service; they then come together in their temples, but those that cannot come, perform at home their religious service; there are also many who fast on such days.

Q. What festivals have they?

A. There are no fixed festivals, but any one may appoint a feast-day, and exerting all his power, withholding himself of all evil causes, and directing to that festival his thoughts, words, and works, he may, with a serious intention, worship his saviour Boodoo, by praying and fasting.

Q. In what manner do they perform their religious service in the temples?

A. Temples are called the lodgings of the priests; but in the temple of Boodoo, they perform their religious service in the manner following:

The priests are by turns obliged to clean the temples every day with brooms, and to keep them clean, and the religious fellow believers go three times every day: namely, in the forenoon, afternoon, and evening, even after sun-set, in order to worship there. In the forenoon from eight to eleven, dressed victuals, namely, rice, &c., and after sunset, flowers are offered, and the aitar and the images are perfumed with incense by the priests.

The victuals offered are eaten by the priests, and the servants of the temple, and the flowers offered are exchanged the following evening for other fresh ones. When the priests worship and offer, the people must remain out of the temple, but when the people do worship, one of the priests must remain within the temple, in order to give the following words of the prayer to the mouth of those who are not learned. "The help and salvation of Boodoo befall me, and thereto his doctrine, and his Rahatoens assist me:" having said those words, some make vows with their thoughts, words, and works, to commit no more sin intentionally, and further to keep the five commandments; namely,

1. To kill no men nor beasts
2. Not to steal,

3. To commit no adultery.
4. To tell no lies, and

5. To use no strong, or any other liquor. There are again others who undertake to observe eight commandments; namely, besides the aforesaid five:

1. To eat after noon no dressed victuals, or such as have been on the fire, but to subsist themselves upon the juice of fruits, with the exception of young cocoa-nut

water.

2. To attend no idle pleasure parties of dancing, playing, and singing.

3. To sleep upon no bed which is higher

than a cubit, (carpenter's measure,) from the ground: and there are some who make vows to observe two other commandments. 1. To smell no odoriferous flowers, herbs, &c., and,

2. To wear no sumptuous clothes, gold, silver, or precious stones whatever. But some make vows to observe ten millions of commandments.

Q. In what way do they perform their religious service?

A. In the temple. Drums and timtims are beaten in honour of the gods, in the morning and evening, and trumpets and horns are sounded; but in the month of July the great offering takes place, and in the month of November the temples are illuminated.

Q. Must they also do public penance for their sins; do they also know of holy water, or any other means to sanctify or purify themselves of sin, and to guard themselves against wicked spirits like the Bramins, who rub a sort of ashes upon the forehead, in order to sanctify themselves?

A. No; those outward ceremonies are by those of the persuasion of Boodoo considered as additional systems, and therefore rejected by them.

Q. Why have they such a respect for cows?

A. That the Singalese do not kill cows, or eat their flesh, is not on account of any respect which they have for those animals, but from gratitude for the many services which they render to them, and the great use which they have of the same in ploughing their fields, as well as on account of the milk, upon which they and their children subsist themselves. For these reasons, there is even a prohibition, as the Singalese learned authors say, of a certain king, against the killing of cows, and eating the flesh thereof. The good king, whose name is kept a secret, gave a general order to perform a magnificent illumination in honour of Boodoo, and to burn the lamps, not with oil, but with gey; whereupon his counsellors went to him, and told him that it was impossible to fulfil his order, unless he prohibited every one, by a mandate, the killing of cows in future. This the king immediately issued; not only because a great quantity of gey is required to light the illumination lamps, but also because the grease is useful for the food and subsistence of men; exclusive of the many services which those animals render to men in carrying all sorts of burden, as well as in ploughing and labouring their fields; and the sharpest menaces were further thrown out, that those who ate beef

should be reckoned amongst the tim-tim beaters; these being people of very low

cast.

