the principal ornament of the Barberini palace at Rome. It was thence
generally known as the "Barberini Vase;" but having been purchased
by Sir W. Hamilton, and then sold by him to the Duchess of Portland,
it was at her death munificently presented by her son, the Duke of
Portland, to the British Museum, where it has ever since remained as
one of its choicest gems, and is now known as the "Portland Cinerary
Vase." It was found about the middle of the sixteenth century, enclosed
in a marble sarcophagus, within a sepulchral chamber under the Monte
del Grane, two miles and a half from Rome, on the road to Frascati. The
tomb is believed to have been that of the Emperor Alexander Severus,
and his mother Mammaea. The vase is made of purple glass, ornamented
with white opaque figures in bas-relief. The execution of the design
is most admirable. In the first place, the artist must have had the
aptitude to blow in purple glass a beautiful form of vase, with
handles attached: and, even thus far, this is considered in our day a
masterpiece of skill at our best glass-houses. Secondly, with the oxide
of tin forming an opaque white glass, the artist managed to cover the
whole of the purple vase with this white opaque glass, to at least
the thickness of a quarter of an inch. The artist then, in the manner
of cutting a cameo on the onyx stone, cut the opaque glass away,
leaving the white figures and allegory embossed upon the purple. The
figures in relief are in two groups: in the former of these, a female
is represented in a recumbent posture, with a cupid hovering above her
head, and a serpent in her lap; a young man on one side supporting her
stretched out arm, and on the other a bearded personage of more mature
age, attentively regarding her. The latter group, on the opposite side
of the vase, consists of a female reclining on a pile of tablets, with
her right hand placed on her head, and holding in her hand a lighted
torch with the flame downwards--a young man being seated on a pile on
one side of her, and a female, holding a rod or staff in the right
hand, sitting on the other. The subject of the bas-relief has created
much difference of opinion, but it is generally supposed to have
reference to the birth of Severus. A few years ago this vase was broken
by a madman, but it has since been repaired in a most artistic manner.
Figure 2 is the "Alexandrian Vase," of the Museo Borbonico, Naples.
Figure 3 is the "Pompeii Vase," also of the Museo Borbonico. It was
discovered in a sepulchre of Pompeii in 1839, and is of the same
character in the colours and quality of the glass as the Portland Vase,
but of a more recent date. It is probably the production of Greek
artists working in Rome.
Figure 4 is the "Aldjo Vase," which was found in 1833 at Pompeii, in
the house of the Fauna. The ground of the vase is of a deep sapphire
blue, on which, in opaque white glass, the ornaments are cut. It was
found broken. Part is in the possession of Mr. Auldjo; the other in the
British Museum. The shape of this vase is elegant, the handle and lip
of exquisite form, and the taste and execution of the ornamental work
in the purest style.
MINUTENESS OF INSECT LIFE.
As the telescope enables the eye of man to penetrate into far-distant
space, and reveals to him myriads of suns and systems which otherwise
would have remained for ever hidden from his natural sight, so
the microscope opens up a world of life everywhere around us, but
altogether unsuspected, astounding us as much by the inappreciable
minuteness of its discoveries, as the former by the stupendous
magnitude and remoteness of the objects. If we go to any ditch or pool
which the summer sun has covered with a mantle of stagnant greenness,
and lift from it a minute drop of water, such as would adhere to
the head of a pin, we shall find it, under a high magnifying power,
swarming with living beings, moving about with great rapidity, and
approaching or avoiding each other with evident perception and will.
"Vain would it be," observes Professor Jones, "to attempt by words
to give anything like a definite notion of the minuteness of some
of these multitudinous races. Let me ask the reader to divide an
inch into 22,000 parts, and appreciate mentally the value of each
division: having done so, and not till then, shall we have a standard
sufficiently minute to enable us to measure the microscopic beings upon
the consideration of which we are now entering. Neither is it easy to
give the student of nature, who has not accurately investigated the
subject for himself, adequate conceptions relative to the numbers in
which the _Infusoria_ sometimes crowd the waters they frequent; but
let him take his microscope, and the means of making a rough estimate,
at least, are easily at his disposal. He will soon perceive that the
animalcule-inhabitants of a drop of putrid water, possessing, as many
of them do, dimensions not larger than the 2,000th part of a line, swim
so closely together, that the intervals separating them are not greater
than their own bodies. The matter, therefore, becomes a question for
arithmetic to solve, and we will pause to make the calculation.
