secular trees, whose thick foliage is filled with troops of crows
with white heads; and their cawings and flapping of wings keep up a
continual clamour. At the end of the avenue is a magnificent lake,
surrounded with shrubs that lean over its waters like weeping willows.
Turtle and gold-fish gleam through them; and mandarin-ducks, in their
gaily-coloured plumage, play over their surface, amidst the splendid
water-lilies whose rich corollas rise majestically upon tender green
stalks spotted with black. Several bridges of red and green wood are
thrown over this lake, and lead to flights of steps, by which you
ascend to the first of the temple buildings--a kind of porch, supported
upon eight enormous granite columns. On the right and left are
stationed, like sentinels, four statues of colossal size, and two side
gates lead to the vestibule of the principal nave, where is enthroned a
Buddhist Trinity, representing the Past, the Present, and the Future.
These three statues are entirely gilt, and, although in a crouching
posture, of gigantic dimensions--at least twelve feet high. Buddha is
in the midst, his hands interlaced, and gravely placed on his majestic
abdomen. He represents the Past, and the unalterable and eternal quiet
to which it has attained; the two others, which have the arm and the
right hand raised, in sign of their activity, the Present and Future.
Before each idol is an altar covered with little vases for offerings,
and cassolets of chiselled bronze, where perfumes are constantly
burning.
A crowd of secondary divinities are ranged round the hall, the
ornaments of which are composed of enormous lanterns of painted paper
or horn--square, round, oval--indeed, of all forms and colours; and the
walls are hung with broad strips of satin, with sentences and maxims.
The third hall is consecrated to _Kouang-yu_, whom the greater number
of accounts of China persist in regarding as a goddess of porcelain,
and sometimes also of fecundity. According to the Buddhist mythology,
Kouang-yu is a person of the Indian Trimourti, or Triune God,
representing the creative power.
Finally, the fourth hall is a pantheon, or pandemonium, containing
a complete assortment of hideous idols, with ogres' and reptiles'
faces. Here you see, huddled together pell-mell, the gods of heaven and
earth; fabulous monsters, patrons of war, of the silk manufacture, of
agriculture, and of medicine; the images of the saints of antiquity,
philosophers, statesmen, warriors, literary men--in a word, the most
heterogeneous and grotesque assembly conceivable.
ORACLES OF APOLLO IN FRANCE.
Towards the frontiers of Auvergne and Velay, upon the high rock of
Polignac, there was formerly a temple of Apollo, famous for its
oracles. The time of its foundation ascends to the first years of the
Christian era, since, in the year 47, the Emperor Claudius came hither
in great pomp, to acknowledge the power of the god; and he left proofs
of his piety and munificence. The debris and mysterious issues that
are found even now upon the rock, in the heart of its environs, reveal
the secret means employed by the priests to make their divinities
speak, and to impose upon the people. At the bottom of the rock was
an aedicula: it was on this spot that the pilgrims took up their
first station, and deposited their offerings and made their vows. A
subterranean passage communicated from this aedicula to the bottom of
a great excavation, pierced, in the form of a tunnel, from the base
to the summit of the rock. It was by this enormous opening that the
vows, the prayers and questions, pronounced in the very lowest voice
by the pilgrims, reached instantly the top of the rock, and were there
heard and collected by the college of priests; the answers were then
prepared, while the believers, by a sinuous and long path, slowly
arrived at the end of their pilgrimage. The answers being ready, the
priests commissioned to transmit them repaired to profound and deep
apartments, contiguous to a well, the orifice of which terminated in
the temple. This well, crowned by an altar, being enclosed by a little
hemispherical roof, supported in its external parts the colossal figure
of Apollo; the mouth of this statue being half open, in the middle of
a large and majestic beard, appeared always ready to pronounce the
supreme decrees. It was also through this opening, by the means of a
long speaking-trumpet, that the priests at the bottom of this den of
mystery and superstition made known those famous oracles so imposing
and so powerful in their effects upon the human soul as to impede for
centuries the substitution of the more pure and holy precepts of the
gospel.
BEST POSITION FOR SMOKING OPIUM.
