Sept. 27, 1817.]

my

Scenes of Domestic Life.

29 I have devoted myself almost entirely to the cultivation | dress, firmness of character, and what he called the raof the minds of three girls, left orphans by the death of tionale of life, conjoined a singular notion as to the supesister Marian. My amusements, besides frequent vi-rior nature of the female constitution both in body and sits to some of my old friends, and dressing a little garden ground, are much confined-a game or two at fox and geese, (an old-fashioned pastime); a little romping with my nieces, when their education, to be afterwards described, and my lumbago will permit; now and then some musicalas, Sir! this is one of the points on which I have been wofully disappointed; a ride about the country on my old mare Jo Janet; a sight of the weekly newspaper; and the use of a few books, judiciously chosen by my prime counsellor Miss Bab-to which I ought to add, the daily conversation parties of the family; only by some mismanagement or other, not on my part, I should imagine, these are very apt to bring on the kind of hurly-burly in my brain to which I formerly alluded. My residence is within a few miles of town, snug enough and well aired; and contains, besides myself and eldest sister just now named, another sister, named Amelia, after a lady of quality, who once visited our father's house, and was kindly entertained during a storm which prevent ed her getting on a journey; Miss Elizabeth Dimple, a second cousin by the mother's side, who has no other relatives than ourselves to own her; the three girls about whom I have now ventured to trouble you; and two maids, one of them grown old in our service, and the other only hired about a year ago.

mind, and its more felicitous aptitude (these are his words) to the varied excellencies which dignify our species. My sister, Sir, who had already been conspicuously gifted with a high opinion of her own worth, mightily enhanced her noble qualities under the united energy of his instructions and theory. Accordingly, on her return home, at the distance of three or four years, she naturally excited the admiration of the rest of the family, by her marvellous acquaintance with matters utterly beyond our conceptions, and no less naturally acquired the sovereignty of it, by a fluency and imperativeness of speech, and a loftiness and majesty of deportment, which we never remembered to have either heard or seen, unless in the minister of the parish, and a grenadier captain who was once quartered in our county town. The ascendancy once gained was never altogether lost. The chief opponent whom her pretensions raised up in the house was her sister Amelia, immediately to be introduced to your notice; and this was entirely owing to an unlooked-for event, which threatened very serious consequences to the intellect of that dear creature at the time, and which indeed, so far as I can judge, did certainly leave impressions on her memory and feelings of an imperishable nature. My father, who had occasionally read Fisher's Grammar, and one of the early editions of the Young Man's Best Companion, was in the habit of denominating these his two eldest daughters from the kind of effects which their different manners of speaking produced. Bab he used to call Logic, and to Amelia he gave the name of Rhetoric. I have seen him sit at table, poor simple man, with his arms supported upwards on his elbow chair, his eyes and mouth wide open, and a sort of half equivocal kind of smile, while these damsels, each in her own way, discussed and exemplified, exclaimed and sighed, enforced and demonstrated, sobbed and teared, in a way utterly indescribable, and on subjects to my apprehension then not worth the crack of a whip. On these occasions, my father, as I supposed from his attitude and silence, was acting the

My sister Bab, Sir, I have always understood, and so have our neighbours, to be older than myself by some years. But this is a point which I am not able exactly to ascertain, because the large family Bible, which, according to a very useful custom, formerly contaived, on One of the blank leaves, the record of all our names and births, and which, as she was the most devout of the whole, had been bequeathed to her by my father, long since, by some accident or other was robbed of this register a circumstance the more unaccountable, as we have never been able to discover, in this neighbourhood, any family which this register would suit in respect to number and their ages. Bab herself, who was the first to notice the loss, seemed quite inconsolable for a week; but after-part of judge or umpire between them, but found himself. wards, as if she expected it would be made up in a manner equally unaccountable, or perhaps because she thought the Bible really looked better without the bad writing of my poor deceased parent, was much more ready to display this treasure on the drawers' head of our sitting parlour than she had formerly been. My sisters, in the meantime, are more positive than ever as to their youth and my age. Sir, it is a very hard thing to be forced, against one's positive persuasion, to imagine that a twelvemonth is not a twelvemonth to every body, and all the world over; or that when 1 myself am twenty years older than I was when our grandmother died, time has not been every bit as liberal to my sisters. But to proceed: Miss Bab, Sir, had a great advantage in early life, of going to live at the house of a grand uncle, a nonconformist clergyman in the west country, who was well endowed with the good things of this world, and whose company used to be greatly courted by the nobility and chief gentry in his vicinity. This respectable gentleman, to a few whimsical opinions on

