Part 73

There exists at Pekin a phalanstery which surpasses in eccentricity all that the fertile imagination of Fourier could have conceived. It is called Ki-mao-fan--that is, "House of the Hen's Feathers." By dint of carrying out the laws of progress, the Chinese have found means to furnish to the poorest of the community a warm feather-bed, for the small consideration of one-fifth of a farthing per night. This marvellous establishment is simply composed of one great hall, and the floor of this great hall is covered over its whole extent by one vast thick layer of feathers. Mendicants and vagabonds who have no other domicile come to pass the night in this immense dormitory. Men, women, and children, old and young, all without exception, are admitted. Communism prevails in the full force and rigour of the expression. Every one settles himself and makes his nest as well as he can for the night in this ocean of feathers; when day dawns he must quit the premises, and an officer of the company stands at the door to receive the rent of one sapeck each for the night's lodging. In deference no doubt to the principle of equality, half-places are not allowed, and a child must pay the same as a grown person.

On the first establishment of this eminently philanthropic and moral institution, the managers of it used to furnish each of the guests with a covering, but it was found necessary to modify this regulation, for the communist company got into the habit of carrying off their coverlets to sell them, or to supply an additional garment during the rigorous cold of winter. The shareholders saw that this would never do, and they should be ruined, yet to give no covering at all would have been too cruel, and scarcely decent. It was necessary therefore to find some method of reconciling the interests of the establishment with the comfort of the guests, and the way in which the problem was solved was this. An immense felt coverlet, of such gigantic dimensions as to cover the whole dormitory, was made, and in the day time suspended from the ceiling like a great canopy. When everybody had gone to bed, that is to say, had lain down upon the feathers, the counterpane was let down by pulleys; the precaution having been previously taken to make a number of holes in it for the sleepers to put their heads through, in order to escape the danger of suffocation. As soon as it is daylight, the phalansterian coverlet is hoisted up again, after a signal has been made on the tam-tam to awaken those who are asleep, and invite them to draw their heads back into the feathers, in order not to be caught by the neck and hoisted into the air with the coverlet. This immense swarm of beggars is then seen crawling about in the sea of dirty feathers, and inserting themselves again into their miserable rags, preparatory to gathering into groups, and dispersing about the various quarters of the town to seek by lawful or unlawful means their scanty subsistence.

THE USEFUL AND THE BEAUTIFUL.

The tomb of Moses is unknown; but the traveller slakes his thirst at the well of Jacob. The gorgeous palace of the wisest and wealthiest of monarchs, with cedar, and the gold, and ivory, and even the great Temple of Jerusalem, hallowed by the visible glory of the Deity himself, are gone; but Solomon's reservoirs are as perfect as ever. Of the ancient architecture of the Holy City, not one stone is left upon another, but the Pool of Bethsaida commands the pilgrim's reverence, at the present day. The columns of Persepolis are mouldering into dust; but its cistern and aqueducts remain to challenge our admiration. The golden house of Nero is a mass of ruins, but the Aqua Claudia still pours into Rome its limpid stream. The Temple of the Sun, at Tadmore, in the wilderness, has fallen, but its fountain sparkles in its rays, as when thousands of worshippers thronged its lofty colonnades. It may be that London will share the fate of Babylon, and nothing be left, to mark it, save mounds of crumbling brickwork. The Thames will continue to flow as it does now. And if any work of art should rise over the deep ocean, time, we may well believe, that it will be neither a palace nor a temple, but some vast aqueduct or reservoir; and if any name should flash through the mist or antiquity, it would probably be that of the man, who in his day, sought the happiness of his fellow men, rather than glory, and linked his memory to some great work of national utility or benevolence. This is the true glory which outlives all others, and shines with undying lustre from generation to generation, imparting to works some of its own immortality, and in some degree rescuing them from the ruin which overtakes the ordinary monument of historical tradition or mere magnificence.