Q. May any person kill himself; and is that no sin amongst the Singalese ?

A. Suicide is a more horrible crime amongst them than to deprive another of life. Q. Do the Candians know from their books what Adam and Eve signify, or have they heard it but from the Portuguese? Was the paradise on Ceylon? Did Adam Icave that footstep upon the place commonly called Adam's Peek, (or Adam's Hill)? Is the lake found upon the hill formed of the tears shed by Eve on account of her sins; are Adam and Eve represented by the images which are in the temple; and is that pagoda called Adam's Hill on that account? What images are those which are therein; and what idols are those that have the shape of women?

A. The footsteps to be seen at the place commonly called Adam's Peak, is of Gau. teme Boodoo, and the large images which are found either lying or sitting in the temple, represent in a true sense that of Boodoo alone; and by the images which are smaller the chief and inferior gods are represented; but those that have the shape of women, and are painted on the walls, represent queens, princesses, and other women of rank, of whom the learned authors speak much.

The other questions put heretofore are answered finally in the negative, upon this declaration, namely, that if there are such opinions, whence these questions could arise, they ought to be rejected; it being ungrounded according to the doctrine of Boodoo, to make one believe that the Singalese have any notion or knowledge of Adam and Eve, and that the paradise of the earth was in Ceylon.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE BUSHMEN OF THE ORANGE RIVER, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. BY LEWIS LESLIE, ESQ., ASSISTANT SURGEON OF THE 45TH REGIMENT. (From the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal.) THAN in the vicinity of Nurgariep, a military post, and along the Hornberg, purer examples of this extraordinary race are perhaps nowhere to be found; and whatever follows, as it regards only them, may differ from any account of other portions of the tribes along the African frontier.

Small in stature as the Hottentot race is, they are, in the quarter mentioned, less than any where else, seldom exceeding five feet, but of the most perfect symmetry; they are 2L. SERIES, NO. 1.-VOL. I.

active in their movements, but indolent in disposition; their colour is dark, but is rendered still darker by filth; their features are peculiarly forbidding, on account of the great distortion of the bones of the face; and the facial angle approaches considerably to that of the monkey.

The Bushman will seldom submit to coercion and restraint,-if he does, he becomes the Boor's most wretched menial, and perhaps is worse treated than any slave in the world. In a state of liberty, they dwell in kraals, under the authority of a chief, whose rank is among them hereditary. The number in one kraal seldem exceeds thirty-men, women, and children. Their dwellings are formed of mats, if in the plain, just large enough to creep into; but they often reside in a high and ridgy mountain, under some projecting ledge of rock, the approach to which is narrow and difficult. If attacked there, they seldom flee. They have no fear of death; and, if possessed of a more powerful weapon, might defy the attacks of the Boors, make them less frequent, and more fatal. Nothing but the privations they suffer would make any one of them submit to the cruelty of the farmers; and, living as they do on locusts, ants, and some farinaceous roots, there can be no better proof of the insufficiency of their tiny bow, and of the general inertness of their celebrated poison; yet they are themselves impressed with the conviction of its strength, and they have been able to impress their enemies with a dread of its effects, if not of its fatality. I have never been able to procure one well-authenticated relation of death produced by it in man. I have known some cases of horses and dogs dying from the insertion of the arrow into the leg; but some of them seem to die rather from the effect of violent inflammation in the limb, than from any specific power in the poison itself. In one instance of a dog, however, the animal became stupid and insensible in a few minutes, and died in twenty. Some colonists who have been wounded, assert that they are subject to periodical attacks of insanity, under certain states of atmospherical influence; but I believe this to be, like most of their tales, quite unworthy of credit.

The poison of the Bushman of the Hornberg is extracted from plants, and from plants only, so far as I have been able to learn. In that quarter, they use no mineral poison, nor the venom of snakes. Two specimens of plants used by them accompany this; the bulb is the species of Hamanthus; but never having seen the other plant in flower, I have been unable to learn its name. Its leaf exudes a milky juice, 145.-VOL. XIII.