a little perplexed in deciding on their respective merits. Generally, however, it was noticeable, he terminated the contest by a sort of compromise, which, though flattering to both, as I thought, seemed never to give perfect content to either. His words were, "You are a clever hussey, Bab""Never mind her, my sweet Emmy." It has been my misfortune, Sir, not to possess the same impartiality and evenness of temper with my fatber. Besides, I was not entitled to the same deference and authority; and, moreover, I am firmly convinced, that the modifications of disposition, humour, talent, behaviour, and circumstances, which have taken place in my sisters since his death, necessarily required some corresponding change of treatment. But as I perceive my paper to be exhausted, and Bab assures me that much stooping accelerates the decrepitude and infirmities of age, I am here compelled to suspend my narrative.

Moody-hall, near Edinburgh,

Nathanael Dewlap.

Drama Fine Arts.

Sept. 27, 1817.]·

Miscellaneous Anecdotes.

same ardent traveller, assisted by a foreign officer of the Hame of Cariglio, has not only succeeded in transporting from Thebes very interesting fragments of Egyptian sculpture, but has also discovered a passage cut in the solid rock 400 feet in length, under the great pyramid, with chambers at the lower extremity, and a communication with the mysterious well, which has hitherto puzzled all our antiquaries and travellers. Excavations have also been effected among the sepulchral structures in the neighbourhood upon the desert; and amongst other curiosities, a sinall temple, and a fine granite tablet, have been discovered between the lion's paws of the Sphinx.

MISCELLANEOUS ANECDOTES.

Return to a Collector of Taxes.-An Assessor having left a schedule relative to taxes at the cottage of a peasant, had the following answer sent him:

"To the Gatherur of Taxes. "SIR,-I does not use no hair poother, and as for armoral beerings, I does not kno them at all; but if they means wigs, 1 does not use none.

Lord Amherst and the Emperor of China.-Many of the Opposition, as well as Bonaparte, censure Lord Amherst for refusing to knock head to the Emperor of China. Cobbet, we imagine, would have talked of the dignity of a free-born Englishman. We extract the following from a paper called the Alfred:

"That any man who has observed the reception of a bill in the House of Lords, the bowing and scraping of the members of the Commons who attend, to a little old chair, which is the seat of the Sovereign; the solemn paces of the chancellor to meet the bowing men, with half a yard of velvet in his hand, decorated with a little gold lace, which he presents to the scrapers, who scrape again at the sight, and perform their genuflections and crab-like evolutions on their retreat:-that any one, of such a nation, should refuse to make nineteen nods of the head, according to the manners of a foreign empire, is as extraordinary as it is unwise. It is a mere matter of ceremony, a silly piece of etiquette, and so are the bendings and bowings at a levee. But an ambassador to refrain from making nineteen bows --an ambassador from a country in which it has been laid down as a rule, that no earl is to wash in the presence of a duke, without his permission-that a duke may wear a cloth of state hanging within half a yard of the ground that the cloth of state of a marquis may reach within a yard of the ground, and that no viscount may wash with him, but at his pleasure-that a viscount may have a cover of essay held under his cup when be drinks-and that his wife may have her gown borne by a woman in the presence of her inferiors, but else, by a man !"

Haydn. When this great composer was in England, one of our princes commissioned Sir Joshua Reynolds to take his portrait. Haydn went to the painter's house, and sat to him, but soon grew tired. Sir Joshua, careful of his reputation, would not paint a man of acknowledged genius with a stupid countenance, and deferred the sitting till another day. The same weariness and want of ex. pression occurring at the next attempt, Reynolds went to

-31 his Royal Highness and informed him of the circumstance, who contrived a stratagem. He sent to the painter's house a pretty German girl, in the service of the queen. Haydn took his seat for the third time, and as soon as the conversation began to flag, a curtain rose, and the fair German addressed him in his native language, with a most elegant compliment. Haydn, delighted, overwhelmed the enchantress with questions; his countenance recovered its animation, and Sir Joshua rapidly seized its traits.

