The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 20, by Various
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Various >> The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 20,
_Golden Sands._--Perhaps originally it was the fabled gold of the Tagus
which attracted Jews to Lisbon in such numbers, and the general
persuasion indeed is, that the yellow sands of this royal river did
actually once produce sufficient gold to make a magnificent crown and
sceptre for the amiable hands of that patriot sovereign, the good king
Denis.
_A Dinner._--A dish of yellow-looking bacalhao, the worst supposable
specimen of our saltings in Newfoundland; a platter of compact, black,
greasy, dirty-looking rice; a pound, if so much, of poor half-fed meat;
a certain proportion of hard-boiled beef, that has never seen the
salting pan, having already yielded its nutritious qualities to a
swinging tureen of Spartan soup, and now requiring the accompaniment of
a satellite tongue, or friendly slice of Lamego bacon, to impait a dull
relish to it; potatoes of leaden continuity; dumplings of adamantine
contexture, that Carthaginian vinegar itself might fail to dissolve;
with offensive vegetables, and something in a round shape, said to be
imported from Holland, and called cheese, but more like the unyielding
rock of flint in the tenacity of its impenetrable substance; a small
quantity of _very small_ wine; abundance of water; and an awful army of
red ants, probably imported from the Brazils--the wood of which the
chairs and tables are made, hurrying across the cloth with
characteristic industry;--such are the principal features of the quiet
family dinner-table of the Portuguese.
_The Dockyard_ of Lisbon is scarcely as extensive as many of the largest
of our private ship-builders on the banks of the Thames and the Avon.
_Funerals._--In Portugal the corpse is placed in an open coffin, and the
head and feet are left bare. A vessel filled with holy water is placed
at the foot of the bier, which the priests and relatives of the deceased
sprinkle on the body. The service being concluded, the corpse is
followed by the relatives down into the vaults below the church, where
vinegar and quick lime having been poured upon the body, the falling lid
of the coffin is closed and _locked_, and the key delivered to the chief
mourner, who proceeds immediately from the funeral, with his party of
friends who have witnessed the interment take place, to the house of the
defunct, where the key being left with the nearest relative, and the
complimentary visit being paid, the rite is considered as terminated. No
fire is lighted in the house of a deceased person upon the day of his
funeral, and the relatives, who live in separate houses, are in the
habit of supplying a ready-dressed dinner, under the supposition that
the inmates are too much absorbed in grief to be equal to giving any
orders for the preparation of food. During the course of the ensuing
week, the chief mourners receive their several relatives and friends at
tea. The assembly is sorrowful and dull. It has been asserted, though
not corroborated, that such is the poverty and disregard of decorum on
the part of the Portuguese government, that when a person dies without
leaving behind sufficient to defray the expenses of his funeral, the
dead body is laid on the pavement of the most public street, with a box
upon the breast, into which passers-by drop copper or silver coin, until
sufficient has thus been obtained to defray the expense of interment;
and that a soldier stands at the head of the body to see that no money
is abstracted; for, in Portugal, even the sacred purpose for which it is
intended would not secure it without his protection.
There is no pardoning _soi-disant liberaux_, who prove, by their acts,
the greatest enemies of the sacred dignity of liberty.
* * * * *
PUNISHMENT OF DEATH.
_Decollatio_, or beheading, was a military punishment among the Romans.
In early times it was performed with an axe, and afterwards with a
sword. It is worthy of remark, that in all countries where beheading and
hanging are used as capital punishments, the former is always considered
less ignominious. Thus, in England, beheading is the punishment of
nobles, when commoners for the same crime are hanged. The crime of high
treason is here punished with beheading. Commoners, however, are hanged
before the head is cut off, and nobles also, unless the king remits that
part of the punishment. In Prussia, formerly a nobleman could not be
hanged; and if his crime was such that the law required this punishment,
he was degraded before the execution. At present, hanging is not used in
that country, and since so many instances have occurred of extreme
suffering, on the part of the criminal, caused by the unskilfulness of
the executioner in beheading with the sword, this mode of execution has
been abolished. Beheading in Prussia is now always performed with a
heavy axe, the sufferer being previously tied to a block. In France,
during the revolutionary government, beheading by means of a machine,
the guillotine, came into use, and still prevails there, to the
exclusion of all other modes of capital punishment. A person who has
murdered his father or mother, however, has his right arm cut off the
moment before he is guillotined. In the middle ages, it was, in some
states, the duty of the youngest magistrates to perform the executions
with the sword. In China, it is well known that beheading is practised,
sometimes accompanied with the most studied torments. In the United
States of America, beheading is unknown, the halter being the only
instrument of capital punishment. In many European countries, beheading
with the sword still prevails.