F

and, cut up and bled, forms a tenacious extract, which is spread on the arrow, to some thickness. There is another plant which they use likewise, either alone or with the other two; which, together, forms the strongest they procure; its name is "mountain poison." Growing on the stony hills, and very rarely to be found, I have never got a specimen of it.

Their dexterity in the use of their bow is remarkable, and the distance they can shoot, with such a light arrow, is astonishing. They will throw the arrow upwards of a hundred yards, and with great correctness; but, as might be expected, it will seldom wound at such a distance; and I have known a cavalry cloak protect a soldier at twenty paces. The bow is not brought to the eye in shooting, They fix their eye upon the object, grasping the bow with the left hand, while the arrow passes through the fingers on the right side,—a mode of shooting I believe peculiar to them.

Their treatment of a wound made by a poisoned arrow is truly scientific. It is laid freely open, the poison cleaned out, and a horn applied in the manner of a cupping-glass, exhausted by suction at the small extremity. This, as far as I could learn, is the only treatment they adopt, never making use of any herb as a specific. The Boors consider gunpowder and urine as very efficient, and prescribe those in every arrowwound, and in every case of snake-bite. Cupping would seem to be the Bushmen's favourite treatment of every complaint accompanied with pain, and so frequent do they resort to this, that by the time they are full grown they appear scars all over.

The length of time a Bushnian can live without food is surprising, often living for three or four days without a mouthful; and the quantity they can devour after such abstinence is equally remarkable, one man having been known to eat an African sheep (thirty pounds) in a single night. When unable to procure food, a belt round the body is tightened as the craving increases, and they resort to the smoking of dakka (a species of chanvre or hemp), which produces intoxication. The narcotic effects of this plant no doubt produce much of that shrivelled appearance which is observable in all of any age. When possessing plenty of their dakka, they can smoke and sleep for several days and nights without eating.

A Bushman has no idea of the perpetua. tion of property; I might say, no notions of a prospective existence. He is wholly dependent on nature or on man: he will nei ther imitate the Caffre nor the Boor, will neither grow corn nor breed cattle.

The figures drawn by them on the rocks are often remarkable for the correctness of the outline; they hit the attitude of the animal, but seldom care about truth in the colouring: speaking phrenologically, they have the organ of form, but not of colour. I have never seen any animal resembling the unicorn among their paintings, but such an animal is said to exist beyond the Orange River. They are fond of music and dancing, but their musical instrument is rude, and without power or variety, consisting of one string stretched upon a bow, whose vibrations are produced by the breath, with great exertion.

The Bushman's conception of a Supreme Being is, that he is an evil deity; and their notion of futurity, that there will be an eternity of darkness, in which they will live for ever, and feed on grass alone. They imagine that the sun sends rain, and when he is clouded, they hold up burning wood, in token of disapprobation. They believe that the sun and moon will disappear, to produce the darkness they anticipate.

The Bushmen's bow is made of a peculiar tree, called the Blue Bush, whose branches are almost moulded by nature to the artificial form. The sinews of the quagga yield powerful bow-strings, and the arrow is formed of a slender reed, headed with antelope's horn, and pointed with a small triangular piece of metal, which they procure from the Caffres.

DUELLING.

WE were sitting in our library lately, ruminating, among many other bitter fancies, upon a late disastrous and fatal occurrence which has given so much pain and sorrow to many in Dublin, when we chanced to cast our eye upon Lord Bacon's celebrated charge against duels. As the evil is one which arises chiefly from paying more and higher regard to the law of man's opinion, than to the law of God's will, we thought it might not be unuseful to bring before the public eye, the recorded sentiments of one who has been celebrated as the wisest of mankind, upon the subject. Among barbarians, the custom of single combat may have been a step in the progress towards civilization; among civilized men it is certainly a remnant or vestigium of barbarism, which even human wisdom ought to be sufficient to see the necessity of eradicating. Lord Bacon condemns it thus:

66

Again, my Lords, it is a miserable effect, when young men, full of towardness and hope, such as the poets call 'aurora

filii,' sons of the morning, in whom the expectation and comfort of their friends consisteth, shall be cast away and destroyed in such a vain manner; but much more it is to be deplored, when so much noble and genteel blood should be spilt upon such follies, as, if it were adventured in the field in the service of the king and realm, were able to make the fortune of a day, and to change the fortune of a kingdom. So that your lordships see what a desperate evil this is; it troubleth peace, it defurnisheth war, it bringeth calamity upon private men, peril upon the state, and contempt upon the land.

