Part 63

One article in this prodigious booty, before which all others seemed to recede in comparison, was the superb and celebrated carpet of silk and gold cloth, sixty cubits in length, and as many in breadth, which decorated one of the apartments of the palace. It was wrought into a paradise or garden, with jewels of the most curious and costly species; the ruby, the emerald, the sapphire, the beryl, topaz, and pearl, being arranged with such consummate skill, as to represent, in beautiful mosaic, trees, fruits, and flowers, rivulets and fountains; roses and shrubs of every description seemed to combine their fragrance and their foliage to charm the sense of the beholders. This piece of exquisite luxury and illusion, to which the Persians gave the name of _Baharistan_ or the mansion of perpetual spring, was an invention employed by their monarchs as an artificial substitute for that loveliest of seasons. During the gloom of winter they were accustomed to regale the nobles of their court on this magnificent embroidery, where art had supplied the absence of nature, and wherein the guests might trace a brilliant imitation of her faded beauties in the variegated colours of the jewelled and pictured floor. In the hope that the eyes of the Caliph might he delighted with this superb display of wealth and workmanship, Saad persuaded the soldiers to relinquish their claims. It was therefore added to the fifth of the spoil, which was conveyed to Medina on the backs of camels. But Omar, with that rigid impartiality from which he never deviated, ordered the gaudy trophy to be cut up into small pieces, and distributed among the chief members of the Mohammedan commonwealth. Such was the intrinsic value of the materials, that the share of Ali alone, not larger than the palm of a man's hand, was afterwards sold for 20,000 drachms (L458 6s. 8d.), or, according to others, for as many dinars (L9,250). Out of this vast store the Caliph granted pensions to every member of his court in regular gradation, from the individuals of the Prophet's family to the lowest of his companions, varying from L275 to L4 11s. per annum.

The military part of the booty was divided into 60,000 shares, and every horseman had 12,000 dinars (L5,550); hence, if the army consisted of 60,000 cavalry, their united shares would amount to the incredible sum of L333,000,000 sterling.

COURTSHIP OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

The following extract from the life of the wife of the Conqueror, is exceedingly curious, as characteristic of the manners of a semi-civilized age and nation:--"After some years' delay, William appears to have become desperate; and, if we may trust to the evidence of the 'Chronicle of Ingerbe,' in the year 1047 way-laid Matilda in the streets of Bruges, as she was returning from mass, seized her, rolled her in the dirt, spoiled her rich array, and, not content with these outrages, struck her repeatedly, and rode off at full speed. This Teutonic method of courtship, according to our author, brought the affair to a crisis; for Matilda, either convinced of the strength of William's passion, by the violence of his behaviour, or afraid of encountering a second beating, consented to become his wife. How he ever presumed to enter her presence again, after such a series of enormities, the chronicler sayeth not, and we are at a loss to imagine."

BRAMA, THE HINDOO DEITY.

_Brama_, _Birmah_, or _Brouma_, is one of the three persons of the Indian Trinity, or rather the Supreme Being under the attribute of _Creator_. Brama, the progenitor of all rational beings, sprung from a golden egg, sparkling like a thousand suns, which was hatched by the motion imparted to the waters by the Supreme Being. Brama separated the heavens from the earth, and placed amid the subtle ether the eight points of the universe and the receptacle of the waters. He had five heads before Vairevert, one of Sheeva's sons, cut off one of them. He is delineated floating on a leaf of the lotus, a plant revered in India. The Bramins relate, that the fifteen worlds which compose the universe were each produced by a part of Brama's body. At the moment of our birth he imprints in our heads, in characters which cannot be effaced, all that we shall do, and all that is to happen to us in life. It is not in our power, nor in that of Brama himself, to prevent what is written from being fulfilled.