Opium is not smoked in the same manner as tobacco. The pipe is a tube
of nearly the length and thickness of an ordinary flute. Towards one
end of it is fitted a bowl of baked clay or some other material, more
or less precious, which is pierced with a hole communicating with the
interior of the tube. The opium, which before smoking is in the form
of a blackish viscous paste, is prepared in the following manner:--A
portion, of the size of a pea, is put on a needle, and heated over a
lamp until it swells and acquires the requisite consistence. It is
then placed over the hole in the bowl of the pipe, in the form of a
little cone that has been previously pierced with a needle so as to
communicate with the interior of the tube. The opium is then brought
to the flame of the lamp, and after three or four inspirations the
little cone is entirely burnt, and all the smoke passes into the
mouth of the smoker, who then rejects it again through his nostrils.
Afterwards the same operation is repeated, so that this mode of smoking
is extremely tedious. The Chinese prepare and smoke their opium lying
down, sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, saying that this
is the most favourable position; and the smokers of distinction do not
give themselves all the trouble of the operation, but have their pipes
prepared for them.
EXECUTIONER'S SWORD.
[Illustration: [++] Executioner's Sword.]
The weapon engraved below forms one of the curiosities in the superb
collection of ancient armour belonging to the late Sir Samuel R.
Meyrick, at Goodrich Court, Herefordshire. It is the sword of an
executioner, having on it the date 1674. The blade is thin, and
exceeding sharp at both edges; and engraved on it is a man impaled,
above which are the words, in German, of which the following is a
translation:--
"Let every one that has eyes
Look here, and see that
To erect power on wickedness
Cannot last long:"
a man holding a crucifix, his eyes bandaged, and on his knees; the
executioner, with his right hand on the hilt, and his left on the
pommel, is about to strike off his head; above is written--
"He who ambitiously exalts himself,
And thinks only of evil,
Has his neck already encompassed
By punishment."
On the other side, a man broken on the wheel; over which is--
"I live, I know not how long;
I die, but I know not when:"
and a man suspended by the ribs from a gibbet, with the inscription--
"I move, without knowing whither;
I wonder I am so tranquil."
ORIGIN OF EXCHEQUER BILLS.
In the year 1696 and 1697, the silver currency of the kingdom being by
clipping, washing, grinding, filing, &c., reduced to about half its
nominal value, Acts of Parliament were passed for its being called in
and recoined, and whilst the recoinage was going on, Exchequer bills
were first issued to supply the demands of trade.
ANCIENT ETRURIAN BUST.
[Illustration: [++] Ancient Etrurian Bust.]
If we look backwards to the most remote times of Greek industry, we
find that long before fire-casting became customary, almost every kind
of work was carried out by the simple means of the hammer and tongs,
wielded by skilful hands. Even products of art were created in this
manner; and as statues, vases, and the like could not be put together
by the process of soldering, nails were used for the purpose, as we
learn not only from ancient writers, but even from monuments which have
lately been discovered in Etruria, and the most important specimens
of which are now possessed by the British Museum. In one of the tombs
belonging to the vast necropolis of Vulci were discovered, about twenty
years ago, a great many bronzes of this very ancient workmanship; one
of them represents a bust placed on a basement covered with thin copper
plates, and adorned by a row of figures, which are likewise chased;
long curls fall down over the neck and shoulders, and these parts
especially are formed in the most simple manner: one would be tempted
to call it child-like, did not the whole composition show a certain
character which enables the experienced eye of the art-philosopher
to distinguish in these rude attempts at plastic metal work the very
germ of those wonderfully-styled productions of a later period. The
engraving here annexed, giving a side view of this remarkable, and as
yet unique monument, is intended to show the arrangement of the hair,
which, in spite of its simple treatment, presents as a whole some
trace of grace, and principles of fine proportions. We perceive that
the curls are formed by rolling and twining together small strips of
bronze plate, connected with the head itself by the mechanical means
we have alluded to. There is no trace of soldering; and we may be sure
that we possess in this figure a good specimen of those hammer-wrought
sculptures of old which were spoken of by the Greeks themselves as
belonging to a fabulous period.
THE HAIRY WOMAN OF BURMAH.
The following account of this remarkable freak of nature is taken from
Captain Yule's "Mission to Ava." Writing from the city of Amarapoora,
the capital of Burmah, the Captain says:--
"To-day we had a singular visitor at the residency. This was Maphoon,
the daughter of Shwe-maong, the "Homo hirsutus" described and depicted
in Crawfurd's narrative, where a portrait of her, as a young child,
also appears. Not expecting such a visitor, one started and exclaimed
involuntarily as there entered what at first-sight seemed an absolute
realization of the dog-headed Anubis.
