heard he was to be disappointed, than he left the parish, in order that he might not stand in the way of a 'harmonious settlement' for the presentee. Taking his pronged staff in his hand, he set out on foot for Newcastle, and there undertook the duty of assistantpreacher in a presbyterian chapel. The publication of his book in 1793 recommended him to the attention of the benevolent patriot, Sir John Sinclair, as one who could give material assistance in the compilation of that remarkable work, the Statistical Account of Scotland. He was one of the three talented young men whom Sir John for some time employed as his assistants in this task, each of whom, as we have heard from one of them, received a hundred a year of salary. In the case of certain parishes, where, from the senility of the minister or other causes, an account was not furnished, David Ure supplied the deficiency. He also prepared the indices for the work. While thus toiling under the eye of good Sir John, he became favourably known to the Earl of Buchan, who, with all his childish vanity, was not without some generous impulses. The parish of Uphall, in his lordship's patronage, becoming vacant in 1796, David Ure was selected for the charge, thus at length attaining the summit of his professional ambition, and being placed in comfort for life. Sad, however, to tell, he had not enjoyed his preferment above two years, when he was cut off by dropsy. The first delineator of Scottish fossils lies in Uphall church-yard, under a stone which his friend the Earl of Buchan raised and inscribed as follows: 'D. Ure, A.M., in hac ecclesiâ rite repositus, morbo acerbo Hydrop. diu vexat. animam denique reflavit, et Deo reddidit, die Martii xxvIII., A.D. MDCCXCVIII., et hic sepult. fuit. H. M. David, Buchania Comes, in test. amic., I.T. F.C. Pulvis et umbra Sumus.'* BUSINESS IN EGYPT. HAVING business to transact with the nazir or director of the customs at Alexandria, relative to a ship which had to be cleared out that day, the captain and myself, one hot morning in August, bestrode our respective donkeys, and cantered away towards the sea-side, where the custom-house is situated. Not a breath of air was stirring, whilst the sand and the houses reflected the most intense heat; even donkey-boys had deserted their positions; and rabid-looking, half-starved dogs dug up unseemly smells from dirt-heaps-so abundant in Egypt-in search of some sheltered and cooler retreat. Galloping through the Turkish street, or main thoroughfare, which leads to the Mahmoudiah Canal, we turned abruptly to the left, and entered a dirty little alley, barely two yards wide. Here, however, we were protected from the sun; but, at best, it was a sad alternative; for other evils existed, which threatened cholera in lieu of a coup de soleil. The streets, in fact, were a general sewer, whence arose a pestilential vapour. Children in cool attire puddled by the side of these cesspools, making mud-cakes, and wholly unconscious of any inconvenience from swarms of flies on all parts of the face and body. Imagine, too, an occasional half-putrid cat, the skeleton of a dog or two, scores of rats killed during the night, and thrown out by ancient duennas; some rinds of watermelons, and half-starved poultry earning a filthy liveli The principal facts of this memoir are obtained from an article signed J. Headrick, in the Scots Magazine for December 1808. Mr Headrick, if we mistake not, was one of the three assistants of Sir John Sinclair, and author of the Report on the Island of Arran. Edin., 1807. hood; and, huddling all these together, you shall have a perfect and unexaggerated picture of the by-streets of Alexandria in this present year of grace. Through these streets, the captain and I scampered as fast as our donkeys and the pathway would admit of; now and then we emerged into little open squares, where stood extemporaneous coffee-houses, formed of long poles stuck in the earth, and covered over with mats and old canvas sails; where, further, the atmosphere was darkened with flies, allured by the fruits and sweetmeats exposed for sale by some half-dozen liberated negroes; and indolent old fellows lolled on wooden benches, smoking, playing at backgammon, and sipping hot coffee or glasses of cold sherbet. Now we came into a narrow tortuous street, full of heavily laden donkeys, water-carriers, and Egyptian damsels doing up each other's hair, and investigating horrible secrets, as they proceeded. The last turning was the worst of all; for we had to pass through an ordinary-sized street-door into an equally circumscribed passage-a short-cut, and provided with a well besides, which made the crowd the denser. At last we got out, and emerged upon the open beach. Immediately to our left was the cumbrous old building we were in search of; but to get at the entrance-gate without suffering bodily injury, was no easy matter. The