Brama, according to the vulgar mythology, takes but little notice of human affairs. Identified with the sun, he is adored by the Bramins in the _gayatri_, the most sacred passage of the _vedas_ (or sacred books), which is itself ranked among the gods, and to which offerings are made. One of the most important attributes of Brama is that of father of legislators; for it was his ten sons who diffused laws and the sciences over the world. He is considered as the original author of the _vedas_, which are said to have issued from his four mouths; though it was not till a later period, that is, about fourteen hundred years before Christ, that they were collected and arranged by Vyasa, the philosopher and poet. The laws which bear the name of Menu, the son of Brama, and the works of the other _richeys_, or holy persons, were also re-copied, or perhaps collected from tradition, long after the period when they are said to have been published by the sons of Brama.

Brama, the father of the legislators of India, has a considerable resemblance to the Jupiter of the Greek poets, the father of Minos, whose celebrated laws were published in the very same century that Vyasa collected the _vedas_. Jupiter was worshipped as the sun, by the name of _Anxur_ or _Axur_, and Brama is identified with that luminary. The most common form in which Brama is represented, is that of a man with four heads and four hands; and it is remarkable that the Lacedaemonians gave four heads to their Jupiter. Lastly, the title of Father of Gods and Men is equally applicable to Brama and to Jupiter.

Brama is delineated, as in the engraving, holding in one hand a ring, the emblem of immortality; in another, fire, to represent force; and with the other two writing on _olles_, or palm-leaves, the emblem of legislative power.

JAMES II. AND THE CHURCH OF DONORE.

The annexed engraving represents a celebrated locality. It is the ruin of the little church on the hill at Donore, in the county of Meath, the spot where James II. was stationed when he beheld the overthrow of his army and the ruin of his cause at the battle of the Boyne, Tuesday, July 1st, 1690. The Boyne is a very beautiful and picturesque river; it winds through the fertile valleys of Meath, and from its richly-wooded banks the hills rise gradually; there are no lofty mountains in the immediate neighbourhood. The depth, in nearly all parts, is considerable, and the current, consequently, not rapid; its width, near the field of battle, varies little, and is seldom less than fifty or sixty yards. James had the choice of ground, and it was judiciously selected. On the south side of the river, in the county of Meath, his army was posted with considerable skill: on the right was Drogheda; in front were the fords of the Boyne, deep and dangerous, and difficult to pass at all times; the banks were rugged, lined by a morass, defended by some breastworks, with "huts and hedges convenient for infantry;" and behind them was an acclivity stretching along the whole of "the field." James fixed his own tent upon the summit of a hill close to the little church of Donore, now a ruin; it commanded an extensive view of the adjacent country, and the opposite or south side of the river--the whole range, indeed, from Drogheda to Oldbridge village--and looked directly down upon the valley, in which the battle was to be fought, and the fords of the Boyne, where there could be no doubt the troops of William would attempt a passage. From this spot, James beheld his prospering rival mingling in the thick of the _melee_, giving and taking blows; watched every turn of fortune, as it veered towards or against him; saw his enemies pushing their way in triumph, and his brave allies falling before the swords of foreigners--a safe and inglorious spectator of a battle upon the issue of which his throne depended. The preceeding night he had spent at Carntown Castle, from whence he had marched, not as the leader, but as the overseer, of the Irish army; having previously given unequivocal indications of his prospects, his hopes, and his designs, by despatching a commissioner to Waterford, "to prepare a ship for conveying him to France, in case of any misfortune."

HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON.

When Babylon the Great was in the zenith of her glory, adjoining the grand palace, and within the general enclosure, the Hanging Gardens were constructed by the king to gratify his wife Amytis, who being a native of Media (she was the daughter of Astyages, the king of Media), desired to have some imitation of her native hills and forests.

"Within the walls was raised a lofty mound, Where flowers and aromatic shrubs adorn'd The pensile garden. For Nebassar's queen, Fatigued with Babylonia's level plains, Sigh'd for her Median home, where nature's hand Had scooped the vale, and clothed the mountain's side With many a verdant wood: nor long she pined Till that uxorious monarch called on Art To rival Nature's sweet variety. Forthwith two hundred thousand slaves uprear'd This hill--egregious work; rich fruits o'erhang The sloping vales, and odorous shrubs entwine Their undulating branches."