"Touching the causes of it, the first motive, no doubt, is a false and erroneous imagination of honour and credit, and therefore the king doth most aptly and excellently call them bewitching duels; for, if we judge of it truly, it is no better than a sorcery that enchanteth the spirits of young men, that bear great minds with a false shew, species falsa,' and a kind of satanical illusion and apparition of honour, against religion, against law, against moral virtue, and against the precedents and examples of the best times and valiantest nations. But then the seed of this mischief being such, it is nourished by vain discourses, and green and unripe conceits, which nevertheless have so prevailed, as though a man were staid and sober minded, and a right believer, touching the vanity and unlawfulness of these duels, yet the stream of vulgar opinion is such, as it imposeth a necessity upon men of value to conform themselves, or else there is no living or looking upon men's faces; so that we have not to do in this case, so much with particular persons, as with unsound and depraved opinions, like the dominations and spirits of the air, which the Scripture speaketh of; hereunto may be added, that men have almost lost the true notion and understanding of fortitude and valour. For, fortitude distinguisheth of the grounds of quarrels, whether they be just, and not only so, but whether they be worthy, and setteth a better price upon men's lives, than to bestow them idly: nay, it is weakness and dis-esteem of a man's self, to put a man's life upon such light performances; a man's life is not to be trifled away, it is to be offered up and sacrificed to honourable services, public merits, good causes, and noble adventures. It is in expense of blood, as it is in expense of money; it is no liberality to make a profusion of money upon every vain occasion, nor any more is it fortitude to make effusion of blood, except the cause be of worth."

Mr. Joseph Hamilton, of Annandalecottage, near Dublin, has petitioned the king to consider the expediency of abolishing the practice of duelling, in the course of which he says, "The grievous extent to which duelling is and has been practised, can only be ascertained upon a due examination of recorded cases; that your petitioner can produce four modern newspapers in which twelve fatal meetings were announced; that before Captain Sandys shot Mr. Kerman in the side, he had already killed or wounded thirteen adversaries in as many combats; that Major Schallenged eight officers, and wounded four of them, upon a single day; and that George Robert Fitzgerald was introduced to the king of France, as an Irishman who had fought six-and-twenty fatal duels." He states too, "that an officer who collected the reports of one hundred and seventy-two cases, found sixty-three individuals were killed, and ninety-six were wounded; and that your petitioner has collected several thousand cases, in which the disastrous terminations bear an adequate proportion."

In the following lines, Cowper thus reprehends this brutal practice :

"Tis hard indeed if nothing will defend Mankind from quarrels, but their fatal end. Perhaps, at last, close scrutiny may show The practice dastardly, and mean, and low, That men engage in it compelled by force, And fear, not courage, is its proper source; The fear of tyrant custom, and the fear Lest fops should censure us, and fools should sneer. At least, to trample ou our Maker's laws, And hazard life, for any, or no cause, To rush into a fixed, eternal state, Out of the very flames of rage and hate, Or send another shivering to the bar, With all the guilt of such unnatural war, Whatever use may urge, or honour plead, On reason's verdict 'tis a madman's deed."

CHARACTER OF MAGNA CHARTA.

IT is observable that the language of this Great Charter is simple, brief, general withcut being abstract, and expressed in terms of authority, not of argument, yet commonly so reasonable as to carry with it the intrinsic evidence of its own fitness. It was understood by the simplest of the unlettered age for whom it was intended. It was remembered by them; and though they did not perceive the extensive consequences which might be derived from it, their feelings were, however unconsciously, exalted by its generality and grandeur.

