ing were put an end to, and every one crowded round to see the famous pie made. that he could scarcely begin an imi tation before a number of voices called out Gaditano! Gallego! or what ever might be the province, the man His last feat was one which certainly would not have been permitted a year or two before in a country so bigoted, or indeed in any country under Spanish controul. Having taken a table-cloth, he dressed himself like a priest, and assuming the most ludicrous gravity of countenance, went through a part of the ceremony of high mass, to the infinite delight of the company, who shook the house with peals of laughter. The curate was no where to be seen during this exhibition, which he could not, I suppose, have permitted to go on, although indeed every thing serious seemed banished for the time. The Biscayan first indicated by signs that a large dish was to be sup-ners of which he was representing. ported before him, in which he pretended to place a number of ingredients, naming each as he affected to put it into his pie. These ingredients consisted principally of his friends, some of whom he inserted in whole; of others merely some ridiculous quality, or characteristic peculiarity; and as he chose only such persons as were present, the laugh went round against each in his turn. His satire was sometimes very severe, especially against the ladies; and at length he pretended, after a long and witty preface, to cut up the curate, who was sitting opposite, and thrust him into the dish, to the unspeakable delight of the company. No one enjoyed the laugh more than the worthy curate himself. But the Biscayan was too judicious to risk tiring his audience with any more of the pie after this last happy sally; so catching up a guitar, an instrument always at hand wherever Spanish is spoken, and casting his eye round the company, he addressed an ap-most closely allied. To satisfy mypropriate extempore verse to each self on this point, I entered into of the principal guests; then jump- conversation with several of the most ing off the table, on which he had boisterous; but they were now so seated himself to play the guitar, perfectly quiet and sedate, that it he set about imitating the manner of was difficult to believe they were the walking and speaking of five or six same individuals who, but a few midifferent provinces of Spain. This nutes before, had been apparently so mimicry, though lost upon us, ap- completely tipsy. peared to be so accurately done, Immediately after this joke the noise ceased, the party broke up, and every one went off to his siesta with a composure and steadiness which shewed that the greater part of the preceding riot was the effect of choice, not of intoxication, to which certainly in appearance it was SUPERSTITIONS OF THE PEASANTRY OF WESTPHALIA. THE peasants of Westphalia ascribe supernatural influence to the cross. It expels evil spirits, and thwarts the malicious designs of witches against cattle. They never cut a loaf till they have crossed the surface of it with the knife. Many an indolent female subsists by dispensing blessings and charms. | averted. Though this silly practice The method of charming a complaint has been prohibited by the govern is as follows: After rubbing the ail- ment, it still takes place here and ing member of the patient, they there. breathe upon it crosswise, at the same time taking the name of God in vain, apply salt and rye-flour, or some kind of salve, to the affected part, pronouncing a certain form of words, in which the disorder is warned to depart. Though this trade is forbidden by edicts, especially in Prussian Westphalia, it is still carried on by great numbers. It is very pernicious to men and cattle when a person who sees them for the first time, praises them without adding the words, "God bless them!" Many persons have such a malignant eye, that by merely looking at men and cattle, they unknowingly bring them into great danger of their lives. The peasants of Wesphalia are so thoroughly convinced, that there are persons who, by muttering certain formulæ, are able to stop a horse in full speed, to silence a vigilant dog, to prevent fire from spreading, to stanch blood, and to do many other wonderful things, that nothing can persuade them to the contrary. In some Catholic provinces, the farmer obtains and takes some consecrated wine, or a consecrated wafer, as a remedy for diseases among his cattle. Many a housewife hangs her husband's small-clothes or cap on the horns of an ailing cow, for the purpose of curing the animal. A few years since, in Prussian Westphalia, a countryman, if it was foretold that any misfortune should befal him, caused prayers to be of fered in the church, that it might be In some of the provinces, for instance, in the county of Ravensperg, many believe, that they can recover stolen goods, if they fill a bag with the earth on which the thief stood when committing the depredation, and beat it with a stick twice or three times a day, till the dust flies out The thief is supposed to be sympathetically affected with excessive pains, so that he must