feeding on leaves from the tops of trees, and formed like a camel.*' In a very curious Spanish book, however, which describes an embassy from Henry III. of Castile, to Tamerlane the Great, in 1403, (being the second sent to Tamerlane, by the King of Castile,) there is a minute, and in many respects, accurate account of the giraffe.

"The ambassadors sent by the King of Castile, Henry III., to the great Tamerlane, arrived at a town called Hoy, now Khoy, on the confines of Armenia, where the Persian empire commences. At that town they fell in with an ambas sador, whom the Sultan of Babylon had sent to Tamerlane. He had with him fifteen camels, laden with presents, which the sultan sent to Tamerlane. Besides these, there were six ostriches, and an animal called jornufa, (giraffe,) which animal was formed in the following manner: -In body it was of the size of a horse, with the neck very long, and the forelegs much taller than the hinder ones; the hoof was cloven, like that of the ox. From the hoof of the fore-leg to the top of the shoulder it was sixteen hands (palmos); and from the shoulders to the head sixteen hands more; and when it raised its head SO high as to be a wonder to all. The neck was thin, like that of the stag; and so great was the disproportion of the length of the hinder-legs to that of the fore-legs, that one who was not acquainted with it would think it was sitting, although it was standing. It had the haunches slanting, like the buffalo, and a white belly. The skin was of a golden hue, and marked with large round white spots. In the lower part of his face, it resembled the deer; on the forehead it had a high and pointed prominence; very large and round eyes; and the ears like those of a horse; near the ears, two small round horns, the greater part covered with hair, resembling the horns of deer on their first appearance.

"Such was the length of the neck, and the animal raised its head so high when he chose, that he could eat with facility from the top of a lofty wall, and from the top of a high tree it could reach to eat the leaves, of which it devoured great quantities. So that altogether it was a marvellous sight to one who had never seen such an animal before.†""

C- says, "Those who first invented morning gowns and slippers, could have very little else to do. These things are very suitable to those who have had fortunes made for them by others; very suitable to those who have nothing to do, and who merely live for the purpose of assisting to consume the produce of the earth; but he who has bread to earn, or who means to be worthy of respect on account of his labours, has no business with morning gown and slippers. In short, be your business or calling what it may, dress at once for the day, and learn to do it as quickly as possible. A looking-glass is a piece of furniture a great deal worse than useless. Looking at the face will not alter its shape or its colour; and, perhaps, of all wasted time, none is so foolishly wasted as that which is employed in surveying one's own face. Nothing can be of little importance, if one be compelled to attend to it every day of your lives: if we shaved but once a year, or once a month, the execution of the thing would be hardly worth naming; but this is a piece of work that must be done once every day; and, as it may cost only about five minutes of time, and may be, and frequently is, made to cost thirty, or even fifty minutes ; and, as only fifteen minutes make about fifty-eighth part of the hours of our average daylight; this is a matter of real importance. I once heard Sir John Sinclair ask Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, whether he meant to have a son of his, (then a little boy,) taught Latin? No,' said Mr. Johnstone, but I mean to do something a great deal better for him.'-' What is that?" said Sir John. - Why," said the other, teach him to shave with cold water, and without a glass. Which, I dare say, he did; and for which benefit, I am sure, that son has had good reason to be grateful."

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THE NAMING OF SWORDS.

In former times it was a practice by no means uncommon to give names to swords. In the Orlando Furioso, b. 2, we find the following lines,

The sword Fusberta, rushing from on high, Pierc'd the tough plates; the sounding woods reply.

Jovosa is the name of Charlemagne's sword in Aspranonte. Chrysaor is the name of Arthegal's sword, in Spenser; Caliburn, of King Arthur's, in the romance of that name; Ascalon, of St. George's, in the Seven Champions; Franchera, of Agrican's, in Boyardo; and in Ariosto, besides Fusberta, we have Rogero's Balisarda, and Orlando's Durindana. In Spenser, Arthur's sword is called Mordure; his shield or banner, Pridwin; and his spear, Roan, by the Romance writers.

LAUREL.

The butchers of Geneva have a singular mode of preventing flies from attacking the meat in their shops. They rub the walls and boards upon which the meat is placed with the essential oil of laurel, the smell of which keeps away this troublesome insect. Lit. Gaz.

Customs of Various Countries.

RELIGIOUS FESTIVAL OBSERVED BY THE

MESSINESE.

The people of Messina are very devout, and being fond of religious ceremonies, the church festivals are productive of innumerable sacred processions, full of pageantry and pagan-like pomp. The most popular is the festival of the Assumption, the celebration of which has been, for some years, remitted from its usual period to the month of August, and it is now called the Festa del Barra, from the gorgeous machine of that name, which, like the car of Santa Rosalia, at Palerma, constitutes the most attractive part of the puppet.

