nations of the world than the ingenuity of the Chinese. They are the
most handy people on the face of the earth, and the lower orders are
just as clever as the higher. A proof of this may be seen at a fishing
village which is contiguous to the town of Victoria, in Hong Kong. It
remains in much the same state as that in which it existed prior to
the British occupation of the island. Old worn-out boats, and torn
mat-sails, bamboos and dried rushes,--these are the principal materials
employed in the construction of their domiciles. The fishing boats are
most ingeniously built. Each of these has a long projecting bamboo,
which is rigged out from the stem in the form of a bowsprit, only
working on a pivot. From the extremity of this outrigger, a strong
rope communicates with a balance-board, that exactly poises the bamboo
outrigger, when the net is immersed in water, and the fisherman has
only to walk up and down this plank to raise the net and let it drop
again in the water. But opposite to the island, and on many of the
little insular rocks which constitute the "ten thousand isles," of
which the emperor of China, amongst his vast pretensions to titles,
lays claim to be lord, fishing is conducted on a larger scale, though
worked upon the same principles. Huge poles are driven into the ground
where the water is comparatively shallow, and leading ropes, which pass
over a block-wheel inserted in the tops of these poles, communicate at
one end with large circular nets, (constructed somewhat in the shape
of a funnel, the upper rim being attached to floats, whilst from the
centre are pendant weights,) the other end being fastened on shore to a
balance plank, which the weight of one man suffices to work.
[Illustration: Chinese Method of Fishing.]
MOSQUE OF OMAR.
The opposite engraving represents the Great Mosque at Jerusalem. It is
built on the exact site of Solomon's Temple, and takes its name from
its original founder, the Caliph Omar. It is a Turkish edifice, and is
devoted to the worship of Mahomet.
Titus having taken Jerusalem in the second year of Vespasian's reign,
not one stone was left upon another of that Temple where Christ
had done such glorious things, and the destruction of which he had
predicted. When the Caliph Omar took Jerusalem, in 636 A.D., it appears
that the site of the Temple, with the exception of a very small part,
had been abandoned by the Christians. Said-Eben-Batrick, an Arabian
historian, relates that the Caliph applied to the Patriarch Sophronius,
and enquired of him what would be the most proper place at Jerusalem
for building a mosque. Sophronius conducted him to the ruins of
Solomon's Temple. Omar, delighted with the opportunity of erecting a
mosque on so celebrated a spot, caused the ground to be cleared, and
the earth to be removed from a large rock, where God is said to have
conversed with Jacob. From that rock the new mosque took its name
of Gameat-el-Sakhra, and became almost as sacred an object to the
Mussulmans, as the mosques of Mecca and Medina. The Caliph El-Oulid
contributed still more to the embellishment of El-Sakhra, and covered
it with a dome of copper, gilt, taken from a church at Balbeck. In the
sequel, the crusaders converted the Temple of Mahomet into a sanctuary
of Christ; but when Saladin re-took Jerusalem, he restored this edifice
to its original use.
[Illustration: Great Mosque at Jerusalem.]
The form is an octagon, either side being seventy feet in width; it is
entered by four spacious doors, the walls are white below, intermingled
with blue, adorned with pilasters, but above, it is faced with glazed
tiles of various colours. The interior is described as paved with grey
marble, the plain walls are covered with the same material in white.
It contains many noble columns, in two tiers. The dome is painted, and
gilt in arabesque, whence depend antique vessels of gold and silver;
immediately beneath it stands a mass of limestone, reported to have
fallen from heaven when the spirit of prophecy commenced. On this sat
the destroying angel, during the slaughter caused by David's numbering
the people. From this Mahomet ascended to heaven. Within the storied
walls, moreover, are the scales for weighing the souls of men, the
shield of Mahomet, and other relics, besides the entrance to the
infernal regions; seventy thousand angels ever guard the precious stone.
Entrance to this hallowed edifice has been gained only by two or three
Europeans; indeed, the Turks will not allow infidels to approach the
sacred enclosure around it, which measures about sixteen hundred feet
in length, by one thousand in width, and is adorned with fountains,
orange, cypress, and other trees.
The mosque itself is esteemed the finest piece of Saracenic
architecture in existence, far surpassing St. Sophia in beauty. Its
view, combined with the distinguished monuments in the City of the
Sultan, in Egypt, Greece, and Italy, strongly induces a belief in the
accuracy of an able article in the _Quarterly Review_, in which the
origin of the five predominant styles of architecture throughout the
world, viz., the Byzantine, Chinese, Egyptian, Grecian, and Gothic are
assigned respectively to the convex and concave curves, to the oblique,
horizontal, and perpendicular lines.