Calmuck Tartars.-Prayer is one of the principal duties enjoined by Lamaism; and the Calmucks discharge this duty in the most exemplary manner, and with very little trouble to themselves. It is well known, that a Romish priest must say his breviary five times a-day.-Among other stories which are told of jesuitical casuistry, it is said that the sons of St Ignatius invented a convenient method of complying with the injunctions of the church. At the canonical hour, the jesuit repeats the alphabet from A to Z, to which he adds a short collect, in which he begs that the Christ-cross row may be taken as an equivalent for all the prayers which can be made out of the combination and repetition of the letters. The Calmucks have displayed still greater ingenuity. We Europeans pride ourselves upon the superiority which we have attained, by substituting machinery for human labour. We think we have accomplished miracles by employing the strong atm' of unconquered steam,' in twirling the spindle, or in setting the wool-card in motion. The followers of the grand Lama have done more-they have invented praying-jennies, which do the business in perfection! It is a doctrine amongst them, and it is so convenient to saints and sinners, that no Calmuck, whether free-thinker or devotee, has ever ventured to call it in question, that as often as the paper, or other substance upon which a prayer is written, is set in motion, this movement of the written prayer is as meritorious as its oral repetition. The kurada, or praying-machine, is therefore constructed upon this principle :-it consists of two cylinders, or drums, filled within side with rolls of paper covered with prayers and ejaculations, written in the Tangotian, or sacred language. The drums are hung in a neat frame, and are kept on the whirl with great facility, by the simple contrivance of a string and crank; and every turn of the cylinder is perfectly equivalent to the repetition of all the prayers contained in it. The. turning of the kurada is an agreeable pastime in the long evenings of winter; but Tartar ingenuity has discovered a method of dispensing even with the slight degree of exertion which this compendious substitute requires. We make swifttrochais' roast our meat-they employ the smoke-jack to say their prayers for them; and the kurada, which spins over the fire in the midst of the hut, transfers all its devotional merit to the owner. The Mongols are yet more wisely economical of individual responsibility and labour. Amongst them, the inhabitants of a district construct a kurada at their joint expence, which is placed in a mill-house by the side of a running stream; and this subscription kurada is made so large, that it holds prayers enough to serve all the parish; and, consequently, except in seasons of uncommon drought, when the water is

32

Miscellaneous Anecdotes.

[Sept. 27, 1817. low to turn the mill, the parishioners are completely ex- to work the pumps. One of them, however, was percei onerated from the obligation of wasting their time in the ved coming up the gangway, with a handkerchief in his temple. The kimorin is another dumb substitute for de-hand, and on being questioned what he was about, he anvotion of the same nature. It is a flag, upon which the swered in a tone of voice, that discovered a perfect con air-horse or kimorin, is painted, together with an appro-fidence in the measure that he proposed, that he was gopriate selection from the Calmuck ritual. Such were the consecrated ensigns seen by Dr Clarke. As long as the kimorin flutters in the wind, the inhabitants of the tent upon which it is hoisted are making their way to heaven by the help of the air horse.-Ed. Rev.

ing to make an offering to his god." This handkerchief," said he, "contains a certain quantity of rice, and all the rupees I am worth; suffer me to attempt to lash it to the mizen-top; and rely upon it, Sir, if I succeed, we shall all be preserved." The captain was going to order him back to the pumps, but recollecting that in so doing he might throw both him and his countrymen into a state of despondency, and thereby lose the benefit of their exertions, he acquiesced. The Lascar thanked him, and he soon beheld this child of prejudice mount the tottering shrouds without the least apprehension. He soon lashed the handkerchief to the mizen top-mast head, fearless of all danger, and arrived in safety on the deck. Confident now that his god was the captain's friend, he went below to inform his brethren that he had done his duty. All the Lascars seemed transported with joy, embraced their virtuous companion, and then faboured at the pump with increased alacrity and perseverance, as if they had encoun tered before neither apprehension nor fatigue, To their unceasing labour was owing, in a great measure, the preservation of the people.