P.
* * * * *
PRICE OF BLOOD.--WERE AND WERELADE.
Were, or _Wera_, in our old law books, signifies what was anciently paid
for _killing a man_. When such crimes were punished with pecuniary
mulets, not death, the price was set on every man's head, according to
his condition and quality.
_Werelade_, among the Saxons, was the denying of a homicide on oath, in
order to be quit of the fine, or forfeiture, called _were_. If the party
denied the fact, he was to purge himself, by the oaths of several
persons, according to his degree and quality. If the guilt amounted to
four pounds, he was to have eighteen jurors on his father's side, and
four on his mother's: if to twenty-four pounds, he was to have sixty
jurors, and this was called _werelade_.
_Weregild_, or _Weregeld_, was the price of a man's head; which was paid
partly to the king for the loss of his subject, partly to the lord whose
vassal he was, and partly to the next of kin.
"In the same manner (says Blackstone,) by the Irish brehon law, in case
of murder, the brehon or judge, compounded between the murderer and the
friends of the deceased, who prosecuted him, by causing the malefactor
to give unto them, or to the child or wife of him that was slain, a
recompense, which they called _eriach_. And thus we find in our Saxon
laws, particularly those of King Athelstan, the several _weregilds_ for
homicide, established in progressive order, from the death of the ceorl
or peasant, up to that of the king himself."
The _weregild_ of an archbishop, and of an earl, was 15,000 thrismas;
that of a bishop or alderman, 8,000; that of a general or governor,
4,000; that of a priest or thane, 2,000; that of a king, 30,000; half to
be paid to his kindred, and the other half to the public. The weregild
of a ceorl was 266 thrismas.
P.T.W.
* * * * *
LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND.
The second great officer of the crown is the Lord High Chancellor, or
Keeper of the Great Seal, which are the same in authority, power, and
precedence. They are appointed by the King's delivery of the Great Seal
to them, and by taking the oath of office. They differ only in this
point, that the Lord Chancellor hath also letters patent, whereas the
Lord Keeper hath none.
He is an officer of very great power; as no patents, writs, or grants,
are valid, until he affixes the Great Seal thereto.
Among the many great prerogatives of his office, he has a power to
judge, according to equity, conscience, and reason, where he finds the
law of the land so defective as that the subject would be injured
thereby.
He has power to collate to all ecclesiastical benefices in His Majesty's
gift, rated under 20_l_. a year in the King's books.
In ancient times, this great office was most usually filled by an
ecclesiastic. The first upon record after the Conquest, is Maurice, in
1067, who was afterward Bishop of London.
Nor do we find an elevation of any Chancellor to the Peerage, until the
year 1603, when King James I. delivered a new Great Seal to Sir Thomas
Egerton, and soon after created him Baron of Ellesmere,[2] and
constituted him Lord High Chancellor of England. But until of late
years, the custom never prevailed, that the Lord High Chancellor of
England should he made an hereditary Peer of the realm. He performs all
matters which appertain to the Speaker of the House of Lords, whereby he
maybe said to be the eye, ear, and tongue of that great
assembly.--_Manual of Rank and Nobility._
[2] From him descended the late Dukes of Bridgewater of that
surname.
* * * * *
NEW BOOKS.
* * * * *
LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC.
(This is certainly one of the most ingenious books of the season, and
independently of its place as a volume of the _Family Library_, it has
substantive claims which we trust will not he overlooked. It is from the
graceful pen of Sir David Brewster, who possesses, in a high degree, the
peculiar talent of investing scientific inquiries with the charm of
popular delight; in short, of making science easy, and often conveying
in a single chapter what others labour to effect in a volume. He, in
truth, teaches us the sweet uses of science.
