Part 39

"A greate nombre of them whyche purchased those superstychouse mansyons (monesteries) reserved of those librarye bookes, some to serve theyr jokes, some to scoure thyr candlestyckes, and some to rubbe theyr bootes. Some they solde to the grossers and sope-sellers, and some they sent over see to the book bynders, not in small nombre, but at tymes whole shyppes full to the wonderynge of foren nacyons: yea ye universytes of thys realme are not alle clere in this detestable fact, but cursed is that bellye whych seketh to be fedde with suche ungodlye gaynes, and so depelye shameth hys natural conterye. I knowe a merchant manne whyche shall at thys tyme be namelesse, that boughte ye contentes of two noble lybraryes for forty shyllinges pryce: a shame it is to be spoken: Thys stuffe hath he occupyed in the stede of grey paper by the space of more than these ten yeares and yet he hath store ynoughe for as manye yeares to come. A prodygyouse example is thys to be abhorred of all men whych love thyr nacyon as they shoulde do. The monkes kept them undre dust, ye ydle headed prestes regarded them not, theyr latter owners have most shamefully abused them, and ye covetouse merchantes have solde them awaye into foren nacyons for moneye."

CURIOUS MENTAL AFFECTION.

Singular faculties have been developed during somnambulism in the mental condition. Thus a case is related of a woman in the Edinburgh infirmary who, during her paroxysm, not only mimicked the manner of the attendant physicians, but repeated correctly some of their prescriptions in Latin.

Dr. Dyce, of Aberdeen, describes the case of a girl, in which this affection began with fits of somnolency, which came upon her suddenly during the day, and from which she could at first be roused by shaking or by being taken into the open air. During these attacks she was in the habit of talking of things that seemed to pass before her like a dream, and was not at the time sensible of anything that was said to her. On one occasion she repeated the entire of the baptismal service, and concluded with an extempore prayer. In her subsequent paroxysms she began to understand what was said to her, and to answer with a considerable degree of consistency, though these replies were in a certain measure influenced by her hallucination. She also became capable of following her usual employment during her paroxysm. At one time she would lay out the table for breakfast, and repeatedly dress herself and the children, her eyes remaining shut the whole time. The remarkable circumstance was now discovered, that, during the paroxysm, she had a distinct recollection of what had taken place in former attacks, though she had not the slightest recollection of it during the intervals. She was taken to church during the paroxysm, and attended the service with apparent devotion, and at one time was so affected by the sermon that she actually shed tears; yet in the interval she had no recollection whatever of the circumstance, but in the following paroxysm she gave a most distinct account of it, and actually repeated the passage of the sermon that had so much affected her. This sort of somnambulism, relating distinctly to two periods, has been called, perhaps erroneously, a _state of double consciousness_.

This girl described the paroxysm as coming on with a dimness of sight and a noise in the head. During the attack, her eyelids were generally half shut, and frequently resembled those of a person labouring under amaurosis, the pupil dilated and insensible. Her looks were dull and vacant, and she often mistook the person who was speaking to her. The paroxysms usually lasted an hour, but she often could be roused from them. She then yawned and stretched herself like a person awakening from sleep, and instantly recognised those about her. At one time, Dr. Dyce affirms, she read distinctly a portion of a book presented to her, and she would frequently sing pieces of music more correctly and with better taste than when awake.

DECORATIVE DRINKING VESSEL.

The above represents a German decorative drinking vessel of the early part of the seventeenth century. It is a stork bearing in its beak an infant; in accordance with the old German nursery tale that the king of the Storks is the bringer and protector of babies. It is of silver, chased all over; the eyes are formed of rubies; and one wing takes off that liquid may be placed in the body, and imbibed through the neck, by a hole in the crown of the bird. It was probably a quaint fancy for some German noble nursery.

EXAMPLES OF ANCIENT VASES.

The Vases which are grouped in the annexed engraving are highly deserving of a place in our collection of curiosities, inasmuch as they are truly unique and beautiful specimens of the degree of perfection to which the art of glass-making had been carried at the period when Rome was mistress of the world. They all belong to that period, and in elegance of form and skill of workmanship they equal--we had almost said, surpass, the most artistic productions of the present day.

Figure 1 is that celebrated vase which for more than two centuries was 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.

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.

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.