A COUPLE OF ECCENTRICS.
Mr. Day, the eccentric founder of Fairlop fair, had a housekeeper, who
had lived with him for thirty years, and was equally eccentric. She had
two very strong attachments; one to her wedding-ring and garments, and
the other to tea. When she died, Mr. Day would not permit her ring to
be taken off; he said, "If that was attempted, she would come to life
again;" and directed that she should be buried in her wedding-suit, and
a pound of tea in each hand; and these directions were literally obeyed.
THE UNIVERSALITY OF TAXATION.
The following extract, from the _Edinburgh Review_, is not
inappropriate to our pages, inasmuch as it is both a rare specimen
of effective composition, and also serves to show us what the state
of taxation was in England even within the last forty years.--Taxes
upon every article which enters into the mouth, or covers the back,
or is placed upon the feet--taxes upon every thing which it is
pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste--taxes upon warmth,
light, and locomotion--taxes on everything on earth, and the waters
under the earth--on every thing that comes from abroad, or is grown at
home--taxes on the raw material--taxes on every fresh value that is
added to it by the industry of man--taxes on the sauce which pamper's
man's appetite, and the drug that restores him to health--on the ermine
which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal--on
the poor man's salt, and the rich man's spice--on the brass nails of
the coffin, and the ribands of the bride at bed or board, _couchant_
or _levant_, we must pay;--the schoolboy whips his taxed top--the
beardless youth manages his taxed horse, with a taxed bridle, on a
taxed road:--and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has
paid seven per cent., into a spoon that has paid fifteen per cent.,
flings himself back upon his chintz bed, which has paid twenty-two
per cent.--makes his will on an eight-pound stamp, and expires in the
arms of an apothecary, who has paid a license of an hundred pounds
for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then
immediately taxed from two to ten per cent. Besides the probate, large
fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel; his virtues are
handed down to posterity on taxed markle; and he is then gathered to
his fathers--to be taxed no more.
SHAM PROPHETS.
William Hackett, a fanatic of the sixteenth century, after a very ill
life, turned prophet, and signified the desolation of England. He
prophesied at York and at Lincoln; where, for his boldness, he was
whipped publicly, and condemned to be banished. He had an extraordinary
fluency of speech, and much assurance in his prayers; for he said,
that if all England should pray for rain, and he should pray to the
contrary, it should not rain. Hackett had two brother-prophets joined
with him, Edward Coppinger, named the prophet of mercy, and Henry
Arthington, the prophet of judgment. Coppinger, the merciful prophet,
declared that Hackett was the sole monarch of Europe; and at length
they proclaimed him, July 16, 1592. On the 28th of the same month,
however, the monarch of the whole earth, who had also personated
divinity, was hanged and quartered. Coppinger famished himself in
prison, and Arthington was pardoned. Fitz Simon relates, that in a
quarrel Hackett had at Oundle, "He threw down his adversary, and
bit off his nose; and, instead of returning it to the surgeon, who
pretended to set it on again, while the wound was fresh, ate it."
Hackett, on the scaffold, made a blasphemous prayer, which is recorded
by Fitz Simon and Camden, too horrid to be repeated. He hated Queen
Elizabeth, and tried to deprive her of her crown; he confessed to
the judges that he had stabbed the effigies of this princess to the
heart, with an iron pin; and a little before he was hanged, being an
accomplished swearer, he cursed her with all manner of imprecations.
HOOKING A BOY INSTEAD OF A FISH.
About five and thirty years ago, as Mr. George Moor was fishing in the
river Tyne at Pipewellgate, Gateshead, he espied something in the water
which seemed like a drowned dog, but the day being clear, and the sun
shining, he thought he perceived a face, upon which he threw his line
to it (which had but three hairs at the hook) and hooked a coat, by
which he found it was a boy, but the hook loosing hold, he again cast
his line and struck him in the temple and drew him to the shore, and in
less than quarter of an hour he revived.
CHILDREN OF AGED PARENTS.
