abounding in incidents akin to romance. In the reign of Henry the
Eighth, during the rebellion of "Silken Thomas," one of the bravest
and most heroic of the Geraldines, it was taken by treachery. In the
absence of its lord, the governorship was entrusted to "Christopher
Parese," his foster-brother. This "white-livered traitor resolved to
purchase his own security with his lord's ruin;" and therefore sent
a letter to the lord-deputy, signifying that he would betray the
castle, on conditions; "and here the devil betrayed the betrayer,
for in making terms for his purse's profit, he forgot to include his
person's safety." The lord-deputy readily accepted his offer, and,
accordingly, the garrison having gained some success in a sally, and
being encouraged by the governor in a deep joyous carouse, the ward
of the tower was neglected--the traitorous signal given, and the
English scaled the walls. They obtained possession of the strong-hold,
and put the garrison to the sword--"all except two singing men, who,
prostrating themselves before the deputy, warbled a sweet sonnet called
_dulcis amica_, and their melody saved their lives." Parese, expecting
some great reward, with impudent familiarity presented himself before
the deputy, who addressed him as follows:--"Master Parese, thou
hast certainly saved our lord the king much charge, and many of his
subjects' lives, but that I may better know to advise his highness
how to reward thee, I would ascertain what the Lord Thomas Fitzgerald
hath done for thee?" Parese, highly elevated at this discourse,
recounted, even to the most minute circumstance, all the favours that
the Geraldine, even from his youth up, had conferred on him, to which
the deputy replied, "And how, Parese, couldst thou find it in thy heart
to betray the castle of so kind a lord? Here, Mr. Treasurer, pay down
the money that he has covenanted for; and here, also, executioner,
without delay, as soon as the money is counted out, cut off his head!"
"Oh," quoth Parese, "had I known this, your lordship should not have
had the castle so easily." Whereupon Mr. Boice, a secret friend of
the Fitzgerald, a bystander, cried out "Auntraugh," _i. e._ "too
late," which occasioned a proverbial saying, long afterwards used in
Ireland--"Too late, quoth Boice." The castle is said by Archdall to
have been erected by John, the sixth Earl of Kildare, early in the
fifteenth century; but in that case it must have been preceded by some
other defensive structure; for it is certain that the Kildare branch of
the Geraldines resided at Maynooth at a much earlier period. The first
Earl of Kildare, John Fitz Thomas, was created by patent, dated 14th
May, 1316.
SUPPRESSED BIBLES.
1538.--An English Bible, in folio, printed at Paris, unfinished.
1542.--Dutch Bible by Jacob Van Leisvelt. The sixth and best edition
given by Leisvelt, and famous as being the cause of this printer being
beheaded.
1566.--French Bible by Rene Benoist, Paris, 1566, folio, 3 vols.
completed.
1622.--Swedish Bible, printed at Lubeck, in 4to., very defective.
1666.--A German Bible, printed at Helmstedt, in part only, 4to.
1671.--A French Bible, by Marolles, in folio, containing only the books
of Genesis, Exodus, and the first twenty-three chapters of Leviticus.
EXTRAORDINARY REPRODUCTIVE POWER OF THE HYDRA.
One of the fresh-water Polypes, from its power of perpetual
reproduction, has received the name of _Hydra_, by which it is known
among naturalists: as if it realised the ancient monster of fabulous
story, whose heads sprouted anew as fast as they were cut off by
Hercules.
Most curious monstrosities were produced by the experiments of
philosophers on these animals, especially by partial separations. If a
polype be slit from the summit to the middle, one will be formed having
two heads, each of which will capture and swallow food. If these again
be slit half-a-dozen times, as many heads will be formed surmounting
the same body. If now all these be cut off, as many new ones will
spring up in their place, while each of the severed heads becomes a
new polype, capable of being, in its turn, varied and multiplied _ad
infinitum_;--so that in every respect our little reality exceeds its
fabulous namesake.
The polypes may be grafted together. If cut-off pieces be placed in
contact, and pushed together with a gentle force, they will unite and
form a single one. The head of one may be thus planted on the trunk of
another.
Another method of uniting them, perhaps still more wonderful, is by
introducing one within the other; the operator forced the body of the
one into the mouth of the other, pushing it down so that the heads
were brought together. After forcibly keeping it for some time in this
state, the two individuals at length united, and a polype was formed,
distinguishable only by having twice the usual number of tentacles.
