary invention reached the throne, and the
king summoned the Brahmin to teach him the game, as a new amusement.
The virtuous Brahmin availed himself of this opportunity to instil
into the mind of the young tyrant the principles of good government,
and to awaken him to a sense of his duties. Struck by the truths which
he inculcated, the prince conceived an esteem for the inventor of the
new game, and assured him of his willingness to confer a liberal
remuneration, if he would mention his own terms. Nassir demanded as
many grains of wheat as would arise from allowing one for the first
square, two for the second, four for the third, and so on, doubling
for each square of the sixty-four on the chessboard. The king, piqued
at the apparently trivial value of the demand, desired him somewhat
angrily to ask a gift more worthy of a monarch to bestow. When,
however, Nassir adhered to his first request, he ordered the required
quantity of corn to be delivered to him. On calculating its amount, the
superintendents of the public granaries, to their utter astonishment,
found the demand to be so enormous, that not Behub's kingdom only, but
even all Hindoostan would have been inadequate to the discharge of it.
The king now admired the Brahmin still more for the ingenuity of his
request than for the invention, appointed him his prime-minister, and
his kingdom was thenceforward prosperous and happy.
The claim of the Hindoos to the invention of chess has been disputed in
favour of the Chinese; but as they admit that they were unacquainted
with the game till 174 years before Christ, and the Hindoos
unquestionably played it long before that time, the pretensions of the
latter must naturally fall to the ground.
DISORDERS CURED BY FRIGHT.
Fabritius makes mention of a gentleman, with whom he was familiar,
who, being unjustly suspected, was tortured upon the rack, and, when
released, found himself quite cured of the gout, which was, _before_
this violent remedy, rather troublesome. Again, we have instances of
disorders being cured by fright. We find, in the Journal de Henri IV.,
that, "On Friday, June the 9th, 1606, as Henry IV. of France, and his
Queen, were crossing the water in the ferry-boat of Neuilly, the Duke
of Vendome being with them, they were all three in great danger of
being drowned, especially the queen, who was obliged to drink a great
deal more than was agreeable to her; and had not one of her footmen,
and a gentleman called La Chatagnieraie, who caught hold of her hair,
desperately thrown themselves into the water to pull her out, she
would have inevitably lost her life. This accident cured the king of a
violent toothache; and, after having escaped the danger, he diverted
himself with it, saying he had never met with so good a remedy for that
disorder before, and that they had ate too much salt meat at dinner,
therefore they had a mind to make them drink after it."
THE WINGLESS BIRD OF NEW ZEALAND.
One of the chief wonders of the world of Ornithology is the Apteryx,
a bird which is found only in New Zealand, and even there, is rapidly
becoming extinct. It is a creature so strange, that no imagination
could have fancied a bird without wings or tail, with robust legs,
and with claws which are suited for digging, and are actually used
in forming excavations, in which this singular bird lays its eggs,
and hatches its young. If the Apteryx were to become extinct, and all
that remained of it, after the lapse of one or two centuries, for the
scrutiny of the naturalist were a foot in one Museum, and a head in
another, with a few conflicting figures of its external form, the real
nature and affinities of this most remarkable species would be involved
in as much obscurity and doubt, and become the subject of as many
conflicting opinions among the ornithologists of that period, as are
those of the Dodo in the present day.
The Apteryx is not larger than a full-grown fowl, and has only a
rudimentary wing, so covered with the body feathers as to be quite
concealed; the terminating slender claw may, however, be discerned on
examination.
[Illustration: The Wingless Bird.]
The bill is long and slightly curved, having the nostrils at the
extremity; its feathers, the sides of which are uniform in structure,
do not exceed four and a-half inches in length, and are much prized as
material for mantles or cloaks by the chiefs. It is a nocturnal bird,
using its long bill in search of worms, upon which it principally
feeds; it kicks with great power, and burrows at the root of the rata,
at the base of which tree is also found the extraordinary Sphaeria
Robertsia, a species of vegetating caterpillar. Retaining the form
of the caterpillar, the fungus pervades the whole body, and shoots
up a small stem above the surface of the ground, the body of the
caterpillar being below the earth in an erect position. The Apteryx
frequently leans with its bill upon the earth--one of its chief
characteristics--and thus, when viewed from a distance, appears to be
standing on three legs.
By the natives of New Zealand, these birds are called Kiwis, from the
cry they utter, and they are frequently caught by a cunning imitator of
their tone, who, when they approach, dazzles and frightens them with
a light previously concealed, and throwing his blanket over them thus
secures them.
A FLOATING CITY.
[Illustration: Floating City of Bankok.]