whole space, from the landing-jetty right up to the walls of the custom-house, was literally crammed with goods, carts, donkeys, porters, boatmen, mules, merchants, horses, and one or two European carriages belonging to the officials. Now and then a long string of gawky camels would come picking their way over bale-goods and bars of iron, and, amidst the babel that reigned around, some sudden gust of wind would lift up a cloud of sea-sand, nearly blinding the unwary, and effectually stopping for a while the hooting, screaming, and swearing, of the busy multitude here assembled. stead, sat two officers of excise, black as Egypt's sun In a hut, about the size of a common turn-up bedcould make them, and as open to bribery as any officers of excise in the world. Handing these a piaster or two, and recommending our donkeys to their care, we prepared for the assault. No Redan ever presented more obstacles than we here found, in bales piled loosely one above the other, with intervening gaps filled up with iron bars, broken hoops, baskets of rice, and all imaginable odds and ends. Sometimes, just as we had scaled a perfect mountain of cotton, the upper bale would topple over, and send us floundering amongst broken zembils (straw bags) of rice. But it was not only these impediments we had to contend against; boatmen, crouching like spiders on the look-out for unwary prey, would dart out from behind a pile of Manchester goods, and insist upon hurrying us off to vessels in the harbour; donkey-boys were equally desirous of securing our custom; and, besides these, cient to crush any ordinary beings, and which imparted were atlases of porters, tottering under weights suffisuch momentum to their movements, that it was physically impossible to stop one of them, until he had jerked the burden off his back, or some accidental encounter threw man and weight violently to the ground. There were, moreover, a large class of idlers (hamals), who worked exclusively within the building, and who, guessing the purport of our visit, undertook, less than the twinkling of an eye, for the usual to a man, to see the ship cleared out in something buckshish. The captain engaged one of these porters to pilot us through the bewildering maze and confusion around; and the first place he took us to was a long narrow room, to the right hand of the chief entrance-gate; CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL. on the very threshold of which despair seized upon though for approbation, stroking down his beard the us at sight of the vast number of applicants and while, and uttering over and over again: 'Adjibee!' expectants standing about. In the room itself there that is, wonderful! incredible! the idea of such a After half-an-hour's absence, the messenger returned was nothing to give one an idea of pressing business ruffian bearding us in our own den! and excitement. Staffer Allah! God forbid! that any one should seem hot and hurried in these burning with the paper in his hand, and the information that climes. There's a time for everything,' was the motto the turgiman was nowhere to be found; upon which of the head-clerk in this department; a worthy old the custom-house clerk coolly informed us that the Armenian, with a pinched-up face and meagre person captain had better call again next day: no, not next A time for everything,' as he quietly displaced day, for that was Sunday, but on Monday morning. his huge spectacles from off his very prominent nose, The turgiman would be warned to attend, and such a for the better enjoyment of a good pinch of snuff trifling delay would give the captain an opportunity -the only earthly enjoyment he ever indulged in; of amusing himself by going into the country to shum then, having methodically pulled out and opened an il Howah-that is, literally, smell the wind, or for enormous pocket handkerchief, he violently applied change of air. Moreover, he suggested that by that it to its use; and folding it up as leisurely, replaced time a fair wind would set in, and everything would go it in a capacious pocket; drawing out thence, the on comfortably and pleasantly. Satisfied in his own better to make room for it, a tobacco-pouch, half-a-mind at the result he had arrived at, the Armenian dozen rusty old keys, a dirty bit of dried cream-cheese, filled his pipe, and was in the very act of lighting it, which was to serve for his lunch, a rosary and cross, when he and the rest of the officials were perfectly and a pocket tooth-comb-the latter being used exclu- electrified by what they at first considered a sudden Sarkies Oyln fit of lunacy on the part of the English skipper. No sively for the dressing of his beard. sooner had this bluff, honest-hearted fellow been put Iwas more innocent of hair on his head than a newborn babe-of which we had proof, for the heat of the in possession of the intentions of the custom-house, than