There is one species which can actually be turned inside out like a
glove, and yet perform all the functions of life as before, though
that which was the coat of the stomach is now the skin of the body and
_vice versa_. If it should chance that a polype so turned had young
in the act of budding, these are, of course, now within the stomach.
If they have arrived at a certain degree of maturity, they extend
themselves towards the mouth of the parent, that they may thus escape
when separated. But those which are less advanced turn themselves
spontaneously inside out, and thus place themselves again on the
exterior of the parent.
A multitude of other variations, combinations, and monstrosities, have
been, as it were, created by the ingenuity of philosophers; but these
are sufficient to give a notion of the extraordinary nature of these
animals; and to account for the wonder with which they were regarded.
EGYPT.
Egypt was the land visited by Abraham in search of food, when there
was a famine in his own country;--the land to which Joseph was carried
as a slave, and which he governed as prime minister. From Egypt, Moses
led the Israelites through the waters of the Red Sea. Here Jeremiah
wrote his Lamentations. Here Solon, Pythagoras, Plato, and many other
Greek philosophers, came to study. Here Alexander the Great came as
conqueror; and here the Infant Saviour was brought by his parents to
avoid the persecution of Herod. Egyptian hieroglyphics, in which the
characters are taken from visible objects, are the earliest form of
writing; and the Hebrew and Greek alphabets were both borrowed from
them. Egypt taught the world the use of paper--made from its rush,
the papyrus. In Egypt was made the first public library, and first
college of learned men, namely, the Alexandrian Museum. There Euclid
wrote his Elements of Geometry, and Theocritus his Poems, and Lucian
his Dialogues. The beauty of Cleopatra, the last Egyptian Queen, held
Julius Caesar, and then Marc Antony, captive. In Egypt were built the
first monasteries; the Christian fathers, Origen and Athanasius, lived
there. The Arien and Athanasian controversy began there.
The buildings which now remain are the oldest buildings in the world,
and the largest in the world. On the banks of its great river may be
seen the oldest arch, and the oldest column. Up this noble river sailed
Herodotus, the most entertaining of travellers, and Strabo, the most
judicious. Indeed, as the country is little more than the narrow strip
that is watered by the Nile's overflow, from the river may be seen
almost all its great cities and temples.
ABYSSINIAN LADIES.
The women of Abyssinia are dressed quite as decently as any women in
the world, without having a particle of the trouble of the ladies of
more civilised nations. There is a distinguishing costume for young
girls, and for those who, from being married or otherwise, are no
longer considered as such. The dress of the former is indeed rather
slight, though far more picturesque than that of the latter. In one
part of the country (about Shire) the girls merely wear a piece of
cotton stuff wrapped round the waist and hanging down almost to the
knee, and another (or the end of the former, if it be long enough)
thrown over the left shoulder, so as to leave the right arm and breast
exposed. In other parts of Tigre, a black goat-skin, ornamented with
cowries, is often substituted for this latter. An ordinary woman
wears a large loose shirt down to the feet, with sleeves made tight
towards the wrist. This, with a "quarry" similar to those of the
men, but worn rather differently, and a parasol when out of doors,
is a complete suit. A fine lady, however, as in our engraving, has a
splendid "mergeff quarry," and her shirt is made probably of calico
from Manchester, instead of the country fabric, and richly embroidered
in silk of divers colours and various patterns round the neck, down the
front, and on the cuffs. She will also, of course, own a mule; and then
may choose to wear (alas, that it should be so, even in Abyssinia!) the
inexpressibles. These are made of calico, and rather loose, but getting
gradually tighter at the ankle, where they are embroidered like the
shirt.
[Illustration: [++] Abyssinian Ladies.]
