176 Sketches of Manners.-Nuga Literaria. .* [VOL. 4 elate, yet perhaps more completely gul- whilst Lord Wronghead was posted in led, buyer, who was paying cent per the middle with his coachman at his cent for fashion, or half as much again elbow, nudging him occasionally, in for a pedigreed horse as he was worth, order to direct him how to bid for a and whose pedigree was, probably, pair of curricle horses. Some wellmade out only by the horse-dealer. dressed pickpockets, eagerly on the In the centre of the crowd, stood look-out, and a parcel of led horses idlers, loungers, gentlemen who had and servants, not to forget the dealer in nothing to do but to attend sales with- puffs, completed the assemblage. out purchasing, and to promenade the Others may take pleasure in such a parks without knowing or being known scene-others may call it killing an to any one. These were discernible hour to sojourn there during that peby the apathy of their unmoved fea- riod on a sale-day ;* but, I confess, tures. A little aside stood some par- that this lounge has no charms for me; liamentary characters, talking of the the price of horse-flesh does not exactly last night's debates. There two pup- interest me as much as the price of pies were conversing about their mis- provisions with relative considerations tresses. Just by the entrance was a for the benefit of the poor; and I feel band of gaudy Ruffians, canvassing on this subject somewhat similar to the merits of Smolensko; and without that polished and accomplished noblestood a knot of Exquisites, praising man, who, the day after he had been the beauties of Lady Mary. Near present at a fox-chase, being solicited the Knight of the Hammer were half a to go out again, coolly asked, "if gendozen Dragoons and some Life- tlemen ever went out hunting a second guardsmen, dressed half en bourgeois time?" half a la militaire, with a crooked Gambler and a buck Clergyman; THE HERMIT IN LONDON. Every Monday. GE ENIUS appears to be a gift, which, An author, who, in the preface of his to its possessor, is rather reputable work, endeavours to deprecate the seve-. than satisfactory. It is as accountable rity of criticism, by imploring the mercy as certain, that fancy heightens sen- of his readers, may not inaptly be comsibility, sensibility strengthens passion, pared to the soldier, who cries "quarter" and passion makes people humourists. on coming into the field. Poets seem to have fame in lieu of most temporal advantages; they are too little a formed for the business of the world to be respected, and too often feared and envied to be loved. On Joking. There are many persons who had rather receive a serious injury, than be the object of a joke. A characteristic bon-mot, is a kind of oral carricature, It is frequently at the expense of hap- copies of which are multiplied by every piness that the extraordinary success tongue that utters it; and it is much less due to sublime talents is obtained: injurious, or mortifying to be the object nature exhausted by the magnificent of a satirical poem, which is seldom read present of genius, often refuses to great more than once, and is often thought of men the qualities which might render no more, than to be hitched into a sarthem happy. How cruel is it then to castic couplet, or condensed into a stinggrant with so much difficulty, or so ing epithet, which may be equally treainvidiously to deny them that glory sured up by good humour, or ill-nature, which is perhaps the only enjoyment for the different purposes of mirth, or they are capable of tasting. resentment. Fun is a high horse, which VOL. 4.] Nuga Literaria-Milton and Tasso―Byron and Waller. 177 while it curvets and prances to frighten her face that she might not shock the the timorous, sometimes unintentionally spectators. throws its rider into the dirt. To be in the society of men of genius without deriving instructionțis almost as impossible, as to pass through an orange grove without imbibing its perfume! Mr. Southey in his Omniana has the following whimsical anecdote on the force of habit. An Emir had bought a left eye of a glass eye maker,supposing that he would be able to see with it. That man begged him to give it a little time; he could not expect that it would see all at once, as well as the right eye, which had been for so many years in the habit of it!