The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 538, March 17, 1832

"We were told that there were, in this lake, prawns as big as lobsters, and eels of incredible size, from fifteen to twenty feet long. The two principal rivers took their rise from this plain, augmenting in their course by the tribute of an infinity of streamlets; till swollen into bulk and strength, like two rival monarchs, they ran parallel for a awhile, trying to outvie each other in pomp and velocity, springing over their rocky beds. After some distance they separated to the right and left, and passed through their different districts, to pay, in their turn, tribute to the mightier ocean."

"We left the lake on our right, skirted the base of Piton du Milieu, over a volcanic soil of pulverized cinders, and, by gentle descents, proceeded towards the south. Again we were among mountains, passing green lawns, and marshes overgrown with vitti-vert, (which is used for thatching,) fern, marsh mallows, waving bamboos, and wild tobacco. We saw plantations of the manioc, (bread-fruit,) maize, sweet potatoes, the cotton-tree, the sugar-cane, coffee, and cloves. Then we crossed rocky channels of clear rippling water, hedged by dwarf oaks and the dusky-coloured olive, underneath which flourished the dark-green fig-tree, with its strawberry-red marrowy fruit, bared by the bursting of its emerald-green rind. Here the majestic palmiste towered grandly alone, crowned with its first, tardy, and only fruit; and when deprived of that diadem, like earthly monarchs, it perishes. We penetrated the wild native woods, where grew the iron-wood tree, the oak, the black cinnamon, the apple, the acacia, the tamarind, and the nutmeg. Our path was arched by wild vines, jessamine, and a multitude of deep scarlet-blossomed creepers, so thickly interlaced in their living cordage, that neither sun nor storm could penetrate them; or if a wandering beam found entrance through the thick natural trellice-work, it was only enough to cover some little tuft of violets or strawberries, its own offspring, growing up in its genial warmth with a strength and vigour pre-eminent amidst the pale and sickly brood of the neglected children of the shade. Nothing I had ever imagined of the loveliness of nature equalled the reality of these scenes."

Coffee in the East.

"On entering the zennanah, the old governante, Kamalia, having counted us on her four skinny fingers, proceeded to fulfil that sacred rite, never omitted in the east, of presenting refreshments; without the heartless and niggardly-ceremony of appealing to the guests, as is wont in Europe, to learn whether they will take them or not, looking on those who receive them with an evil eye. I followed Kamalia to know how the genuine oriental coffee is made. Good mussulmans can alone make good coffee; for, being interdicted from the use of ardent spirits, their palate is more exquisite and their relish greater."

"Thus it is:—A bright charcoal fire was burning in a small stove. She first took, for four persons, four handsful of the small, pale, mocha berry, little bigger than barley. These had been carefully picked and cleaned. She put them into an iron vessel, where, with admirable quickness and dexterity, they were roasted till their colour was somewhat darkened, and the moisture not exhaled. The over-roasted ones were picked out, and the remainder, while very hot, put into a large wooden mortar, where they were instantly pounded by another woman. This done, Kamalia passed the powder through a camel's-hair cloth; and then repassed it through a finer cloth. Meanwhile a coffee-pot, containing exactly four cups of water, was boiling. This was taken off, one cup of water poured out, and three cups full of the powder, after she had ascertained its impalpability between her finger and thumb, were stirred in with a stick of cinnamon. When replaced on the fire on the point of over-boiling, it was taken off, the heel of the pot struck against the hob, and again put on the fire. This was repeated five or six times. I forgot to mention she added a very minute piece of mace, not enough to make its flavour distinguishable; and that the coffee-pot must be of tin, and uncovered, or it cannot form a thick cream on the surface, which it ought to do. After it was taken, for the last time, from the fire, the cup of water, which had been poured from it, was returned. It was then carried into the room, without being disturbed, and instantly poured into the cups, where it retained its rich cream at the top."

"Thus made, its fragrance filled the room, and nothing could be more delicious to the palate. So far from its being a long and tedious process, as it may appear in narrating, old Kamalia allowed herself only two minutes for each person; so that from the time of her leaving the room to her return, no more than eight minutes had elapsed."

