plain, which forms a favourite promenade of the inhabitants. Hindoos, blacks, Europeans, equipages of all sorts, and palanquins, are here seen mixed together in a motley crowd. On the western side stands the new palace, built by the marquis Wellesley, at an expense of a million pounds sterling, and reminding one, by its grandeur, of the fabled palaces of Arabian story. The old fort is now a customhouse, and the infamous "Black Hole" has been turned into a warehouse. An obelisk, fifty feet high, at the entrance, contains the names of the unfortunate captives, who, in 1756, when the city was taken and plundered by Suraja Dowla, fell victims to the most inhuman cruelty. In the middle of the city is a large tank, for the purpose of supplying the inhabitants during the hot season, when the river-water becomes offensive. Here is the residence of the governour-general of India, and the seat of the supreme court of justice, which decides causes according to the English law, without regard to rank, station or country. Smaller offences are tried by the superintendent of police and justices of the peace. Order is maintained by several companies of sepoys, who make regular patrols through the city. Calcutta is the great emporium of Bengal, and the channel through which the treasures of the interiour provinces are conveyed to Europe. The port is filled with ships of all nations. Mercantile enterprise is nowhere more active than here. There are some houses which trade, annually, to the amount of four or five million pounds sterling. The trade in sugar, opium, silk, muslin, &c., is very considerable. Large quantities of salt are exported to Assam, and gold, silver, ivory, musk, and a peculiar kind of silky cotton, are brought back in exchange. Cowries, a kind of small shels, passing as coin, are received in exchange for rice from the Maldives. The trade with Pegu, Siam, and the Malay isles, formerly so profitable, has of late very much declined. The Monglo merchants are the wealthiest; and as they lend only at an enormous interest, their profits, from this source, are three times as great as a capital commonly gives. The Hindoos remain fixed, however rich they may become, in their narrow views, and accustomed frugality. Their houses and shops are mean, and it is only on occasion of their nuptials and religious festivals, that they indulge in any extraordinary expense. They then assemble under magnificent illuminated canopies, distribute rosewater and other perfumes in profusion, and regale themselves with confectionary from golden vessels, while they are entertained by the voices of singing girls, or the exhibition of a pantomine. The petty trade of Calcutta is mostly in the hands of the Banyans and Sarkars, who are constantly on the watch for cheap purchases, and make use of the lowest artifices to impose on their customers. This kind of deception is so far from being in disrepute among their countrymen, that they honour the adepts in it with the title of pucka adme, which signifies a man of great talent. Calcutta contains many institutions for the relief of the indigent. Of this kind are, an hospital for those natives who are in want of medical aid, two schools for orphans whose fathers were in the service of the company, a free school, &c. The college of fort William, founded by the marquis Welles ley, has been changed, in part, from its original plan; which was, notonly to instruct the youth in the service of the company in the languages, and other branches of study necessary for their profession, but also to watch over their behaviour, and to guard them from the dangers to which they were exposed by their inexperience. The latter part of the plan is now given up. The Asiatick society, founded by Sir William Jones, in 1784, is devoted to the study and explanation of the literature, history, antiquities, arts and sciences of Asia. The papers already published are, generally, of great value. CANTON, a principal city of the Chinese province of the same name, otherwise called Quang-tong, or Koanton, is situated on the banks of the river Taho, which is here very wide. This city, distinguished for size, wealth, and a numerous population, is the only seaport in China, open to the ships of Europe and America. The estimate of missionaries, that it contains 1,000,000 inhabitants, is exaggerated. The number is probably nearer 750,000. The circuit of the walls, which are of a moderate height, exceeds nine miles. Only about a third part, however, of the space enclosed is covered with buildings; the rest is occupied with pleasure-gardens and fishponds. The neighbouring country is very charming, hilly towards the east, and presenting in that quarter, a beautiful prospect. The houses are mostly of one story; but those of the mandarins and principal merchants are high and well built. In every quarter of the town and the suburbs are seen temples and pagodas, containing the images of Chinese gods. The populous streets are long and narrow, paved with flat stones, and adorned at intervals with triumphal arches. Shops line the sides, and an unbroken range of piazza protects the occupants of the houses, as well as foot-passengers, from the rays of the sun. At night, the gates are closed, and bars are thrown across the entrance of the streets. A view of this city, with the large commercial factories is given in the above engraving. The traders express themselves with sufficient fluency in the languages of their European and American customers, with whom