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the spirit and the investigation of their author. The work (in lithography) is to be published occasionally, and, if we understand rightly, to be guided in this point by the contemporaneous appear ance of the novelists it revives on the Stage at Covent Garden.

THE WHITE-HAIRED SCOTAKS.

AMONGST the people who inhabit Hungary the Scotaks must be included, of whom geographers have till now made but little mention. The Scotaks live in seventy-five villages, in the district of Zemplin. They are of Sclavonic origin, and appear to be between the slaves, the Ruceniaks and the Polish; but differing from them in their dialect, manners and customs. The men and women have almost all white hair, it is very rare that an individual with black hair is seen. They generally live together in a patriarchal manner. The father gives the management of his house to one of his sons

whom he thinks most capable of that office, and the others respect his orders, even though he be the youngest in the family. Their principal employment i keeping sheep. They buy them every year in Transylvania and Moldavia; feed them during summer, and in the autumn sell them at the market of Hannussalva, or in Bohemia, Moravia, or Silicia. Many of them are waggoners, and carry wine and leather to Poland, Russia, Prussia, and Austria. A full-grown man very seldom gets on horseback to drive a carriage; this is confided to the boys in order not to overload the horses; white-headed childen who are scarcely taller than the sill of the saddle, are capable of managing six or eight horses. In these teams there is always a white horse, that the driver may see him better in the dark. The Scotaks very seldom unite themselves with other people or tribes; they preserve their own language and take care not to introduce foreign idioms.

Captain Parry is to commission the Hecla for another voyage to the North next season. He will, it is said, direct his course to Lancaster's Sound, and explore Prince Regent's Inlet.

ST. RONAN'S WELL.

Since this Novel by the author of Way. erly was announced we have looked into the statistical account of Scotland, for some information as to the locality of the scene, and thence the probable character of the story. Our research, however, has not been attended with much success, or certainly of tracing.

In the account of the parish of Barvas, in the island of Lewis, we find it stated, that

"Among other ruined Popish chapels or churches, is one dedicated to St. Mulray to which the people around pay still a great deal of superstitious veneration. It is 50 feet long by 24 broad, and 16 feet in the side walls- A little to the north of it stood Saint Ronan's, and close by it to the south stood a house built by one of the Macleods, once the proprietors of the island." same parish:-"The island of Rona, situate on the Northern Ocean, about 16 leagues from Eorapie,* or the butt of the Lewis (which is reckoned the furthest to the north-west of any in Europe) belongs to this parish," (viz. Barvas.) It is reckoned a mile in length and half a mile in breadth. There is a temple on it dedicated to St. Ronan. It is rented by one of the

A little farther on in the account of the

Ness Tacksmen at 41. sterling per annum, who regularly every season sends a large open boat, and brings from it some corn, butter and cheese, a few sheep, and sometimes a cow, besides some wild fowl and

feathers. There were once five families residing upon it, but now only one, employ.

ed by the tacksman as servants."

It is very evident that St. Ronan is particularly identified by this parish, from these two passages; but whether other parishes, possessing a well at least, might not lay claim to this saintship, we have not the means of determining. The little island of Rona is at such a distance (16 leagues) that it could scarcely be much frequented. -Perhaps the St. Ronan's in the first passage, was the seat of the Macleods, and near the church of St. Mulray, to which "superstitious veneration" is still paid, with the assistance of the novellist's fancy, may supply a well.

We have heard a tradition, that St. Ronan's Well was famous for the cure of persons bewitched or labouring under the influence of charms and evil spirits. A fine subject for a romantic story.

In the account of the parish of Northmaven (in the island called the Mainland) in the county of Orkney, we have a description of Rona's Hill, 3994 above the level of the sea, with a house on the highest eminence, constructed of four large stones, while two cover the top, under which 6 or 7 persons may sit. It is called the "watch

house.

* Oreby in the great map.

MINOR THEATRES.

At the Adelphi, the performance of Tom and Jerry continues nightly to attract the multitude, and the effects of such pieces have been dramatically imitated at the Surrey Theatre, at which the story of the late

atrocious murder of Mr. Weare has been represented. Thus the public might trace the evil from its first low poisoning of the mind-from merry mischief and slang associations-from rows and gamblings-to fraud, robbery, and assassination. But how disgraceful to a country to have such scenes dramatized! To have wretches lingering in prison, untried, awaiting with horrid anxiety their final doom, personified on the stage with brutal mimickry! We wonder that general indignation did not at once extinguish what the laws have been evoked to put down.

THE SPAEWIFE.

Mr. Galt's new novel, The Spacwife, is announced as nearly ready for publication. From the title, which is the familiar name in Scotland for a fortune-teller, we should be led to expect that much of the language is in the broad vernacular style which prevails too much in the earlier Novels of this author; but report states that this is not the case, and that it contains less of the ordi

nary Scotch dialect than any of his national Tales. The story is founded on a prediction mentioned in the histories of he

time relative to the assassination of King James I. of Scotland, and the leading characters are of course historical; but the Spaewife is said to be a creature of the author's fancy, formed upon the superstition of the dark period in which the transactions take place.

COAL GAS.

In consequence of an explosion of foul air in a coal-pit, called the Plain Pit, belonging to the Marquis of Londonderry, situate near Rainton, about five miles from Durham city, a number of unfortunate persona lost their lives. The accident took place in the morning about five o'clock. The number of persons employed in the pit at the time, from the best information, was between ninety and a hundred, of which number between fifty and sixty perished.

CHEMICAL DISCOVERY.

M. Dobereiner, professor of Chemistry in the University of Jena, gives an account of a discovery of the greatest importance. By a series of entirely new experiments, he has ascertained that platina, the heaviest of all elementary substances, when reduced into very fine particles, produces, by simple contact with hydrogen gas, (the lightest of elementary substances,) an electrical or dynamic combination, which, if brought into contact with hydrogen gas or with atmospheric air, instantly dissolves itself, yielding fire and water. To prove this important fact by a brilliant experiment, M. Dobereiner makes hydrogen pass from a reservoir, by a capillary tube, curved below,

upon pure platina in powder, which is contained in a glass tunnel, hern.etically sealed at the point, so that the gas mingles with the atmospheric air before it touches the platina. The moment that the current of gas reaches the surface of the platina, the powder of that metal becomes red and burning, and this phenomenon continues as long as the stream of gas is directed upon it. This fine discovery will open a new field for physical and chemical researches.

PHRENOLOGY.

A very interesting memoir was read to the Phrenological Society in Edinburgh, communicated by Dr. Patterson, of Calcutta, with a donation of twelve Hindoo skulls. In human heads, it was stated,which are not diseased, the size of the head indicates power of character. The Hindoo head is to the European as about two to three; or as the head of a boy of 15 to that wonder that 20,000 Europeans keep in subof a man of 30-the Phrenologist ceases to jection one hundred millions of Hindostan.

NATURAL HISTORY.

Sir Everard Home has recently made some interesting inquiries by way of comparison between the auricular organs of man and quadrupeds. The result of his researches seems to prove that shrill tones, or the upper notes of an instrument, have

comparatively little effect in exciting the attention of animals, whilst the full lower Sir Everard observes, that the effect of the tones stimulate them almost to a fury. high notes of the piano-forte upon the great lion in Exeter Change, only called his attention, which was considerable, though he

remained silent and motionless. But no sooner were the lower notes sounded, than he sprang up, lashed his tail and yelled violently, and endeavoured to break loose; and became altogether so furious as to alarm the spectators present. This violent excite

ment ceased with the discontinuance of the music. The deep tones of the French horn also produced a similar effect with the lower tones of the piano-forte on the elephant and other animals on which the experiment was made.

GAS FOR STEAM.

Sir Humphrey Davy has discovered that the application of a certain gas, fifteen times heavier than the atmosphere, to the mechanism of a steam engine, will produce a power fully equal to that which now reselts from the application of steam. The great obstacle which stands in the way of a general and immediate introduction into use of this gas is the difficulty of confining it. The task of constructing convenient vessels, sufficiently strong for that purpose, Sir Humphrey proposes as a problem, the solution of which must be attended with inestimable benefit to this country.

GOLD MINES.

Some fine and productive gold mines have been discovered in the Ural Mountains, and it is expected that the working of them will enrich the revenue of Russia.

Dr. Hickman, of Ludlow, has in his museum a pig, the anatomical structure of which is as extraordinary as it is unaccountable. The minute anatomy is not given; but the external appearances are one head, two eyes, four ears, eight legs, two tails. The internal structure, one tongue, and windpipe, one œsophagus and stomach; one heart, having four circulations, viz two aorte to supply the body, and two vessels to supply the lungs; two livers, four kidneys, two bladders, two spleens, and two sets of intestines. The body forms a division at right angles from the navel downwards.