The present work appears to be the suggestion of Sir Walter Scott, to
whom it is addressed in letters. We can give but a faint idea of the
extent and interest of its subject, which ranges from the magic of the
ancients to the intoxicating gas of the moderns; yet the purpose of the
work is mainly to trace the connexion of those prodigies of the material
world which are termed Natural Magic, with scientific causes. Thus, in
the introductory letter, the writer observes on the resources of ancient
magic:--)
The secret use which was thus made of scientific discoveries and of
remarkable inventions, has no doubt prevented many of them from reaching
the present times; but though we are very ill informed respecting the
progress of the ancients in various departments of the physical
sciences, yet we have sufficient evidence that almost every branch of
knowledge had contributed its wonders to the magician's budget, and we
may even obtain some insight into the scientific acquirements of former
ages, by a diligent study of their fables and their miracles.
(In the second letter, upon Ocular Illusions, is the following beautiful
passage on the Eye:--)
This wonderful organ may be considered as the sentinel which guards the
pass between the worlds of matter and of spirit, and through which all
their communications are interchanged. The optic nerve is the channel by
which the mind peruses the hand-writing of Nature on the retina, and
through which it transfers to that material tablet its decisions and its
creations. The eye is consequently the principal seat of the
supernatural. When the indications of the marvellous are addressed to us
through the ear, the mind may be startled without being deceived, and
reason may succeed in suggesting some probable source of the illusion by
which we have been alarmed. But when the eye in solitude sees before it
the forms of life, fresh in their colours and vivid in their outline;
when distant or departed friends are suddenly presented to its view;
when visible bodies disappear and reappear without any intelligible
cause; and when it beholds objects, whether real or imaginary, for whose
presence no cause can be assigned, the conviction of supernatural agency
becomes under ordinary circumstances unavoidable. Hence it is not only
an amusing but an useful occupation to acquire a knowledge of those
causes which are capable of producing so strange a belief, whether it
arises from the delusions which the mind practises upon itself, or from
the dexterity and science of others.
(The Optical phenomena, as might be expected, are most abundant, as they
include the subject of spectral illusions and apparitions, and natural
phenomena marked with the marvellous. The properties of Sound are next
in interest; among them we find explained the wonder of singers breaking
glasses with their great power of voice; the automaton flute-player,
talking engines, echoes, &c. The Mechanical causes are less numerous:
among them we are glad to see _noticed_ the feat of lifting heavy
persons, which we ourselves have often seen accomplished; but Sir David
Brewster does not supply the cause. As the matter may be new to many
readers, we quote the two relating pages.)
One of the most remarkable and inexplicable experiments relative to the
strength of the human frame, which you have yourself seen and admired,
is that in which a heavy man is raised with the greatest facility, when
he is lifted up the instant that his own lungs and those of the persons
who raise him are inflated with air. This experiment was, I believe,
first shown in England a few years ago by Major H., who saw it performed
in a large party at Venice under the direction of an officer of the
American Navy. As Major H. performed it more than once in my presence, I
shall describe as nearly as possible the method which he prescribed. The
heaviest person in the party lies down upon two chairs, his legs being
supported by the one and his back by the other. Four persons, one at
each leg, and one at each shoulder, then try to raise him, and they find
his dead weight to be very great, from the difficulty they experience in
supporting him. When he is replaced in the chair, each of the four
persons takes hold of the body as before, and the person to be lifted
gives two signals by clapping his hands. At the first signal he himself
and the four lifters begin to draw a long and full breath, and when the
inhalation is completed, or the lungs filled, the second signal is
given, for raising the person from the chair. To his own surprise and
that of his bearers, he rises with the greatest facility, as if he were
no heavier than a feather. On several occasions I have observed that
when one of the bearers performs his part ill, by making the inhalation
out of time, the part of the body which he tries to raise is left as it
were behind. As you have repeatedly seen this experiment, and have
performed the part both of the load and of the bearer, you can testify
how remarkable the effects appear to all parties, and how complete is
the conviction, either that the load has been lightened, or the bearer
strengthened by the prescribed process. At Venice the experiment was
performed in a much more imposing manner. The heaviest man in the party
was raised and sustained upon the points of the fore-fingers of six
persons. Major H. declared that the experiment would not succeed if the
person lifted were placed upon a board, and the strength of the
individuals applied to the board. He conceived it necessary that the
bearers should communicate directly with the body to be raised. I have
not had an opportunity of making any experiments relative to these
curious facts; but whether the general effect is an illusion, or the
result of known or of new principles, the subject merits a careful
investigation.
(In connexion with walking along the ceiling is noticed the beautiful
contrivance of the foot of the house-fly and gecko, and the head of the
sucking-fish. To the next portion, Chemistry has supplied fewer wonders
than we expected: they occupy but fifty pages.
