Part 58

A striking example of the formation of ground-ice is mentioned by the Commander Steenk, of Pillau. On the 9th of February, 1806, during a strong south-east wind, and a temperature a little exceeding 34 deg. Fahr., a long iron chain, to which the buoys of the fair-way are fastened, and which had been lost sight of at Schappeiswrack in a depth of from fifteen to eighteen feet, suddenly made its appearance at the surface of the water and swam there; it was, however, completely encrusted with ice to the thickness of several feet. Stones, also, of from three to six pounds' weight, rose to the surface; they were surrounded with a thick coat of ice. A cable, also, three and a half inches thick, and about thirty fathoms long, which had been lost the preceding summer in a depth of thirty feet, again made its appearance by swimming to the surface; but it was enveloped in ice to the thickness of two feet. On the same day it was necessary to _warp_ the ship into harbour in face of an east wind; the anchor used for that purpose, after it had rested an hour at the bottom, became so encrusted with ice, that it required not more than half the usual power to heave it up.

M. Hugi, president of the Society of Natural History at Soleure, observed, in February, 1827, a multitude of large icy tables on the river Aar. These were continually rising from the bottom, over a surface of four hundred and fifty square feet, and the phenomenon lasted for a couple of hours. Two years afterwards he witnessed a similar occurrence. On the 12th of February, 1829, at sunrise, and after a sudden fall in the temperature, the river began to exhibit numerous pieces of floating ice, although there was no sign of freezing on the surface, either along the banks, or in shady places where the water was calm. Therefore it could not be said that the floating masses were detached from the banks. Nor could they have proceeded from any large sheet of ice farther up the river, because, higher up, the river exhibited hardly any ice. Besides, flakes of ice commenced soon to rise up above the bridge; towards mid-day, islands of ice were seen forming in the centre of the river; and by the next day these were twenty-three in number, the largest being upwards of two hundred feet in diameter. They were surrounded with open water, resisting a current which flowed at the rate of nearly two hundred feet in a minute, and extending over a space of one-eighth of a league. M. Hugi visited them in a small boat. He landed, examined them in every direction, and discovered that there was a layer of compact ice on their surface a few inches in thickness, resting on a mass having the shape of an inverted cone, of a vertical height of twelve or thirteen feet, and fixed to the bed of the river. These cones consisted of half-melted ice, gelatinous, and much like the spawn of a frog. It was softer at the bottom than at the top, and was easily pierced in all directions with poles. Exposed to the open air, the substance of the cones became quickly granulated, like the ice that is formed at the bottom of rivers.

In the same year the pebbles in a creek of shallow water, near a very rapid current of the Rhine, were observed to be covered with a sort of transparent mass, an inch or two in thickness, and which, on examination, was found to consist of icy spicula, crossing each other in every direction. Large masses of spongy ice were also seen in the bed of the stream, at a depth of between six or seven feet. The watermen's poles entered these with ease, and often bore them to the surface. This kind of ice forms most quickly in rivers whose bed is impeded with stones and other foreign bodies.

HINDOO COMPUTATION.

The Hindoos call the whole of their four ages a _divine age_; a thousand divine ages form a _calpa_, or one of Brahma's days, who, during that period, successively invested fourteen _menus_, or holy spirits, with the sovereignty of the earth. The _menu_ transmits his empire to his posterity for seventy-one divine ages, and this period is called _manawantara_, and as fourteen _manawantara_ make but nine hundred and ninety-four divine ages, there remain six, which are the twilight of Brahma's day. Thirty of these days form his month; twelve of these months one of his years; and one hundred of these years the duration of his existence. The Hindoos assert that fifty of these years have already elapsed, so that we are in the first day of the first month of the fifty-first year of Brama's age, and in the twenty-eighth divine age of the seventh _manawantara_. The first three human ages of this age, and five thousand years of the fourth are past. The Hindoos therefore calculate that it is 131,400,007,205,000 years since the birth of Brahma, or the beginning of the world.