they deal almost exclusively, selling them porcelain, lackered wares, &c. The greatest part of the silver which is carried from America to Europe, eventually circulates through China, by means of the ports of Canton and Batavia, to which large supplies of the productions of the empire are transmitted. The principal articles of export are tea, Indian-ink, varnish, porcelain, rhubarb, silk, and Nankeen. A company, consisting of twelve, or thirteen merchants, called the Hong, is established here, by order of the government, for the purpose of purchasing the cargoes of foreign ships, and supplying them with return cargoes of tea, raw silk, &c. This society interferes, undoubtedly, with private trade, but adds greatly to the security of the foreign dealer, as each member is answerable for all the rest. Carriages are not used here, but all burdens are transported on bamboo poles laid across the shoulders of men. All the inhabitants of distinction make use of litters. Chinese women are never seen in the streets, and Tartar women but seldom. The different factories are situated on a very commodious quay, on the bank of the river. Nearly a league from Canton is the Boat-town which consists of 40,000 barks, of various kinds, arranged close to each other in regular rows, with passages between them, to allow other vessels to pass. In this manner they form a kind of floating city, the inhabitants of which have no other dwellings, and are prohibited by law from settling on shore. As this is the only emporium in the empire for foreign commerce, which is carried on not only by Europeans and Americans, but also to a great extent by the Chinese themselves, with almost all the ports of India and the eastern Archipelago, the number of vessels frequently seen in the river, at once, is said to exceed five thousand. The climate of Canton is healthy, warm in the summer, but rather cold in winter. Provisions, including various luxuries, are abundant. Lat. 23° 30' N., lon. 113° 2′ 45′′ E. [For the Family Magazine.] RUSSIAN COSTUMES. civilization; but there are parts of this vast empire which are yet truly barbarous. The nobles of Russia are divided into two classes: the Boiards, who usually reside in the two capitals, are highly civilized; but those of them who are called radically Russians, and whose natural pride will not permit them to fawn at court, and solicit the honours and offices too frequently conferred on adventurers from different parts of Europe, live like satraps in their own chateaux. In fact, the Russians are now nearly the same as they were in the time of Iwan Grozny, (Ivan the Terrible,) that is, ignorant, superstitious, and fanatical; but hospitable and kind in rural life, and submitting to their state of slavery and its consequences with becoming resignation. As an instance of this last remark, we will state the following fact:-A Russian officer ordered his servant, who had lately arrived from the provinces, to hold his cloak during the military parade, and not to stir from the spot till he (the officer) had returned. Either from accident or necessity, the officer did not return for several hours; when he found his servant dead upon the snow, but with the cloak on his arm. This man preferred to perish with cold rather than leave the spot or to cover himself with his master's garment. THE character and manners of the Russian people, which deserve to be studied in so many respects, are but little known. Most travellers who have written on this subject have formed their opinions from seeing St. Petersburgh, Moscow, and some other of the principal cities, which present much of European VOL. I.-58 [A Milkmaid.] Many natural plays and games maintain their primitive originality. In several provinces, during the winter, groups of peasants may be seen on the ice, engaged in the terrible game called koulatchki, (fistycuffs,) which generally terminates in the deaths of several of the combatants. Even at St. Petersburgh there are some customs which, at least, should be confined to the provinces. For instance, on the day of Pentecost, the inhabitants assemble in the Letni sad, or summer garden. The principal alley | termed kehochnike, is rather picturesque; it is made of this garden is filled with young marriageable girls, of pasteboard, covered with a band of velvet, or with who expect the arrival of young men, to select wives. blue or amaranthine-coloured silk, richly embroiderMarriage contracts are made, and the marriages are ed with gold or silver, and sometimes ornamented celebrated a few days afterward. In this manner with pearls or precious stones. In the second pic the labourers and small dealers in St. Petersburgh ture, we have the costume of a milkmaid, or married are married. peasant; and in the third, that of a married woman. The illustration at the close of the article represents a Russian priest in his characteristick dress. These costumes ought now to be seen at St. Petersburgh; as the emperour has published an kase, intimating to the ladies not to appear at court imperial ceremonies except in their national costumes. Mag. Pittoresque. [A Married Woman.] This ceremony occurs every year. Formerly the young ladies were arranged in two rows, but for the last twenty years they merely walk around with their parents. Most of the costumes of the Russians have also preserved their primitive forms. Our first engraving represents that of a young girl: the head-dress, [A Russian Priest.] NATURAL HISTORY. HORNBILLS. LIKE the ravens and