To interesting sketches we can only add a scene of sea sport off Fort Rotterdam, at Macassar, an island between Java and Borneo; shaped like a huge tarantula, a small body, with four disproportionately long legs, which stretch into the sea in narrow and lengthened peninsulas. The locale is

Shark's Bay.

"My hawk-eyed Arab now pointed out to me a line of dark spots, moving rapidly in the water, rounding the arm of the sea, and entering the great bay. At first I thought they were canoes capsized, coming in keel uppermost; but the Arab declared they were sharks, and said, 'The bay is called Shark's Bay; and their coming in from the sea is an infallible sign of bad weather.' A small pocket-telescope convinced me they were large blue sharks. I counted eight; their fins and sharp backs were out of the water. After sailing majestically up the great bay till they came opposite the mouth of a smaller one, they turned towards it in a regular line; one the largest I had seen any where, taking the lead, like an admiral. He had attained the entrance, with the other seven following, when some monsters arose from the bottom, near the shore, where he had been lurking, opposed his further progress, and a conflict instantly ensued. The daring assailant I distinguished to be a sword-fish, or sea-unicorn, the knight-errant of the sea, attacking every thing in its domain; his head is as hard and as rough as a rock, out of the centre of which grows horizontally an ivory spear, longer and far tougher than any warrior's lance; with this weapon he fights. The shark, with a jaw larger and stronger than a crocodile's, with a mouth deeper and more capacious, strikes also with his tail, in tremendous force and rapidity, enabling him to repel any sudden attack by confusing or stunning his foe, till he can turn on his back, which he is obliged to do ere he can use his mouth. This wily and experienced shark, not daring to turn and expose his more vulnerable parts to the formidable sword of his enemy, lashed at him with his heavy tail, as a man uses a flail, working the water into a syllabub. Meanwhile, in honour, I suppose, or in the love of fair play, his seven compatriot sharks stood aloof, lying to with their fins, in no degree interfering in the fray. Frequently I could observe, by the water's eddying in concentric ripples, that the great shark had sunk to the bottom, to seek refuge there, or elude his enemy by beating up the sand; or, what is more probable, by this manoeuvre to lure the sword-fish downwards, which, when enraged, will blindly plunge its armed head against a rock, in which case its horn is broken; or, if the bottom is soft, it becomes transfixed, and then would fall an easy prey. De Ruyter, while in a country vessel, had her struck by one of these fish, (perhaps mistaking her for a whale, which, though of the same species, it often attacks,) with such velocity and force, that its sword passed completely through the bow of the vessel: and, having been broken by the shock, it was with great difficulty extracted. It measured seven feet; about one foot of it, the part attached to the head, was hollow, and the size of my wrist; the remainder was solid, and very heavy, being indeed the exquisite ivory of which the eastern people manufacture their beautiful chess-men. But to return to our sea-combat, which continued a long time, the shark evidently getting worsted. Possibly the bottom, which was clear, was favourable for his enemy; whose blow, if he succeeds in striking while the shark is descending, is fatal. I think he had struck him, for the blue shark is seldom seen in shoal or discoloured water; yet now he floundered on towards the bottom of the bay, madly lashing the water into foam, and rolling and pitching like a vessel dismasted. For a few minutes his conqueror pursued him, then wheeled round and disappeared; while the shark grounded himself on the sand, where he lay writhing and lashing the shore feebly with his tail. His six companions, with seeming unconcern, wore round, and slowly moving down the bay, returned by the outlet at which they had entered. Hastening down to the scene of action, I saw no more of them. My boat's crew were assembled at the bottom of the bay, firing muskets at the huge monster as he lay aground; before I could join them, he was despatched, and his dead carcass laid on the beach like a stranded vessel. Leaving him and them, I ran along the beach for half a mile to regain Zela's tent."

RETROSPECTIVE GLEANINGS

WITCHES

(From Howell's Letters, 1647.)

We need not cross the sea for examples of this kind, we have too many (God wot) at home: King James a great while was loth to believe there were witches; but that which happened to my Lord Francis of Rutland's children, convinced him, who were bewitched by an old woman that was servant at Belvoir Castle, but being displeased, she contracted with the devil, who conversed with her in form of a cat, whom she called Rutterkin, to make away those children, out of mere malignity, and thirst of revenge.