The fair sex all over the world are fond of ornaments. In Abyssinia
they wear a profusion of silver, in the shape of chains, bracelets,
&c., or, to be more explicit, a well-dressed lady will hang three or
four sets of amulets about her neck, as well as her blue cord, and a
large flat silver case (purporting to contain a talisman, but more
often some scented cotton) ornamented with a lot of silver bells
hanging to the bottom edge of it, and the whole suspended by four
chains of the same metal. Three pairs of massive silver and gilt
bracelets are on her wrists, and a similar number of "bangles" on her
ankles; while over her insteps and to her heels are a quantity of
little silver ornaments, strung like beads on a silk cord. Her fingers
(even the upper joints) are covered with plain rings, often alternately
of silver and silver-gilt, and a silver hair-pin, something similar
to those now worn by English ladies, completes her decoration. Women
of the poorer class, and ladies on ordinary occasions, wear ivory
or wooden pins neatly carved in various patterns, and stained red
with henna-leaves. The Abyssinian ladies, like those of most Eastern
nations, stain their hands and feet with henna, and darken their
eyelids with antimony.
[Illustration: 1, 2. Hair-pins made of hard wood, and stained with
henna. 3. Ditto, of silver and fil-et-grain work. (About one-half usual
size.)]
TREATMENT OF LEPERS IN ENGLAND.
According to the tenor of various old civil codes and local enactments,
when a person became affected with leprosy, he was looked upon as
legally and politically dead, and lost the privileges belonging to
his right of citizenship. By the laws of England, lepers were classed
with idiots, madmen, outlaws, &c., as incapable of being heirs. But it
was not by the eye of the law alone that the affected was looked upon
as defunct, for the church also took the same view, and performed the
solemn ceremonials of the burial of the dead over him, on the day on
which he was separated from his fellow creatures, and confined to a
lazar house. The various forms and ceremonies which were gone through
on this occasion are described by French authors; but it is highly
probable that the same observances were common in our own country.
A priest, robed with surplice and stole, went with the cross to the
house of the doomed leper. The minister of the church began the
necessary ceremonies, by exhorting him to suffer, with a patient and
penitent spirit, the incurable plague with which God had stricken him.
He then sprinkled the unfortunate leper with holy water, and afterwards
conducted him to the church, the usual burial services being sung
during their march thither. In the church, the ordinary habiliments of
the leper were removed; he was clothed in a funeral pall, and, while
placed before the altar, between _trestles_, the libera was sung,
and the mass for the dead celebrated over him. After this service he
was again sprinkled with holy water, and led from the church to the
house or hospital destined for his future abode. A pair of clappers, a
barrel, a stick, cowl, and dress, &c., were given him. Before leaving
the leper, the priest solemnly interdicted him from appearing in
public without his leper's garb,--from entering inns, churches, mills,
and bakehouses,--from touching children, or giving them ought he had
touched,--from washing his hands, or any thing pertaining to him, in
the common fountains and streams,--from touching, in the markets, the
goods he wished to buy, with any thing except his stick,--from eating
and drinking with any others than lepers,--and he specially forbade
him from walking in narrow paths, or from answering those who spoke to
him in roads and streets, unless in a whisper, that they might not be
annoyed with his pestilent breath, and with the infectious odour that
exhaled from his body,--and last of all, before taking his departure,
and leaving the leper for ever to the seclusion of the lazar house,
the official of the church terminated the ceremony of his separation
from his living fellow-creatures, by throwing upon the body of the poor
outcast a shovelful of earth, in imitation of the closure of the grave.
According to the then customary usage, Leper Hospitals were always
provided with a cemetery for the reception of the bodies of those who
had died of the malady.
LUMINOUS APPEARANCE OF THE RED SEA.
All who have frequented the Red Sea, have observed the luminous
appearance or phosphorescence of its waters. "It was beautiful," says
a picturesque writer, who sailed from Mocha to Cosseir, "to look down
into this brightly transparent sea, and mark the coral, here in large
masses of honeycomb-rock, there in light branches of a pale red hue,
and the beds of green seaweed, and the golden sand, and the shells, and
the fish sporting round the vessel, and making colours of a beauty to
the eye which is not their own. Twice or thrice we ran on after dark
for an hour or two; and though we were all familiar with the sparkling
of the sea round the boat at night, never have I seen it in other
waters so superlatively splendid. A rope dipped in it and drawn forth
came up as a string of gems; but with a life, and light, and motion,
the diamond does not know." Those sea-lights have been explained by
a diversity of causes; but the singular brilliancy of the Red Sea
seems owing to fish spawn and animalculae, a conjecture which receives
some corroboration from the circumstance that travellers who mention
it visited the gulf during the spawning period--that is, between the
latter end of December and the end of February. The coral-banks are
less numerous in the southern parts. It deserves notice, that Dr. Shaw
and Mr. Bruce have stated--what could only be true, so far as their own
experience went--that they observed no species of weed or flag; and the
latter proposes to translate Yam Zuph "the Sea of Coral"--a name as
appropriate as that of Edom.