Obi Sorcery-Dr Williamson, in a late work on the West-India islands, gives the following instance of the sensibility of negroes to the terrors of this witchcraft. After describing a cure effected in a paralytic case, he says:" About that time, a woman named Agnes was sitting alongside of the negro doctress in the hospital, amusing herself cheerfully, and exulting in the advances she was making to recovery. In that state she was in the evening. On the following morning she was accosted by an oldish negro, named Dick, belonging to the estate, who had established his name as a great Obi man. Agnes, not long before, had declined his amorous addresses, on which occasion threats were made by Dick, and she was so much impressed by apprehension from these circumstances, that, on his addressing her, she fainted, and could not be again fully restored to her senses. In course of that evening she passed fæces insensibly, and used A Bear in a counting-house.-A large bear from New Dick's name often with horror. In a few days she sunk. Orleans, which was lately consigned to an unfortunate A general outcry by the negroes succeeded her death, merchant of New York, got rid of its chains the first against Dick, and such was their violence, that the over-night after being landed, and broke into the store house seer found it necessary to yield to an inquiry. A party by the back entrance. It first demolished the countingproceeded to his house, to search for Obi implements, house, tore the day-books and ledgers to atoms, and then which Dick and the overseer accompanied. The floor of regaled itself on the contents of two boxes of raisins in his house was dug; a small coffin was removed from it, the warehouse. Bruin was found in the morning, sleepwhich he said he had placed there to the memory of a ing out bis debauch in a field-bed belonging to an Amefriend. This the negroes denied, and pronounced it to rican general officer, and, being very sick, made no rebe one of the instruments of his Obi practices. It is in-sistance against being secured. He had previously rencalculable what mischief is done by such designing crafty people as Dick, when they establish a superstitious impression on the minds of negroes, that they possess powers beyond human. Such persons gratify revenge against

their own colour in a destructive manner, and, when bent on ruin to their masters, that malignant disposition is gratified by also destroying the negroes his property. Mineral poisons have sometimes been artfully procured, and, it is believed, that there are vegetable poisons which are less likely to lead to a discovery. The agency of neither is often required; for the effect of a threat from an Obi man or woman, is sufficient to lead to mental disease, despondency, and death. The evidence against Dick was undoubted, and the negroes regarded his stay on the estate with horror. The whole was submitted to the proprietor, and he was transported to some of the Spanish possessions.

Superstition of the Lascars.-Captain Stout, of the American ship Hercules, which was run on shore on the coast of Caffraria in 1796, as the only means of saving the lives of the crew, gives the following account of the superstition of the Lascars :-" At a period when the tempest raged with the utmost violence, the captain directed most of the crew below, particularly the Lascars,

dered the bed unfit for another campaign.

Tyger Hunt.-On the 26th February 1817, as three young gentlemen were shooting near Pondicherry, a villager informed them that a woman had been attacked by a tyger some hours before. They were not long in finding the remains of the woman's clothes, with a basket and some grass which she had been gathering. The villagers having assembled with their lanterns, soon roused the animal. In passing from one part of the jungle to another, be seized on one of them, whom he tore severely, before retreating to a large bush on the borders of a tank. The gentlemen then surrounded the place'; but, imagining he had retreated, approached close to the bush, when he rose with a tremendous roar; and, while in the act of leaping upon a villager, he received a ball in the body which laid him on his back, but without losing hold of the man. In this situation he received another shot in the shoulder, which greatly increased his fury. One of the gentlemen then ran up, and sent a charge of shot through; another transfixed him with a spear; while the villagers beat him on the head with their clubs. He measured about seven feet from the nose to the point of the tail. The man when liberated had his arm dreadfully shattered.

Sept. 27, 1817.1

The Horrors of War.In the hospitals at Wilna, (a town of Lithuania), during the French invasion of Russia, there were left above 17,000 dead and dying, frozen and freezing. The bodies of the former, broken up, served to stop the cavities in windows, floors, and walls; but in one of the corridors of the Great Convent, above 1,500 bodies were piled up transversely, as pigs of lead or iron.ceived by that day's post was produced, the direction When these were finally removed on sledges to be burnt, the most extraordinary figures were presented by the va riety of their attitudes, for none seemed to have been frozen in a composed state; each was fixed in the last action of his life, in the last direction given to his limbs even the eyes retained the last expression, either of anger, pain, or entreaty. In the roads, men were collected round the burning ruins of the cottages, which a mad spirit of destruction had fired, picking and eating the burnt bodies of fellow-men; while thousands of horses were moaning in agony, with their flesh mangled and hacked, to satisfy the cravings of a hunger that knew no pity. In many of the sheds, men, scarcely alive, had heaped on their frozen bodies human carcases, which, festering by the communication of animal beat, had ming. led the dying and the dead in one mass of putrefaction.