CROMWELL'S BRIDGE AT GLENGARIFF.

The village of Glengariff, near Bantry Bay, consists of but a few houses. The only "antiquity" in the immediate neighbourhood is the old bridge, now a picturesque ruin, which, in ancient times, was on the high road to Berehaven; it is called "Cromwell's Bridge." It is accurately represented in the above engraving. History being silent as to the origin of the name, we must have recourse to tradition. When Oliver was passing through the glen, to "visit" the O'Sullivans, he had so much trouble in getting across the narrow but rushing river, that he told the inhabitants, if they did not build him a bridge by the time he returned, he would hang up a man for every hour's delay he met with. "So the bridge was ready agin he come back," quoth our informant; "for they knew the ould villian to be a man of his word."

THE TURBAN IN ARABIA.

A fashionable Arab will wear fifteen caps one above another, some of which are linen, but the greater part of thick cloth or cotton. That which covers the whole is richly embroidered with gold, and inwrought with texts or passages from the Koran. Over all there is wrapped a sash or large piece of muslin, with the ends hanging down, and ornamented with silk or gold fringes. This useless encumbrance is considered a mark of respect towards superiors. It is also used, as the beard was formerly in Europe, to indicate literary merit; and those who affect to be thought men of learning, discover their pretensions by the size of their turbans. No part of Oriental costume is so variable as this covering for the head. Niebuhr has given illustrations of forty-eight different ways of wearing it.

STONEWARE.

Stoneware was made at a very early period in China, and is much used as a basis on which a paste of porcelain is laid, to save the expenditure of the latter material, as well as to give strength and solidity to the piece. Most of the larger pieces of Oriental production are found to be thus formed. The red Japan ware is a very fine unglazed stoneware, and has raised ornaments, which are sometimes gilt. A curious coffee-pot of this ware, imitating a bundle of bamboo canes, and not unlike the Chinese musical instrument called a mouth-organ, from the collection of the late Mr. Beckford, is here represented.

Stoneware is supposed to have been made at a very early period in England by Dutch and German workmen; and from this circumstance it is almost impossible to distinguish the earlier fabrics of these respective countries. The discovery, in 1690, of an economical process of glazing this ware by means of common salt, which made it impermeable to liquids, soon brought it into general use, and displaced all the manufactures of the Delft and soft paste fabrics. A mottled-brown stoneware, known to collectors, is stated to be the manufacture of the age of Edward VI., in consequence of some of the specimens having a silver mounting of the make and fashion of the period of Elizabeth's reign. There is also a large flagon in the Museum of Economic Geology, ornamented with the royal arms of Elizabeth in relief, with the date 1594. These specimens cannot, however, be deemed conclusive of so early a manufacture in England. The first-mentioned specimens, though the mounting is English, may have been of German manufacture, as pieces of similar description of ware are to be seen in various collections of German pottery abroad. The latter specimen may either have been made at Cologne for the use of the Queen's household, or if of English manufacture, it must, in the opinion of a very eminent manufacturer, have been made at a much later period than the date upon it. In a letter received, he states "that it is a common practice even now among potters to use moulds of all dates and styles, which have been got up originally for very different kinds of ornamental work, and that he is strongly inclined to think that the mould from which the devices on this vessel have been pressed, was modelled many years before the vessel was made, and that the vessel itself is comparatively modern." Stoneware, ornamented with devices in white clay, was made in the seventeenth century at Fulham, also at Lambeth, and subsequently at Staffordshire; but there is no satisfactory evidence of any earlier manufactory in England.