These gardens, as far as we learn from ancient accounts, contained a square of above 400 feet on each side, and were carried up in the manner of several large terraces, one above the other, till the height equalled that of the walls of the city. The ascent from terrace to terrace was by stairs ten feet wide. The whole pile was sustained by vast arches, raised on other arches one above another, and was defended and condensed by a wall, surrounding it on every side, of twenty-two feet in thickness. On the top of the arches were first laid large flat stones, sixteen feet long and four broad; over these was a layer of weeds mixed and cemented with a large quantity of bitumen, on which were two rows of bricks closely cemented together with the same material. The whole was covered with thick sheets of lead, on which lay the mould of the garden. And all this floorage was so contrived as to keep the moisture of the mould from running away through the arches. The earth laid thereon was so deep that large trees might take root in it: and with such the terraces were covered, as well as with the [...] plants and flowers proper to adorn an eastern pleasure-garden. The trees planted there are represented to have been of various kinds. Here grew the larch, that, curving, flings its arms like a falling wave; and by it was seen the grey livery of the aspen; the mournful solemnity of the cypress and stately grandeur of the cedar intermingled with the elegant mimosa; besides the light and airy foliage of the silk-tasselled acacia, with its vast clusters of beauteous lilac flowers streaming in the wind and glittering in the sun; the umbrageous foliage of the chesnut, and ever-varying verdure of the poplar; the birch, with its feathered branches light as a lady's plumes--all combined with the freshness of the running stream, over which the willow waved its tresses.--

"And the jessamine faint, and the sweet tuberose, The sweetest flower for scent that blows; And all rare blossoms from every clime Grew in that garden in perfect prime."

All these varied delights of nature were ranged in rows on the side of the ascent as well as on the top, so that at a distance it appeared to be an immense pyramid covered with wood. The situation of this extraordinary effort of human skill, aided by human wealth and perseverance, adjoining the river Euphrates, we must suppose that in the upper terrace was an hydraulic engine, or kind of pump, by which the water was forced up out of the river, and from thence the whole gardens were watered, and a supply of the pure element furnished to the fountains and reservoirs for cooling the air. In the spaces between the several arches, on which the whole structure rested, were large and magnificent apartments, very lightsome, and commanding the most beautiful prospects that even the glowing conceptions of an eastern imagination could dream to exist.

THE GREAT BELL OF BURMAH.

At a temple in the environs of Amarapoora, the capital of Burmah, there is an enormous bell, which is thus described by Captain Yule:--"North of the temple, on a low circular terrace, stands the biggest bell in Burmah--the biggest in the world, probably, Russia apart. It is slung on a triple beam of great size, cased and hooped with metal; this beam resting on two piers of brickwork, enclosing massive frames of teak. The bell does not swing free. The supports were so much shaken by the earthquake, that it was found necessary to put props under the bell, consisting of blocks of wood carved into grotesque figures. Of course no tone can now be got out of it. But at any time it must have required a battering-ram to elicit its music. Small ingots of silver (and some say pieces of gold) may still be traced, unmelted, in the mass, and from the inside one sees the curious way in which the makers tried to strengthen the parts which suspend it by dropping into the upper part of the mould iron chains, round which the metal was run. The Burmese report the bell to contain 555,555 viss of metal (about 900 tons). Its principal dimensions are as follow:--External diameter at the lip, 16 feet 3 inches; external diameter 4 feet 8 inches above the lip, 10 feet; interior height, 11 feet 6 inches; exterior ditto, 12 feet; interior diameter at top, 8 feet 6 inches. The thickness of metal varies from six inches to twelve, and the actual weight of the bell is, by a rough calculation, about eighty tons, or one-eleventh of the popular estimate. According to Mr. Howard Malcolm, whose authority was probably Colonel Burney, the weight is stated in the Royal Chronicle at 55,500 viss, or about ninety tons. This statement is probably, therefore, genuine, and the popular fable merely a multiplication of it by ten."