Margaret Krasiowna, of the village of Koninia, Poland, died 1763, aged
108. The following extraordinary circumstances are stated, by Eaton,
as connected with the life of this woman:--"At the age of ninety-four
she married her third husband, Gaspard Raycolt, of the village of
Ciwouszin, then aged one hundred and five. During the fourteen years
they lived together she brought him two boys and a girl; and, what
is very remarkable, these three children, from their very birth, bore
evident marks of the old age of their parents--their hair being grey,
and a vacuity appearing in their gums, like that which is occasioned
by the loss of teeth, though they never had any. They had not strength
enough, even as they grew up, to chew solid food, but lived on bread
and vegetables, they were of a proper size for their age, but their
backs were bent, their complexions sallow, with all the other external
symptoms of decrepitude. Though most of these particulars," he adds,
"may appear fabulous, they are certified by the parish registers. The
village of Ciwouszin is in the district of Stenzick, in the palatinate
of Sendonier. Gaspard Raycolt, the father, died soon after, aged 119."
SEPULCHRAL VASE FROM PERU.
[Illustration [++] Sepulchral Vase of Peru.]
The vessel of which the annexed is an engraving, was taken from the
tomb of one of the ancient inhabitants of Peru; the subjects of the
Incas, or princes who ruled over that country before it was conquered
by the Spaniards. Vases of this sort were probably placed in the
sepulchres of the Peruvians to contain the ashes of the dead, or
offerings to their disembodied spirits;--usages which are familiar
to us through the frequent allusions to them which we meet with in
the works of the poets of ancient Rome, and the discovery of urns and
lachrymatories in Roman tombs which have been in our own and other
cemeteries. The specimen which we have engraved is quadruple, but forms
one vessel.
FIRST IRON CANNON.
The first cannon was cast in Sussex in 1535. In after years bonds were
taken in L1,000 from the owners of the charcoal furnaces, that none
should be sold till a license for the sale or issue of the ordnance had
been procured. Fears were entertained that the enemy would purchase
them.
PROLIFIC AUTHOR.
No one need despair, after the following instance, of shining in
quantity, if not in quality:--"Hans Sacks was a Nuremberg shoemaker,
born there in 1494; he was instructed, by the master-singers of those
days, in the praiseworthy art of poetry; he, therefore, continued to
make verses and shoes, and plays and pumps, boots and books, until
the seventy-seventh year of his age; when he took an inventory of his
poetical stock in trade, and found, according to his narrative, that
his works filled thirty folio volumes, all written with his own hand;
and consisted of four thousand two hundred mastership songs, two
hundred and eight comedies, tragedies, and farces (some of which were
extended to seven acts), one thousand seven hundred fables, tales, and
miscellaneous poems, and seventy-three devotional, military, and love
songs; making a sum total of six thousand and forty-eight pieces, great
and small." Out of these, we are informed, he culled as many as filled
three massy folios, which were published in the year 1558-61; and,
another edition being called for, he increased this three volumes folio
abridgement of his works, in the second, from his other works. None but
Lope de Vega exceeded him in quantity of rhyme-making.
THE ART OF POTTERY IN CHINA.
[Illustration: 1. 2. 3.]
The Chinese traditions carry back the practice of the potter's art to a
very remote epoch. Father Entrecolles, a French missionary, resided in
China at the beginning of the last century, and his letters published
in Paris, in 1741, supply some curious and interesting information
on this subject. Writing in 1712, he says that at that time ancient
porcelain was very highly prized, and bore large prices. Articles were
extant which were reputed to have belonged to the Emperors Yao and
Chun, two of the most ancient mentioned in the Chinese annals. Yao
reigned in 2357 and Chun in 2255 before Christ. Other authorities place
the reign of Chun in 2600 before Christ. It appears from the researches
of M. Stanislaus Julian that, from the time of the Emperor Hoang-ti,
who reigned 2698 to 2599 before Christ, there had always existed a
public officer bearing the title of the Intendant of Pottery, and that
it was under the reign of Hoang-ti that the potter's art was invented
by Kouen-ou. It is also certain that porcelain, or fine pottery, was
common in China in the time of the Emperors Han, 163 B.C.
In digging the foundations of the palaces, erected by the dynasties of
Han and Thang, from 163 B.C. to 903 A.D. great quantities of ancient
vases were found which were of a pure whiteness, but exhibited little
beauty of form or fabrication. It was only under the dynasty of Song,
that is to say, from 960 to 1278 A.D., that Chinese porcelain began to
attain a high degree of perfection.