Towards the end of the seventeenth century, some specimens of red Japan ware were imported into Europe. Both Dutch and English manufacturers attempted to imitate them, but failed for want of the proper clay. About this period, two brothers of the name of Elers, from Nuremberg, discovered at Bradwell, only two miles distant from Burslem, a bed of fine compact red clay, which they worked in a small manufactory, established in a retired situation upon the bed itself. They took every precaution to prevent any one seeing their process or learning their secret. They went so far as to employ none but the most ignorant and almost idiot workmen they could find. Astbury, the elder, had the talent to counterfeit the idiot, and, moreover, the courage to persevere in this character for some years during which he continued in their employ. From memory he made notes of the processes, and drawings of the machinery used. In consequence of the secret being thus discovered, numerous establishments arose in competition with that of the Elers, and, owing to the general prejudice against them as foreigners, they were finally compelled, in 1720, to quit their establishment. They retired to the neighbourhood of London, and, it is supposed, contributed by their skill and industry to the establishment of the Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory.

GREAT BELL OF ROUEN.

The grand entrance to the cathedral of Rouen is flanked by two towers, the one was erected by St. Romain; the expense for constructing the other, which bears the whimsical name of _Tour-de-beurre_, was raised by the product arising from permissions granted to the more wealthy and epicurean part of the inhabitants of the city, to eat butter in Lent. It was in this tower that the celebrated bell, the largest in the world, was erected; it weighed 40,000 lbs.; it was converted into cannon in the year 1793. The founder of this bell died of joy on seeing its completion. It went by his name, that of George D'Amboise, and round it was the following distich in gothic characters:--

"Je suis nomme George d'Amboise, Qui bien trente-six-mille poise, Et celui qui bien me pesera, Quarante mille trouvera."

VARIATIONS IN THE COINAGE.

Henry VIII. greatly debased both his gold and silver coins, which he alloyed with copper to a great extent. The proportions of the pound, indeed, in 1546, amounted to 8 oz. of alloy to 4 oz. of silver, which constituted, a positively base coin, the old allowance having been but 18 pennyweights of alloy to 11 oz. and 2 pennyweights of silver. His depreciations were equally daring, for out of the pound of silver he now coined 576 pennies or 48s. The gold coins of this monarch were sovereigns, half-sovereigns or rials, half and quarter rials, angels, half and quarter angels, George nobles, and forty-penny pieces. In this reign the immemorial privileges of the sees of Canterbury, York, and Durham, for coining small money, was abandoned, the last Bishop that used it being Wolsey's successor, Edward Lee.

Edward VI. carried both depreciation and debasement still farther; but towards the close of his reign he was obliged to restore the currency to something like the ancient standard. He was the first that issued crowns, half-crowns, and sixpences. Little alterations were made by Mary, beyond striking coins with her husband's head as well as her own; but under Elizabeth the coinage was, at length, completely recovered from its debasement, the old proportion of 18 pennyweights of alloy being restored, which has continued to the present day. The number of shillings struck out of a pound of silver was not lessened, however, for it continued to be sixty, as in the preceding reign, till 1601, when it was increased to sixty-two, at which rate it went on to 1816, when it was raised to sixty-six, at which it now remains. Her gold coins are much the same as before, but are distinguished by having the edges milled for the first time. Shortly before her death she had intended to coin farthings and other small pieces of copper, a metal which had not yet been made use of in this country.

CHAFFINCH CONTEST.

At the town of Armentieres, in France, there is a _fete du pays_, called _hermesse_, or _ducasse d'Armentieres_, in which the chaffinch and its fellows are the chief actors and objects of attraction. Numbers of these birds are trained with the greatest care, and no small share of cruelty, for they are frequently blinded by their owners, that their song may not be interrupted by any external object. The point upon which the amusement, the honour, and the emolument rests, is, the number of times which a bird will repeat his song in a given time. A day being fixed, the amateurs repair to the appointed place, each with his bird in a cage. The prize is then displayed, and the birds are placed in a row. A bird-fancier notes how many times each bird sings, and another verifies his notes. In the year 1812, a chaffinch repeated his song seven hundred times in one hour. Emulated by the songs of each other, they strain their little "plumed throats," as if conscious that honour was to result from their exertions.

EXPENSIVENESS OF DRESS IN THE TIME OF JAMES I.