-Custom, says somebody, is a great thing, I say it is every thing. Milton and Tasso. The masterpieces of these great poets Superstition of the Spaniards. are Paradise Lost and Jerusalem DelivIn the " Bibliotheque Royale," at ered; and it is somewhat remarkaParis, there are two folio volumes, the ble that their subsequent productions Academy of History, which treat of should exhibit an equal deficiency of nothing but the origin of the Spanish genius; as the Jerusalem Conquered of and Portuguese name for the glow- the Italians, is no more to be compared dedicated to God the Father, to the Jerusalem Delivered, than the God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; Paradise Regained of the British Bard to each of whom there is a separute is to his Paradise Lost. Lord Orford dedication! has somewhere observed that men of worm; Poets and Painters dangerous to disoblige. genius, at certain periods of their lives, seem to be in flower; surely then, the two poems above mentioned may not unaptly be compared to the blossoms of the American Aloe, which is supposed to put forth but once in a century! Etymology of the word Cocoa. It is dangerous to disoblige either a great poet, or painter. Virgil in his second book of the Georgics, had bestowed very high eulogiums on the fertile territory of Nole in Campania; but the inhabitants of that city,not choosing Coco is the Portuguese word for a to allow their waters to run through bug-bear; it was applied to the fruit, his lands, he erased Nole, and put Ora from the resemblance of an ugly face, in its place. Dante also placed his which may be traced at the stalk end. master Brunetto who had offended him Waller. in his "Inferno"-such is the vengeance Coincidence between Lord Byron and of poets! Michael Angelo constituted the Pope's master of the ceremonies Lord Byron in his English Bards, in Biggio, an imperative personage in Hell, allusion to the death of H. Kirke White, in his picture "the last Judgment!" by too intense application to study, Such is the vengeance of painters! Habit. Habit is the strongest governing principle of our actions; no theory is equal to practice. An actor who has been accustomed to perform the part of dying heroes on the stage, will expire himself with more dignity than the The bravest man in common life. famous actress, Mrs. Oldfield, in her last moments, ordered her maid to paint Y ATHENEUM. Vol. 4. says: 178 Original Observations, &c.-Manners and Customs in Manilla. [voL. 4 Origin of the term Gazette. of setting it at naught, for the sake of Renaudt, a physician, first published, love, or friendship, virtue, or honour; at Paris, a Gazette; so called from but those who are under the dominion gazetto, a small coin paid in Italy for of the former, are rendered absolutely the reading of manuscript news. The incapable of any one manly, generous, term news is ingeniously accounted for or disinterested idea or action. in an old epigram :Goodness of heart, generally an attendant upon genius. The word explains itself without the Muse; From North, East, West, South-the solution's made Each quarter gives accounts of war and trade. of self. Scaliger says, that the love of poetry is never joined to a feeble and disingenuous mind, but indicates goodness of heart as well as talents. Which probably gave rise to the following obThere is a vast difference between servation in Ben Jonson's dedication to self love and love of self. The first is Volpone; "If men will impartially, vanity or selfishness, so called in a and not asquint, look towards the mean sense of the expression-the offices and functions of a poet, they latter, that natural instinct implanted in will easy conclude to themselves the all creatures, named self-preservation; impossibility of any man's being a a person, though under the strongest great poet, without first being a good sense of this latter, may yet be capable man.' DR. CLARKE ABEL'S NARRATIVE. From the Literary Gazette, Sept. 1818. NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY IN THE INTERIOR OF CHINA, IN 1816, &c. BY CLARKE ABEL. London. Aug. 1818. HA AVING in our last condensed and examine the persons of the workers the occurrences and observations at the close of their labours. Thirty of the journey through China, in this women, for the most part elderly, and publication we shall at once transport thought particularly trust-worthy, seat our readers to Manilla on their return themselves, excepting one, round a cirhomeward. Here the Mulatto ladies cular landing-place, without the enare much addicted to smoking immense trance to the gallery. One only stands cigars, seven or eight inches long, and at the door of the gallery with a rattan an inch and a half in diameter. These in her hand, and allows thirty girls to rolls, though they fill their mouths, are enter, counting them off as they come in. seldom out of them; and when they When the thirty have passed, they go are fully lighted, and pouring forth vol- to their respective examiners, and havumes of smoke, their fair, or rather dark, smokers, resemble walking chimnies. ing freed their long black hair, hold it in their hands at arm's length; and