This monster Burmese bell is, therefore, fourteen times as heavy as the great bell of St. Paul's, but only one-third of that given by the Empress Anne to the Cathedral of Moscow.

BANDOLIERS.

We here engrave a set of bandoliers, a species of weapon much in vogue about the close of the sixteenth century. The specimen before us consists of nine tin cases covered with leather, with caps to them, each containing a charge of powder, and suspended by rings from a cord made to pass through other rings. The caps are retained in their places by being contrived so as to slip up and down their own cords. Two flaps of leather, on each side, are intended to protect the bandoliers from rain, and attached to one of these may be perceived a circular bullet-purse, made to draw with little strings. This specimen was buckled round the waist by means of a strap; others were worn round the body and over the shoulder. The noise they made, agitated by the wind, but more especially the danger of all taking fire from the match-cord, occasioned their disuse, as Sir James Turner tells us, about the year 1640.

TOMB OF DARIUS.

Among the most remarkable tombs of the ancients, may be noticed the sepulchre carved out of the living rock, by order of Darius, the warrior and conqueror king of Persia, for the reception of his own remains; and which is existing to this day at Persepolis, after a duration of twenty-three centuries.

The portico is supported by four columns twenty feet in height, and in the centre is the form of a doorway, seemingly the entrance to the interior, but it is solid; the entablature is of chaste design. Above the portico there is what may be termed an ark, supported by two rows of figures, about the size of life, bearing it on their uplifted hands, and at each angle a griffin--an ornament which is very frequent at Persepolis. On this stage stands the king, with a bent bow in his hand, worshipping the sun, whose image is seen above the altar that stands before him, while above his head hovers his ferouher, or disembodied spirit. This is the good genius that in Persian and Ninevite sculpture accompanies the king when performing any important act. On each side the ark are nine niches, each containing a statue in bas-relief. No other portion of the tomb was intended to be seen, excepting the sculptured front; and we must, therefore, conclude that the entrance was kept secret, and that the avenues were by subterranean passages, so constructed that none but the privileged could find their way. We are told by Theophrastus, that Darius was buried in a coffer of Egyptian alabaster; and also that the early Persians buried their dead entire, preserving their bodies with honey or wax.

THE GATE ON OLD LONDON BRIDGE.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a strongly embattled gate protected the entrance from Southwark to Old London Bridge, and it was usually garnished with traitors' heads in "rich abundance," as may be seen in the accompanying cut, which is copied from Visscher's view, in 1579. The bridge was at that period covered with houses, a narrow road passing through arcades beneath them, and they abutted on props over the river on either side. The bridge was proudly spoken of by our ancestors. Thus, in the translation of Ortelius, published by J. Shaw, in 1603, he says of the Thames:--"It is beautified with statelye pallaces, built on the side thereof; moreover, a sumptuous bridge sustayned on nineteen arches, with excellent and beauteous housen built thereon." Camden, in his great work, the "Britannica," says, "It may worthily carry away the prize from all the bridges in Europe," being "furnished on both sides with passing faire houses, joining one to another in the manner of a street."

EXTRAORDINARY PONDS AND FISH.

The ponds in the department of Ain in France are 1667 in number. The industry and ingenuity of man have converted the marshes into fertile plains and productive ponds, by constructing dykes from one hill to the other, for the plateaux are covered with small hills. When the proprietor of one of these ponds wishes to cultivate it, he draws off the water into the dyke attached to it. Wheat, barley, and oats are then sown, and the seed thus fertilised by the slime produces a crop double that produced by the land in the vicinity. After the harvest is collected, the water is permitted to return to its former bed, and carp, tench, and roach are then thrown into it. Some of these ponds will support 100,000 of carp, and 100 pounds of little tench and roach. In the course of two years these carp, which weighed only one ounce and a-half, will have attained the size of two pounds and a half. The fishing begins in April, and is continued until November. The increase of the fish is as one to five.

THE CEREMONIAL OF MAKING THE KING'S BED.