either give up his plunder, or die without retrieve. To ascertain whether a person will die in the current year, the coun try folk in some places, about midsummer, pluck some St. John's wort before sunrise in the morning, and hide it in the walls in various parts of the house. The bunches which immediately droop announce with certainty the speedy death of those who placed them there; but if the herb remains fresh and green, then the person who deposited it will not die during that year. Single drops of blood issuing from the nose announce the speedy death of a near relation. When horses drawing a corpse happen to meet with any obstruction, another of the family will soon die. If a clergyman makes a mistake in naming a child, or changes for instance the Low German into the High German name, the child is sure to be sickly. If a pregnant woman stands godmother to a child, either that or her own unborn infant will die young. If a bride turns pale during the marriage ceremony, it is the sign of a death that will soon happen. Young females knock on Christ mas-eve at the hen-house. If a hen first cackles, they relinquish all hope of being married during the ensuing year; but if a cock crows, the fulfilment of their wishes is at hand. Even in the present century almanacs were printed in Westphalia, in which the good or ill fortune of children were determined by the months in which they were born. ing weeks. The animals which announce rain are the cuckoo, the swallow, the cock, and fish. The notion of lucky and unlucky days is almost universal. On Mon day no business of importance is com menced. Servants do not go to place; neither do parents send their children for the first time to school; nor are weddings or betrothals held on that day. Thursday also is considered as an unlucky day. Friday is the luckiest day for marrying, and Tuesday for servants entering on their service. Wheat sown on Sunday is sure to be mildewed. In short, there is no end to the superstitions There are certain days on which, in the opinion of these people, the state of the weather for some time depends. Thus, if it rains on the festival of St. Ægidius (Sept. 1.), on Midsummer-day, and especially on the following Sunday; and on the Visitation of the Virgin Mary (July 2), || of this kind. there will be rain for the four ensu ANECDOTES, &c. HISTORICAL, LITERARY, AND PERSONAL. A TRAVELLER'S TALE. MR. TALBOT, in his " Five Years' Residence in Canada," just published, relates a story which savours a little of that licence that travellers are said to be in the habit of assuming. "In the spring of 1821," says he, an intimate acquaintance of mine was one day fishing on the Canadian Thames, accompanied by his son, a young man about twenty-two years of age. Observing an uncommonly large sturgeon sailing up the river, the son immediately pierced it, with his spear, and retaining a firm hold of his weapon, was dragged into the water. For some time he floated on the stream, behind the sturgeon, by the aid of his instrument; but at length becoming weary of this mode of proceeding, like another Aristus, he got astride of the fish, and converting his spear into a bridle-rein, rode him for nearly a mile down the river, which is in that part broad, deep, irregular, and rapid; when the unfortunate animal, unable to exert himself, on account of the loss of blood, yielded up his life to the prowess of his rider." SAGACITY OF A DOG, The correspondent who favoured us with the anecdotes of the dog in a preceding page of this Number, may add the following to his collection: In the beginning of August last, a notary of Bourbon-Vendée in France was returning home from a neighbouring town on horseback, and followed by his dog. In passing a ford, with which he was well acquainted, his horse took it into his head to lie down in the water, and the action was so sudden, that the rider had not time to withdraw his feet from the stirrups: he was therefore kept under water, and must soon look like one-look squaw in the face -see him smile-which is all one he says Yes!-so he take him home no danger he be cross! no, no! Squaw know too well what Indian do, take another. Squaw love to eat meat-no husband no meat. Squaw do every thing to please husbandhe do the same to please squaw live happy!" have perished. The dog, aware of his master's danger, swam to the opposite shore, and there placing himself on his hind legs, set up the most piercing howls, which he continued without intermission, till two labour-if he cross!