weather induced him to lay even his skull-cap aside. starting up into the middle of the room, and flinging We stated our business in a few words to this his straw-hat violently on the floor, he approached functionary, handing him at the same time the requi- the terrified officials, one arm akimbo, and shaking site certificate from the ship's brokers, as to the precise the hand of the other in a most alarming manner. amount of grain shipped. The Armenian took the paper, and, being ignorant of European characters, sent it by a trusty hand to some learned turgiman (interpreter), who lived hard by, requesting that he would translate and write down in Turkish the sumtotal of the figures. This done, he begged us to be seated, and opening a musty old desk in front of him, drew out some bread, a couple of cucumbers, a paper of mixed salt and pepper, an onion, and a small piece of garlic. These, with the cheese already alluded to, constituted his mid-day meal; and yet this man was reputed to be worth some thousands of pounds sterling. While waiting the return of the messenger, we had ample opportunity of surveying the apartment and its other inmates. Save the door of entrance, there was not even a pigeon-hole window or other inlet for light and outlet for nauseous gases. A low divan ran round three sides of the room, and on it were seated, at intervals of a yard, some eight or ten minor officials, all of whom had vast heaps of papers and piles of books on their respective desks; all were sitting cross-legged, and not one was paying the slightest attention to the business of the day. Some played at backgammon, others were shuffling dirty packs of cards, while the remainder were either smoking, eating, or relating anecdotes sotto voce. Every now and then, some enraged Jew-broker, whose patience was fairly worn out, would jostle his way into the room, and beg to be informed whether his business was to be settled that day or not. 'Shuay, shuay, ya Ebni!' drawled out the Armenian, with his most nasal twang; 'gently, gently, my son. Do you take us for asses, or the sons of cows, that you come here to heap dirt upon our beards? Is not the sun hot to-day, and the want of wind oppressive? Mashallah! look Do you suppose we are giants? here,' taking up an armful of papers-'did Solomon ever have so much difficult reckoning, or Job so many trials of temper to contend against? Mashallah!'— growing more vehement and loud-'one would think the pasha-may Allah widen his shadow!-was your uncle or your grandfather, you make so much noise. Haidey, get out of this, and wait till we send for you, unless you wish an ass to sit on your father's grave;' and then the old fellow would wind up with a tirade of abuse, the minor fry joining in chorus, till the discomfited Jew beat a hasty retreat, and the Armenian, sticking on his spectacles, looked over them at us, as 'Look 'ee here,' roared the captain, as though he were hailing a man half a mile away, by the piper that played before Moses, you'll not smoke again in this world until my vessel's cleared out and done with.' Whereupon he snatched the pipe from the terrified nazir, and flung it to the opposite side of the room. Then ensued a scene that baffles description. The spectators were convulsed with laughter, the officials wavering between wrath and excessive fear. 'What does he say ?-what does he mean?' tremblingly inquired the Armenian. After the captain's menace was duly interpreted, an appeal was proposed at the opposite to the great man of the establishment-the Bey Effendi, whose apartments were extremity of the edifice. Thither we litigants accordingly repaired, followed by a clamorous rabble; some of whom sided with the authorities, whilst by far the greater portion, from selfish motives, upheld our cause. On arriving at the bey's room, a servant gave us to understand that his master could not then be disa decided turbed, being engaged in his noonday devotions. The captain was for forcing an entrance, whereat the natives immediately set him down as lunatic. After a short parley, the Armenian was at length convinced that, if we stated the amount of ment tallied with his own account, there could not be grain shipped, in Arabic, and if he found our stateany great danger of his compromising either himself or his employers. Unwillingly, and threatening dire retribution for the insult offered him, he led the way back to his own office; and there, after handing us back our document, produced his own shippingbook, where, in characters strangely resembling the imprints of a spider's feet, he had day by day entered the shippers' names and the amount shipped. We stated our estimate of the sum-total at so many ardebs of wheat. Then was the mathematical genius of the whole posse of clerks called into requisition to accomplish the necessary addition. The vessel had been ten days loading, and had received so many