It was a peculiar advantage that the consequences of its principles were, if we may so speak, only discovered gradually and slowly. It gave out on each occasion only as much of the spirit of liberty and reformation as the circumstances of succeeding generations required, and as their character

ever

Whoever, in any future age, or unborn nation, may admire the felicity of the expedient which converted the power of taxation into the shield of liberty, by which discretionary and secret imprisonment was rendered impracticable, and portions of the people were trained to exercise a larger share of judicial power than was allotted to them in any other civilized state, in such a manner as to secure, instead of endangering, public tranquillity;—whoever exults at the spectacle of enlightened and independent assemblies, who, under the eye of a well-informed nation, discuss and determine the laws and policy likely to make communities great and happy;whoever is capable of comprehending all the effects of such institutions, with all their possible improvements, upon the mind and genius of a people, is sacredly bound to speak with reverential gratitude of the authors of the Great Charter. To have produced it, to have preserved it, to have matured it, constitute the immortal claim of England on the esteem of mankind. Her Bacons and Shakspeares, her Miltons and Newtons, with all the truth which they have revealed, and all the generous virtue which they have inspired, are of inferior value when compared with the subjection of men and their rulers to the principles of justice; if, indeed, it be not more true that these mighty spirits could not have heen formed except under equal laws, nor roused to full activity without the influence of that spirit which the Great Charter breathed over their forefathers.-Lardner's Cyclopædia, vol. viii.

POETRY.

TIME.

Hast thou ne'er heard of Time's omnipotence;
For, or against, what wonders he can do!
A moment, and the world's blown up, to thee;
The sun is darkness, and the stars are dust.

Young.

METHINKS on yonder ivy tower,
I hear the deep-ton'd bell;
Old Time has pass'd the midnight hour,
And bid the year farewell.

I stand as bifaced Janus stood,
When Rome was in her prime;
And in a melancholy mood,
Behold the flight of Time.

Ah! where is now that golden age,
When Time was in the bud?

Or that, whose rapine, last, and rage
Were blanched in a flood.

Ah! where is David's, royal line?
And Levi's priestly seers?

And Salem's fane and golden shrines?
Lost in the tide of years!

Gone is the patriarchal age!

And the prophetic too;

And gone the seer, and gone the sage,
Like morning's early dew.

I view the wreck of nations past,
The column, fane, and tower;
Of empires in oblivion cast,
By Time's almighty power.
For nations flourish and decline,
As age succeeds to age;
The royal, the plebeian line,
Are hurried from life's stage.

Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and Rome,
By turns the earth controll'd;
But Time has swept them to the tomb,
And ages o'er them roll'd.

Marts, where the wealth of nations flow'd,
The princely merchants' pride,

And ports, where splendid galleys rode,
Are desolate and void.

Their zenith was a summer day,
Their bloom a flower brief:
They were-and quickly pass'd away
Like an autumnal leaf.

Ah! where is Sparta, where is Troy?
And where Achilles now?
And where that Macedonian boy
Who made the Persian bow?

And where the armies cas'd in gold,
By kingly captains led?

Where Mingled with the common mould,
And writ among the dead.

Time is the drama, earth the stage,
Where man the hero hops;
Each act is a succeeding age,
And death the curtain drops.

The shifting scene before my eyes
In vivid tints appears;

This nation wanes, while others rise,
Then sink in following years.

Priest, hero, druid, poet, sage,
Who ruled, bled, or writ,

The stars of many a former age,
Before my vision flit.

And cities too, with columns bigh,
And marble temples gay;

Where sculpture did with painting vie ;
But where, alas, are they?

Babel, Persepolis, and Tyre,
Like dreams have past away;

And Thebes, where Pindar strung the lyre.
Has moulder'd to decay.