Tell me on what holy ground
May domestic peace be found?
Halcyon-daughter of the skies!
Far on fearful wings she flies
From the tyrant’s scepter’d state,
From the rebel’s noisy hate.
In a cottag’d vale she dwells,
List’ning to the sabbath bells,
While all around her steps are seen
Spotless Honour’s meeker mien.
Love, the sire of pleasing fears,
Sorrow smiling through her tears;
And, mindful of the past employ,
Memory, bosom spring of joy!--COLERIDGE.
---------------------
_Ants of Brazil._--So numerous were the ants, and so great was the
mischief which they committed, that the Portugueze called this insect
the _King of Brazil_; but it is said by Piso, that an active husbandman
easily drove them away, either by means of fire or of water; and the
evil which they did was more than counterbalanced by the incessant war
which they waged against all other vermin. In some parts of South
America they march periodically in armies, such myriads together, that
the sound of their coming over the fallen leaves may be heard at some
distance. The inhabitants, knowing the season, are on the watch, and
quit their houses, which these tremendous, but welcome visitors clear of
centipedes, forty-legs, scorpion, snake, every living thing; and having
done their work, proceed upon their way.--_Southey’s Brazil._
---------------------
_Singular Customs._--There is a custom, proper to Sicily, which I must
not forget to mention. This is a right of purchase of a singular kind.
If any man buy an estate, be it house, land, or vineyard, the neighbour
of the purchaser, for the space of an entire year afterward, may eject
him by an advance of price. In vain would the first purchaser give more
to the original owner. This singular law is generally evaded by a
falsehood. The purchase-money is stated, in the articles of agreement,
at a higher sum than has been agreed upon in the presence of four
witnesses. There is another no less singular law in Sicily, according to
which any man can oblige his neighbour to sell his house, if he will pay
him three times its value. The intention of this law was, the
improvement of the towns. It was to encourage the possessors of large
houses to purchase the humble abodes of the poor.--_Count Stolberg’s
Travels._
---------------------
_Volcano in Iceland._--The Oræfa mountain is not only the loftiest in
Iceland, but has been rendered remarkable by the great devastation made
by its eruption about a century ago. Nothing can be more striking than
the account of this calamity given by Jon Thorlakson, the aged minister
of a neighbouring parish. He was in the midst of his service on the
Sabbath, when the agitation of the earth gave warning that some alarming
event was to follow. Rushing from the church, he saw a peak of the
neighbouring mountain alternately heaved up and sinking; the next day,
this portion of the mountain ran down into the plain, like melted metal
from a crucible, filling it to such a height, that, as he says, no more
of a mountain which formerly towered above it could be seen, than about
the size of a bird; volumes of water being in the mean time thrown forth
in a deluge from the crater, sweeping away whatever they encountered in
their course. The Oræfa itself then broke forth, hurling large masses of
ice to a great distance; fire burst out in every direction from its
sides; the sky was darkened by the smoke and ashes, so that the day
could hardly be distinguished from the night. This scene of horror
continued for more than three days, during which the whole region was
converted into utter desolation.--_North American Review for July_,
1832.
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_Farming in Iceland._--The most important branch of rural labour in
Iceland, is the hay-making. About the middle of July, the peasant begins
to cut down the grass of the tûn (the green around his house,) which is
immediately gathered to a convenient place, in order to dry, and, after
having been turned once or twice, is conveyed home on horseback to the
yard, where it is made up into stacks. At the poorer farms, both men and
women handle the scythe; but in general, the women only assist in making
the hay after it is cut. In many parts of the island, where there is
much hay, the peasants hire men from the fishing plains, who are paid
for their labour at the rate of thirty pounds of butter a week. They cut
by measurement; the daily task being about thirty square fathoms.
Hay-harvest being over, the sheep and cattle that had been out all
summer on the mountains are collected; the houses are put into a state
of repair for the winter; the wood needed for domestic purposes is
brought home to each farm; the turf is also taken in. During the winter,
the care of the cattle and the sheep devolves entirely on the men; and
consists chiefly in feeding and watering the former, which are kept in
the house, while the latter are turned out in the day-time to seek their
food through the snow. When the snow happens to be so deep that they
cannot scrape it away themselves, the boys do it for them; and as the
sustenance thus procured is exceedingly scanty, they generally get a
little of the meadow hay about this time. The farm hay is given to the
cows alone. All the horses, excepting perhaps a favourite riding horse,
are left to shift for themselves the whole winter, during which season
they never lie down, but rest themselves by standing in some place of
shelter.--_Henderson’s Iceland._
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⁂ The Office of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge is at
59, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.