boats, each containing so many ardebs per diem. The boat's notes, and the permits to ship, guaranteed this fact, so that it was next to impossible that an error could exist. Nevertheless, it occupied these learned pundits a full hour of groaning and calculation before the required result was obtained. At last three of them, amidst the murmured plaudits of the Arab idlers hanging about the door, accomplished the feat, and then it was satisfactorily ascertained that the reckonings tallied to a measure. Then, and only then, did our Armenian friend recover his dignity and composure, when, pulling out a scrap of paper not more than two inches square, he cocked up one knee, which served as a writing-desk, and reed-pen in hand, wrote off leisurely and quietly the few necessary words of the certificate: this done, he sprinkled it carefully with fine sea-sand; and then the certificate was passed from hand to hand, to make sure that no error existed in the ciphering. Satisfied on this point, the nazir divested himself of his khatem (ring of office); dipping the forefinger of his right hand into his inkhorn, he smeared the seal over; and then first wetting the paper with his tongue, struck the impression, and handed us the document, without which no consul is justified in clearing out a vessel, and no vessel can, under any pretence, obtain a pilot to guide her out of the harbour. But our work was not yet finished; the Bey Effendi had to countersign this passport; and although he had long since finished his prayers, he was then indulging in his afternoon siesta-having first threatened to flay his slave alive if he dared permit any one to interrupt the nap. Our friend the captain, however, made noise enough outside the door to awaken even the seven sleepers; so, after much ineffectual resistance, the bey himself came to the door, inkhorn in hand, and there and then affixed the necessary signet, telling the captain, as he handed him back the paper, that he prayed Allah never to let him hear his voice again in that building; so the captain strolled over to the harbour-master's, and, paying the requisite fee, soon got the necessary clearance, and was far out at sea by sundown. Had he not violently resisted, he might have lost a whole week or more, and perhaps have missed the opportunity of making a good passage home. But such thoughts never trouble an oriental; with him, to-day or to-morrow is all one-to go or not to go amounts to the same thing. If it is destined by Allah to happen, it will happen; and if not, it is worse than useless troubling one's self about the matter. It is the same all over the Turkish possessions in Syria, Egypt, Asia Minor, or Turkey in Europe; nothing can exceed the annoying and vexatious ignorance and obstinacy of the eastern people. Sometimes whole cargoes of furniture and crockeryware were imported for the use of private families residing in the East; and these were at once warehoused in the custom-house until the vessel that brought them had finished discharging the whole cargo. Meanwhile, other ships also were disgorging goods of all descriptions, and as there was no method-no system adopted in the warehouses-the result may be more readily conceived than described. Boxes of fragile goods were recklessly bundled into the most convenient corner, and piled over with heavy iron machinery or equally heavy packages of furniture; so that the hapless proprietors, after weeks of fatiguing and fruitless search, ultimately deciphered their private marks or addresses upon some dust-besmeared portions of dealboard, carefully crushed, and containing the pulverised remains of a once costly set of China. It was no easy matter to impress upon these Egyptians the size or description of the goods one chanced to be in search of. Like all orientals, after listening to the first few words of explanation, they would jump to immediate conclusions, and disappearing in the chaos, return with some box or parcel as different from that you were in search of as the light of day from the darkness of their own minds. All musical instruments, for instance, are recognised under the term nobee (Arabic, music). A lady was once in search of a semi-grand piano which had been swallowed up by the custom-house some three months prior to her arrival from England; as soon as the Arab hamal heard the word 'nobee,' he paid not the slightest attention to the rest of the description which indicated its great size and exceeding weight, &c.; he at once mentally plunged into the dark recesses of his memory, and fished up these facts, which, in his own opinion, were highly satisfactory-namely, that nobee meant a musical instrument, and must consequently be either a drum or a fiddle, a guitar, fife, or psaltery. These comprised the width and length of his acquaintance with musical instruments; so he at once clambered out of sight, and after a tedious