"The _Monas termo_, for example--a creature that might be pardonably
regarded as an embodiment of the mathematical point, almost literally
without either length, or breadth, or thickness--has been calculated to
measure about the 22,000th part of an inch in its transverse diameter;
and in water taken from the surface of many putrid infusions, they are
crowded as closely as we have stated above. We may therefore safely
say, that, swimming at ordinary distances apart, 10,000 of them would
be contained in a linear space one inch in length, and consequently
a cubic inch of such water will thus contain more living and active
organized beings than there are human inhabitants upon the whole
surface! However astounding such a fact may seem when first enunciated,
none is more easily demonstrated with the assistance of a good
microscope."
The term _Infusoria_ has been by some naturalists applied to these
diminutive animals, because they are invariably found in the infusions
of vegetable or animal substances. They can thus be obtained at all
times, by simply steeping a little hay, or chaff, or leaves or stems of
any plant, in a vessel of water, and placing the infusion in the sun
for a week or ten days.
LEGENDS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT.
It was believed in Pier della Valle's time, that the descendants of
Judas Iscariot still existed at Corfu, though the persons who suffered
this imputation stoutly denied the truth of the genealogy.
When the ceremony of washing the feet is performed in the Greek Church
at Smyrna, the bishop represents Christ, and the twelve apostles are
acted by as many priests. He who personates Judas must be paid for it,
and such is the feeling of the people, that whoever accepts this odious
part, commonly retains the name of Judas for life (Hasselquist, p. 43).
Judas serves in Brazil for a Guy Faux to be carried about by the
boys, and made the subject of an auto-da-fe. The Spanish sailors hang
him at the yard arm. It is not long since a Spaniard lost his life
at Portsmouth, during the performance of this ceremony, by jumping
overboard after the figure.
The Armenians, who believe hell and limbo to be the same place, say
that Judas, after having betrayed our Lord, resolved to hang himself,
because he knew Christ was to go to limbo, and deliver all the souls
which he found there, and therefore he thought to get there in time.
But the Devil was cunninger than he, and knowing his intent, held him
over limbo till the Lord had passed through, and then let him fall plum
into hell. (Thevenot.)
QUEEN ELIZABETH'S SIDE-SADDLE.
In a retired part of the county of Essex, at a short distance from the
road, in a secluded and lovely spot, stands the picturesque residence
called Horeham Hall. The mansion is in the parish of Thaxted, and is
about two miles south-west of the church. It was once in the possession
of the important family of the De Wauton's; it afterwards belonged to
Sir John Cutts, and eventually it became the property of Sir W. Smijth,
of Hill Hall, in whose family it has remained up to the present time.
Of the learned Sir Thomas Smijth, the secretary to King Edward VI.
and Queen Elizabeth, there is still preserved an ancient portrait on
panel, which is let into a circle over the carved fire-place of one of
the parlours. It is remarkable as being one of the very few portraits
painted by Titian.
[Illustration [++] Queen Elizabeth's Side Saddle.]
Another interesting relic is represented in the annexed cut. It is
preserved in the Great Hall, and is the side-saddle of Queen Elizabeth;
the pommel is of wrought metal, and has been gilt; the ornament upon
it is in the then fashionable style of the Renaissance; the seat of
velvet is now in a very ruinous condition; but it is carefully kept
beneath a glass case, as a memento of the Queen's visits to this place.
When princess, Elizabeth retired to Horeham as a place of refuge during
the reign of her sister Mary; the loveliness of the situation and its
distance from the metropolis rendered it a seclusion befitting the
quietude of one anxious to remain unnoticed in troublous times. A room
on the first floor in the square tower is shown as that in which Queen
Elizabeth resided. She found the retirement of Horeham so agreeable,
that often after she had succeeded to the throne she took a pleasure in
re-visiting the place.
THE WINFARTHING OAK, IN NORFOLK.