-throw him away, and ers, at work in the fields, heard this distressing appeal. They hastened to the spot, on which the dog ceased his cries, and running before, guided them to the scene of his master's sufferings. The success of the faithful animal was complete. The notary was taken from the water, and conveyed to a neighbouring house, where, by the use of proper reme-lished at Paris, mentions the French dies, he was restored to animation, and finally to health. INDIAN COURTSHIP. VALUE OF TIME. Madame de Genlis, in a work on the employment of time, lately pub Chancellor d'Aguesseau, as one of those men who turned every minute of this short life to the best account, and relates the following curious An aged Indian, who had for many anecdote of him: "Finding that his years spent much of his time among wife always delayed ten or twelve the white people both in Pennsylva- | minutes before she came down to nia and New Jersey, one day about dinner, he resolved to employ this the year 1770, observed that the In- interval exclusively in composing a dians had not only a much easier work. The result was, at the end way of getting a wife than the whites, of fifteen years, a book in three large but were also more certain of getting quarto volumes, which has gone. a good one: "For," said he in his through several editions, and is held broken English, "white man court in high estimation." || -court-may be one whole yearmay be two years before he marry! Well! may be then got very good wife-but may be not-may be very cross!-Well now, suppose cross! scold so soon as get awake in the morning! scold all day! scold until sleep!-all one-he must keep him [Pronouns in the Indian language have no feminine gender.] White people have law forbidding throwing away wife, be he ever so cross! must keep him always! Well! how does Indian do?-Indian, when he sees industrious squaw which he like, he go to him, place his two fore-fingers close aside each other, make two TREATMENT OF SLAVES IN THE UNITED STATES. Mr. Hodgson, a recent traveller in the United States, and who manifests in general a strong partiality for the Americans, draws a horrid picture of the outrages practised on slaves in that boasted land of liberty. "The other day," says that writer, "I passed a plantation, whose owner, a few months before, had shot one of his slaves; and I conversed with a young planter, I think not twenty-two years old, whose general manners bespoke mildness, About twelve o'clock at night he fell asleep. The slaves seized his gun, shot him, and burned him to ashes on the fires which he was compelling them to make at midnight of the wood they were employed in clearing. The case was so glaring, and the planter's cruelty so notorious, that the matter was hushed up as well as it could be, and the slaves were not punished: though, while at Charlestown, I saw an account of a young Negro-woman being burnt to death in South Carolina the week before, for murdering her master. An ac staying at the time at an inn in the neighbourhood, from which many of the company went to see the horrid spectacle. rather than the contrary, who had also shot a slave within a year. The offence in both cases was stated to be running away, and no notice whatever was taken of either of the murders. A friend of mine, who has resided here some time, told me, that calling one morning on a respectable planter, a man of eminently humane and amiable manners, he was surprised to see him sitting in his verandah, with his gun in his hand, earnestly watching a slave in his court, who was looking up at him with great emotion, as if meditating an escape. By and by the over-quaintance of mine told me he was looker came, and took the slave away. My friend turned to the planter, and asked him what was the matter. He replied, While I was at breakfast, that Negro came and delivered himself up, telling me, that he had run | away from my plantation to avoid a threatened flogging; but that as he had returned voluntarily, he hoped I would intercede with the overseer, and get him excused. I told him I seldom interfered with the overseer, but would send and inquire into the circumstances. I sent for him; but the Negro, in the mean time, apprehending the result, looked as if he would dart off into the woods. I ördered my gun, and if he had attempted to stir, I should have been obliged to shoot him dead; for there is no other way of enforcing obedience and subordination.' "A very short time since, a wealthy planter tried to work his slaves half the night as well as the whole day. They remonstrated with the overseer, and became refractory, on which the planter undertook to controul them. He took his seat on the trunk of a tree, with his gun in his hand, I "On so serious a subject as this am particularly guarded in mentioning nothing for which I have not unquestionable authority. The following fact rests on the evidence of my own senses: At a dinner-party of five or six gentlemen, I heard one of the guests, who is reputed a respectable planter, say, in the course of conversation, that he shot at one of his slaves last year with intent to kill him for running away: that, on another occasion, finding that two runaway slaves had taken refuge on his plantation, he invited some of his friends out of town to dinner and a frolic: that after dinner they went out to hunt the slaves, and hearing a rustling in the reeds or canes in which they believed them to be concealed, they all fired at their game, but unfortunately missed. Does not your blood curdle? Yet he did not appear to be sensible that he was telling any thing extraordinary, nor to understand the silence of astonish to shoot the first who should shrink.ment and horror!" |