Further evidence of the antiquity of the potter's art in China, as well
as of the existence of intercommunication between that country and
Egypt, is supplied by the discoveries of Rossellina, Wilkinson, and
others, who found numerous vases of Chinese fabrication, and bearing
Chinese inscriptions, in the tombs at Thebes. Professor Rossellini
found a small vase of Chinese porcelain with a painting of a flower
on one side, and on the other Chinese characters not differing much
from those used at the present day. The tomb was of the time of the
Pharaohs, a little later than the eighteenth dynasty.
This vase, with its Chinese inscription, is represented in Fig. 1, from
an exact cast made by Mr. Francis Davis.
Another of the Chinese vases, found in the Theban tombs, is represented
in Fig. 2. This is preserved in the Museum of the Louvre. The shape of
the vase is that of a flat-sided flask. A side view is given in Fig. 3.
These flasks are very small. The engravings represent them of their
proper dimensions. Mr. Wilkinson thinks it probable that they were
brought to Egypt from India, the Egyptians having had commercial
relations with that country at a very remote epoch, and that they came
not as pieces of porcelain, but as vessels containing some articles of
importation.
STRONG ATTACHMENT TO SMOKING.
The following is a curious case of extreme fondness for smoking in a
very poor and very old man. In the year 1810, there died in Dartford
workhouse, aged 106, one John Gibson. He had been an inmate of the
house for ten years, and till within two months of his death used daily
to perambulate the town. His faculties were entire to the last. He was
so much attached to smoking, that he requested his pipe, together with
his walking-stick, might be placed in his coffin, which request was
complied with.
EXTRAORDINARY LETTER.
The following strange and curious epistle, we are assured, was sent to
a surgeon of eminence by a malefactor who had been sentenced to death.
It has a degree of character and quaintness about it which is rarely
found in the letters of convicts. Whether or not the surgeon complied
with his request we do not know.
"Sir,--Being informed that you are the only surgeon in this county, in
the habit of dissecting dead bodies--being very poor, I am desirous of
passing what remains to me of life, with as much comfort as my unhappy
condition admits of. In all probability I shall be executed in the
course of a month; having no friend to intercede for me, nor even to
afford me a morsel of bread, to keep body and soul together till the
fatal moment arrives, I beg you will favour me with a visit; I am
desirous of disposing of my body, which is healthy and sound, for a
moderate sum of money. It shall be delivered to you on demand, being
persuaded that on the day of general resurrection, I shall as readily
find it in your laboratory, as if it were deposited in a tomb. Your
speedy answer will much oblige your obedient servant,
JAMES BROWN."
A MATTRESS FOR A BANK.
In the month of April, 1822, Mrs. Motley, broker, Bedford-street,
North Shields, purchased an old mattress for 2s. from a shipowner,
who was going to reside with his daughter; in arranging some papers a
few days ago, he found a document in the hand-writing of his deceased
wife, not intended for his perusal, but that of her son by a former
husband, in which it was stated that property to a considerable amount
was deposited in the said mattress. His daughter in consequence waited
on Mrs. Motley, and offered her a few shillings to return it. Mrs.
M. naturally supposed that this seeming generosity was not without
a cause, but having sold it to a Mrs. Hill for 3s., for a small
consideration she regained possession of the prize, but on entering her
house the original proprietor and a constable were ready to receive
her, and without ceremony cut open the mattress, when a purse, said to
contain 100gs., two gloves filled with current silver coin, several
valuable rings, trinkets, silver spoons, &c., were discovered. Mrs.
Hill had considerably reduced the mattress to fit a small bedstead
without finding the hidden treasure.
ARCHITECTURE FOR EARTHQUAKES.
Sumatra is one of the largest islands in the Indian Archipelago, and
the houses of the inhabitants are deserving of notice, inasmuch as
they furnish a correct and curious specimen of the style of building,
which the frequent occurrence of earthquakes renders the safest in the
countries where such visitations are common.
The frames of the houses are of wood, the under-plates resting on
pillars six or eight feet high, which have a sort of capital, but no
base, and are wider at top than at bottom. The people appear to have no
idea of architecture as a science, though much ingenuity is often shown
in working up their materials. The general appearance of their houses
is accurately represented in the annexed plate. For the floorings they
lay whole bamboos, four or five inches in diameter, close to each
other, and fasten them at the ends to the timbers. Across these are
laid laths of split bamboo, about an inch wide and of the length of the
room, which are tied down with filaments of the rattan, and over these
are usually spread mats of different kinds. This sort of flooring has
an elasticity alarming to strangers when they first tread on it.
