[Superstition in the Philippines.] N the Philippine Islands it appears they had one principal god, called by the Tagalians, Barhalamay-capal; that is, the god-maker. They adored birds and beasts, like the Egyptians; and the sun and moon, like the Assyrians. There was not a rock, stone, promontory or river but what they sacrificed to; nor any old tree to which they did not pay divine honours, and it was looked upon as a sacrilege to cut it down on any account whatsoever. This superstition continues among them still; so that

no force could prevail with the Indians to make them cut down a certain great old tree, called Bolette, whose leaves are like those of a chesnut tree, and its bark good for some wounds, nor some ancient tall canes, vainly believing the souls of their ancestors dwell in them, and that the cutting of those trees or canes would put them into a fever; and that therefore an old man they call Nuno would appear to complain of their cruelty. This is to be understood of such as are not Christians, or not well instructed. This vain belief continues among them, because sometimes they fancy they see several apparitions, called Tibalong, on the tops of the trees; and they are fully persuaded that the same appear to children in the shape of their mothers, and carry them to the mountains without doing them any harm. They say they see them vastly tall, with long hair, little feet, long wings,

and their bodies painted, and that their coming is known by the smell.

"They also adored some particular gods, left them by their ancestors, and called by the Bisayans, Davata, by the Tagalians, Anito. One of these was believed to keep in the mountains and fields, to assist travellers; another to make the seed sprout up, and they left him things in certain places to gain favour. There was also a sea Anito for the fishery, and another belonging to the house, to take care of the children. Among these Anitos, were placed their grandfathers, and great grandfathers; whom they called upon in all their troubles; keeping little ugly statues of stone, wood, gold, called Liche, or Laravan. They also acand ivory, in memory of them, which they counted among their gods, all those that died by the sword, or were killed by lightning, or eaten by crocodiles, believing their souls ascended to heaven, by way of an arch they called Balangao. For this reason, the eldest among them choose to be buried in some remarkable place on the montories that run into the sea, that they mountains, and particularly on the proCARERI. might be adored by sailors." — GEMELLI

[Attestation of the Lieutenant of the Bailiff of Mantes and Meulont, of the expenses incurred in the execution of a Sow that had devoured a Child.]

"To all those to whom these letters shall come, Simon de Baudemont, Lieutenant, at

Meulont, of the noble Monsieur Jhean, Lord of Maintenon, knight, chamberlain of our lord the king, and his bailiff of Mantes and Meulont, greeting: Be it known, that in order to execute justice on a sow that devoured a child, it has been found necessary to incur the expenses herein aftermentioned that is to say, for expenses within the gaol, 6 sols. Item, to the executioner, who came from Paris, to Meulont, to put the sentence in execution, by the command of our said lord the bailiff, and of the king's attorney, 54 sols. Item, for the carriage that conveyed her to execution, 6 sols. Item, for ropes to tie and haul her up, 2 sols 8 deniers. Item, for gloves, 12 deniers amounting in the whole to 69 sols 8 deniers; and the above we certify to be true, by these presents, sealed with our seal, and in confirmation and approbation of the above, sealed also with the seal of the Castellany of Meulont, this 15th day of March, in the year 1403." Simon de Beaudemont. -Journal de Troye et de la Champagne Meridionale.

607

[Belief of the Modern Athenians that the

ancient Statues are real Bodies.] "THE Common Athenians believe that the ancient statues are real bodies, mutilated and enchanted into their present state of petrifaction by magicians, who will have power over them as long as the Turks are masters of Greece. The spirit within them is called an Arabian, and is not unfrequently heard to moan and bewail its condition. Some Greeks in our time, conveying a chest from Athens to Piræus, containing part of the Elgin marbles, threw it down, and could not for some time be prevailed upon to touch it again, affirming they heard the Arabian crying out, and groaning for his fellow spirits detained in bondage in the Acropolis. It is to be added that the Athenians consider the condition of these enchanted marbles will be bettered by a removal from the country of the tyrant Turks." -HOBHOUSE'S Travels, p. 348.

[The Old Camel.]

MACGILL mentions an old camel whom he saw near a hut passing the evening of her days in plenty and tranquillity; "for it is a humane principle of the Turks," he adds, "that an old servant ought never to be deserted when age or sickness has disabled him from being any farther useful. Here she lay basking in the sun's rays beside a fountain, or browsing in the shade, while the children of the village playing around her were taught by their parents to be grateful for past services, and to respect and venerate old age.”—Vol. 1, p. 144.