One of the most wonderful cities in the world is Bankok. It is the
capital of Siam, and is situated on--or rather in--the great river
Meinam. Our engraving represents a portion of this unique metropolis,
and we find the following graphic account of it in a volume of recent
travels--"The capital of Siam! Did you ever witness such a sight in
your life? On either side of the wide, majestic stream, moored in
regular streets and alleys, and extending as far as the eye can reach,
are upwards of seventy thousand neat little wooden houses, each house
floating on a compact raft of bamboos; and the whole intermediate space
of the river presents to our astonished gaze one dense mass of ships,
junks, and boats, of every conceivable shape, colour, and size. As we
glide along amongst these, we occasionally encounter a stray floating
house, broken loose from its moorings, and hurrying down the stream
with the tide, amidst the uproar and shouts of the inhabitants and
all the spectators. We also observe that all the front row of houses
are neatly painted shops, in which various tempting commodities are
exposed for sale; behind these again, at equal distances, rise the
lofty and elegant porcelain towers of the various watts and temples.
On our right-hand side, far away as we can see, are three stately
pillars, erected to the memory of three defunct kings, celebrated for
some acts of valour and justice; and a little beyond these, looming
like a line-of-battle ship amongst a lot of cockle-shells, rises the
straggling and not very elegant palace of the king, where his Siamese
Majesty, with ever so many wives and children, resides. Right ahead,
where the city terminates, and the river, making a curve, flows
behind the palace, is a neat-looking-fort, surmounted with a tope of
mango-trees, over which peep the roofs of one or two houses, and a tall
flag-staff, from which floats the royal pendant and jack of Siam--a
flag of red groundwork, with a white elephant worked into the centre.
That is the fort and palace of the prince Chou Fau, now king of Siam,
and one of the most extraordinary and intellectual men in the East.
Of him, however, we shall see and hear more, after we have bundled
our traps on shore, and taken a little rest. Now, be careful how you
step out of the boat into the balcony of the floating house, for it
will recede to the force of your effort to mount, and if not aware of
this, you lose your balance and fall into the river. Now we are safely
transhipped, for we cannot as yet say landed; but we now form an item,
though a very small one, of the vast population of the city of Bangkok.
We take a brief survey of our present apartments, and find everything,
though inconveniently small, cleanly and in other respects comfortable.
First, we have a little balcony which overhangs the river, and is about
twenty yards long by one and a half broad. Then we have an excellent
sitting-room, which serves us for parlour, dining-room, and all; then
we have a little side room for books and writing; and behind these,
extending the length of the other two, a bed-room. Of course we must
bring or make our own furniture; for, though those houses inhabited
by the Chinese are pretty well off on this score, the Siamese have
seldom anything besides their bedding materials, a few pots and pans
to cook with, a few jars of stores and fishing-net or two. Every house
has a canoe attached to it, and no nation detests walking so much as
the Siamese; at the same time they are all expert swimmers, and both
men and women begin to acquire this very necessary art at a very early
age. Without it a man runs momentary risk of being drowned, as, when a
canoe upsets, none of the passers-by ever think it necessary to lend
any aid, supposing them fully adequate to the task of saving their
own lives. Canoes are hourly being upset, owing to the vast concourse
of vessels and boats plying to and fro; and, owing to this negligence
or carelessness in rendering assistance, a Mr. Benham, an American
missionary, lost his life some twelve years ago, having upset his own
canoe when it was just getting dusk, and though surrounded by hundreds
of boats, not one deemed it necessary to stop and pick the poor man up."
BEQUESTS FOR LIGHTING THE STREETS.
There cannot be a greater contrast than between the present and the
ancient mode of lighting the streets of London. What a picture do the
two following bequests present to us of the state of things a hundred
years ago!
John Wardall, by will, dated 29th August, 1656, gave to the Grocers'
Company a tenement called the White Bear, in Walbrook, to the intent
that they should yearly, within thirty days after Michaelmas, pay to
the churchwardens of St. Botolph, Billingsgate, L4, to provide a good
and sufficient iron and glass lantern, with a candle, for the direction
of passengers to go with more security to and from the water-side, all
night long, to be fixed at the north-east corner of the parish church
of St. Botolph, from the feast-day of St. Bartholomew to Lady-Day; out
of which sum L1 was to be paid to the sexton for taking care of the
lantern. This annuity is now applied to the support of a lamp in the
place prescribed, which is lighted with gas.
John Cooke, by will, dated 12th September, 1662, gave to the
churchwardens, &c., of St. Michael's, Crooked Lane, L76, to be laid out
to the most profit and advantage, for various uses, and amongst them,
for the maintenance of a lantern and candle, to be eight in the pound
at least, to be kept and hanged out at the corner of St. Michael's
Lane, next Thames Street, from Michaelmas to Lady-Day, between the
hours of nine and ten o'clock at night, until the hours of four or five
in the morning, for affording light to passengers going through Thames
Street, or St. Michael's Lane.