CHINESE TOMB.

Like all people of Tartar origin, one of the most remarkable characteristics of the Chinese is their reverence for the dead, or, as it is usually called, their ancestral worship. In consequence of this, their tombs are not only objects of care, but have frequently more ornament bestowed upon them than graces the dwellings of the living.

Their tombs are of different kinds; but the most common arrangement is that of a horseshoe-shaped platform, cut out of the side of a hill, as represented in our engraving. It consequently has a high back, in which is the entrance to the tomb, and slopes off to nothing at the entrance to the horseshoe, where the wall generally terminates with two lions or dragons, or some fantastic ornament common to Chinese architecture. When the tomb is situated, as is generally the case, on a hillside, this arrangement is not only appropriate, but elegant. When the same thing is imitated on a plain, it is singular, misplaced, and unintelligible. Many of the tombs are built of granite, finely polished, and carved with a profusion of labour that makes us regret that the people who can do such things should have so great a predilection for ephemeral wooden structures, when capable of employing the most durable materials with such facility.

ABYSSINIAN ARMS.

The above engraving represents a group of Abyssinian arms. The sword, spear, and shield are essentially the weapons of the Abyssinians, firearms being only of comparatively recent introduction, and not generally used. The shields are round, and nearly a yard in diameter; they are very neatly made of buffalo's hide, and of the form most calculated to throw off a lance-point; namely, falling back gradually from the boss or centre (which protrudes) to the edges. At the centre, in the inside, is fixed a solid leather handle, by which the shield is held in the hand when fighting, or through which the arm is passed to the elbow, for convenience of carrying on a journey. The edge is perforated with a number of holes, through which leather loops are passed, and by these it is hung up in the houses. The face of the shield is often ornamented in various ways, according to the wealth or fancy of the owner. Some have simply a narrow strip of lion's skin on each side of the boss, but crossing each other above and below it, the lower ends being allowed to hang at some length; others have a large broad strip of the mane down the centre of the shield, and hanging several inches below it. This is, of course, usually made of two or three pieces stitched together, as it would be difficult to get a single piece of sufficient length and beauty of fur. Others to this add a lion's paw or tail, fastened on the left side of the mane, and often highly adorned with silver. The beautiful long black and white fur of a sort of monkey, called "goreza," occasionally supplies the place of that of the nobler yet scarcely so beautiful animal. A shield almost completely covered with plates and bosses of silver, is usually the mark of the chief of some district. Those similarly plated in brass were likewise formerly used only by chiefs, though now they are carried by every soldier who can afford to buy them. The plated shield is called "tebbora." Those in brass are not much approved of, as they usually cover a bad skin; for a man possessed of a good handsome shield would never think of thus hiding its intrinsic beauties.

In former times a beautiful crooked knife was used in Tigre, the sheath and handle of which were profusely enriched with silver and gilt. These, however, are never worn now, the long "shotel" in Tigre, and the European-shaped sword among the Amhara and most of the soldiers, have entirely superseded them.