[The Broadside and the Bantam Cock]

"In the famous victory of the 12th April, a little Bantam Cock perched himself upon the poop of Rodney's ship, and at every broadside that was poured into the Ville de Paris, clapt his wings and crew. Rod

[Evil from Failure of the Wheat Crop.] "THE great magnitude of our consumption, as compared with former periods, must render the pressure of any deficiency more severe, and the means of providing against it more difficult and more costly. A harvest which should be one third below an average in wheat, would bring upon this country a very different degree of suffering, and would require a very different degree of exertion and sacrifice to supply the deficiency, from what would have been required under a similar failure fifty years ago."-Report of the Agricultural Com

mittee.

[Inflammatory Causes.]

"THOUGH the beginnings of great fires are often discovered," says SIR WM. Temple, "and thereby others easily prevented with care, yet some may be thrown in from engines far off and out of sight; others may fall from Heaven: and 'tis hard to determine whether some constellations of celestial bodies, or inflammations of air from meteors or comets, may not have a powerful effect upon the minds as well as bodies of men, upon the distempers and diseases of both, and thereby upon heats and humours of vulgar minds, and the commotions and seditions of a people who happen to be most subjected to their influence. In such

[Derivation of Medoc.]

In his prolegomena concerning S. Aidanus, sive Edanus, Edanus, Aidus, Edus, Eda; alio nomine Maidoc, Maedoc, Moedoc, Modoc, Madog, Moeg (to which aliases Madoc and Madog may certes be added) BOLLAND tells us, upon the authority of Colgan, the Irish antiquarian and Hagiologist, that all these names have the same meaning, being in fact one: Nam diminutivorum nominum, (quod huc facit) duplex apud veteres Scotos est nota, an et oc. Si ergo nomini Aid sive Ed (quod ferè Gallorum aut Germanorum Eudo, Udo, Otto respondet) an addideris, Aidan, sive Edan efficies. Si vero oc, præfixâ litterâ à (quæ sic propriis nominibus addita, meum sonat, atque amorem reverentiamque indicat, quod et in Gallicis ac Teutonicis vocabulis propriis, et sæpius appellativis, observare licet) erit Maidoc sive Modoc, aut Medoc.”—Acta Sanctorum, Jan. t. 2, p. 1111.

[Death from the Effects of Joy.]

"AFTER our arrivall at Santa Helena I Edmund Barker went on shore with foure or five Peguins, or men of Pegu, which we had taken, and our Surgion, where in an house by the Chappell I found an Englishman, one John Segor of Burie in Suffolke, who was left there eighteene monthes before by Abraham Kendall, who put in there with the Roiall Marchant, and left him there to refresh him on the Land, being otherwise like to have perished on shipboard: and at our coming we found him as fresh in colour and in as good plight of body, to our seem

ing, as might be, but crazed in minde and half out of his wits, as afterward we perceived for whether he were put in fright of us, not knowing at first what we were, whether friends or foes, or of sudden joy when he understood we were his old consorts and countrymen, hee became idleheaded, and for eight days space, neither night nor day, took any naturall rest, and so at length died for lack of sleep.”—HAKLUYT, vol. 2, part 2, p. 108.

[Catapulta at the last Siege of Gibraltar.]

609

pillage becoming continually more familiar to them because they have nothing to lose; and seeing in the disorders of anarchy and the subversion of social institutions nothing but the silence of the law, and impunity for crimes."-KASTHOFER'S Travels in the Lesser Cantons of Switzerland. From an extract in the Standard, 27th July, 1827.

[The Tholsel at Dublin.]

THERE is a building in Dublin called the Tholsel, i. e. Toll-Stall-being the place where the toll-gatherers formerly sat to re

to city duties. This is probably the origin of the word Tolsey; the corruption is very easy-Toll-stall, Tollstle, Tollsel-Tollsey.