VEGETATION IN ATMOSPHERES OF

DIFFERENT DENSITIES.

The following experiments have been made by Professor Dorbereiner of Jena. Two glass vessels were procured, each of the capacity of 320 cubic inches, two portions of barley were sown in portions of the same earth, and moistened in the same degree, and then placed one in each vessel. The air was now exhausted in one, till reduced to the pressure of 14 inches of mercury, and condensed in the other, until the pressure equalled 56 inches. Germination took place in both nearly at the same time, and the leaflets appeared of the same green tint; but at the end of fifteen days the following differences existed. The shoots in the rarefied air were six inches in length, and from nine to ten inches in the condensed air. The first were expanded and soft; the last rolled round the stem and solid. The first were wet on their surface, and es

pecially towards the extremities; the last were nearly dry. "I am disposed," says M. Dobereiner, "to believe that the diminution in the size of plants, as they rise into higher regions on mountains, depends more on the diminution of pressure than of heat. The phenomenon of drops of water on the leaves in the rarefied air, calls to my mind the relation of a young Englishman, who, whilst passing through Spanish America as a prisoner, remarked, that on the highest mountains of the country, the trees continually transpired a quantity of water, even in the dryest weather; the water falling

sometimes like rain."

A bricklayer employed in some repairs in the interior of Eastmen Church, by an accidental stroke of his trowel against the wall, displaced some of the plaster, when a painted head of extraordinary size was dis. closed to his view. On proceeding farther, he discovered the whole length figure of a giant, bearing on his shoulders a female, holding in one hand a ball resembling a globe, while the other was held up near her face. The giant held in his left hand a large staff, or what is more probable, a spear, part of which is defaced; a dragon was al. so at his feet. The whole is very well executed, particularly the drapery.

A fire was lately discovered in the lofty range of warehouses opposite to the King's,

Liverpool, and in 2 hours three warehouses were a heap of ruins. These buildings were the loftiest in the town, being no less than thirteen stories high. They were the property of Messrs. Thomas Booth and Co., and contained nearly 340,000 bushels of corn, principally foreign, under the King's lock, and valued at 60,000l.; besides a great quantity of cotton and other goods.

Two steam engines, of fifty-horse power each, are about to be erected for the drainage of Deeping and adjoining fens, to obviate the inconvenience felt from the present drainage mills when there is no wind. The engines are calculated to raise 7200 cubic feet of water per minute to the height of six feet; and it is supposed will cost altogether (including attendant expenses) nearly 20,000l.

NEW WORKS.

New Calliope, a collection of popular Masic.-Corfe Castle, or Keneswitha, 8vo, 12. -Hurstwood, a Tale of the year 1715,3 vols. 12mo. 16s. 6d.-Jones' Fall of Constantinople, a poem, 8vo. 8s. 6d.-Don Juan, Cantos 12 to 13. 8vo. 9s. 6d.-Poetry without Fiction, 18mo. 2s.-Burchell's Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, vol. 2, 4to, 4. 14s. 6d.-Shearman on Chronic Debility, 8vo. 7s.-Herwald de Wake, or the Two Apostates, 3 vol. 12mo, 18s.

WORKS IN THE PRESS.

tions contains the following among others Mr. Murray's list of forthcoming publicaof interest: The Book of the Church, by the Laureate; The Vespers of Palermo, a Tragedy by Mrs. Hemaus; Adventures of Hajji Baba; Sir John Fenn's Original Letters of the Times of Henry VI., &c. ; Letters from Caucasus; a second vol. of Rose's Orlando Furioso, &c. &c.

WASHINGTON IRVING is reported to have collected materials for a very interesting work during his recent Tour in Germany.

The Novel of "The Highlanders," so long announced by the Author of the " Her mit in London,"&c. may shortly be expected,

PIERCE EGAN, author of "Life in London," in employed on a new Work, enti tled "The Life of an Actor," to be published in Monthly Numbers with, Plates.

SHOLTO PERCY, one of the Benedictine Brothers, to whom the public are indebted for so much amusement in the shape of "Anecdotes," has in preparation a series of original Sketches of Men and Manners, under the title of "Life's Progress;" which are to be illustrated by Engravings by Cruikshank. We understand that No. 1. will appear early in the ensuing year.