then "The manufacture of cigars affords shake their handkerchiefs, and loosen employment to a great number of na- the other parts of their dress, and suffer tive women, and exhibits to the stran- the examiners to pass their hands over ger an interesting example of local cus- their bodies, to ascertain if any tobacco toms. It is carried on in a spacious be concealed close to their persons. In gallery of a square form. Upwards of this manner successive parties are searchtwo thousand females of all ages are ed, till all the girls have undergone the seated at low tables, at which they make examination. The examiners then rise, cigars by rolling the leaves of the tobac- and in the same way examine each othco plant on each other. The most er. The government monopolizes the scrupulous precaution is taken to pre- sale of tobacco." vent their smuggling it in any form. The execution of criminals in this Superintendants walk round the table part of the world is peculiar and frightand collect the cigars as they are made, ful:-" A frame-work,furnished with a VOL. 4] The Wild-Man of Borneo. number of iron collars, at the height of the hair is a bluish grey. 179 The eyelids The the neck of a man of ordinary stature, and margin of the mouth are of a light when sitting, is placed in the most pub- copper-colour. The inside of his hands lic square in the suburbs, having in its and feet are of a deep copper colour. front a number of stools of variable ele- Two copper-coloured stripes pass from vation, like the music stools of this the armpits down each side of the body country, to raise or depress the culprit, as low as the navel. When the unfortunate wretch is brought The head viewed in front is pearto the requisite height, the collar, al- shaped, expanding from the chin upways much too small, is put round his wards, the cranium being much the neck, and by a screw bebind is tightened larger end. The eyes are close togethwith sudden violence. The execution er, of an oval form, and dark brown usually takes place in the morning soon colour. The eyelids are fringed with after sun-rise, but the bodies are not lashes, and the lower ones are saccular removed till sun-set." and wrinkled. The nose is confluent As we have still a long and enter- with the face, except at the nostrils, taining extract to make from this vol- which are but little elevated: their openume, we shall now finish our remarks ings are narrow and oblique. with stating, that in its instructive ap- mouth is very projecting, and of a pendix it contains many papers of con- roundish mammillary form. Its opensiderable interest, meteorological tables, ing is large, but when closed is marked Chinese edicts, and descriptions of a by little more than a narrow seam. new genus and two new species of The lips are very narrow, and scarcely plants. The plates are ably executed perceptible when the mouth is shut. by Mr. Fielding from well-chosen sub- The chin projects less than the mouth; jects, and one of the most prominent of below it, a pendulous membrane gives them a Portrait of the very rare ORANG- the appearance of a double chin, and OUTANG, or Wild-Man, from Borneo, swells out when the animal is angry or brought to this country by Mr. Abel, much pleased. Each of the jaws conand of whose talents and exploits the tains twelve teeth, namely, four incisive following is that gentleman's account: teeth, the two middle ones of the upper jaw being twice the width of the lateral; two canine, and six double teeth. The ears are small, closely resemble the human ear, and have their lower margins in the same line with the external angles of the eyes. "From his heel to the crown of his head, he is two feet seven inches. The hair of the Orang-Outang is of a brownish red colour, and covers his back, his arms, legs, and outside of his hands and feet. On the back it is in some places six inches long, and on his The chest is wide compared with arms five. It is thinly scattered over the pelvis ; the belly is very protubethe back of his hands and feet, and is rant. The arms are long in proportion very short. It is directed downwards to the height of the animal, their span on the back, upper arm, and legs, and measuring full four feet seven inches upwards on the fore-arms. It is direct- and a half. The legs are short comed from behind forwards on the head, pared with the arms. and inwards on the inside of the thighs. The hands are long compared with The face has no hair except on its sides, their width, and with the buman hand. somewhat in the manner of whiskers, The fingers are small and tapering: the and a very thin beard. The middle of thumb is very short, scarcely reaching the breast and belly, were naked on his the first joint of the fore-finger. All the arrival