The sides of the houses are generally closed in with bamboo, opened
and rendered flat by notching or splitting the circular joints on the
outside, chipping away the corresponding divisions within, and laying
it to dry in the sun pressed down with weights. This is sometimes
nailed to the upright timbers or bamboos, but in the country parts
it is more commonly interwoven or matted in breadths of six inches,
and a piece or sheet formed at once of the size required. In some
places they use for the same purpose the inner bark procured from some
particular trees. When they prepare to take it, the outer bark is first
torn or cut away; the inner is then marked out with a proper tool to
the requisite size, usually three cubits by one; it is afterwards
beaten for some time with a heavy stick to loosen it from the stem, and
being peeled off, laid in the sun to dry, care being taken to prevent
its warping. The bark used in building has nearly the texture and
hardness of wood; but the pliable and delicate bark of which clothing
is made is procured from a bastard species of the bread-fruit.
[Illustration [++] Sumatran House.]
The most general mode of covering houses is with the leaf of a kind of
palm called _nipah_. These, before they are laid on, are formed into
sheets about five feet long, and as deep as the length of the leaf will
admit, which is doubled at one end over a slip or lath of bamboo. They
are then disposed on the roof so that one sheet shall lap over the
other, and are tied to the bamboos which serve for rafters.
THE NOSS IN SHETLAND.
Off Bressay is the most remarkable of the rock phenomena of Shetland,
the Noss, a small high island, with a flat summit, girt on all sides
by perpendicular walls of rock. It is only 500 feet in length, and
170 broad, and rises abruptly from the sea to the height of 160 feet.
The communication with the coast of Bressay is maintained by strong
ropes stretched across, along which a cradle or wooden chair is run, in
which the passenger is seated. It is of a size sufficient for conveying
across a man and a sheep at a time. The purpose of this strange
contrivance is to give the tenant the benefit of putting a few sheep
upon the Holm, the top of which is level, and affords good pasture.
The animals are transported in the cradle, one at a time, a shepherd
holding them upon his knees in crossing.
[Illustration: Cradle of Noss.]
The temptation of getting access to the numberless eggs and young
of the sea-fowl which whiten the surface of the Holm, joined to the
promised reward of a cow, induced a hardy and adventurous fowler, about
two centuries ago, to scale the cliff of the Holm, and establish a
connexion by ropes with the neighbouring main island. Having driven
two stakes into the rock and fastened his ropes, the desperate man was
entreated to avail himself of the communication thus established in
returning across the gulf. But this he refused to do, and in attempting
to descend the way he had climbed, he fell, and perished by his
foolhardiness.
SWALLOWED UP BY AN EARTHQUAKE AND THROWN OUT AGAIN.
A tombstone in the island of Jamaica has the following inscription:--
"Here lieth the body of Lewis Galdy, Esq., who died on the 22nd of
September, 1737, aged 80. He was born at Montpellier, in France, which
place he left for his religion, and settled on this island, where, in
the great earthquake, 1672, he was swallowed up, and by the wonderful
providence of God, by a second shock was thrown out into the sea,
where he continued swimming until he was taken up by a boat, and thus
miraculously preserved. He afterwards lived in great reputation, and
died universally lamented."
CUSTOMS OF THE BORDER BETWEEN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.
In the courts held by the lords wardens of the Marches, a jury was
established: the English lord chose six out of Scotland, and the Scotch
six out of England. The defendant, upon the trials, was acquitted
upon his own oath; these oaths are singular: we transcribe them.--1.
JUROR'S OATH. You shall clean no bills worthy to be fouled: you shall
foul no bills worthy to be cleaned; but shall do that which appeareth
with truth, for the maintenance of truth, and suppressing of attempts.
So help you God.--2. PLAINTIFF'S OATH. You shall leile (little) price
make, and truth say, what your goods were worth at the time of their
taking, to have been bought and sold in the market, taken all at
one time, and that you know no other recovery but this. So help you
God.--3. DEFENDANT'S OATH. You shall swear, by heaven above you, hell
beneath you, by your part in Paradise, by all that God made in six days
and seven nights, and by God himself, you are whart and sackless, of
art, part, way, witting, ridd, kenning, having, or reciting, of any of
the goods and chattles named in this bill. So help you God. These oaths
and proceedings arose from the frequent incursions of both Scotch and
English, on both sides the wall, to where they had no right.
TURKISH MODE OF REPARATION.