A writer in the "Gardener's Magazine" gives the following account of
this remarkable tree:--"Of its age I regret to be unable to give any
correct data. It is said to have been called the 'Old Oak' at the
time of William the Conqueror, but upon what authority I could never
learn. Nevertheless, the thing is not impossible, if the speculations
of certain writers on the age of trees be at all correct. Mr. South,
in one of his letters to the Bath Society (vol. x.) calculates that an
oak tree forty-seven feet in circumference cannot be less than fifteen
hundred years old; and Mr. Marsham calculated the Bentley Oak, from its
girting thirty-four feet, to be of the same age. Now, an inscription on
a brass plate affixed to the Winfarthing Oak gives us the following
as its dimensions:--'This oak, in circumference, at the extremities of
the roots, is seventy feet; in the middle, forty feet, 1820.' Now, I
see no reason, if the size of the rind is to be any criterion of age,
why the Winfarthing should not, at least, equal the Bentley oak; and
if so, it would be upwards of seven hundred years old at the Conquest;
an age which might very well justify its then title of the 'Old Oak.'
It is now a mere shell, a mighty ruin, bleached to a snowy white; but
it is magnificent in its decay. The only mark of vitality it exhibits
is on the south side, where a narrow strip of bark sends forth a few
branches, which even now occasionally produce acorns. It is said to
be very much altered of late; but I own I did not think so when I saw
it about a month ago (May 1836); and my acquaintance with the veteran
is of more than forty years' standing: an important portion of _my_
life, but a mere span of its own."
CURIOUS PIECE OF ANCIENT ARMOUR.
[Illustration [++] Bascinet.]
The above engraving represents a helmet, of the time of Richard II.,
which was termed by ancient armourers a bascinet. This extremely rare
specimen was obtained from Her von Hulshoff, at his castle, near
Munster, in Westphalia. The visor lifts upward on a hinge, and its
position may be further regulated by the screw which slips in the
groove above it. The row of holes on the lower edge of the bascinet was
made to secure the _camail_, or tippet of chain-mail which covered the
neck of the wearer.
EXTRAORDINARY ECHO.
Beneath the suspension-bridge across the Menai Strait in Wales, close
to one of the main piers, is a remarkably fine echo. The sound of a
blow on the pier with a hammer, is returned in succession from each
of the cross beams which support the roadway, and from the opposite
pier, at a distance of 576 feet; and in addition to this, the sound is
many times repeated between the water and the roadway. The effect is
a series of sounds, which may be thus described:--The first return is
sharp and strong from the roadway overhead, the rattling which succeeds
dies rapidly away; but the single repercussion from the opposite pier
is very strong, and is succeeded by a faint palpitation, repeating the
sound at the rate of twenty-eight times in five seconds, and which,
therefore, corresponds to a distance of 180 feet, or very nearly the
double interval from the roadway to the water. Thus it appears, that
in the repercussion between the water and the roadway, that from the
latter only affects the ear, the line drawn from the auditor to the
water being too oblique for the sound to diverge sufficiently in that
direction. Another peculiarity deserves especial notice,--viz., that
the echo from the opposite pier is best heard when the auditor stands
precisely opposite to the middle of the breadth of the pier, and
strikes just on that point. As it deviates to one or the other side,
the return is proportionably fainter, and is scarcely heard by him when
his station is a little beyond the extreme edge of the pier, though
another person stationed on the same side of the water, at an equal
distance from the central point, so as to have the pier between them,
hears it well.
JUGGLERS OF MODERN EGYPT.
Performers of sleight-of-hand tricks, who are called _hhowa'h_ (in the
singular, _hha'wee_) are numerous in Cairo. They generally perform in
public places, collecting a ring of spectators around them; from some
of whom they receive small voluntary contributions during and after
their performances. They are most frequently seen on the occasions of
public festivals; but often also at other times. By indecent jests and
actions, they attract as much applause as they do by other means. The
hha'wee performs a great variety of tricks, the most usual of which
we will here mention. He generally has two boys to assist him. From a
large leather bag, he takes out four or five snakes, of a largish size.