The following account of the old ceremony of making the King's bed in the time of Henry the Eighth, was sent to the Society of Antiquaries, in 1776, by Mr. J. C. Brooke, of the Heralds' College, F.S.A. &c. In a letter to the president, he says,--

"It is extracted from an original manuscript, elegantly written, beautifully illuminated, and richly bound, which was some time in the library of Henry, Duke of Norfolk, earl marshal of England, to whom it came by descent from Thomas, the great Duke of Norfolk, beheaded in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; who married Mary, daughter and coheir of Henry Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, lord chamberlain to King Henry the Eighth. It contains the whole duty of the lord chamberlain, and of the officers in his department; is the original copy kept for the information of that earl; and had been compiled by order of, and approved by, the King himself in council."

"_The oolde ordre of Makynge the Kynges Bedd not to used nor done, but as Hys Grace woll comaund and apoynte from tyme to tyme herafter._

"_Furste_, a groome or a page to take a torche, and to goo to the warderobe of the kynges bedd, and bryng theym of the warderobe with the kynges stuff unto the chambr for makyng of the same bedde. Where as aught to be a gentylman-usher, iiii yomen of the chambr for to make the same bedde. The groome to stande at the bedds feete with his torch. They of the warderobe openyng the kinges stuff of hys bedde upon a fayre sheete, bytwen the sayde groome and the bedds fote, iii yeomen, or two at the leste, in every syde of the bedde; the gentylman-usher and parte commaundyng theym what they shall doo. A yoman with a dagger to searche the strawe of the kynges bedde that there be none untreuth therein. And this yoman to caste up the bedde of downe upon that, and oon of theym to tomble over yt for the serche thereof. Then they to bete and tufle the sayde bedde, and to laye oon then the bolster without touchyng of the bedd where as it aught to lye. Then they of the warderobe to delyver theym a fustyan takyng the saye therof. All theys yomen to laye theyr hands theroon at oones, that they touch not the bedd, tyll yt be layed as it sholde be by the comaundement of the ussher. And so the furste sheet in lyke wyse, and then to trusse in both sheete and fustyan rownde about the bedde of downe. The warderoper to delyver the second sheete unto two yomen, they to crosse it over theyr arme, and to stryke the bedde as the ussher shall more playnly shewe unto theym. Then every yoman layeing hande upon the sheete, to laye the same sheete upon the bedde. And so the other fustyan upon or ii with such covervnge as shall content the kynge. Thus doon, the ii yomen next to the bedde to laye down agene the overmore fustyan, the yomen of the warderobe delyverynge theym a pane sheete, the sayde yoman therewythall to cover the sayde bedde. And so then to laye down the overmost sheete from the beddes heed. And then the sayd ii yomen to lay all the overmost clothes of a quarter of the bedde. Then the warderoper to delyver unto them such pyllowes as shall please the kynge. The sayd yoman to laye theym upon the bolster and the heed sheete with whych the sayde yoman shall cover the sayde pyllowes. And so to trusse the endes of the sayde sheete under every ende of the bolster. And then the sayd warderoper to delyver unto them ii lyttle small pyllowes, werwythall the squyres for the bodye or gentylman-ussher shall give the saye to the warderoper, and to the yoman whych have layde on hande upon the sayd bedde. And then the sayd ii yomen to lay upon the sayde bedde toward the bolster as yt was bifore. They makyng a crosse and kissynge yt where there handes were. Then ii yomen next to the feete to make the feers as the ussher shall teche theym. And so then every of them sticke up the aungel about the bedde, and to lette down the corteyns of the sayd bedde, or sparver.

"Item, a squyer for the bodye or gentylman-ussher aught to sett the kynges sword at hys beddes heed.

"Item, a squyer for the bodye aught to charge a secret groome or page, to have the kepynge of the sayde bedde with a lyght unto the time the kynge be disposed to goo to yt.

"Item, a groome or page aught to take a torche, whyle the bedde ys yn makyng, to feche a loof of brede, a pott wyth ale, a pott wyth wine, for them that maketh the bedde, and every man.