absence, returned in high glee for his expected reward. He had brought with him a traveller's leather hat-box, under the firm conviction that it contained a small drum! I shall never forget the rage of the customs' people at Beyrout, when one immensely heavy deal-case, the property of a learned German naturalist, fell into their clutches, and was forced open, despite the frantic explanations, promises, threats, and gesticulations of the travelled savant. The more fuss the doctor made, the more the officials were convinced that they were about to have a splendid haul of smuggled silks and other costly goods. A large mob had collected round the place, and the suspense and curiosity were intense. Presently the lid yielded, and the first thing that met their astonished gaze was a lot of saw-dust, with a camel's skull carefully packed in the centre. This, however, was supposed to be a mere blind; empty baskets were produced, and the naturalist, to his great discomfort, saw the packing, which had cost him so much care and labour, shovelled up and thrown into old baskets, with little respect to the fragile contents. No sooner had the skull been removed than they came upon a small stuffed alligator, then a few specimens of fish, some petrified olives and other matter, and lastly, they disinterred a whole row of large well-stoppered glass bottles. This, then, must be the treasure-must contain costly pearls or scammony, or some taxable drug. The head of the custom-house, who had been personally attracted to the spot by the rumour reaching him of the apprehension of a noted smuggler, now took upon himself the duty of investigation, as much from intense curiosity as from a suspicion of his not overhonest confrères, who might slip anything very costly unperceived into their capacious sleeves. The first bottle he hauled out he held up to the light, and very nearly dropped with a combination of emotions difficult to conceive-it contained a large snake in the act of swallowing a frog, carefully preserved in spirits. The next bottle contained a scorpion; the third, some lizards; the fourth, centipedes; the fifth, bats; and so on, until every bottle had been displaced. Then there arose a shout of laughter, mingled with exclamations of unfeigned surprise. The custom-house officers were completely nonplussed; the nazir himself, a very superstitious man, terribly alarmed. He set down the doctor immediately as some evil-disposed person who could wither up the health-springs of one's blood at a single glance. Calling away his people, he hurried off to his office, murmuring verses of the Koran; and not a soul amongst the natives would lend a hand in helping the doctor to repack his much-valued collection. What a human being could want with such abominable things was an unsolvable enigma to the whole town and neighbourhood. I know of only one parallel incident to the foregoing, which inflicted a terrible shock not only upon the authorities, but upon the whole population of a province in European Turkey. The case was this. An eccentric Polish physician, who had been travelling in the East, was returning into his own country, and undergoing the term of his quarantine at, if I remember right, Orsova. When the authorities came to examine and purify his luggage, they found, amongst other things, a very small phial, carefully corked and sealed, packed in a small box, and stowed away at the very bottom of his portmanteau. On inquiring what the contents were, judge of the horror and consternation of the officials on being very coolly informed that it was matter from the pustules of a plague-infected patient in Egypt, which the doctor was carrying to his own country to experimentalise with in inoculation. Strange as this may seem, it is nevertheless a fact; and I believe the Turks were for some time undecided as to the propriety of burying the doctor alive in the same deep pit full of quicklime in which his plaguematerials were carefully deposited. A WORD FROM NUMBER THREE. You see there's myself and two more on us as clubs for takin' in Chambers's Journal among us; and we lends it to one another like; and so I see what was wrote the other day about the railway travellin',* and as how low fellers like huz isn't pleasant to be rode along side on in the same vehicle as your second-class genteels. That may be all very true; but if every man as has cause has a right to complain, the genlman as wrote that there won't have it all his own way. Why, in coorse, it ain't agreable for folks as wears fine clothes, and allus goes out dressed slap-up like, when they has a bit of travellin' to do, to ride along with poor fellers like huz that's maybe agoin' out in a workin' sort of way, or hain't got the toggery all right, even if we had the time to spare for putting of it on. And then when we do go out a bit from home, it comes natral that we should make ourselves merry and