One of these he places on the ground, and makes it erect its head and
part of its body; another he puts round the head of one of the boys,
like a turban, and two more over the boy's neck. He takes these off,
opens the boy's mouth, apparently passes the bolt of a kind of padlock
through his cheek, and locks it. Then, in appearance, he forces an
iron spike into the boy's throat; the spike being really pushed up
into a wooden handle. He also performs another trick of the same kind
as this. Placing the boy on the ground, he puts the edge of a knife
upon his nose, and knocks the blade until half its width seems to have
entered. The tricks which he performs alone are more amusing. He draws
a great quantity of various-coloured silk from his mouth, and winds
it on his arm; puts cotton in his mouth, and blows out fire; takes
out of his mouth a great number of round pieces of tin, like dollars;
and, in appearance, blows an earthen pipe-bowl from his nose. In most
of his tricks he occasionally blows through a large shell (called the
hha'wee's zoomma'rah), producing sounds like those of a horn. Most
of his sleight-of-hand performances are nearly similar to those of
exhibitors of the same class in our own and other countries. Taking a
silver finger-ring from one of the bystanders, he puts it in a little
box, blows his shell, and says, "'Efree't change it!" He then opens the
box, and shows, in it, a different ring: shuts the box again; opens
it, and shows the first ring: shuts it a third time: opens it, and
shows a melted lump of silver, which he declares to be the ring melted,
and offers to the owner. The latter insists upon having his ring in
its original state. The hha'wee then asks for five or ten fud'dahs to
recast it; and having obtained this, opens the box again (after having
closed it, and blown his shell), and takes out of it the perfect ring.
He next takes a larger covered box; puts one of his boy's skull-caps
in it, blows his shell, opens the box, and out comes a rabbit: the cap
seems to be gone. He puts the rabbit in again; covers the box; uncovers
it, and out run two little chickens. These he puts in again, blows his
shell, uncovers the box, and shows it full of fatee'rehs (or pancakes),
and koona'feh (which resembles vermicelli): he tells his boys to eat
its contents; but they refuse to do it without honey. He then takes a
small jug, turns it upside-down, to show that it is empty; blows his
shell, and hands round the jug full of honey. The boys, having eaten,
ask for water to wash their hands. The hha'wee takes the same jug, and
hands it filled with water, in the same manner. He takes the box again,
and asks for the cap; blows his shell, uncovers the box, and pours out
from it, into the boy's lap (the lower part of his shirt held up), four
or five small snakes. The boy, in apparent fright, throws them down,
and demands the cap. The hha'wee puts the snakes back into the box;
blows his shell, uncovers the box, and takes out the cap. Another of
his common tricks is to put a number of slips of white paper into a
tinned copper vessel (the tisht of a seller of sherbet), and to take
them out dyed of various colours. He pours water into the same vessel;
puts in a piece of linen; then gives to the spectators, to drink, the
contents of the vessel, changed to sherbet of sugar. Sometimes he
apparently cuts in two a muslin shawl, or burns it in the middle, and
then restores it whole. Often he strips himself of all his clothes,
excepting his drawers; tells two persons to bind him, hands and feet,
and put him in a sack. This done, he asks for a piaster; and some one
tells him that he shall have it if he will put out his hand and take
it. He puts out his hand free; draws it back, and is then taken out of
the sack, bound as at first. He is put in again, and comes out unbound,
handing to the spectators a small tray, upon which are four or five
little plates filled with various eatables; and, if the performance be
at night, several small lighted candles placed round. The spectators
eat the food.
ORIGIN OF ATTAR OF ROSES.
"In the Histoire Generale de l'Empire du Mogol, (_T._ 1, _p_, 327,)
compiled by Catrou the Jesuit, from Manouchi's papers, this perfume is
said to have been discovered by accident. Nur-Jahan, the favorite wife
of the Mogul Jahan-Ghur, among her other luxuries, had a small canal of
rose water. As she was a walking with the Mogul upon its banks, they
perceived a thin film upon the water,--it was an essential oil made by
the heat of the sun. They were delighted with its exquisite odour, and
means were immediately taken for preparing by art a substance like that
which had been thus fortuitously produced."
A MAGICIAN'S MIRROR AND BRACELET.
A strange blending of pure science and gross superstition is remarkably
illustrated in the history of the celebrated Dr. Dee. Born in London
in 1527, John Dee raised himself at an early age to a great reputation
for his learning, in the mathematical sciences especially, in the most
celebrated universities in his own country and of the continent. He is
said to have imbibed a taste for the occult sciences while a student at
Louvain, but there was evidently in his temper much of an enthusiastic
and visionary turn, which must have given him a taste for such
mysterious pursuits, without the necessity of an external impulse. One
of the oldest and most generally credited of magical operations, was
that of bringing spirits or visions into a glass or mirror, a practice
which has continued to exist in the East even to the present day, and
which prevailed to a very considerable extent in all parts of Western
Europe during the sixteenth century. The process was not a direct one,
for the magician did not himself see the vision in the mirror, but
he had to depend upon an intermediate agent, a sort of familiar, who
in England was known by the name of a _skyrer_, and whose business
it was to look into the mirror and describe what he saw. Dr. Dee's
principal skyrer was one Edward Kelly, and during his connexion with
him, Dee kept an exact diary of all his visions, a portion of which was
printed in a folio volume by Merio Casaubon in 1659. In this journal
more than one magical mirror is evidently mentioned, and that which we
here engrave is believed to have been of the number. It is now in the
collection of Lord Londesborough.