The "shotel" is an awkward-looking weapon. Some, if straight, would be nearly four feet long: they are two-edged, and curved to a semicircle, like a reaper's sickle. They are principally used to strike the point downwards over the guard of an adversary, and for this the long curved shape is admirably adapted. It is, however, a very clumsy weapon to manage. The sheath is of red morocco leather, its point being often ornamented with a hollow silver ball, called "lomita," as large as a small apple. Many of the swords used are made in Europe, and are such as would be carried by the light cavalry, though lighter than ours. Being, however, cheap, showy articles, they are apt to break, and therefore the Abyssinians are getting tired of them, preferring those made of soft iron in their own country. These they make also with the faible considerably broader than the forte, to give force to the blow. Of course, they bend on the least stress; but, in defence of this failing, their owners say that, if a sword breaks, who is to mend it?--while, if it bends, you have only to sit on it, and it gets straight again. The handles of both this and the "shotel" are made of the horn of the rhinoceros. They are cut out of the horn at great loss of material, and hence they fetch a good price. It should be remembered that the heart of the horn is black, outside of which there is a coating, not quite an inch thick, of a semi-transparent white colour. To make a sword-handle, a piece of horn of the requisite length is first sawn off. This is then re-sawn longitudinally into three pieces, of which the inner one only is eligible for handles. This piece is about an inch and a half thick, four or five inches broad at the broader extremity, and three at the narrower. As it lies sawn flat before us we can distinctly see the black stripe in the centre, with the white on each side. Next, a nearly semicircular piece is cut out at each side, leaving only four points of the white as four corners, and the grasp black. The handle is then finished, bored for the shank of the blade, and polished. The shank is usually clinched over a half-dollar beaten convex; a _fil-et-grain_ boss, called "timbora," is, however, sometimes substituted. A sword-hilt thus made is obviously a very clumsy one to handle, as the points are parallel to the edge, and those farthest from the blade are longest.

GEORGIANS AS TOPERS.

It is as unsurpassable topers, as well as for their military qualities, which have always been acknowledged, that the Georgians have acquired notoriety. At their frequent drinking parties it is said they will pass several days and nights, almost without intermission, in quaffing the productions of the vineyards of Kakheti, a district in the mountains east of Tiflis. This wine is by no means of bad quality; it is of a deep red colour, so deep that one fancies it has been tinged with some dye to produce so intense a hue. They are said to consume incredible quantities of wine on these occasions, and in a fashion that would put to shame the drinking triumphs of Ireland, recorded by Sir Jonah Barrington, in days of old, when intoxication was the standard of spirit. The drinking vessel is a cow's horn, of considerable length, and the point of honour is to drain it at a draught. The brethren and convivial rivals of the Georgians in the neighbouring provinces of Imeretia and Mingrelia, instead of a horn, use a delicately-hollowed globe of walnut tree, with a long narrow tube at the orifice. It holds fully a pint, and like its companion, the horn, the contents are consumed at a single gulp. How these globes are hollowed is as great a marvel as the construction of the ingenious Chinese puzzle of ball within ball.

STAG-HUNT IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

The following vivid picture of a stag-hunt is taken from the page of an old author, and refers to the days of the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots:--"In the year 1567, the Earl of Athol, a prince of the blood royal, had, with much trouble and vast expense, a hunting-match for the entertainment of our most illustrious and gracious queen. Our people called this a royal hunting. I was then a young man, and present on that occasion. Two thousand Highlanders, or wild Scotch, as you call them, were employed to drive to the hunting-ground all the deer from the woods and hills of Athol, Badenoch, Marr, Murray, and the counties about. As these Highlanders use a light dress, and are very swift of foot, they went up and down so nimbly, that in less than two months' time, they brought together two thousand red deer, besides roes and fallow deer. The queen, the great men, and a number of others, were in a glen when these deer were brought before them. Believe me, the whole body moved forward in something like battle order. The sight delighted the queen very much; but she soon had cause for fear. Upon the earl--(who had been accustomed from his early days to such sights)--addressing her thus:--'Do you observe that stag who is foremost of the herd? There is danger from that stag; for if either fear or rage should force him from the ridge of that hill, let every one look to himself, for none of us will be out of the way of harm; for the rest will follow this one, and having thrown us under foot, they will open a passage to this hill behind us.' What happened a moment after confirmed this opinion; for the queen ordered one of the best dogs to be let loose on one of the deer: this the dog pursues; the leading stag was frighted; he flies by the same way he had come there; the rest rush after him, and break out where the thickest body of Highlanders are; they had nothing for it but to throw themselves flat on the heath, and allow the deer to pass over them. It was told the queen that several of the Highlanders had been wounded, and that two or three had been killed outright; and the whole body had got off, had not the Highlanders, by their skill in hunting, fallen upon a stratagem to cut off the rear from the main body. It was of those that had been separated that the queen's dogs and those of the nobility made slaughter. There were killed that day three hundred and sixty deer, besides some roes."