comfotable-like, more especially if we meets a friend, which it's the occasion of many a feller being the worse for liquor when he's out on sich occa sions. And so, as I was sayin', we workin' men don't feel it agreable nouther to be forced to ride in those 'ere second-class vehicles; we're better pleased when we have all our own equals about huz; and if we're not exactly quite the thing for cleanliness-or if wese bin atakin' a little too much refreshment-or if we wants to pass away the time by singin' a stave of a song with chorus all round, or the like of that, why, you see, when we're all together among our own sort, we feels quite at home and sociable, as I may say. We're all uzed to it, you see, and 'abit is a second natur. Well, I suspects that the genlman as wrote that harticle, must be the same as I come upon one night comin' up from Hexeter to Bridgewater, and I'm jist agoing to tell you all about it. There was Bill and his two cousins, as is all Hexeter men, as well as myself; and his two cousins, which had been to sea in Her Majesty's ship, the Dolking, come into Plymouth, and got leave to spend a few days with their parients at Hexeter. Well, Bill axes me to go down with him for a day, which his uncle had invited him to do, sayin' I should be welcome; so we went down parlimentary, quite comfotable; which the old man gave us very good eatin' and drinkin', and we spent the day very pleasant altogether. In coorse, we did not choose to go away home before night, we found the company so agreable; and we was goin' when we got some refreshment at the pubic-house near the station; indeed, to say the truth, Bill, as the sailors said, freshened his nip a little too much; and that's a fact. We was all royal, but Bill was so bad that we had a great todo to get him into the carriage at all. As there *See article, Poor Number Two! in No. 174. was no third-class by the mail-train, we was forced to get second-class tickets; and, as I was sayin', I thought it lucky there was no one in the same but ourselves. Well, just as the train was movin', a genlman and lady comes runnin' up post haste, and bundles right on end into the carriage where Bill and me was, which I was not pleased to see it. Well, Bill got himself to sleep very soon; and I hoped all would be quiet-and a sleepin' man generally don't quarrel much-but all of a suddent, he begins choppin' his teeth in his sleep, and snorin' like, and then he kicks out with his hobnailed highlows most furious; and that's the truth on it; and I can tell you that if he had took a feller on the flat of the shin-bone with one of those there kicks, it wouldn't have been no joke. Well, I have said that I suspects this here genlman was the same which made sich a complaint to Chambers's Journal; and I know he sat nearly opposite to Bill at the time, and looked frightened out of seven years' growth, for several of Bill's kicks-and they each side of his legs, before he could make his escape was kicks, and no mistake-passed right and left at to the tother side of the carriage, away near where the lady was asittin'; which I must say that same lady looked to me as if she wanted more to laugh nor to cry at that particular moment. Howsumever, it was no use tryin' to wake up Bill; and so he snored, and chopped, and kicked like winkin' all the way to nobody but the carriage. When we come to BridgeBridgewater; but as he had it all to himself, he hurt water, the genlman got out, and made no end of row, and insisted on huz drunken fellers, as he called huz, being put out; which I told him we were quite agreable, seein' as how we didn't want to go no farther. And now I say, if that the genlman says was donethat is, that we third-class people should have a carriage for ourselves with every train-we should not be troublesome to people as thinks they be our betters. I suppose, by his writin' so sharp, he is either a lawyer or a member of parliment; and so let him make a law to procure us the haccommodation which we naturally require. It is not fair at all to make us pay a good splice more for goin' at one hour than at another, and only a board to sit on either way, which I'll do the genlman the justice to say that he has stated the fact hard on us poor workin' fellers; but what he says is in that respect quite correct and proper. He's a little true, we would not come in his way if we could help it; and I hope the directors of railways will take his advice, which it would be better and more agreable for all parties. Вов. TRADITIONARY MEDICINE OF THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND. PENNANT, in his Tour in Scotland (1772), gives some details of the popular medical practice of the Highlands with the article in our present number, entitled The before the days of educated physicians. In connection Vagaries of Physic,' we have thought it worth while to reproduce these details in a condensed form. It is highly worthy of remark, that the Highland therapeutics are, on the whole, considerably more rational than some medical systems of the learned in past ages. former, ague was of recent introduction. Fevers and colds were the principal diseases; of the What was done in cases of fever we are not told. Common colds were cured by brochan or water-gruel, sweetened with honey; or by a dose of butter and honey melted in spirits, themselves from colds, in the dead of winter, by plunging and administered as hot as possible. Adult persons freed into the river-immediately going to bed under a load of clothes, and sweating away the complaint.' This, it may be remarked, comes nearly to the same point as modern hydropathy. 