EXTRAORDINARY INSTANCE OF CREDULITY.
To the honour of the lords of the creation, there are _some_ husbands
who so grieve at the death of their partners, that they will not part
with them when actually dead; and even go so far as to wish, and try
hard, for their resurrection; witness Sir John Pryse, of Newtown,
Montgomeryshire, who married three wives, and kept the first two
who died, in his room, one on each side of his bed; his third lady,
however, declined the honour of his hand till her defunct rivals
were committed to their proper place. Sir John was a gentleman of
strange singularities. During the season of miracles worked by Bridget
Bostock, of Cheshire, who healed all diseases by prayer, faith, and an
embrocation of fasting spittle, multitudes resorted to her from all
parts, and kept her salivary glands in full employ. Sir John, with a
high spirit of enthusiasm, wrote to this wonderful woman to make him
a visit at Newtown Hall, in order to restore to him his third and
favourite wife (above mentioned), now dead. His letter will best tell
the foundation on which he built his strange hope, and very uncommon
request:--
_Purport of Sir J. Pryse's letter to Mrs. Bridget Bostock, 1748._
Madam,--Having received information, by repeated advices, both public
and private, that you have, of late, performed many wonderful cures,
even where the best physicians have failed, and that the means used
appeared to be very inadequate to the effects produced, I cannot but
look upon you as an extraordinary and highly-favoured person; and why
may not the same most merciful God, who enables you to restore sight to
the blind, hearing to the deaf, and strength to the lame, also enable
you to raise the dead to life? Now, having lately lost a wife, whom
I most tenderly loved; my children an excellent step-mother, and our
acquaintances a very dear and valuable friend, you will lay us all
under the highest obligations; and I earnestly entreat you, for God
Almighty's sake, that you will put up your petitions to the Throne of
Grace, on our behalf, that the deceased may be restored to us, and
the late dame Eleanor Pryse be raised from the dead. If your personal
attendance appears to you to be necessary, I will send my coach and
six, with proper servants, to wait on you hither, whenever you please
to appoint. Recompense of any kind, that you could propose, would be
made with the utmost gratitude; but I wish the bare mention of it is
not offensive to both God and you.
I am, madam, your obedient, &c.
JOHN PRYSE.
(_Pennant's Wales_, vol. 3, p. 190.)
HIGH PRICE OF FISH IN LONDON.
It is on record that on January 4, 1809, there being only four cod-fish
in Billingsgate, a fishmonger gave fourteen guineas for them, and
salmon soon after was sold at a guinea a pound!
THE GREAT AQUEDUCT OF PONT DU GARD.
[Illustration [++] Acqueduct of Pont du Gard.]
The remains of Roman aqueducts, of great extent and massiveness,
occur in various parts of Europe, over which the Roman dominion once
extended. Among these, the most celebrated are the Pont du Gard,
near Nismes, in the Department du Gard, in the south of France; the
aqueduct over the Moselle, near Metz; and the aqueduct of Segovia, in
Old Castile. The Pont du Gard (of which we here give an engraving)
was designed to convey the waters of the fountain of Aure to the town
of Nismes, the ancient Nemausus. This aqueduct crosses the beautiful
valley, and the stream of the river Gardon, uniting two steep hills, by
which the valley is bounded at this place. It consists of two tiers of
large arches, the lower of which are eighty feet in span, and a third
tier of small arches, which support the trunk of the aqueduct. The
channel for the water is above four feet wide, and five deep, and is
lined with cement three inches thick, and covered with a thin coating
of red clay. The whole work, with the exception of the above-mentioned
channel for the water, is built without mortar or any other cement;
and its elevation above the bed of the river Gardon, is not less than a
hundred and fifty feet. The extremities of this splendid structure are
in a dilapidated condition, but the remainder is in a very good state
of preservation.
EXTRAORDINARY SITUATION FOR A TREE.
[Illustration [++] Tree in Abbey of Muckross.]
The Lower and Middle Lakes at Killarney are separated by a peninsula,
upon which stands the ruin of the Abbey of Muckross, which was founded
in 1440, and re-edified in 1602. The ruin, which consists of parts
of the convent and church, is not remarkable either for extent, or
for beauty of workmanship, but its preservation, seclusion, beauty
of situation, and accompanying venerable trees, render it one of the
most interesting abbey remains in Ireland. The entire length of the
church is about 100 feet, its breadth 24. The cloister, which consists
of twenty-two arches, ten of them semicircular, and twelve pointed,
is the best preserved portion of the abbey. In the centre grows a
magnificent yew-tree, as represented in our engraving, which covers
as a roof the whole area; its circumference is thirteen feet, and its
height in proportion. It is more than probable that the tree is coeval
with the abbey, and that it was planted by the hands of the monks who
first inhabited the building. It is believed by the common people that
any person daring to pluck a branch, or in any way attempting to injure
this tree, will not be alive on that day twelvemonth.