The examples in this book are the most quotable portion, but the
majority of them would be new to few readers: who, for instance, is
unacquainted with the feats of Topham, the strong man, or the Invisible
Girl. The explanations are not so easily transferable, since they are
generally accompanied by illustrations.
By the way, how many of these wonders are recorded in the early volumes
of the Philosophical Transactions, with all the gravity of the FF.R.S.
whose zeal, industry, and emulation rendered the early years of the
Society peculiarly brilliant. The very titles of some of the early
papers would make a "wonderful museum;" as Four Suns observed in
France--Worms that eat Stones and Mortar--which are almost as marvellous
as one of Sir David Brewster's lines--a coach and four filled with
skeletons. The Royal Society has now existed a century and
three-quarters: in their early Transactions are inquiries relative to
the tides--observations on the darting threads of spiders--"experiments
about respiration"--"of red snow seen at Genoa," &c.; yet scores of
philosophers, at the present moment, are controverting these very
subjects.)
* * * * *
PILGRIMAGE THROUGH KHUZISTAN AND PERSIA.
(This is not just so good a work as its full title-page may lead the
reader to expect. It runs thus "Fifteen Months' Pilgrimage through
untrodden tracts of Khuzistan and Persia, in a journey from India to
England, through parts of Turkish Arabia, Persia, Armenia, Russia, and
Germany." Now, there is attractive promise in the word "untrodden," and
it may be said to apply to the Asiatic tour of the author, or his first
volume, but is not appropriate to the second, which owes its main
interest to his interview with Skryznecki, the illustrious Pole. Neither
is the term pilgrimage characteristic of the journey, which has the
sketchiness and levity of a flying tour rather than the observant
gravity of a patient pilgrimage. Nevertheless, the work is altogether
full of vivacity and interest, and the author, Mr. J.H. Stocqueler, must
be as pleasant on his travels, as his book will be in our hands.
Crossing from Bombay, the author reached Muscat in eleven days. Here,
with his host, Reuben, he paid his respects to his highness the Imaum,
whose court is a curiosity.)
The Imaum's palace was close to the water's edge in front of the town,
and his highness received Reuben and myself in an arbour or veranda open
to the sea. At the entrance to the veranda stood several well dressed
Arabs armed with sword, spear, and dagger, and half a dozen dirty
looking Abyssinians clothed somewhat like the sepoys in our Indian army,
and equipped much after the same fashion. These latter, as I understood,
were paraded in honour of my visit; and indeed generally form the _garde
du corps_ on occasions of an Englishman's presentation at the _Court of
Muscat_. The Imaum rose on our entrance and accommodated us with chairs,
and after we had been served with some insipid sherbet, addressed
himself to me on the subject of my journey, its object and direction;
and then touched on the politics of Europe.
Our interview closed by his highness offering me the use of his horses,
his houses, and his ships of war, the cabins of which afforded excellent
accommodation, and which were generally occupied by English visiters.
The Imaum of Muscat is passionately fond of horses, and devotes
considerable time and attention to their breeding. Of some of the finest
horses in his stud, the Imaum makes presents to the governors of the
Indian presidencies, and deserving officers in his own service. Horses
likewise form an article of trade between Muscat and India, and yield,
as I have been told, a considerable profit.
(Intellect is not on the march at Bushire. It contains a small school
founded by the famous Joseph Wolff, and supported by the British
residents in Persia. Mr. Wolff projected much; but Mr. Stocqueler says:)
The school possessed, while I was at Bushire, no more than thirteen
pupils, who were struggling through the rudiments of the Persian and
Armenian languages, under the guidance of a sleepy old Armenian.
(At Koete, our author visited three brothers, "all dressed alike and so
much resembling each other in feature, and in the total loss of the left
eye, that it was difficult to discover my friend the supercargo, who had
accompanied us from Bombay."
Koete is about a mile long, and a quarter of a mile broad. The houses
are built of mud and stone, and flat roofed with the trunk of the date
tree. Around it is a wall, beyond which nothing is to be seen but a vast
sandy plain, extending more than sixty miles. Within the walls, it is
equally sterile, it literally yields _nothing_; here, "all _is_ barren,"
and the water is far from sweet, yet 4,000 souls live, though the sheikh
keeps up no standing army. Mr. S. sails thence into the _Shut-ul-Arab_,
[River of the Arabs,] the banks of which are more delightful than those
of the Thames at Richmond.