Dress, indeed, must have swallowed up almost every thing at a time when James and his courtiers set the fashion of appearing in a new garb almost every day. When the Duke of Buckingham was sent to France to bring over Henrietta Maria, he provided, amongst others, one suit of white uncut velvet, and a cloak set all over with diamonds, valued at L80,000; besides a feather made of great diamonds, and sword, girdle, hat-band, and spurs, thick set with the same. Another suit of purple satin, embroidered all over with pearls, was valued at L20,000. At the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth with the Palatine, Lady Wotton wore a gown profusely ornamented with embroidery that cost L50 a yard; and Lord Montague spent L1,500 on the dresses of his two daughters for that occasion. By this account it would seem that the ladies were, at all events, not more expensive in their attire than gentlemen.

INGENUITY OF THE TUNISIANS.

A stranger visiting a city like Tunis, cannot but be struck with the various peculiarities, which present themselves to his view, wherever he turns. In their government, mercantile pursuits, professions and trades, the Tunisians are centuries behind. But, with all their disadvantages, the traveller, in traversing their crowded _sooks_ (market places) and serpentine streets, finds numerous illustrations of the proverb, "Necessity is the mother of invention." In every workshop some tool, or implement, presents itself, which is as curious in its formation as it is strange to see the peculiar use for which it is intended, and the manner in which it is employed. We may illustrate this by a sketch of a turner.

The extraordinary ingenuity here exhibited by the remarkable use which the artisan makes of his feet and toes, as well as of his hands, cannot fail to attract attention; and the display of his lathe and tools is equally curious.

SHANAR MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

Two acts seem essential to the demon worship of the Shanars of Tin-nevelly (a portion of the aborigines of India)--dancing and bloody sacrifices. They have no priest. The person who conducts the ceremony, which is undertaken from choice, is called the rotator of the demon. The head man of the village, or any other person, male or female, may officiate. The dress is grotesque, consisting of a sort of coat of various colours, a cap, and other vestments, arranged so as to strike the spectators with their comic appearance. In this service several musical instruments are used, but the most notable among them is one called a _bow_. It consists of a bow strung and ornamented with bells. This is placed on a brazen vessel of a globular form. The bow is struck with a plectrum, and the bass is produced by the application of an instrument to the brazen pot, another person keeping time by playing a pair of cymbals, as seen in the annexed cut.

The jarring, discordant, uproarious and cacophonous character of this musical accompaniment exceeds description, and when the parties are vieing with each other for pre-eminence, it is indeed the most horrid din that can be produced. At first the movements of the dancer may be slow, but as the music waxes louder and takes effect, he becomes gradually more excited, urging himself to phrenzy by striking himself violently, and applying his mouth to the neck of the decapitated sacrificial victim, he drinks its blood, and possibly a potation of ardent spirits. The afflatus thus acquired, its effects become visible in the frantic glare and the convulsive gesticulations of the possessed. This is greeted by the spectators with the loudest acclamations. The dancer is now deified or demonized, and he is consulted by the eager and delighted worshippers who do him homage. Each one puts his questions as his fancy or his needs may dictate. The possessed or demonized dancer, being more like a maniac than aught else, and subject to various contortions of body, utters his oracles with much indistinctness, rendering it necessary that some one initiated into these mysteries should interpret his wild and incoherent utterances. His ambiguous sayings and curious innuendos are so indefinite as to need interpretation.

SINGULAR LOCAL CUSTOMS.