RECENT PRICES OF SLAVES.
Prices of course vary at Constantinople according to the vigilance
of Russian cruisers, and the incorruptibility of Russian agents at
Trebizond, Samsoon, and Sinope. The following is the average price in
Circassia:--
A man of 30 years of age, L10
" 20 " 10 to L30
" 15 " 30 " 70
" 10 " 20 " 50
" 5 " 10 " 30
A woman of 50 years of age, L10 to L30
" 40 " 30 " 40
" 30 " 40 " 70
" 20 to 25 " 50 " 100
" 14 " 18 " 50 " 150
" 8 " 12 " 30 " 80
" 5 " 20 " 40
TATTOOED ABYSSINIAN LADY.
[Illustration: [++] Tattooed Abyssinian Lady.]
The annexed cut is a sketch of an Abyssinian lady, tattooed in the
height of the fashion. The following extract from that interesting
work "Parkyns's Abyssinia" gives a good account of the custom as it
prevails in the larger cities there, and of the manner in which the
operation is performed. "The men seldom tattoo more than one ornament
on the upper part of the arm, near the shoulder, while the women cover
nearly the whole of their bodies with stars, lines, and crosses, often
rather tastefully arranged. I may well say nearly the whole of their
persons, for they mark the neck, shoulders, breasts, and arms, down to
the fingers, which are enriched with lines to imitate rings, nearly
to the nails. The feet, ankles, and calves of the legs, are similarly
adorned, and even the gums are by some pricked entirely blue, while
others have them striped alternately blue and the natural pink. To see
some of their designs, one would give them credit for some skill in
the handling of their pencil; but, in fact, their system of drawing
the pattern is purely mechanical. I had one arm adorned; a rather
blind old woman was the artist; her implements consisted of a little
pot of some sort of blacking, made, she told me, of charred herbs; a
large home-made iron pin, about one-fourth of an inch at the end of
which was ground fine; a bit or two of hollow cane, and a piece of
straw; the two last-named items were her substitutes for pencils.
Her circles were made by dipping the end of a piece of a cane of the
required size into the blacking, and making its impression on the skin;
while an end of the straw, bent to the proper length, and likewise
blackened, marked all the lines, squares, diamonds, &c., which were to
be of equal length. Her design being thus completed, she worked away
on it with her pin, which she dug in as far as the thin part would
enter, keeping the supply of blacking sufficient, and going over the
same ground repeatedly to ensure regularity and unity in the lines.
With some persons, the first effect of this tattooing is to produce
a considerable amount of fever, from the irritation caused by the
punctures; especially so with the ladies, from the extent of surface
thus rendered sore. To allay this irritation, they are generally
obliged to remain for a few days in a case of vegetable matter, which
is plastered all over them in the form of a sort of green poultice.
A scab forms over the tattooing, which should not be picked off, but
allowed to fall off of itself. When this disappears, the operation
is complete, and the marks are indelible; nay more, the Abyssinians
declare that they may be traced on the person's bones even after death
has bared them of their fleshy covering."
BULGARIAN FISHERMEN.
The following interesting account of the Bulgarian fishermen on the
shores of the Black Sea is taken from the translation of a narrative of
a boat excursion made in 1846 by M. Xavier Hommaire, along part of the
northern coast of the Black Sea:--
[Illustration: [++] Bulgarian Fishermen.]
"The fishermen are, almost without exception, Bulgarians--a population
at once maritime and agricultural, very closely resembling, in race
and costume, the Bretons of France--and they enjoy a monopoly of all
the fisheries in the Bosphorus and the adjacent parts of the Black
Sea. Their elegant barks appeared on stated days and hours, shooting
along with extraordinary rapidity through the waters of the Gulf of
Buyuk Dereh, which appears to be their head-quarters, and sustaining
the test of comparison even with the famous caiques of Constantinople.