[Increased Danger of Pauperism.] "It is certain that the State, or the parish, ought to provide for old age, not having any resources, for the infirm and necessitous, and for young orphans; and this will never be contested where humanity has not lost all its rights. It is, however, difficult to decide whether taxes which are applied to relieve all sorts of paupers are consistent with justice and equity; particularly if it is considered that the progressive advantages of industry are never of a nature to balance the progress of population and poverty, even supposing that these advantages were exclusively dedicated to these latter. The mass of paupers among several nations of Europe is prodigiously increasing, and will at length render the situation of the landowners dangerous, where they are surrounded by a population destitute of all civility and virtue, jealous of the prosperity of the rich, the idea of

[The Lake of Buchcinoe.]

"THE lake of Buchcinoe, according to the testimony of the inhabitants, is endued with miraculous powers; it sometimes assumed a greenish hue; in our days it has appeared to be tinged with red, not universally, but as if blood flowed partially through certain veins and small channels. Moreover it is sometimes seen by inhabitants covered and adorned with buildings, pastures, gardens, orchards. In winter, when it is frozen over, and the surface of the water is converted into a shell of ice, it emits an horrible sound resembling the moans of many animals collected together, but this perhaps may be occasioned by the sudden bursting of the shell and the gradual ebullition of the air through imperceptible channels."-HOARE's Giraldus, vol. 1, p. 39.

[Informers against Christians punished.]

"INFORMERS against the Christians were at one time punished, though Christianity was at the same time regarded as treason." See EUSEBIUS, 1. 5, c. 20. Probably this law came from one of the Antonines.

R R

610

[Sugar of the Canaries.]

IF THEVET'S authority may be taken, the best sugar, and the greatest supply of it, at this time came from the Canaries. The Greek islands used to supply it, but when they fell under the yoke of the Turks, every thing was soon neglected."-Frana Antarctique, ff. 9.

[Short-lives the Result of hot-bed Culture.]

HAKEWILL says that "the Highlanders and the wild Irish commonly live longer than those of softer education, a nice and tender bringing up being no doubt a great enemy to longevity, as also the first feeding and nourishing of the infant with the milke of a strange dug; an unnaturall curiosity having taught all women but the beggar to finde out nurses which necessity only ought to commend unto them. Whereunto may be added, hasty marriages in tender yeares, wherein nature being but yet greene and growing, we rent from her and replant her branches, while herselfe hath not yet any roote sufficient to maintaine her owne top, and such halfe-ripe seedes, for the most part, wither in the bud and waxe old even in their infancy. But above all things the pressing of nature with over-weighty burdens, and when we finde her strength defective, the helpe of strong waters, hot spices and provoking sauces, is it which impaires our health and shortens our life."P. 169.

[Mandive Juice made to resemble Soy.] THE juice of the mandive is also so prepared as to resemble soy.-PINCKARD, vol. 2, p. 257.

[The Cataract of Yervenkyle.] "WE had been extremely anxious to see a cataract in winter, and that of Yervenkyle did not disappoint our expectations.

"It is formed by the river Kyso, which, issuing from a lake of the same name, precipitates itself through some steep and rugged rocks, and falls, so far as I can guess, from a height of about seventy yards. The water dashing from rock to rock, boils and foams till it reaches the bottom, where it pursues a more tranquil course, and, after making a large circuit, loses itself again between mountainous banks, which are covered with fir trees. That we might have a more commanding view of the picture, we took our station on a high ground, from which we had a distant prospect of a large tract of country of a varied surface, and almost covered with woods of firs, the pleasing verdure of which, acquiring additional lustre from the solar rays, formed an agreeable contrast with the snow and masses of ice hanging from the margin over the cascade.

"The fall presented us with one of those appearances which we much desired to see, as being peculiar to the regions of the north, and which are never to be met with in Italy. The water, throwing itself amidst enormous masses of ice, which here and there have the aspect of gloomy vaults, fringed with curious crystallizations, and the cold being of such rigour as almost to freeze the agitated waves and vapours in the air, had formed gradually two bridges of ice across the cascade, of such solidity and strength, that men passed over them in perfect security. The waves raging and foaming below with a vast noise, were in a state of such violent motion, as to spout water now and then on the top of the bridge; a circumstance which rendered its surface so exceedingly slippery, that the peasants hands and knees."- ACERBI. were obliged to pass it creeping on their

[Block and transparent Ice.]

"HITHERTO the ice, being covered with snow of a dirty surface, and far from showing the smallest transparency, made us for