"The whole of the Maphoon's face was more or less covered with hair.
On a part of the cheek, and between the nose and mouth, this was
confined to a short down, but over all the rest of the face was a thick
silky hair of a brown colour, paling about the nose and chin, four or
five inches long. At the alea of the nose, under the eye, and on the
cheek-bone, this was very fully developed, but it was in and on the
ear that it was most extraordinary. Except the extreme upper tip, no
part of the ear was visible: all the rest was filled and veiled by a
large mass of silky hair, growing apparently out of every part of the
external organ, and hanging in a dependent lock to a length of eight
or ten inches. The hair over her forehead was brushed so as to blend
with the hair of the head, the latter being dressed (as usual with
her countrywomen) _a la Chinoise_. It was not so thick as to conceal
altogether the forehead.
"The nose, densely covered with hair so as no animal's is that I know
of, and with long fine locks curving out and pendent like the wisps of
a fine Skye terrier's coat, had a most strange appearance. The beard
was pale in colour, and about four inches in length, seemingly very
soft and silky.
"Poor Maphoon's manners were good and modest, her voice soft and
feminine, and her expression mild and not unpleasing, after the first
instinctive repulsion was overcome. Her appearance rather suggested the
idea of a pleasant-looking woman masquerading than that of anything
brutal. This discrimination, however, was very difficult to preserve
in sketching her likeness, a task which devolved on me to-day in Mr.
Grant's absence. On an after-visit, however, Mr. Grant made a portrait
of her, which was generally acknowledged to be most successful. Her
neck, bosom, and arms appeared to be covered with fine pale down,
scarcely visible in some lights. She made a move, as if to take off
her upper clothing, but reluctantly, and we prevented it. Her husband
and two boys accompanied her. The elder boy, about four or five years
old, had nothing abnormal about him. The youngest, who was fourteen
months old and still at the breast, was evidently taking after his
mother. There was little hair on the head, but the child's ear was
full of long silky floss, and it could boast a moustache and beard of
pale silky down that would have cheered the heart of many a cornet. In
fact, the appearance of the child agrees almost exactly with what Mr.
Crawford says of Maphoon herself as an infant. This child is thus the
third in descent exhibiting this strange peculiarity; and in this third
generation, as in the two preceding, this peculiarity has appeared only
in one individual. Maphoon has the same dental peculiarity also that
her father had--the absence of the canine teeth and grinders, the back
part of the gums presenting merely a hard ridge. Still she chews pawn
like her neighbours.
Mr. Camaretta tells some story of an Italian wishing to marry her and
take her to Europe, which was not allowed. Should the great Barnum hear
of her, he would not be so easily thwarted.
According to the Woundouk, the King offered a reward to any man who
would marry her, but it was long before any one was found bold enough
or avaricious enough to venture. Her father, Shwe-maong, was murdered
by robbers many years ago."
A TRAVELLER'S PASSPORT.
The following document, included among the rolls, is dated 1680, from
Whitehall:--
"Dame Mary Yate, having asked his majesty's permission to pass beyond
the seas, for the recovery of her health, his majesty was most
graciously pleased to grant her request, under the usual clauses
and provisoes, according to which ye said Dame Mary Yate having
given security not to enter into any plott or conspiracy against his
majesty or his realms, or behave herself in any such manner as may
be prejudicial to his majesty's government, or the religion here by
law established, and that she will not repaire to the city of Roome,
or return unto this kingdome without first acquainting one of his
majesty's principal secretaries of state, and obtaining leave for the
same, in pursuance of his majesty's commands in council hereby will and
require you to permit and suffer the said Dame Mary Yate to imbarque
with her trunkes of apparel and other necessaries not prohibited at
any port of this kingdom, and from thence to pass beyond the seas,
provided that shee departe this kingdom within 14 days after the date
hereof."--April 14.