vultures, these birds perform the part of scavengers in the countries which they inhabit. They abound in South America and Southern Africa, and feed chiefly upon offal and carrion. Le Vaillant saw the coronated species in Caffraria, congregating in flocks of five hundred, along with crows and vultures, over the remains of slaughtered elephants. In the absence of their favourite food, they prey upon frogs, lizards, and insects, and, when hard pressed, pursue small birds and quadrupeds; and have been even known to follow the sportsman, for the purpose of catching the disabled victim of his pleasure. They are generally of a heavy form, with limited powers of flight. The feature by which they are principally distinguished, and after which they are named, is an enormous toothed bill, surmounted by a singular protuberance, called the casque, or helmet. These organs are so curiously diversified, that each species might almost stand for a distinct genus. In some, the casque bears the form of a simple horn; in others it is double. Several have it turned up at the end, and convoluted in a spiral manner. Some have it flat and broad; others narrow, convex, and ribbed; and in the one we have engraved, it is convex and smooth. The use of these strange appendages is not known; many have conjectured them to be weapons either of offence or defence, but this is not borne out by their internal structure, which is that of a series of light cellular chambers, adhering irregularly together, and covered on the outside with a hard bony shell; nor is it supported by the habits of the bird, which are shy, sluggish, and cowardly. The most probable surmise is, that they subserve the sense of smell in some way with which we are not acquainted, and which a number of careful dissections, aided by close observations of the living bird, can alone demonstrate. The forms of the bill are still further varied according to the age of the bird: a circumstance which has made the identification of the species a work of great labour. The bills in all the species are long, curved gradually downward from the base, and more or less jagged on the edges. The nostrils are placed behind the base of the bill, and covered by a membrane. The legs, robust and short; the feet, in all the species, covered with scales; the three toes directed forward, almost of equal length, and so nearly united together at the base as almost to form a sole: the hind toe is large and flat, and gives a powerful support to the bird, which, nevertheless, does not move by walking, but by leaping with the feet together. The first three quill-feathers of the wings are graduated, the fourth or fifth being the longest. The species we have figured is a native of the Himalaya mountains. Its body is about the size of a small goose; the wings short, and its whole structure loose, but powerful. The bill and casque are of a bright yellow, tinged in some places with red; cheeks, back of the head, and neck, white; back, belly, and wings, black; wing-coverts and tips of quills, white; thighs white and tail white, with a black band across the middle. Mr. Griffiths remarks, that the forms of the bill connect the birds by a close analogy with the toucans, while their port and habits approximate them to the ravens, and their feet to the bee-eaters and king-fishers. Hornbills associate in large flocks on the tops of high trees, and are particularly fond of dead branches, on which they repose with an air of ludicrous gravity. Naturalists enumerate about twenty-five species. For a full account of the whole family, with splendid figures of the birds, consult Griffith's Appendix to Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, "Aves;" Le Vaillant's Histoire Naturelle d'une partie d'Oiseaux nouveaux et rares de l'Amerique et des Indes; and Temminck's Planches Coloriées. [From the National Intelligencer.] THE LAND WE LIVE IN. On! 'tis a noble heritage--this goodly land of ours It boasts indeed nor Gothick fane, nor "ivy mantled towers;" The sculpture of Omnipotence, the rugged twins of Time. And streams-the sinews of its strength-that feed it as they glide; Behold where cleaves the wingless bark, and flies the steedless car! J. B. [For the Family Magazine.] AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES. THE article on the ruins of Palenque, published in our last number, naturally attracted much observation; and, for the gratification of many of our readers, we present them, on the opposite page, with an engraving of a civil edifice at Palenque. In a late English paper, we notice the following: "At a late meeting of the London Geographical Society, Mr. Waldeck offered a few observations on the remains of early American civilization, which his drawings on the table represented. Beyond all question, they were of very high antiquity: on the top of one, he had himself cut down a tree, the concentrick circles in a section of which indicated a growth of 973 years, and the building must have been a ruin when it first took root. The sculpture on these buildings was still extraordinarily perfect; and he believed that he had found a key to the hieroglyphicks introduced in it, which proved them to have phonetick power. He was not prepared at the moment to go into the subject at length, but he had materials with him for several publications on it, which he considered of great interest; and having devoted thirteen years and above eight thousand pounds to the collection of these materials, he was prepared to make