At Bussorah--a _bain a la Turque_.)
Entering the hummaum, I found myself suddenly in an apartment resembling
a vaulted cellar, dimly lighted by small apertures, and glazed
sky-lights in the dome. Stone and brick benches, covered with cloths and
coarse carpets, were ranged along the walls, and there was a fireplace
where coffee and chibouks were prepared, and cloths dried. Having been
required to strip, and a cloth tied round my waist, I was led into a
second apartment filled with steam, and of so high a temperature, that
in one instant I lost my breath, and in the next was streaming from
every pore. I anticipated a speedy dissolution of my "solid flesh;" but
on reaching a third apartment, (all vaulted and lighted, or rather
darkened alike,) I had become somewhat relieved. In this apartment were
four cisterns nearly level with the floor, into which the hot water was
drawn by cocks placed in the wall above. As soon as I had decided that
the water was hot enough, I was placed by the side of one of the
cisterns, and then the operation commenced.
_Act_ 1.--Deluged with hot water from the hands of a stout Persian.
_Act_ 2.--Conducted by said Persian to a stone ottoman in the centre of
the room, and caused to sit down. _Act_ 3.--My whole body kneaded by the
fists of the aforesaid; joints cracked, ears pulled, mustachoes dyed,
limbs rubbed with a hair-cloth glove. _Act_ 4.--Enveloped in warm
towels, and served with a pipe. _Act_ 5.--Wiped dry; led into the outer
apartment dressed and--_Exit_.
(Starting from Bussorah, the author is towed up the Euphrates as
follows.)
As soon as we had got out of the creek, we found both wind and tide had
set against us. The _mallahs_, or trackers, immediately stripped,
placing their clothes on their heads, and sprang on shore. A rope was
passed from the mast-head to a girdle round their respective bodies, and
off they set along the banks; sometimes, on reaching creeks, irrigating
channels, or unequal projections, plunging up to their necks, and wading
or swimming with their burthen, as the depth or shallowness of the water
required. In this way all the communication up the Tigris and Euphrates
is carried on when the wind blows down those rivers. The business of
tracking as may be conceived, is extremely fatiguing and dangerous: in
fact, so excellent a test does it furnish of the muscular powers and
courage of man, that the heads of the Mallah tribes require that each
Mallah should make three trips to Bagdad, as a tracker, before he can be
qualified for the married state and the care of a family.
(The plague rages at Bagdad, and he returns to Bussorah. On his way he
escapes a storm on the Euphrates.)
The river, which does not ordinarily rise until the month of June, now
rose with inconceivable rapidity, preceded by a violent storm, and in a
few hours inundated the whole Irak. Numberless villages of matted huts
were swept away; men, women, and children, were in a moment rendered
houseless; numerous cattle and sheep were drowned; date trees torn up by
the roots, and boats swamped or stranded. The artificial banks of the
river, which had governed our progress upwards, were now overflowed, and
it was with the greatest difficulty we could discover the river's bed
and escape getting aground.
(At Bussorah.)
Intelligence of the approach of the plague had spread consternation
throughout the city, and had sent thousands of its inhabitants into
retreat. The shops were closed--trade at a stand--the streets
deserted--houses tenantless--the oft busy creek had scarcely a boat
moving on its surface--the mosques were filled with the dismayed
Moslems, whom poverty or self-interest had kept in the town--the
Christian churches held the few Armenians and Chaldeans whom fear had
driven to pray with sincerity. Here might be seen a cluster of Zobeir
Arabs, meditating rapine: and there a straggling Jew, ruminating on the
losses he had sustained by the flight of the panic-stricken slaves of
his usury.
Aga Pharseigh had lost all his confidence and self-sufficiency. He had
sent off his family to Bushire; he was himself to sink into the humble
office of clerk to the resident; and he was (which he esteemed the most
distressing event of the three) to encounter face to face those who had
just left the "city of the plague." I had told him of the circumstances
under which I had met the resident, (coming from Bagdad,) and that there
were three cases of plague on board. The Armenian, whose only notions
regarding _cases_ were acquired in the course of his mercantile
transactions, and who believed a plague case and a six dozen champagne
case to be much about the same article, ejaculated, "Three _cases_ of
plague! Merciful heavens!--if the major wanted to preserve such
abominable virus, could he not have brought a smaller quantity? Three
cases! If it _should_ run out, how it might spread about the town!"