The most important object of their fishery is a delicious kind of
small thunny, called palamede. They are Bulgarians, also, who own
the singular fisheries which form such admirable subjects for the
artist's sketch-book. They are found throughout the Bosphorus, from
Bechiktusch and Scutari to the lighthouses of Europe and Asia. They
might be called dog-kennels, but rickety and worm-eaten with antiquity,
and are suspended by means of cords, pegs, and tatters to the top
of an indescribable framework of props. There on high, petrified in
motionless and uninterrupted silence, in company with some old pots of
mignionette (where will not the love of flowers find a home!), a man,
with the appearance of a wild beast or savage, leans over the sea, at
the bottom of which he watches the passage of its smallest inhabitants,
and the capricious variations of the current. At a certain distance
is arranged, in the form of a square, a system of nets, which, at
the least signal from the watcher, fall on the entire shoal of fish.
A contrivance yet more primitive than these airy cells, if not so
picturesque, was that of simple posts, which we encountered some time
before in the channel of the Bosphorus, rising about fifteen feet above
the surface of the water. Half-way up is perched, crouching (one cannot
see how), something having the human form, and which is found to be a
Bulgarian. For a long time I watched them without being able to make
them out, either pole or its tenant; and often have I seen them in the
morning, and observed them again in the evening, not having undergone
the least change of posture.
"On returning to our encampment, the commandant of the fort, to whom
we paid a visit, gave us a very different report of the fishermen of
the morning, whom he described as an assemblage of all the vagabonds of
the neighbourhood. Convinced even that the fact of their having fallen
in with us must have inspired them with the project of coming to prowl
by night round our camp, he wished us to accept some of the men in his
garrison as a guard."
HORSES OF THE ARABS.
Arabs make intimate friends of their horses, and so docile are these
creatures that they are ridden without a bit, and never struck or
spurred. They share their owner's diet, and are as well cared for as a
child. They divide their horses, however, into two kinds: The one they
call kadischi, that is, horses of an unknown birth; the other, they
call kochlani, that is, horses whose genealogy is known for thousands
of years. They are direct descendants, so they say, of the stud of
Solomon. The pedigree of an Arabian horse is hung round his neck soon
after his birth, which is always properly witnessed and attested.
The following is the pedigree of a horse purchased by a French officer
in Arabia:--"In the name of God, the merciful and compassionate, and of
Saed Mahomed, agent of the high God, and of the companions of Mahommed,
and of Jerusalem. Praised be the Lord, the Omnipotent Creator. This
is a high-bred horse, and its colt's tooth is here in a bag about
his neck, with his pedigree, and of undoubted authority, such as no
infidel can refuse to believe. He is the son of Rabbamy, out of the dam
Labadah, and equal in power to his sire of the tribe of Zazhalah; he is
finely moulded, and made for running like an ostrich. In the honours
of relationship, he reckons Zuluah, sire of Mahat, sire of Kallac, and
the unique Alket sire of Manasseh, sire of Alsheh, father of the race
down to the famous horse, the sire of Lahalala; and to him be ever
abundance of green meat, and corn, and water of life, as a reward from
the tribe of Zazhalah; and may a thousand branches shade his carcass
from the hyaena of the tomb, from the howling wolf of the desert;
and let the tribe of Zazhalah present him with a festival within an
enclosure of walls; and let thousands assemble at the rising of the
sun in troops hastily, where the tribe holds up under a canopy of
celestial signs within the walls, the saddle with the name and family
of the possessor. Then let them strike the bands with a loud noise
incessantly, and pray to God for immunity for the tribe of Zoab, the
inspired tribe."
DILEMMA.
Protagoras, an Athenian rhetorician, had agreed to instruct Evalthus
in rhetoric, on condition that the latter should pay him a certain sum
of money if he gained his first cause. Evalthus when instructed in all
the precepts of the art, refused to pay Protagoras, who consequently
brought him before the Areopagus, and said to the Judges--"Any verdict
that you may give is in my favour: if it is on my side, it carries
the condemnation of Evalthus; if against me, he must pay me, because
he gains his first cause." "I confess," replied Evalthus, "that the
verdict will be pronounced either for or against me; in either case I
shall be equally acquitted: if the Judges pronounce in my favour, you
are condemned; if they pronounce for you, according to our agreement,
I owe you nothing, for I lose my first cause." The Judges being unable
to reconcile the pleaders, ordered them to reappear before the Court a
hundred years afterwards.
ORIENTAL EXTRAVAGANCE.