Mr.Wright aReporter of the Morning Her ald, has in the press a Selection of 100 of bis Reports during the last three years, illustrated with numerous wood cuts by George Cruikshank.

The prospectus of a new Quarterly Review, to be called the Westminster Review has been put forth, the first number to ap pear in Jan. It disclaims party politics.

SPIRIT

OF THE

ENGLISH MAGAZINES.

BOSTON, MARCH 1, 1824.

(Europ. Mag.)

MARY GRAY.

A TALE FOR HALLOW EVE.

"But Merran sat behint their backs,

Her thoughts on Andrew Bell;

She lea'es them gashin at their cracks,

And slips out by hersel;

She thro' the yard the nearest taks

An' to the kiln she goes then,

An' darklins grapit for the baulks

And in the blue clue throws then,

Right fear't that night."

Burn's Halloween.

'TWAS Hallow Eve when round the hearth
A gay and youthful party sat,

And passed the time in social mirth,
And merry tales and friendly chat.

Each customary trick and charm

They tried to cheat the fleeting night,
And free from guilt nor fearing harm,
The hours flew by in gay delight.

The fairest of the maidens there

Was Mary, William's destin'd bride;
Beauty had moulded her with care,

And every winning grace supplied.

How fondly on her lovely face

William, enraptur'd, fix'd his gaze ·
What bliss his future path to trace
With her along life's sunny ways.
Oh wherefore Hope dost thou supply
Thy magic tints to future views,
When Fate has fix'd her deadly eye,
And wrapp'd them in her darkest hues!
And now the witching hour of night
From the old church was heard to toll;
A signal for the prison'd spright

To break away from earth's control.
Just then was heard a hollow blast,
Mix'd with a raven's boding cry;
The startled party look'd aghast,

And terror fix'd each youthful eye.

The blast grew loud and louder still,

While hoarsely rush'd the neighb'ring stream,

The casement shook, and, high and shrill,

Thrice was the raven heard to scream.

But when the breast with bliss is fraught,
When Hope illuminates the eye,

32 ATHENEUM VOL. 14.

The heart admits no gloomy thought,
The eye can see no danger nigh.
And so it was with Mary Gray,
Who mock'd her young companions all,
As thus they sat in mute dismay
To hear the raven's boding call.
"I wonder," cried her lover, then,
"Since Mary seems to mock us so,
To the old kiln above the glen,

I wonder would she dare to go;
And, casting in the dark abyss

A worsted ball, hold fast the end, And, waiting till 'tis held-say this, Who holds my ball-a foe or friend?" "This spell is not"-gay Mary said, "For me, your destin'd bride, to prove ; "Tis meant for some unplighted maid, Who'd wish to know her future love :" And then she turn'd her laughing eye To where two maidens sat apart"Here's Jane and Bessey, both may try, To angle for some simple heart. But let them heed who pulls below,

And answers to their timid call,
For on this witching night we know
There's one abroad, the foe of all.
Who knows," she added in a tone
Of mystery affected well-
"Who knows but 'twas the evil one

That made just now that fearful yell. 'Tis certain that he must be nigh,

For look! how bluely burns the light; Heav'n shield us all, good folks, say 1, We're met upon an awful night." And awfully her head she shook, And glanc'd mysterious round the room, Then laugh'd outright, as ev'ry look About her wore a deeper gloom. But William still pursu'd his jest, And, bent on frolic, thus exclaim'd, "I've put her courage to the test, And only see how soon 'tis tam'd. She hopes by thus awaking dread In others to conceal her own; And sooner would she lose her head Than venture out to night alone. Bless us! how quick her little heart

Would pant at ev'ry sound she'd hear;
And then-how fearfully she'd start,
Should any living thing appear.
She'd surely faint in sudden fright
If in her way an ass should be,
And certainly she'd die outright
My grandmother's white calf to see."
With rising heat then Mary cried,
"It is not that I fear to go,

And stand upon the old kiln's side,
To cast into the depth below

A worsted ball-if I were free,

Your challenge should not be in vain;

But," and she paus'd-"your wish may be,
That we should both be free again.

If so," (she added with a tear,

Which with a smile she strove to hide)

"I'll find a bridegroom, never fear,

As soon as you will get a bride."

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