NATURAL HISTORY, &c.

Extraordinary sensibility in the organs of Touch.-A young lady in Liverpool, a Miss M'Avoy, has for some time past strongly attracted the public attention by the singular powers she lays claim to. She is about 17 or 18 years of age. She lost her sight in June 1816 by a gutta serena, the consequence of Hydrocephalus and a paralytic affection. Her eyes continue open, and have nearly the usual appearance, but the power of vision is totally gone. Such at least is her own statement, which is so far confirmed by facts, that when a lighted candle is held near her eyes, the usual contraction of the pupil does not take place. It is well known, that in persons who lose their sight, the other senses, particularly the sense of touch, generally becomes more acute. This has been the case with Miss M'Avoy in a surprising degree. To satisfy those who distrust her blindness, she suffers a bandage to be put over her eyes, and in this state she is able to read any printed book by touching the letters with her fingers. By the touch she also tells the colours of cloth, and distinguishes the different shades in stained glass. Mr E. Smith, the Editor of the Liver pool Mercury, who repeatedly witnessed the exhibition of her extraordinary powers, in company with other gentlemen, says, "that a book was placed before her, and opened indiscriminately; to our extreme surprise, she began to trace the words with her finger, and to repeat them correctly. She appeared to recognise a short monosyllable by the simple contact of one finger; but in ascertaining a long word, she placed the fore finger of her left hand on the beginning, whilst with that of her right hand she proceeded from the other extremity of the word; and when the two fingers, by having traversed over all the letters, came in contact with each other, she invariably and precisely ascertained the word. By my watch I found that she read about 30 words in half a

minute. As it was possible that the letters of a printed book might leave some slight impression sensible to an exquisite touch, I took from my pocket-book an engraved French assignat, which was hot-pressed, and smooth as glass, she read the smallest lines contained in this with the same facility as the printed book. A letter reand post-mark of which she immediately and correctly deciphered. She also named the colour of the separate parts of the dresses of the persons in company, as well as various shades of stained glass which were purposely brought. According to her own statement, her powers of touch vary very materially with circumstances: when her hands are cold she declares that the faculty is altogether lost, and that it is exhausted also by long and unremitted efforts; that she considers the hours of from ten until twelve of each alternate day, the most favourable for her performance. Her pulse during the experiments has varied from 110 to 130 degrees." It should be mentioned, that Miss M'Avoy is in a rather respectable situation in life; and as her friends disclaim any intention of deriving gain from her extraordinary powers by public exhibition, there is the less reason to suspect any imposture. At the same time, as no person is admitted to see her, except as a matter of favour, it is impossible, Mr Smith observes, to use all the precautions that might be desired to guard against deception. Though he has not seen her put to trial, he avows his belief from circumstances, that she cannot distinguish objects equally in the dark and latterly, it appears Miss M'Avoy has brought suspicion upon herself, by laying claims to the power of naming colours, without actual touch, by merely holding out her fingers towards the object. But even if it should torn out that, in the cases alluded to, she makes use of some other medium of information than the sense of touch, it is still impossible, that, without extraordinary means of some kind, she could do what has created surprise in every one who has seen her. Dr Renwick, a physician in Liverpool, has at present in the press a volume upon the subject, which will put the public in full possession of the facts of this singular case.

Without deciding on the degree of credit which is due to this story, we may mention our belief of the fact, that the loss of some of the senses often improves the others in an extraordinary degree. an extraordinary degree. The facility with which persons born blind walk about the streets of Edinburgh, and convey matrasses, baskets, and other articles of their manufacture, to different houses, is well known: nor is any one ignorant of the intricate and ingenious utensils which have been constructed by the blind. It is stated, on very good authority, that some of the blind in Paris have been instructed to read printed books, by passing their fingers slowly over the lines. There are also two remarkable instances mentioned by Mr Wardrop, surgeon. The first is that of James Mitchell, born deaf and blind, the particulars of whose life has been written by Mr Dugald Stewart. This boy has acquired a preternatural acuteness in the senses of touch, taste, and smell, in consequence of having been habitually employed by these means to collect that information for which the sight is peculiarly adapted. To the sense of smell he