If the above refers to the celebrated Lady Mary Yate (a daughter of the
house of Pakington) who is commemorated on a monument in Chaddesley
Church, Worcestershire, as having died in 1696, at the age of 86, she
must have been 70 years old when these precautions were taken by the
Government against the poor old lady attempting to invade the country,
or to comfort the Pope with her presence and support. Dame Mary Yate
was no doubt a Roman Catholic, and the permission above referred to was
granted under the seventh section of the statute 3rd James I, chap. 5,
which was virtually repealed by the statute 33rd George III, chap. 30,
which exempted Roman Catholics from all the penalties and restrictions
mentioned and enjoined in the older acts, if in one of the Courts at
Westminster or at the Quarter Sessions they made a declaration which to
them was unobjectionable.
CURIOUS PROVINCIAL DANCE IN FRANCE.
The inhabitants of Roussillon are passionately fond of dancing; they
have some dances peculiar to themselves. The men generally commence
the country dance by a _contre-pas_, the air of which is said to be of
Greek origin; the women then mingle in the dance, when they jointly
perform several figures, passing one among the other, and occasionally
turning each other round. At a particular change in the air, the male
dancer must dexterously raise his partner and place her on his hand in
a sitting posture. Accidents sometimes happen upon these occasions,
and the lady falls to the ground amidst the jokes and laughter of her
companions. One of these dances, called _lo salt_, is performed by four
men and four women. At the given signal, the cavaliers simultaneously
raise the four ladies, forming a pyramid, the caps of the ladies
making the apex. The music which accompanies these dances consists of
a _lo flaviol_, a sort of flageolet, a drum, two hautboys, prima and
tenor, and the _cornemuse_, called in the country _lo gratla_: this
instrument, by its description, must somewhat resemble the bagpipes.
The dance called _Segadilles_ is performed with the greatest rapidity:
at the end of every couplet, for the airs are short and numerous, the
female dancers are raised, and seated on the hands of their partners.
ANCIENT INSTRUMENT OF PUNISHMENT.
[Illustration: [++] Whip of Steel.]
The instrument which we here engrave is a whip of steel that was made
and used as an engine of punishment and torture about the middle of
the sixteenth century. It is composed of several truncated cones,
grooved with sharp edges, and held in opposite directions, so as to
give sufficient oscillation without rising so far as to strike the hand
of the executioner. It seems to have been held by a strap; but its
barbarity is evident.
PUNISHING BY WHOLESALE.
Henry VIII. is recorded, in the course of his reign, to have hanged no
fewer than 72,000 robbers, thieves, and vagabonds. In the latter days
of Elizabeth scarcely a year passed without 300 or 400 criminals going
to the gallows. In 1596, in the county of Somerset alone, 40 persons
were executed, 35 burnt in the hand, and 37 severely whipped.
MONKS AND FRIARS.
There was a distinction between the Monks and Friars, which caused the
latter to become the object of hatred and envy. Both the monastic, or
regular, and parochial clergy, encouraged the attacks made upon them.
The Monks were, by most of their rules, absolutely forbidden to go out
of their monasteries, and, therefore, could receive only such donations
as were left to them. On the contrary, the Friars, who were professed
mendicants, on receiving notice of the sickness of any rich person,
constantly detached some of their members, to persuade the sick man
to bequeath alms to their convent; thus often, not only anticipating
the Monks, but, likewise the parochial clergy. Besides, as most of
them were professed preachers, their sermons were frequently compared
with those of the clergy, and in general, not to the advantage of the
latter. In these sermons, the poverty and distress of their order,
were topics that, of course, were neither omitted, nor slightly passed
over. Considering the power of the Church, before the Reformation, it
is not to be supposed that any of the Poets, as Chaucer, &c., would
have ventured to tell those rediculous stories of the Friars, with
which their works abound, had they not been privately protected by the
superior clergy.
CURIOUS TURKISH CONTRIVANCE.
[Illustration: [++] Curious Turkish Contrivance.]
Wonderful are the appliances by which ingenuity contrives to supply the
evasions of idleness. We give one of them, as described by Mr. Albert
Smith, in his "Month at Constantinople."
"Passing some cemeteries and public fountains, we came to the outskirts
of the city, which consist chiefly of gardens producing olives,
oranges, raisins and figs, irrigated by creaking water-wheels worked
by donkeys. To one of these the droll contrivances which attracted our
notice was affixed. The donkey who went round and round was blinded,
and in front of him was a pole, one end of which was fixed to the axle
and the other slightly drawn towards his head-gear and there tied: so
that, from the spring he always thought somebody was pulling him on.