A RICH MAN

"Among the many and various hospitals," says Sir William Temple, "that are every man's curiosity and talk, that travels their country, I was affected with none more than that of the aged seamen at Enchuysen, which is contrived, finished, and ordered, as if it were done with a kind of intention of some well-natured man, that those who had been their whole lives in the hardships and incommodities of the sea, should find a retreat with all the eases and conveniences that old age is capable of feeling and enjoying. And here I met with the only rich man that I ever saw in my life—for one of these old seamen entertaining me a good while with the plain stories of his fifty years voyages and adventures, while I was viewing the hospital and the church adjoining; I gave him, at parting, a piece of their coin, about the value of a crown; he took it and smiled, and offered it me again; but when I refused it, he asked me 'What he should do with money?' I left him to overcome his modesty as he could; but a servant coming after me, saw him give it to a little girl that opened the church door, as she passed by him; which made me reflect upon the fantastic calculation of riches and poverty that is current in the world, by which a man that wants a million, is a prince; he that wants but a groat is a beggar; and this was a poor man that wanted nothing at all."

THE GATHERER

Nicknames.—John Magee, formerly the printer of the Dublin Evening Post, was full of shrewdness and eccentricity. Several prosecutions were instituted against him by the government, and many "keen encounters of the tongue" took place on these occasions between him and John Scott, Lord Clonmel, who was at the period Chief Justice of the King's Bench. In addressing the court in his own defence, Magee had occasion to allude to some public character, who was better known by a familiar designation. The official gravity of Clonmel was disturbed; and he, with bilious asperity reproved the printer, by saying,—"Mr. Magee, we allow no nicknames in this court." "Very well, John Scott," was the reply.

H.S.S.

A Village Hampden.—In the churchyard of one of the parishes of Walsall, Staffordshire, is the following epitaph on a person named Samuel Wilks, who appears, like other persons of his name, to have been a great stickler for the rights of the people:—"Reader, if thou art an inhabitant of the Foreign of Walsall, know that the dust beneath thy feet was imprisoned in thy cause, because he refused to incorporate the poor-rates of the Foreign of Walsall and those of the Borough of Walsall. His resistance was successful. Reader, the benefit is thine."

Difference between a Town and a Village.—The other night it was warmly contested in the Reform debate in the House of Commons, whether Bilston and Sedgeley, in Staffordshire, were towns or villages. Mr. Croker spoke of the "village of Bilston," and the "rural district of Sedgeley," but Sir John Wrottesley maintained that the right hon. gentleman would find nothing in Bilston that would give him any idea of sweet Auburn. "He would find a large market-town in the parish of Wolverhampton, filled not with trees and waving foliage, but with long chimneys and smoking steam-engines. The time was also beyond his memory when Sedgeley was a rural district. The right hon. gentleman would find there no mossy fountains, no bubbling brooks; the only thing at all like them which he could find there would be the torrents of boiling water which the steam-engines perpetually discharged."

Dutch Disgust.—You might seek through all London to find such a piece of furniture as a spitting-box. A Dutchman who was very uncomfortable for the want of one, declared, with great indignation, that an Englishman's only spitting-box was his stomach.

Awkward Honour.—A medical gentleman has written a letter to Sir Henry Halford on Cholera, in which he takes to himself the credit of being "the first to discover the disease, and communicate it to the public." The public is much obliged to him.—Globe.

Newspapers.—We wish Lieutenant Drummond would calculate the miles of newspaper columns which every club-haunter daily swallows, and the price he pays for the same to the proprietaries and the revenue.—Examiner.

Scandal.—The tell-tale trumpery and eaves-dropping with which the "Tour of a German Prince" is trickseyed out, reminds us of an observation by Lady Morgan: "Admit these fellows into your house, and the only return they will make you is to put you in their book."

Yorkshire Fun.—The assizes and the theatre always open together at York, and it is common to hear the Tykes say, "Eh, lad, ther'l be fun next week; t'pla'ctors is cuming, and t'men's to be hung all at t'syame time."– Atlas.