still further sacrifices, in order to bring them advantageously before the public. He meant very shortly to publish a prospectus of his intended work, and to solicit subscriptions to it. He would engrave the drawings himself, in order to keep down the expense. Colonel Galindo, of the Central American service, offered some remarks on the high antiquity of American civilization. He was disposed to consider even the ruins described by Mr. Waldeck as comparatively of modern date; and he thought that the decay of the native American tribes indicated senility, to a degree which might almost warrant the belief that America was the first rather than the last-peopled quarter of the globe. He admitted that these opinions appeared visionary, when thus stated, without the grounds on which they otherwise rested; yet they were the result of much study and reflection on his own part, and he was strongly convinced of their substantial accuracy.” A valued correspondent remarks: "The article on the American city was altogether new to me, and most interesting. The clew to the great mystery is now at length, I doubt not, found, and it becomes us to follow it out. This, however, must be done on the spot. The savage ignorance of the aborigines north of Mexico can furnish nothing in the shape even of tradition worthy of notice. In Mexico and the more southern countries, there was a comparative degree of civilization, that offers fair room for hope that, with the start we now have, much may be done. From Valparaiso to Cape Blanco, the coast of South America is a desert, save where the rivers, few and small, produce a limited patch of verdure, and throughout the whole extent of this district, (bounded on the west by the sea and on the east by the mountains,) more or less of the ruins of towns may be seen, of which the Grand Chimu may be taken for example. You are aware, no doubt, how much the Spanish possessions in America were exposed to the depredations of the English, who, since the days of the Scandinavians, have, of all nations, carried piracy to the greatest extent. To provide, in some measure, against such assailants the Spaniards built their towns at such a distance from the coast as would enable them to have more notice of the approach of an enemy, from whose mercy experience had taught them to expect nothing but torture so cruel, that merely to read the accounts given of it by the miscreants themselves is almost more than humanity can bear. Truxillo is situated about nine miles from the coast, the intermediate country being a desert of sand, in which stand the ruins of the Grand Chimu, . its breadth occupying one third of the whole space between the port and city of Truxillo, (six miles,) and its length, parallel with the coast, nine miles. It has been almost entirely buried in sand; but a great deal of this has been from time to time removed, for the sake of the treasure frequently found in the burial-places, called "Guaca." There is a tradition in general credit there, and I believe wellauthenticated, that a Spaniard had rendered an important service to an Indian, and the latter, moved by gratitude, told him that he knew where two fish were to be found, one large and the other small; the latter he showed him immediately, and it turned out to be a recess in a Guaca of the Grand Chimu, containing gold to the amount of one million and a half of dollars. Death, accident, or some other cause, prevented him from showing the larger fish. The royal share of the treasure trove was ten per cent.; and, it is said, that in one year, from the Grand Chimu alone, it amounted to five millions of dollars. About this, however, I am not so certain; for the other parts of this account I will be responsible. Through the city runs a channel, which bears every mark of having been the bed of a river, as abraded pebbles, &c. It is between forty-five and sixty feet wide, and ten or twelve feet deep. The houses are spacious, and built of sun-dried bricks, there being no stone in the neighbourhood fit for building. Truxillo itself is built almost entirely of reeds. The soil, either from an abundance of saltpetre, or some other cause, preserves the bodies of those buried in it from putrefaction: the liquid portions passing off, the solids remain hard and black. The sculls of the Grand Chimuans are said to be particularly deficient in foreheads, and no two bodies can be found occupying exactly similar postures: some of them are standing, some sitting, some squatting, &c.; and of these last, for instance, the position of the heads, arms, feet, or hands of each, always differs from the others. In the Guacas are found vessels of black earthenware, curiously fashioned, with grotesque figures upon them, and containing a sort of beer, still used by the Indians, made of meal. These vessels sometimes contain toys, as whistles, in the shape of animals; but made with so uncertain a hand, that the one seen by my friend was determined to have been intended either for a dog or seal; which, he knew not; but, upon being blown into, emitted a sound not unlike the barking of a dog." The above remarks are extremely interesting; and, as our correspondent observes, it would seem as if the clew to the mystery attending the early settlement of America, and its original inhabitants, if not exactly found, is at least in a fair way to be traced out. Under the head of Miscellany, will be found an account of the discovery of a brazen arrow, &c., which we commend to the notice of our readers |