'Warm cow's milk in the morning, or two parts milk and one of water, a little treacle and vinegar made into whey, and drunk warm, freed the Highlander from an inveterate cough. The chincough was cured by a decoction of apples and of the mountainash, sweetened with brown sugar. Consumptions and all disorders of the liver found a simple remedy in drinking of butter-milk. Stale urine and bran made very hot, and applied to the part, freed the rheumatic from his excruciating pains. Fluxes were cured by the use of meadow sweet or jelly of bilberry, or a poultice of flour and suet; or new-churned butter; or strong cream and fresh suet boiled, and drunk plentifully morning and evening. Formerly the wild carrot boiled, at present the garden carrot, proved a relief in cancerous or ulcerous cases. Even the faculty admit the salutary effect of the carrot poultice in sweetening the intolerable fetor of the cancer, a property till lately neglected or unknown. Persons affected with the scrofula imagined they found benefit by exposing the part every day to a stream of cold water. Flowers of daisies, and narrow and broad-leaved plantain, were thought to be remedies for the ophthalmia. Scabious root or the bark of ash-tree burnt was administered for the toothache. The water ranunculus is used instead of the cantharides to raise blisters.' A peculiar disorder called Glacach, attended by tightness and fulness of the chest, and frequent in the beginning of consumption, was also called the Macdonalds' Disorder, from a power supposed to reside for its cure in a family of that name. They touched the part affected in the manner of Valentine Greatrakes, and muttered certain charms. This family of Machaons never would accept any gratuity. On long journeys, the Highlanders repelled the attacks of hunger by a small quantity of the dried root of corr or cor-meille (orobus tuberosus, or wood-pease). This, Pennant thinks, may have been the Caledonian food described by Dio, of which the quantity of a bean prevented both hunger and thirst, and which the people had ready on all occasions. The extraordinary marches of the Highlanders under Montrose and Dundee become more credible when we know of the use of the cor-meille. LOVE OF CHILDREN. Tell me not of the trim, precisely arranged homes where there are no children-where,' as the good Germans have it, the fly-traps always hang straight on the wall'— tell me not of the never disturbed nights and days, of the tranquil, unanxious hearts where children are not: I care not for these things. God sends children for another purpose than merely to keep up the race-to enlarge our hearts, to make us unselfish, and full of kindly sympathies and affections; to give our souls higher aims, and to call out all our faculties to extended enterprise and exertion; to bring round our fireside bright faces and happy smiles, and loving, tender hearts. My soul blesses the great Father every day, that he has gladdened the earth with little children.-Mary Howitt. HOOPS AND CRINOLINE. Let it be recorded, as a matter of detail, that at every important performance the advertisement beseeches the ladies to come without their hoops. This fashion seemed even to contemporaries to be as troublesome as it was ridiculous. In Faulkner's Journal, from the 31st of January to the 4th of February 1744, the committee of the Charitable Musical Society, in announcing the Messiah for the 7th, once more entreats the ladies 'to lay aside their hoops,' representing that if they will abandon that fashion for one evening, however ornamental, the hall will contain a hundred persons more, with full ease.' When the Festival of the 1st of May 1790 took place at Westminster, a handbill, signed 'John Ashley, by order of the directors,' containing the regulations for the carriages and other encumbrances, stated also, 'no ladies will be admitted with hats, and they are particularly requested to come without feathers, and very small hoops, if any.' It seems as if these fashionable follies were chronic, for a similar announcement by the Sacred Harmonic Society, apropos of crinolines, would not be out of place at the present time.-Schalcher's Life of Handel. |