PRAYING BY MACHINERY.
Mr. Moorcroft informs us, in his "Journey to Lake Manasawara, in Undes,
a province in Little Thibet," that the inhabitants used the following
most extraordinary way of saying their prayers:--It is done by motion,
which may be effected by the powers of steam, wind, or water. A large
hollow cylinder, like a drum, is erected, within which is inclosed all
the written prayers the people choose to offer, and then it is set
going, by being whirled round its own axis; thus saving the trouble
of repeating them. Mr. Turner, whose travels in Thibet are before the
public, corroborates the account of these whirligigs. They are common,
also, among the Monguls, the Calmucs, and the Kalkas; so that the
engineers for these pious wheels must have a tolerably extensive trade,
as this national mode of worship is naturally liable to wear out.
But even this mode is innocence itself, compared with that of a set
of savages, who _pray people to death_; for Lisiansky, in his Voyage
round the World, gives us an account of an extra-religious sect, in
the Sandwich Islands, who arrogate to themselves the power of praying
people to death. Whosoever incurs their displeasure, receives notice
that the homicide-litany is about to begin; and such are the effects of
imagination, that the very notice is frequently sufficient, with these
weak people, to produce the effect, or to drive them to acts of suicide.
TOPING IN THE LAST CENTURY.
At a Somersetshire hunt dinner, seventy years since, thirteen toasts
used to be drunk in strong beer; then every one did as he liked. Some
members of the hunt occasionally drank a glass of wine at the wind up,
who were not themselves previously wound up. In country towns, after a
dinner at one o'clock P.M., friends used to meet to discuss the local
news over their glasses of strong beer, the merits of which furnished
a daily theme. At Bampton one knot of gentlemen took four times the
duration of the Trojan war, and even then failed to settle which of the
party brewed the best beer.
A FINE OLD SOLDIER.
Jeremiah Atkins, of the Scar, near Bromyard, Herefordshire, died in
1796, aged 102. He had been a soldier through all the earlier periods
of his manhood, and had seen much service; was present at the taking
of Martinico, and at the Havannah; and, on one occasion, being taken
prisoner by the Indians of North America, was very near being scalped,
as he was only rescued at the moment they were about to perform the
operation. He was likewise at the taking of Crown Point, in America,
and in the battle of Fontenoy with the Duke of Cumberland, whom he also
accompanied in his resistance to the advance of the Scotch rebels,
being in several of the skirmishes and battles fought on that occasion.
He afterwards went again to America, and took part in the storming of
Quebec, when Wolfe was killed. The last battle in which he was engaged
was that of Tournay, in Flanders. This extraordinary man retained the
full use of all his natural faculties, save hearing, to the very close
of his life.
POPULAR FALLACY OF THE VIRTUES OF A SEVENTH SON.
It is believed that a seventh son can cure diseases, but that a
seventh son of a seventh son, and no female child born between, can
cure the king's evil. Such a favoured individual is really looked
on with veneration. An artist visiting Axminster in 1828, noticing
the indulgence granted to one urchin in preference to others, and
seeing something particular in this child, addressed his mother as
follows:--"This little man appears to be a favourite: I presume he is
your little Benjamin." "He's a seventh son, sir," said the mother.
Affecting an air of surprise, I expressed myself at the instant as
being one very anxious to know what a _seventh_ son could do? The
mother, a very civil woman, told me that "she did think, to cure all
diseases, should be the seventh son of a seventh son; but _many folk
do come to touch my son_." In April, 1826, a respectable looking woman
was engaged in collecting a penny from each of thirty young women,
unmarried; the money to be laid out in purchasing a silver ring, to
cure her son of epileptic fits. The money was to be freely given,
without any consideration, or else the charm would have been destroyed.
The young women gave their pence, because it would have been a _pity_
for the lad to continue afflicted _if_ the charm would cure him.
SELF-NOURISHMENT.
That animals may sometimes be kept alive for a long time solely on
nourishment supplied from their own bodies, is evident from the fact
that after a great fall of earth on one occasion from the cliff at
Dover, which buried a whole family, a hog was found alive five months
and nine days after it had thus been buried! It weighed about seven
score when the accident happened, and had wasted to about thirty
pounds, but was likely to do well.
CHINESE METHOD OF FISHING.