in England, but has since be- fingers have very perfect nails, of a come hairy. The shoulders, elbows, blackish colour and oval form, and exand knees, have fewer hairs than other actly terminating with the extremities parts of the arms and legs. The palms of the fingers. The feet are long, reof the hands and feet are quite naked. semble hands in the palms, and in havThe prevailing colour of the ani- ing fingers rather than toes, but have mal's skin, when naked or seen through heels resembling the human. The great 180 Zoology of the Wild-Man of Borneo. [VOL. 4 toes are very short, are set on at right er, and having struck him with his angles to the feet close to the heel, and hand, throw himself from him. are entirely without nails. Whilst in Java, he lodged in a large The Orang-Outang of Borneo is tamarind-tree near my dwelling; and utterly incapable of walking in a per- formed a bed by intertwining the small fectly erect posture. He betrays this branches and covering them with leaves. in his whole exterior conformation, and During the day, he would lie with his never wilfully attempts to counteract its head projecting beyond his nest, watching tendency. whoever might pass under, and when he The Orang-Outang, on his arrival saw any one with fruit, would descend in Java from Batavia, was allowed to to obtain a share of it. He always rebe at liberty till within a day or two of tired for the night at sun-set, or sooner being put on board the Cæsar to be if he had been well fed; and rose with conveyed to England; and, whilst at the sun, and visited those from whom large, made no attempt to escape; but he habitually received food. became violent when put into a large On board ship he commonly slept railed bamboo cage for the purpose of at the mast-head, after wrapping himbeing conveyed from the island." self in a sail. In making his bed, he On board ship an attempt being used the greatest pains to remove every made to secure him by a chain tied to thing out of his way that might render a strong staple, he instantly unfastened the surface on which he intended to lie it, and ran off with the chain dragging uneven; and having satisfied himself behind; but finding himself embarras- with this part of his arrangement, spread sed by its length, he coiled it once or out the sail, and lying down upon it on twice, and threw it over his shoulder. his back, drew it over his body. SomeThis feat he often repeated, and when times I preoccupied his bed, and teased he found that it would not remain on him by refusing to give it up. On his shoulder, he took it into his mouth. these occasions he would endeavour to After several abortive attempts to puli the sail from under me or to force secure him more effectually, he was al- me from it, and would not rest till I lowed to wander freely about the ship, had resigned it. If it was large enough and soon became familiar with the sail- for both, he would quietly lie by my ors, and surpassed them in agility. side. If all the sails happened to be set, They often chased him about the rig- he would hunt about for some other ging, and gave him frequent opportuni- covering, and either steal one of the saities of displaying his adroitness in man- lor's jackets or shirts that happened to aging an escape. On first starting, he be drying, or empty a hammock of its would endeavour to outstrip his pursuers blankets. Off the Cape of Good Hope by mere speed, but when much pressed, he suffered much from a low temperaelude them by seizing a loose rope, and ture, especially early in the morning, swinging out of their reach. At other when he would descend from the mast, times he would patiently wait on the shuddering with cold,and running up to shrouds or at the mast-head till his pur- any one of his friends, climb into their suers almost touched him, and then sud- arms, and clasping them closely, derive denly lower himself to the deck by any warmth from their persons, screaming rope that was near him, or bound along violently at any attempt to remove him. the main-stay from one mast to the oth- His food inJava was chiefly fruit, eser, swinging by his hands, and moving pecially mangostans, of which he was them one over the other. The men excessively fond. He also sucked eggs would often shake the ropes by which with voracity, and often employed himhe clung with so much violence as to self in seeking them. On board ship make me fear his falling, but I soon his diet was of no definite kind. He found that the power of his muscles ate readily of all kinds of meat, and escould not be easily overcome. When pecially raw meat; was very fond of in a playful humour, he would often bread, but always preferred fruits when swing within arm's length of his pursu- he could obtain them. # |