It stands between forty and fifty feet high, embellished with angels, clouds, cherubims, and a variety of other objects, grouped up to tipify the assumption of the Virgin; all of which is surmounted by a blasphemous incorporation of the Almighty in the human form, holding forth a tawdrily decorated female figure, intended to represent the soul of the Virgin. The parts which form the centre, namely, a bright radiated sun, and blue globe, studded with golden stars, are kept in motion by revolving machinery, as the proces

sion moves along the streets; whilst, on the platform of the base, the apostles are personated by twelve Messinese children, surrounded by a choir chaunting hymns over the tomb of the Virgin. A band of music, with religious as well as military banners, precedes this holy pageant, accompanied by all the constituted authorities of the city, in full costume, followed by nearly the whole population of Messina. The celebration of this fete lasts three days, during which other public processions and exhibitions take place, commemorative of several auspicious events in the history of Messina, namely, the expulsion of the Saracens; the arrival of corn during an alarming period of famine, &c.

Anecdotiana.

CARDINAL ROHAN.

The Dauphin, father of Louis XVI., said of the Cardinal de Rohan,-" He is a respectable prelate, a very affable nobleman, and a well-made man."

BARGAINING.

A countryman in one of the Western States, with a load of meal, drove up to a lady's door, when the following brief conversation took place :-" Do you want to buy any meal?"-" What do you ask for a bushel?"--" Ten cents, ma'am, prime!"-Oh! I can get it for a pip."(In a despairing voice,) "Dear Lady! will you take a bushel for nothing?""Is it sifted?" American Paper.

HENRY V.

Lloyd, in his State Worthies, speaking of the hero of Azincour, says, "that he had a virtue of Cæsar in him that Alexander the Great wanted, and that was sobriety, he would not be overtaken in drink; and a virtue of Alexander that Cæsar wanted, and that was, he despised flatterers, and abominated liars."

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

An ignorant Judge, hearing a counsellor cite the Acts of the Apostles, asked

hin what these acts were? The coun

sellor answered-" They are acts which passed in the parliament of Jerusaleın.”

VOLTAIRE

Having lampooned a nobleman, was caned by him for his licentious wit, when on applying to the Duke of Orleans, then Regent, and begging him to do him justice, the Duke replied with a smile, "Sir, it has been done already."

Ellustrated Article.

THE METEMPSYCHOSIS.*

In the petty kingdom of Tse, under the sovereigns of the Chow dynasty, emperors

of China, lived a person named Urh-sunhwang, implying ear descendant (or traditionary issue) of the great Hwang, who flourished upwards of 2,000 years before, and was supposed to have been a descent, or avatar, as the Hindus call it, of Fuh he, the illustrious antediluvian ruler of

China.

Urh-sun-hwang possessed other claims to respeet besides those he derived from his pedigree: he was one of the most learned personages in the state where he lived. At the examination which he passed previous to taking office (for he was chief of one of the boards of government), he manifested such amazing acuteness, as well as power of memory, that the examiners were petrified with astonish ment, and it is reported that the great Kung-foo-tsze, who was then living, sent

Previous to my birth, my mother had seen, or had fancied she saw, three dragons enter her bedchamber, which, after performing sundry evolutions round her couch, placed themselves in an attitude of attention and watchfulness. This was repeated every subsequent night till the period of her delivery. To this incident I was indebted for my name, which was San-lung-sing, or three watchful dragons;" though my parents and comnions usually called me, for brevity's sake, Lung, corresponding with the name of the celebrated Athenian lawgiver, Draco, who fell a sacrifice to the affection and gratitude of his fellow-countrymen: an event which was never likely to happen

to me.

:

As I grew up, the philosophy of Kung, or Confucius, as he is named in European countries, was rapidly gaining ground. The basis of this philosophy is

is founded

upon the following theory; natural af

fection is supposed to be a certain, invariable, instinctive principle, implanted by nature, and residing ding in every breast, the effects of which, if the principle be properly developed, will reach the exact observance of the relative duties of parent and offspring: submission and respect on

the one hand, and control tempered with affection on the other. This principle, which nature, it was said, had sown in the hearts of families, and thereby origi nated a species of government, it was the design of the philosopher sopher to to carry car into state affairs; and by placing the ruler in the light of a parent, and considering his sub jects as his children, he hoped to introduce a intro reciprocal feeling in monarch and people, analogous to that which reigns in a well ordered family, which, not only presented a picture of real har happiness, but offered powerful means of mutual defence: for, as the She-king says, "an extensive kindred or family is, as it were, a walled city."

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Of the mysterious connexion between parents and children, the following anecdote is related amongst the Chinese; -a disciple and contemporary of Confucius, named Tsang-tsze (who is reported to have repudiated his wife because she gave

his mother a pear which was not boiled enough, and who is the author of the axiom, a man's body is the body of his parents descended to him ployed in the fields, when a friend called at his house. His mother, anxious for

him,") was once em

his return, bit her finger sharply; Tsang

tsze felt the pain, hastened home, and found that the sympathy between a dutiful son and an affectionate parent is so strong, that they are actually sensible sometimes of each other's bodily sufferings.

The new doctrine of the unbounded reverence owing to parents, and the analogous rous respect spec implicitly due to all placed in authority, who are thereby eby to be considered as standi standing in loco parentum, was very unpalatable to many individuals in our part of the empire, and especially to me, a wild, restless, high-spirited lad, the. object of both my parents' doting fond