The guide told us that idle fellows would contrive some rude mechanism
so that a stick should fall upon the animal's hind quarters at every
round, and so keep him at work whilst they went to sleep under the
trees."
FIGURES OF DOGS ON ANCIENT TOMBS.
In attempting to assign a reason for the frequent occurrence of dogs
at the feet of tombs, we shall most probably be right if we simply
attribute the circumstance to the affection borne by the deceased for
some animal of that faithful class. That these sculptured animals were
sometimes intended for likenesses of particular dogs is evident. Sir
Bryan Stapleton, on his brass at Ingham, Norfolk, rests one foot on
a lion, the other on a dog; the name of the latter is recorded on a
label, _Jakke_. Round the collar of a dog at the feet of an old stone
figure of a knight, in Tolleshunt Knight's Church, Essex, letters were
formerly traced which were supposed to form the word _Howgo_.
In a dictionary of old French terms, we find that the word _Gocet_
means a small wooden dog, which it was customary to place at the foot
of the bed. Now it has been thought that something of this kind was
intended in the representation of dogs on tombs, and that this support
of the feet merely indicates the old custom of having that sort of
wooden resting-place for the feet when in a recumbent position. But
our first supposition appears the more natural, and is supported by
the fact that a large proportion of these sculptured dogs, instead of
being placed beneath the feet, are seated on the robe or train, looking
upwards with the confidence of favourite animals. Judith, daughter of
the Emperor Conrad, is represented on her tomb (1191) with a little dog
in her right hand.
On the tomb of Sir Ralph de Rochford, in Walpole Church, Norfolk, his
lady is by his side, dressed in a reticulated head-dress and veil,
a standing cape to her robe, long sleeves buttoned to her wrists, a
quatrefoil fastens her girdle, and a double necklace of beads hangs
from her neck. At her feet is a dog looking up, and another couchant.
In the chancel at Shernborne, Norfolk, the figure of Sir Thomas
Shernborne's lady (1458) has at the right foot a small dog sitting,
with a collar of bells.
On a large antique marble in the chancel at Great Harrowden,
Northamptonshire, are the portraits of a man in armour, and his wife in
a winding sheet. The man stands on a greyhound, and the woman has at
her feet two little dogs looking upwards, with bells on their collars.
This monument is that of William Harwedon and Margery, daughter of Sir
Giles St. John of Plumpton. She died in the twentieth year of Henry VI.
THE FATE OF THE LAST MAY-POLE IN THE STRAND.
The May-pole, which had been set up in 1641, having long been in a
state of decay, was pulled down in 1713, and a new one, with two
gilt balls and a vane on the top of it, was erected in its stead.
This did not continue long in existence; for, being in 1718 judged
an obstruction, to the view of the church then building, orders were
given by the parochial authorities for its removal. Sir Isaac Newton
begged it of the parish, and it was conveyed to Wanstead Park, where it
long supported the largest telescope in Europe, belonging to Sir Isaac
Newton's friend, Mr. Pound, the rector of Wanstead. It was 125 feet
long; and presented to Mr. Pound by Mr. Huson, a French member of the
Royal Society.
MEANS OF ATTRACTING CUSTOM.
Before houses were numbered, it was a common practice with tradesmen
not much known, when they advertised, to mention the colour of their
next neighbour's door, balcony, or lamp, of which custom the following
copy of a handbill will present a curious instance:--
"Next to the GOLDEN DOOR, opposite Great Suffolk Street, near Pall
Mall, at the Barber's Pole, liveth a certain person, Robert Barker, who
having found out an excellent method for sweating or fluxing of wiggs;
his prices are 2s. 6d. for each _bob_, and 3s. for every _tye wigg_ and
_pigtail_, _ready money_."
MUSIC OF THE HINDOOS.
Among the fine arts of India, music holds a distinguished place; and
although its cultivation has declined, and but few are now found
who have attained to eminence either in the science or art of this
unequalled source of recreation, refinement, and pleasure, yet no
people are more susceptible of its charms than the Hindoos. Reading is
with them invariably, as with the Arabians and other Eastern nations, a
species of _recitativo_, a sort of speaking music, delivered in dulcet
though not measured tones. The recitation of lessons in a school or
academy always takes this form. The man at the oar, women beating lime,
the labourer engaged in irrigation, alike accompany their toil with
song.