Ancient Drunkenness in London.—Andrews in his History of Great Britain, says, "In the 16th century drinking had its votaries in abundance. Much time was spent by the citizens of London at their numerous taverns." In the country, if a bitter writer of the time, (Stub's Anatomie of Abuse,) may find credit, every public-house was crowded from morn till night with determined drunkards. Camden, who also allows the increase of drunkenness among the English, imputes it to their familiarity with the Flemings in the Low Country wars.

The taverns of London were many and much frequented. An old bard has favoured us with a list of them in Newes from Bartholomew Fayre, a black letter poem, the title page of which is torn off, viz.

"There hath been great sale and utterance of wine,Besides beere, and ale, and ipocras fine,In every country, region, and nation,But chiefly in Billingsgate, at the Salutation;And the Bore's Head, near London Stone,The Swan at Dowgate, a taverne well known;The Mitre in Cheape; and then the Bull Head,And many like places that make noses red;Th' Bore's Head in Old Fish Street, Three Crowns in the Vintry,And now, of late, St. Martin's in the Sentree;The Windmill in Lothbury; the Ship at th' Exchange,King's Head in New Fish Street, where roysters do range;The Mermaid in Cornhill, Red Lion in the Strand,Three Tuns, Newgate Market; Old Fish Street, at the Swan."

The first drinking song that appeared in the English tongue is connected with Gammer Gurton's Needle, and was published in 1551.

P.T.W.

Governesses.—A lady wrote to her son, requesting him to look out for a lady, such as she described, and such as is ordinarily expected in a governess, that is to say, all accomplished, with the disposition of an angel. The gentleman wrote back that he had long been looking out for such a person, and that when he found her, he should not recommend her for a governess, but take her for a wife.—New Monthly Mag.

Counterfeit Kings.—In the infancy of the Roman Empire, we find a counterfeit Agrippa, after him a counterfeit Nero; and before them two counterfeit Alexanders, in Syria. But never was a nation so troubled with these mock kings as England; a counterfeit Richard II. being made in the time of Henry IV.; a counterfeit Mortimer in the time of Henry VI.; a counterfeit Duke of York; a counterfeit Earl of Warwick under Henry VII.; and a counterfeit Edward VI. under the reign of Queen Mary; and a counterfeit Protector, in Oliver Cromwell.

G.K.

Reading at Meals, &.—Lectores, among the Romans, were servants in great men's houses, who were employed in reading while their masters were at supper. They were called by the Greeks, Anagnostae. Acroama, was a name given by the Romans to amusing tales, which they recited at their repasts. The Emperor Severus read himself at table. Atticus never supped without reading. Charlemagne had the histories and acts of ancient kings read to him at table. This was a relic of the ancient Greeks, who had the praises of great men and heroes sung to them while at table. Celsus tells us, reading is bad, especially after supper, for those whose heads are weak; but he recommends reading with an audible voice, for such as have weak stomachs.

P.T.W.Epigrams from the French"On peut, en vous voyant, devenir infidèleMais c'est pour la dernière fois."Chaulieu."At sight of thee—each lover false might prove,But having seen—no other e'er could love.""Ce monde est plein de fous—et qui n'en veut pas voirDoit se renfermer seul, et casser son miroir.""With fools the world abounds—who would their presence shunMust break his mirror—or he'll there see one."T.R.P.

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1

Notes by Mr. Grose, the antiquarian, in Selections from Gentleman's Magazine, vol. i. In the Archaeologia. vol. vi. we find it stated that "Artillery (artillérie) is a French term signifying Archery, as the king's bowyer is in that language styled artillier du roy; and from that nation the English seem to have learnt at least the cross-bow archery."

2

Grose.

3

Grose.

4

Hist. England, by Sir James Mackintosh, vol. i.

5

Dated from Clarence-terrace, Regent's-park.

6

Vide Grose on Ancient Armour. D'Alembert, Encyclopedie. Art. Arbalette.

7

Maitland's London.

8

Much of the ill-treatment of the Cat has arisen from its being invariably the attendant of reputed Witches. (See page 174, of the present Sheet.) In later times the practice of such cruelties may be referred to the vituperations of naturalists: surely Buffon is among them. We are happy to see that our Correspondent, M.L.B. writes in the kindlier spirit towards the poor, persecuted Cat.—ED.M.