[Illustration [++] Magician's Mirror.]
It is a polished oval slab of black stone, of what kind we have not
been able to ascertain, but evidently of a description which was not
then common in Western Europe, and Dr. Dee, who died in 1608, may have
considered it as extremely precious, and as only to be obtained by
some extraordinary means. It was one of the ornaments of the museum
of Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill; and Walpole has attached to it
a statement of its history in his own hand-writing, from which we
learn that it was "long" in the possession of the Mordaunts, earls
of Peterborough, in whose catalogue it was described as "the black
stone into which Dr. Dee used to call his spirits." It passed from
that collection to Lady Elizabeth Germaine, from whom it went to
John Campbell, Duke of Argyll, whose son, Lord Frederick Campbell,
presented it to Horace Walpole. This interesting relic was bought at
the Strawberry Hill sale for the late Mr. Pigott; and at the more
recent sale of that gentleman's collection, it passed into the hands
of Lord Londesborough. Its history and authenticity appear, therefore,
to be very well made out. The family of the Mordaunts held a prominent
place in English history during the whole of the seventeenth century,
and it is hardly probable that they would have received an object like
this without having good reason for believing that its history was
authentic. It is believed that Butler alluded to this identical stone
in his well-known lines:--
"Kelly did all his feats upon
The devil's looking-glass or stone,
When, playing with him at bo-peep,
He solv'd all problems ne'er so deep."
_Hudibras._ Part II. Canto 3.
[Illustration [++] Magician's Bracelet.]
The regular fitting out of the magician at this period was a
complicated process. He required his implements of various kinds, and,
in addition to these, various robes, made especially for the occasion,
with girdles and head-pieces, and magical rings and bracelets. A
very curious example of the last-mentioned article of the magician's
accoutrements, is represented in the preceding cut, about one-third
the size of the original. It was purchased by Lord Londesborough in
1851, and had formerly been in the possession of Charles Mainwaring,
Esq., of Coleby, near Lincoln. It is of silver, the letters of the
inscription round the bracelet being engraved and filled with niello.
This inscription may be distinctly read as follows:--
+ IONA + IHOAT + LONA + HELOI + YSSARAY + || +
MEPHENOLPHETON + AGLA + ACHEDION + YANA +
BACHIONODONAVALI M[*] ILIOR + || BACHIONODONAVALI M[**] ACH +
Some explanation of this mysterious inscription might, no doubt, be
obtained by a diligent comparison of some of the numerous works on
magic compiled in the age of Dr. Dee, and in the seventeenth century.
The bracelet has had four pendants on it, of which three still remain,
with the silver setting of the fourth. One of the pendants which remain
is a brownish pebble, secured by three flat bands of silver; another is
an oval cage of strong silver wire, containing a nut of some kind and
some other vegetable substance; the third has on one side a circular
convex pebble set in silver, and on the back three smaller pebbles.
LUNAR INFLUENCE IN DEATH.
Many modern physicians have stated the opinions of the ancients as
regards lunar influence in diseases, but none have pushed their
inquiries with such indefatigable zeal as the late Dr. Moseley; he
affirms that almost all people in extreme age die at the new or at full
moon, and this he endeavours to prove by the following records:--
Thomas Parr died at the age of 152, two days after the full moon.
Henry Jenkins died at the age of 169, the day of the new moon.
Elizabeth Steward, 124, the day of the new moon.
William Leland, 140, the day after the new moon.
John Effingham, 144, two days after full moon.
Elizabeth Hilton, 121, two days after the full moon.
John Constant, 113, two days after the new moon.
The doctor then proceeds to show, by the deaths of various illustrious
persons, that a similar rule holds good with the generality of mankind: