own bowels with two cuts in the form of a cross--after the artistic
dissector's fashion. Officials resort to it under the fear of the
punishment which they may expect; for it is a leading principle that
it is more honourable to die by one's own hand than by another's.
Princes and the high classes receive permission to rip themselves up
as a special favour, when under sentence of death: their entire family
must die with the guilty. Sometimes, by favour, the nearest relative
of the condemned is permitted to perform the function of executioner
in his own house. Such a death is considered less dishonourable than
by the public executioners, aided by the servants of those who keep
disreputable houses.
But the Japanese, for the most part, always ask permission to rip
themselves; and they set about it with astonishing ease, and not
without evident ostentation. The criminal who obtains this favour
assembles all his family and his friends, puts on his richest apparel,
makes an eloquent speech on his situation, and then, with a most
contented look, he bares his belly, and in the form of a cross rips
open the viscera. The most odious crimes are effaced by such a death.
The criminal thenceforward ranks as a brave in the memory of men. His
family contracts no stain, and his property is not confiscated.
It is curious that the Romans and the Japanese should hit upon
crucifixion as a mode of punishment. These coincidences often startle
us in reviewing the manners and customs of men. Vainly we strive to
conjecture how such a mode of punishment could have suggested itself
to the mind of man. The _in terrorem_ object scarcely accounts for it.
Constantine abolished it amongst the Romans, in honour of Him who was
pleased to make that mode of dying honourable in the estimation of men.
The Hari-kari, or happy dispatch, is still more incomprehensible.
We shudder at the bare idea of it. To commit suicide by hanging, by
drowning, by poison, by firearms, by a train in rapid motion--all these
modes are reasonable in their madness; but to rip open our bowels!--and
with _two_ cuts! We are totally at a loss to imagine how such a mode
of self-murder could have been adopted; we cannot but wonder at the
strength of nerve which enables it to be accomplished: but we feel no
doubt of the everlasting force of national custom--especially amongst
the Orientals--in the continuance of this practice. Montesquieu said,
"If the punishments of the Orientals horrify humanity, the reason is,
that the despot who ordains them feels that he is above all laws. It
is not so in Republics, wherein the laws are always mild, because he
who makes them is himself a subject." This fine sentiment, thoroughly
French, is evidently contradicted by the institutions of Japan, where
the Emperor himself, the despot, is a subject: besides, Montesquieu
would have altered his antithesis had he lived to see the horrors of
the Reign of Terror in the glorious French Republic.
PURITAN ZEAL.
The following is a copy of the order issued by Government for the
destruction of Glasgow Cathedral:--"To our traist friendis,--Traist
friendis, after most hearty commendacion, we pray you fail not to pass
incontinent to the kirk, (of Glasgow, or elsewhere, as it might be) and
tak down the hail images thereof, and bring furth to the kirk-zyard,
and burn them openly. And sicklyke cast down the altaris, and purge the
kirk of all kynd of monuments of idolatrye. And this ze fail not to do,
as ze will do us singular emplesure; and so commitis you to protection
of God.
(Signed)
AR. ARGYLE.
JAMES STEWART.
RUTHVEN.
_From Edinburgh the XII. of Aug. 1560._
"Fail not, but ze tak guid heyd that neither the dasks, windows,
nor duris, be ony ways hurt or broken, uthe glassin wark, or iron
wark."
FREDERICK THE GREAT AT TABLE.
The table of the great Frederic of Prussia was regulated by himself.
There were always from nine to a dozen dishes, and these were brought
in one at a time. The King carved the solitary dish, and helped the
company. One singular circumstance connected with this table was,
that each dish was cooked by a different cook, who had a kitchen to
himself! There was much consequent expense, with little magnificence.
Frederic ate and drank, too, like a boon companion. His last work,
before retiring to bed, was to receive from the chief cook the bill
of fare for the next day; the price of each dish, and of its separate
ingredients, was marked in the margin. The monarch looked it cautiously
through, generally made out an improved edition, cursed all cooks
as common thieves, and then flung down the money for the next day's
expenses.
ARTIFICIAL SWEETS.
Professor Playfair, in an able lecture delivered in the Great
Exhibition, and since published, has raised a curtain, which
displays a rather repulsive scene. He says, the perfume of flowers
frequently consists of oils and ethers, which the chemist can compound
artificially in his laboratory. Singularly enough these are generally
derived from substances of an intensely disgusting odour. A peculiarly
fetid oil, termed the "fusel" oil, is formed in making brandy. This
fusel oil distilled with sulphuric acid and acetate of potass, gives
the oil of pears (?). The oil of apples is made from the same fusel,
by distillation with the same acid and chromate of potass. The oil
of pineapples is obtained from the product of the action of putrid
cheese on sugar! or by making a soap with butter. The artificial
oil of bitter almonds is now largely employed in perfuming soap
confectionary; extracted by nitric acid and the fetid oil of gas tar.
Many a fair forehead is damped with _eau de mille fleurs_ without the
knowledge that its essential ingredient is derived from the drainage of
cow-houses!
TEUTONIC HUT-SHAPED VASES.
[Illustration: [++] Teutonic Hut-Shaped Vases.]
Some remarkable sepulchral urns, of which we give a sketch, resembling
those of the early inhabitants of Alba Longa, in Italy, have been
found in Germany, and are distinctly Teutonic. They occur in the
sepulchres of the period when bronze weapons were used, and before the
predominance of Roman art. One found at Mount Chemnitz, in Thuringen,
had a cylindrical body and conical top, imitating a roof. In this was
a square orifice, representing the door or window, by which the ashes
of the dead were introduced, and the whole then secured by a small
door fastened with a metal pin. A second vase was found at Roenne; a
third in the island of Bornholm. A similar urn exhumed at Parchim had a
shorter body, taller roof, and door at the side. Still more remarkable
was another found at Aschersleben, which has its cover modelled in
shape of a tall conical thatched roof, and the door with its ring still
remaining. Another, with a taller body and flatter roof, with a door
at the side, was found at Klus, near Halberstadt. The larger vases
were used to hold the ashes of the dead, and are sometimes protected
by a cover, or stone, or placed in another vase of coarser fabric. The
others are the household vessels, which were offered to the dead filled
with different viands. Some of the smaller vases appear to have been
toys.
Extraordinary popular superstitions have prevailed amongst the German
peasantry as to the origin and nature of these vases, which in some
districts are considered to be the work of the elves,--in others, to
grow spontaneously from the ground like mushrooms--or to be endued
with remarkable properties for the preservation of milk and other
articles of food. Weights to sink nets, balls, discs, and little rods
of terra-cotta, are also found in the graves.
LYNCH'S CASTLE, GALWAY.
[Illustration: [++] Lynch's Castle.]
The house in the town of Galway, still known as "Lynch's Castle,"
although the most perfect example now remaining, was at one period by
no means a solitary instance of the decorated habitations of the Galway
merchants. The name of Lynch, as either provost, portreve, sovereign,
or mayor of Galway, occurs no fewer than ninety-four times between the
years 1274 and 1654; after that year it does not appear once. The house
here pictured was the residence of the family for many generations.
It had, however, several branches, whose habitations are frequently
pointed out by their armorial bearings, or their crest, a lynx, over
the gateway. One of its members is famous in history as the Irish
Junius Brutus. The mere fact is sufficiently wonderful without the aid
of invention; but it has, as may be supposed, supplied materials to a
host of romancers. The story is briefly this:--
James Lynch Fitzstephen was mayor or warden of Galway in 1493; he
traded largely with Spain, and sent his son on a voyage thither to
purchase and bring back a cargo of wine. Young Lynch, however, spent
the money entrusted to him, and obtained credit from the Spaniard,
whose nephew accompanied the youth back to Ireland to be paid the debt
and establish further intercourse. The ship proceeded on her homeward
voyage, and as she drew near the Irish shore, young Lynch conceived the
idea of concealing his crime by committing another. Having seduced,
or frightened, the crew into becoming participators, the youth was
seized and thrown overboard. The father and friends of Lynch received
the voyager with joy; and the murderer in a short time became himself
a prosperous merchant. Security had lulled every sense of danger,
and he proposed for a very beautiful girl, the daughter of a wealthy
neighbour, in marriage. The proposal was accepted; but previous to the
appointed day, one of the seamen became suddenly ill, and in a fit of
remorse summoned old Lynch to the dying-bed, and communicated to him a
full relation of the villany of his only and beloved son. Young Lynch
was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to execution--the father being
his judge. The wretched prisoner, however, had many friends among the
people, and his relatives resolved with them that he should not die a
shameful death. They determined upon his rescue. We copy the last act
of the tragedy from "Hardiman's History of Galway." "Day had scarcely
broken when the signal of preparation was heard among the guards
without. The father rose, and assisted the executioner to remove the
fetters which bound his unfortunate son. Then unlocking the door, he
placed him between the priest and himself, leaning upon an arm of each.
In this manner they ascended a flight of steps lined with soldiers,
and were passing on to gain the street, when a new trial assailed
the magistrate for which he appears not to have been unprepared. His
wretched wife, whose name was Blake, failing in her personal exertions
to save the life of her son, had gone in distraction to the heads of
her own family, and prevailed on them, for the honour of their house,
to rescue him from ignominy. They flew to arms, and a prodigious
concourse soon assembled to support them, whose outcries for mercy to
the culprit would have shaken any nerves less firm than those of the
mayor of Galway. He exhorted them to yield submission to the laws of
their country; but finding all his efforts fruitless to accomplish the
ends of justice at the accustomed place, and by the usual hands, he, by
a desperate victory over parental feeling, resolved himself to perform
the sacrifice which he had vowed to pay on its altar. Still retaining
a hold of his unfortunate son, he mounted with him by a winding stair
within the building, that led to an arched window overlooking the
street, which he saw filled with the populace. Here he secured the end
of the rope--which had been previously fixed round the neck of his
son--to an iron staple, which projected from the wall, and after taking
from him a last embrace, he launched him into eternity. The intrepid
magistrate expected instant death from the fury of the populace; but
the people seemed so much overawed or confounded by the magnanimous
act, that they retired slowly and peaceably to their several dwellings.
The innocent cause of this sad tragedy is said to have died soon after
of grief, and the unhappy father of Walter Lynch to have secluded
himself during the remainder of his life from all society except that
of his mourning family. His house still exists in Lombard Street,
Galway, which is yet known by the name of 'Dead Man's Lane;' and over
the front doorway are to be seen a skull and cross-bones executed in
black marble, with the motto, 'Remember Deathe--vaniti of vaniti, and
all is but vaniti.'"
The house in which the tragedy is said to have occurred was taken down
only so recently as 1849; but the tablet which contains the "skull
and cross-bones" bears the date 1624--upwards of a century after the
alleged date of the occurrence.
WASHINGTON.
It is something singular, that Washington drew his _last_ breath, in
the _last_ hour, of the _last_ day, of the _last_ week, of the _last_
month, of the _last_ year, of the _last_ century. He died on Saturday
night, twelve o'clock, December 31st, 1799.
ANCIENT BANNERS AND STANDARDS.
Banners have been in use from the earliest ages. Xenophon gives us the
Persian standard as a golden eagle, mounted on a pole or spear. We
find banners very early in use among the nations of Europe. In this
country the introduction of banners was clearly of a religious origin.
Venerable Bede says, that when St. Augustin and his companions came to
preach Christianity in Britain in the latter part of the sixth century,
and having converted Ethelbert, the Bretwalda of the Anglo-Saxons (his
Queen Bertha had already embraced the Christian faith) the monk and
his followers entered Canterbury in procession, chanting, "We beseech
thee O Lord, of thy mercy, let thy wrath and anger be turned away from
this city, and from thy Holy Place, for we have sinned. Hallelujah."
And they carried in their hands little banners on which were depicted
crosses. The missionaries were allowed to settle in the Isle of Thanet,
and Canterbury became the first Christian church.
The raven has been regarded from very early ages as an emblem of God's
providence, no doubt from the record in Holy Writ of its being employed
to feed Elijah the Prophet, in his seclusion by the brook Cherith;
and it was the well-known ensign of the Danes, at the time of their
dominion in this country. In the year 742, a great battle was fought
at Burford, in Oxfordshire, and the Golden Dragon, the standard of
Wessex, was victorious over Ethelbald, the King of Mercia. The banners
of several of the Saxon kings were held in great veneration, especially
those of Edmund the Martyr, and of Edward the Confessor. The latter
king displayed as an ensign a cross flory between five martlets gold,
on a blue field, and which may still be seen on a very ancient shield
in the south aisle of Westminster Abbey. When William the Norman set
out to invade England he had his own ensign, the two lions of Normandy,
depicted on the sails of his ships; but on the vessel in which he
himself sailed, besides some choice relics, he had a banner at the
mast-head with a cross upon it, consecrated by the Pope, to give
sanctity to the expedition. Indeed it has been the practice in every
age for the Pope to give consecrated banners wherever he wished success
to any enterprise, numerous instances of which might be cited in very
recent times. And in our own army down to the present day, whenever any
regiment receives new banners (or colours, as the modern term is), the
regiment is drawn out in parade, the colours are then blessed by the
prayers of several clergymen of the Church of England, and afterwards
presented to the regiment by the fair hand of a lady of rank.
[Illustration: [++] Banner.]
Caesar has recorded a fine example of patriotism, to the credit of one
of his own officers, when he attempted to land his Roman forces on our
shores, and meeting with a warmer reception than they anticipated from
the Britons, considerable hesitation arose among his troops; but the
standard-bearer of the Tenth Legion, with the Roman eagle in his hand,
invoking the gods, plunged into the waves, and called on his comrades
to follow him, and do their duty to their general and to the republic;
and so the whole army made good their landing.
[Illustration: [++] Caesar's Banner.]
We have in the Nineveh sculptures some highly interesting specimens
of the ancient Assyrian standards, consisting principally of two
varieties, which are here given. The principal archer appears to be
drawing his bow, while the standard-bearer elevates the standard in
front of the chariot.
ANCIENT MANNERS OF THE ITALIANS.
About the year 1238, the food of the Italians was very moderate, or,
rather scanty. The common people had meat only three days a week.
Their dinner consisted of pot-herbs, boiled with meat; their supper,
the cold meat left from dinner. The husband and wife eat out of the
same dish; and they had but one or two cups in the house. They had
no candles made of wax or tallow; but, a torch, held by one of the
children, or a servant, gave them light at supper. The men, whose chief
pride was in their arms and horses, wore caps made with iron scales,
and cloaks of leather, without any other covering. The women wore
jackets of stuff, with gowns of linen, and their head-dresses were very
simple. Those who possessed a very small sum of money, were thought
rich; and the homely dress of the women required only small marriage
portions. The nobles were proud of living in towers; and thence the
cities were filled with those fortified dwellings.
AMUSEMENTS OF THE LOWER ORDERS IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
The most popular amusements of the lower orders were wrestling,
bowling, quoit and ninepin playing, and games at ball. In wrestling the
Cornwall and Devonshire men excelled, and a ram, or sometimes a cock,
was the prize of the victor. Bowling alleys were commonly attached
to the houses of the wealthy, and to places of public resort. Among
the games at ball we find tennis, trap-ball, bat and ball, and the
balloon-ball, in which a large ball filled with air was struck from one
side to the other by two players with their hands and wrists guarded by
bandages. Archery was now on the decline, owing to the introduction of
firearms; nor could all the legislative enactments of the day revive
its constant use. The quarter-staff was also a favourite weapon of
sportive fence, which was a staff about five or six feet long, grasped
in the middle with one hand, while the other slid up and down as it was
required to strike or to ward a blow.
The citizens of London enjoyed themselves in winter by skating on
the Thames, (the old shankbones of sheep having now been superseded
by regular skates, probably introduced from the Netherlands,) and
in summer with sailing and rowing. Dice and cards, prisoner's base,
blind man's buff, battledoor and shuttlecock, bull-baiting, and
cock-fighting, a rude species of mumming, the dancing of fools at
Christmas, and other games, completed the gratifications of the
populace.
NOVEL MODE OF TAKING VENGEANCE.
The Chinese have a book entitled _Si-yuen_, that is to say, "The
Washing of the Pit," a work on medical jurisprudence, very celebrated
all over the empire, and which should be in the hands of all Chinese
magistrates. It is impossible to read the Si-yuen without being
convinced that the number of attempts against life in this country
is very considerable, and especially that suicide is very common.
The extreme readiness with which the Chinese are induced to kill
themselves, is almost inconceivable; some mere trifle, a word almost,
is sufficient to cause them to hang themselves, or throw themselves
to the bottom of a well; the two favourite modes of suicide. In other
countries, if a man wishes to wreak his vengeance on an enemy, he tries
to kill him; in China, on the contrary, he kills himself. This anomaly
depends upon various causes, of which these are the principal:--In
the first place, Chinese law throws the responsibility of a suicide
on those who may be supposed to be the cause or occasion of it. It
follows, therefore, that if you wish to be revenged on an enemy, you
have only to kill yourself to be sure of getting him into horrible
trouble; for he falls immediately into the hands of _justice_, and will
certainly be tortured and ruined, if not deprived of life. The family
of the suicide also usually obtains, in these cases, considerable
damages; so that it is by no means a rare case for an unfortunate man
to commit suicide in the house of a rich one, from a morbid idea of
family affection. In killing his enemy, on the contrary, the murderer
exposes his own relatives and friends to injury, disgraces them,
reduces them to poverty, and deprives himself of funeral honours,
a great point for a Chinese, and concerning which he is extremely
anxious. It is to be remarked also, that public opinion, so far from
disapproving of suicide, honours and glorifies it. The conduct of a man
who destroys his own life, to avenge himself on an enemy whom he has no
other way of reaching, is regarded as heroic and magnanimous.
PERSECUTION IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN MARY.
The total number of persons who perished in the flames for their
religion during this reign has been variously reckoned at 277 and 288,
amongst whom were 5 bishops, 21 divines, 8 gentlemen, 84 artificers,
100 husbandmen, servants, and labourers, 26 wives, 20 widows, 9
unmarried women, 2 boys, and 2 infants, of which last one was whipped
to death by the savage Bonner, and the other, springing out of its
mother's womb, at the stake, was mercilessly thrown back into the
fire. The number of those that died in prison was also very great. Yet
England may be considered as comparatively free from persecution during
this period, for all over the continent the victims of bigotry were
reckoned, not by hundreds, but by thousands, and in the Netherlands
alone 50,000 persons are said to have lost their lives in the religious
wars of the Spaniards.
WAYSIDE MONUMENTS.