TIME WASTED IN TAKING SNUFF.

A vast quantity of valuable time is wasted by the votaries of tobacco, especially by the smokers; and that the devotees of snuff are not greatly behind in this respect, will be shown by the following singular calculation of Lord Stanhope:--

"Every professed, inveterate, and incurable snuff-taker," says his lordship, "at a moderate computation, takes one pinch in ten minutes. Every pinch, with the agreeable ceremony of blowing and wiping the nose and other incidental circumstances, consumes one minute and a half. One minute and a half out of every ten, allowing sixteen hours to a snuff-taking day, amounts to two hours and twenty-four minutes out of every natural day, or one day out of ten. One day out of every ten, amounts to thirty-six days and a half in a year. Hence, if we suppose the practice to be persisted in forty years, two entire years of the snuff-taker's life will be dedicated to tickling his nose, and two more to blowing it. The expense of snuff, snuff-boxes, and handkerchiefs, will be the subject of a second essay, in which it will appear that this luxury encroaches as much on the income of the snuff-taker as it does on his time; and that by proper application of the time and money thus lost to the public, a fund might be constituted for the discharge of the national debt."

VALUE OF A LONG PSALM.

Formerly a psalm was allowed to be sung at the gallows by the culprit, in case of a reprieve. It is reported of one of the chaplains to the famous Montrose, that being condemned in Scotland to die, for attending his master in some of his glorious exploits, and being upon the ladder, ordered to set out a psalm, he expecting a reprieve, named the 119th Psalm (with which the officer attending the execution complied, the Scotch Presbyterians being great psalm-singers): and it was well for him he did so, for they had sung it half through before the reprieve came: any other psalm would have hanged him.

ANCIENT INCENSE CHARIOT.

The implement which we have engraved was found in a tomb at Cervetri in Etruria, and unquestionably belongs to a very remote date of the archaic period. It was used in the ritual services of the ancients, and seems to have been destined for burning incense. The perfume was, no doubt, placed in the concave part, and the fact of the whole being mounted upon four wheels proves that it was intended to be moved about, which, in religious services, may have been a great convenience. The borders are adorned by a row of flower-shaped ornaments, the graceful forms of which will be appreciated in the side-view we have given of it. It must be confessed, indeed, that this monument, which is marked by the stamp of an antiquity so exceedingly remote, displays within the limits of its archaic character much elegance, conveying the idea of a highly refined taste, suitable to a person of dignified position, as the priest or king may be supposed to have been, to whom the article belonged.

TOO MUCH PARENTAL AUTHORITY.

All the world over, the current of natural affection flows strongly downwards to posterity. Love for children, in most nations, seems to be stronger than the love for parents. But in China, the current of natural affection is thrown back towards parents with undue strength. The love of posterity is in danger of being checked and weakened by their excessive veneration for parents. The father has absolute power, even the power of life and death, over his children. A few years ago, a Chinese father said to his wife, "What shall we do with our young son? He is undutiful and rebellious, and will bring disgrace on our family name; let us put him to death." Accordingly, having tied a cord round the boy's neck, the father pulled one end of it, and the mother the other, and thus they strangled their son. The magistrates took no notice of the occurrence. A wealthy Chinese gentleman at Ningpo shut up one of his orphan grandchildren and starved her to death. He could not be troubled rearing her up. Another man at the same place, having commanded two of his sons one day to follow him, entered a boat, and rowed out to the middle of the stream. He then deliberately tied a stone to the neck of one of his sons, and threw him into the river. The other lad was compelled to assist his father in the cruel proceeding. These facts are well known to the missionaries at that place. They heard the cries of the poor girl, and rescued her sister from a similar fate, and they saw the youth drowned by his father. But the authorities never thought of interfering.

POPULAR PASTIMES.