In the department of the Hautes Alpes of France, in the commune of _Guillaume-Perouse_, at the village of _Andrieux_, where the inhabitants are deprived during one hundred days of the bright beams of the sun, there is a fete, called _Le retour du soleil_, on the 10th of February. At the dawn of day, four shepherds announce, to the sound of fifes and trumpets, the commencement of this joyous day. Every cottager having prepared an omelette, the eldest inhabitant of the village, to whom the title of _Venerable_ is given, leads the way to the square; here they form a chain and dance the _ferandola_ round him: after the dance is concluded, he leads the way to a stone bridge at the entrance of the village, the shepherds playing upon their rural instruments the while. Every one having deposited his omelette on the stone coping, they repair to a neighbouring meadow, where the dancing re-commences and continues until the first rays of the sun gleam athwart the velvet turf: the dance then instantly ceases, each one hastens for his pancake, and holding it up, presents it as an offering to the god of day; the _Venerable_ holds his up with both his hands. As soon as the sun shines upon the village the procession returns to the square, where the party separates, and every one repairs to his own home, to eat his pancake with his family. This ceremony cannot fail to recal the heathen mythology to the reader, who must see in it the offerings made to Apollo; or, perhaps, it may be the remains of some Druidical superstition, as the Druids paid particular devotion to the sun; at any rate, it is a curious vestige of some religion long since gone by. In some of the communes of this department the dead are wrapped in a winding-sheet, but are not inclosed in a coffin. In the valleys of _Queyras_ and of _Grave_, the dead are suspended in a barn during five months in the winter, until the earth be softened by the sun's rays, when the corpse is consigned to its native element. All funereal ceremonies are closed by eating and drinking. In some communes the people carry a flagon of wine to the churchyard; and on the return of the guests to the home of the deceased, it becomes a scene of bacchanalian revels, in which the groans and sighs of the mourners mingle with the songs and jests of the inebriated guests. At _Argentiere_, after the burial, the tables are set out round the churchyard; that of the curate and the mourning family over the grave itself. The dinner concluded, the nearest relation takes a glass; his example is followed by the rest, repeating with him, _A la sante du pauvre mort_.

SEVERITY OF RUSSIAN PUNISHMENTS.

The Russians are remarkable for the severity and variety of their punishments, which are both inflicted and endured with a wonderful insensibility. Peter the Great used to suspend the robbers upon the Wolga, and other parts of his dominions by iron hooks fixed to their ribs, on gibbets, where they writhed themselves to death, hundreds, nay thousands, at a time. The single and double knoute were lately inflicted upon ladies, as well as men of quality. Both of them are excruciating, but in the double knoute, the hands are bound behind the prisoner's back; and the cord being fixed to a pulley, lifts him from the ground, with the dislocation of both his shoulders, and then his back is in a manner sacrificed by the executioner, with a hard thong, cut from a wild ass's akin. This punishment has been so often fatal, that a surgeon generally attends the patient to pronounce the moment that it should cease. Another barbarous punishment practised in Russia is, first boring the tongue of the criminal through with an hot iron, and then cutting it out: and even the late Empress Elizabeth, though she prohibited capital punishments, was forced to give way to the necessity of those tortures. From these particulars, many have concluded that the feelings of the Russians are different from those of mankind in general.

FIRST RHINOCEROS IN EUROPE.

The first rhinoceros ever seen in Europe was that of which Pliny speaks as having been presented by Pompey to the Roman people. According to Dion Cassius, Augustus caused another to be killed in the Roman circus, when celebrating his triumph over Cleopatra. Strabo states that he saw one at Alexandria, and he has left a description of it. All these were of the one-horned species. At a later period the two-horned species were introduced, as appears from medals bearing their effigies struck in the reign of Domitian. During the time known as the dark ages, investigations in natural history and every other department of science and learning were utterly neglected, and the rhinoceros was as mythical to Europe as the phoenix or the salamander. On the revival of letters, however, and the extension of maritime discovery, a lively interest was manifested in the productions of foreign countries. In 1513 the king of Portugal presented the Roman Pontiff with a rhinoceros captured in India; but, unfortunately, the ship was wrecked on its way to Italy: the pope lost his present, and the rhinoceros his life. All that was preserved was a rough sketch, engraved by Albert Durer; and down to a very recent date, nearly all our representations were taken from this rough draft.