The popular pastimes of the time of James the First are enumerated in the following lines, in a little work entitled "The Letting of Humour's Blood in the Head-vaine; with a New Morisco daunced by seven Satyres upon the bottome of Diogenes' tubbe:" 8vo, Lond. 1611.

"Man, I dare challenge thee to THROW THE SLEDGE, To jump or LEAPE over ditch or hedge, To WRASTLE, play at STOOLEBALL, or to RUNNE: To PITCH THE BARRE, or to SHOOTE OFF A GUNNE: To play at LOGGETS, NINE HOLES, or TEN PINNES: To try it out at FOOT-BALL by the shinnes: At TICKTACKE, IRISH NODDIE, MAW, and RUFFE, At HOT-COCKLES, LEAP-FROG, or BLINDMAN-BUFFE; To drinke halfe-pots, or deale at the whole can: To play at BASE, or PEN-AND-YNKHORNE SIR JUAN; To daunce the MORRIS, play at BARLEY-BREAKE, At all exploytes a man can thinke or speake; At SHOVE-GROATE, VENTER-POYNT, or CROSSE & PILE, At BESHROW HIM THAT'S LAST AT YONDER STYLE; At LEAPING O'ER A MIDSOMMER-BON-FIER, Or at the DRAWING DUN OUT OF THE MYER: At any of those, or all these presently, Wagge but your finger, I am for you, I!"

VACILLATING NEWSPAPERS.

The newspapers of Paris, submitted to the censorship of the press, in 1815, announced in the following terms, Bonaparte's departure from the Isle of Elba, his march across France, and his entry into the French Capital:--9th March--The Cannibal has escaped from his den. 10th--The Corsican ogre has just landed at Cape Juan. 11th--The Tiger has arrived at Gap. 12th--The Monster has passed the night at Grenoble. 13th--The Tyrant has crossed Lyons. 14th--The Usurper is directing his course towards Dijon, but the brave and loyal Burgundians have risen in a body, and they surround him on all sides. 18th--Bonaparte is sixty leagues from the Capital; he has had skill enough to escape from the hands of his pursuers. 19th--Bonaparte advances rapidly, but he will never enter Paris. 20th--To-morrow, Napoleon will be under our ramparts. 21st--The Emperor is at Fontainebleau. 22nd--His Imperial and Royal Majesty last evening made his entrance into his Palace of the Tuileries, amidst the joyous acclamations of an adoring and faithful people.

PRESSING TO DEATH, AND PRAYING AND FASTING.

In a number of Oliver Cromwell's Newspaper, "The Perfect Account of the Daily Intelligence," dated April 16th, 1651, we find this horrid instance of torture:--

"Mond. April 14th.--This session, at the Old Bailey, were four men pressed to death that were all in one robbery, and, out of obstinacy and contempt of the court, stood mute and refused to plead; from whence we may perceive the exceeding great hardness some men are grown unto, who do not only swerve from instructions, exhortations, and goodnesse, but become so lewd and insolent that they render themselves the proper subjects for whom severe laws were first invented and enacted."

The very next paragraph in the paper is to the following effect:--

"Those of the congregate churches, and many other godly people in London and parts adjacent, have appointed Friday, the 25th instant, as a day of solemn fasting and prayer, for a blessing upon the armies at land, the fleet at sea, and negociations abroad."

THE FIRST WATCHES IN ENGLAND.

In 1584 watches began to come from Germany, and the watchmaker soon became a trader of importance. The watches were often of immense size, and hung in a rich case from the neck, and by fops wound up with great gravity and ceremony in Paul's or at the ordinary dinner. Catgut mainsprings must have been slightly affected by changes of weather, and sometimes a little out of time in wet Novembers; but, Sessa, let the world live! An early specimen of the watch that we have seen engraved was, however, not larger than a walnut, richly chased, and enclosed in a pear-shaped case. It had no minute hand, but was of beautiful workmanship. Country people, like Touchstone, sometimes carried pocket dials, in the shape of brass rings, with a slide and aperture, to be regulated to the season.

EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCE.