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it is a crimson velvet cap, turned up with ermine, and surmounted with a tuft and tassel of gold. So important was the office of king at arms anciently held, that a solemn ceremony was appointed for their inauguration. In fact, it was the mimicry of a royal coronation, except that the unction was performed with wine instead of oil. In Scotland, Sir David Lindesay was crowned Lyon king of arms by his sovereign, with the ancient crown which the monarchs wore before they assumed a close crown, A. D. 1592. So sacred was this heraldic office held, that, in 1515, Lord Drummond was by parliament declared guilty of treason, and his lands forfeited, because he had struck with his fist the Lyon king at arms, when he reproved him for his follies. Nor was he restored but at the Lyon's earnest solicitation.

The tabards of the heralds are made of crimson damask; they wear plain silver collars with badges similar to those of the kings at arms. The pursuivants wear tabards of satin.

Two persons were usually appointed to represent the Dukes of Aquitaine and Normandy; they wore robes of estate of crimson velvet, lined with white sarcenet, with deep capes and broad facings, all richly powdered with ermine, and with hats or caps of estate of crimson and gold paduasoy, furred with ermine.

The barons of the Cinque Ports, who support the canopy over the sovereign, are all habited alike; they wear doublets of crimson satin, scarlet hose, scarlet gowns, lined with crimson satin, black velvet caps fastened on their sleeves, and black velvet shoes.

The gentlemen pensioners, who guard the canopy, wear coats of scarlet cloth, richly laced with gold, and black hats wreathed round with feathers; they carry gilt axes in their hands, and are preceded by the clerk of the cheque in the same habit.

The ancient coronation robes which were destroyed in 1649, do not appear to have been very valuable, if we may judge from the enumeration given of them by the parliamentary commissioners, from which we have before quoted. In their report we find the following "Inventory of the Regalia, now in Westminster Abbey, in an iron chest," where they were formerly kept:

One common taffaty robe, very old, valued at.
One robe laced with gould lace, valued at
One silver cullered silk robe, very old and
worth nothing.

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One robe of crimson taffaty sarcenet, valued at 0 One paire of buskins, cloth of silver and silver stockings, very old and valued at

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ON THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS.
No. I.

THE language of animals has at all times been a
favourite subject of speculation; but this has been
limited to poetry and fiction. No rational inquiry
has yet been made respecting the possibility of what
appears incapable of proof. We have reason to ex-
pect it; and we have no right to decide against it, if
it can be shown that our faculties and observations
are incompetent to discover what the fact is. Thus
far the balance is, at the very least, in suspense ;
and it should turn decidedly in favour of such a con-
clusion, if we can find, in animals, actions which
could not be conducted without language; still more
if we can trace variety of sounds, and those accom-
panied by peculiar actions, though we should be
unable to analyze them, and give their definite appli-
cations.

On the subject of hearing, as being fundamental on this question, we are accustomed, not unnaturally, to give more credit to our own senses than they deserve. We decide on their perfection by an estimate drawn from themselves; which is as if he who is without ear for music should dispute the existence of refined harmonies. Even in the musical scale, which forms the most audible collection of discriminate sounds, there are tones at each extremity, which we cannot distinguish, as at length there are also notes that we do not hear. We know that they exist, from the visible vibrations and the measures of strings; but the ear has ceased to discern them. The snoring of a dormouse is so acute that the note cannot be assigned, as it is also on the very verge of inaudibility. In a string or an organ pipe, it is easy to produce indiscriminable, and even inaudible tones, at the opposite extremity of the scale.

If now we take sounds that are not in the diatonic or chromatic scale, the difficulty of distinguishing them augments rapidly as the ratios approach nearer to each other, till at length, to imperfect ears, dissimilar ones appear the same. This is the case, even if those sounds are single, or truly musical, belonging to fixed divisions of the scale; but if at all vacillating, as are the sounds of speech, there is no human ear that can follow and distinguish them, however widely sundered they may be. Our ears are not calculated for such distinctions: in many persons, they cannot distinguish even among neighbouring enharmonic 0 tones, except in the case of a chord, where there is a fixed and known note of reference, or in that of a false unison. Hence it is probable, that however music may continue to improve under the increase of enharmonic chords, we shall never produce enharmonic melodies, because unintelligible to our organizations.

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One paire of shoes of cloth of gold, at
One paire of gloves, embroidered with gould, at 0
Three swords with scabbards of cloth of gould, at 3 0 0
One old comb of horne, worth nothing
0

Totall in the chest

0

4 10 6

The comb, which is here dismissed so contemptuously, was supposed to have belonged to Edward the Confessor, and was used in the ancient forms of coronation, to smooth the king's hair previous to the anointing.

No special coronation robes are provided for a queen consort, but those used by a sovereign queen do not differ in any essential particular from those employed at the coronation of a king. Clerical and legal dignitaries wear their ordinary robes of state, and all military officers appear in their full-dress uniform. The earl marshal usually issues a proclamation forbidding any of the spectators to appear in mourning, and persons who occupy front seats are generally expected, if not required, to come in full court-dress.

Yet such melody is intelligible to the birds which produce it; since it is produced, definitely and intentionally, under finer organizations of the musical instrument, and of the sense of hearing. Thence may it be inferred that these, and other animals also, may both hear and discriminate those unsteady sounds produced by themselves which should constitute their own language, although we cannot; while to assume that they do not, is plainly to measure their faculties by our own defective ones.

It is not less true that we have been accustomed to decide against the sensibility of these animals on false grounds, and under an ignorance of the very nature of music. We dispute it, because they do not produce and enjoy that which we term music; a succession and consonance of intervals in the diatonic and chromatic scale. But while this is the produce of

an arbitrary law of nature, rendering that class of I
sounds pleasing, it is evident that instead of proving the
high sensibility of our own ears, it is a proof of the
exact reverse; since these pleasing sounds demand
little effort of discrimination, from the distances of
their ratios. Hence should the sensibility to sounds,
in the birds at least, far exceed our own; since their
power, with their pleasure, consists in producing
intervals more minute, and thence demanding finer
senses, that they may delight in what was appointed
for them, as our own less refined ones were for us.
That they hear and understand what they produce,
is evident, since otherwise it could not be executed.
In the nightingale and thrush, we distinguish
a great number of sounds and articulations, because
they belong, or approach, to that musical scale for
which our sense of hearing is adapted. But we can-
not doubt, that in these, and still more in birds
whose tones are less musical and definite, there are
sounds which we do not truly distinguish, and which
we therefore neglect in favour of those to which
we are most sensible. And there is no difficulty
in believing that the song of a nightingale is better
understood by itself than by us, or that it contains
much more than we hear. If I were to suggest that
it contains a definite set of phrases, with meaning, to
the animal itself and its kind, there would be nothing
absurd in the proposition; since it possesses, even to
our ears, a greater variety of articulation than we can
find in any language with which we are unacquainted:
while, in confirmation of this general view, all who
have attended to such subjects must know, that where
these birds abound, long debates are often carried on
among them, in tones and articulations quite distinct
from the ordinary songs. When we decide other-
wise, we are deciding from a prejudice, or assuming
that it is not a language, because we do not under-
stand it. We should be equally justified in thus
deciding as to the Arabic.

But there is another circumstance relating to sound, which may concern this question. This is the quality, or timbre. We distinguish this readily, in the several musical instruments; and even in the different qualities of human voices, which depend on this mysterious property of sonorous bodies. It requires far nicer ears to perceive the minute differences in the qualities of two instruments of the same kind, which are still differences of timbre: and if the ordinary ears which distinguish among singing-birds do this chiefly through the melodies, a finer one is fully sensible of the difference of timbre among many of them. And thus we may grant a still finer perception of this kind to animals of nicer sensibilities: of which indeed we have a proof in the fact, that the wild birds and the domestic fowls recognise the voices of their own partners and offspring, and that even the sheep knows the bleat of its own lamb. Thus can we grant again, that animals may possess means of discrimination for the purpose of language, where we can distinguish nothing.

The human language, to those unacquainted with it, presents nothing but noises, or sounds, which we can scarcely perceive to be articulate ones. If not rigidly true of the European languages derived from a common root, of which we are familiar with one branch, it is notorious in that of a Greenlander or a Hottentot, or in that of the Celtic dialects of our own country. Not to speak ludicrously on a grave subject, the objurgations of an assembled multitude of Welsh do not exceed, in articulate and discriminate sounds, the noise of a rookery. We happen to know that there is language. but our ears do not give us that information.

When we have learned the meaning of those sounds, we can also discriminate them, but not tell them: not even, easily, except under that slow and distinct articulation which allows us to study each. Thus, if animals have been taught by the Creator such languages as are necessary for their wants, since more cannot be expected, it is plain that they may perfectly understand each other, or be expressing even numerous and definite ideas, where we perceive nothing but noise, and probably never shall.

There are valid reasons in the necessity of the case, and in the general conduct of the Creator, why animals ought to possess language. There is, or may be, language accompanying the means of language, for aught that we can decide to the contrary: so that the question remains suspended between a high probability, and an ignorance which has nothing to oppose. In evidence of this probability, a very few positive facts out of many may be selected.

Communication is peculiarly necessary among the gregarious and social animals; and we accordingly see that many of those do act together under peculiar sounds. Let us not, however, be misled by the term language, since it is in terms that our difficulties often lie. The communications of animals are not the language of the fabulists. The range of their ideas is limited, and so must be the modes of their expression. And, as a natural language, or a gift to those which are incapable of educating each other, it is probably fixed, or incapable of extension: though there are reasons for believing, that where educated by us, they increase its range. But if this inquiry is limited to a language of sounds, it must not be forgotten that the social animals do understand each other, as some different kinds also probably do, by means of some physiognomic or pantomimic signs, equally taught by nature.

Familiar examples of various and vocal language exist in the duck tribe, followed by correspondent actions, in marshalling their flights, and in much more. The sounds and articulations of the domestic duck and goose in particular, are so numerous and marked, that they are not equalled by any human language; while it is not difficult to learn the definitę, if the general, meaning of many of them. It is not easy to see how else the decoy duck can perform its treacherous office. It is the same notedly with the hog: while if we see the effects in many of the proceedings of this animal in society, I need only note, that thus it will collect its companions to ravage a field, as the dog conducts its own to the chase, and as the rat and the mouse assemble and lead their tribes to a discovery of food. If we do not know that the beaver has similar means of communication, we cannot comprehend the possibility of its conduct in society without some language. In the endeavours of birds to persuade their progeny to fly and to dive, we can scarcely avoid believing that we hear a definite language; so unusual, and varied, and marked, are the articulations and the tones. The quarrels of sparrows are more articulate, and the noises more varied, than those of a human contest. The sounds of a domestic fowl under the approach of a hawk, the intention to sit, the calling its young to feed, and much more, equally familiar, are not less various and definite. However disagreeable the sounds of the cat may be to us, they abound in variety of expression: and in the rook, the comparison of actions and sounds renders it scarcely possible to avoid concluding that the latter constitute a language. The destruction of a rook's nest, occasionally proceeding to the slaughter of the animal, is preceded by a congregation of the society, and a great noise; as all

know that the work is executed by the deputation of | two or three individuals out of this convention.

Not only the necessity, but the certainty of communication in the gregarious insects has been shown: especially in bees and ants. Huber has thought that he could prove a language of signals, through the antennæ. Some insects can produce sounds, independently of the vibration of their wings, by friction. If these are audible to us, there may also be similar inaudible ones, sufficient possibly for many purposes: while it is not impossible that one or more of their tracheæ may be provided with the means of sound. [Abridged from MACCULLOCH's Proofs and Illustrations of the Attributes of God.]

THE SAGO PALM, (Sagus raphia.) THE Sago of commerce is the product of a species of palm which grows naturally in various parts of India and Africa. It is one of the most common, and at the same time one of the most useful of the vegetable productions of the countries in which it is found. The central vein or rib of its ample leaves is used by the natives of Africa for various useful purposes; they form it into weapons of offence, and they employ it for the purpose of capturing fish: for this purpose a species of fish-hook, resembling the barb of a harpoon, is fixed to one end, to the other a line is fastened, which is afterwards passed round the body of the sportsman. Thus armed, he wanders along the sea-shore, and on the banks of the river, and whenever he perceives a fish, throws his dart, and generally with success. His prey is allowed to remain for some time, without an attempt on his part to draw it out of the water, until it is sufficiently exhausted by its efforts and by loss of blood.

Of the perfect leaves the Indians form fences to their fields, coverings to their houses, and when properly fastened together by means of branches of trees, the dwellings themselves; these habitations are much more durable than could be expected, on account of the great strength and thickness of these bundles of leaves.

The natives of Africa obtain a liquor from this tree, which much resembles palm wine, but is stronger and of a deeper colour. They have two methods of extracting this liquor; the first consists in collecting the sap in calabashes, from incisions made in the fleshy substance of the summit of the tree from which the new leaves proceed. The second plan is to collect a quantity of the fruit, to strip it of its rind, and steeping the kernels in the sap already noticed, diluted with water, to allow the whole to ferment. This second kind of wine is still higher coloured, and more intoxicating; it sparkles like champagne, and can be kept a considerable time.

The production for which this tree is best known in Europe is sago, although other trees of the palm tribe also yield it in greater or less quantities. The sago is principally extracted from the pith which fills the trunk of the palm, and is of a more delicate colour and nature in the young than in the old trees.

The trunk of the tree being split in the direction of its length, the operator removes the pith which he breaks in pieces, and throws into a vessel made from the bark of a tree, and placed over a horse-hair sieve; he then pours water over the mass and the finer parts of the pith pass through the sieve, and are received in pots which are provided for the purpose; the fibrous portions of the pith are retained by the sieve.

The liquid thus obtained is, in the first instance,

turbid, from the quantity of matter it holds in solution; this, by degrees, settles to the bottom of the vessel, and the clear liquor is drawn off. The mass that remains is then passed repeatedly through shallow dishes of metal perforated with numerous small holes; this is continued until it is sufficiently dry to prevent the grains into which it is formed by the process, from again becoming united. The reddish tinge which is observed in the Sago of commerce, arises from the effect of the heat to which it is submitted to render it perfectly dry.

In the Moluccas and the Philippine Islands, the soft paste of the sago, before it is dried, is formed into cakes about six inches square and of the thickness of the finger. These are strung together in bunches of ten and twenty and exposed for sale; it is also employed in the making of puddings, gruel, and for the same culinary purposes to which wheaten flour is applied in this country.

The Sago Palm is a tree of moderate height, seldom attaining to twenty feet. The fruit, which is a dry oval cone covered with small scales, grows in clusters, forming a large oval tuft or bunch.

There is a palm-tree closely allied to the Sago Palm, which grows in great abundance in South America, in the neighbourhood of the Oronoko; to this tree a native tribe, the Guarinis, are indebted for nearly the whole of their subsistence; and thus, says Humboldt, "we find in the lowest stage of human civilization, the existence of a people depending entirely on a single species of tree, in the same manner as some insects are confined to certain parts of a flower." The Guarinis also form their habitations, if they deserve that name, from the leaves of this tree, they make mats from the fibres of its leaves, and during the rainy season, when their country is under water, they live on the summit of the trees. The mats they form are suspended from tree to tree, and covered on the upper side with clay. On these moist couches the women light the fires necessary for their cookery, and the traveller, who during the night is floating down the stream of the river, sees lights, as it were, suspended in the air at a considerable elevation.

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SACRED to the Memory of the Reverend JOHN PETER ROTTLER, P.D., Missionary, who fell asleep in Jesus,

On Sunday morning, January 24th, 1836, aged eighty-six years, and seven months.

This venerable servant of GOD, having, for the cause of CHRIST, left his country, kindred, and father's house in Germany, Laboured as a devoted Missionary in India for above sixty years,

Formerly in the service of the Royal Danish Mission at Tranquebar,

And latterly at Vepery, in the service of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

He was also for several years Chaplain to the Madras Female Orphan Asylum.

As a testimony of reverence for the memory of this excellent man, and as an acknowledgment
Of the mercy, faithfulness, and grace of God, exhibited in his life, labours, and death,

THIS TABLET IS ERECTED,

By the united subscriptions of European, East Indian, and Native Christians.

Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.-HEB. vi. 12. The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.-MATT. ix. 37, 38.

ABOVE is the representation of a monumental tablet | to the memory of the Rev. Dr. Rottler, which has been executed by Mr. R. Westmacott, Jun., and lately forwarded to India, to be erected in the Mission Church at Vepery, Madras.

The subject itself, of a Protestant clergyman unfolding the pages of the Gospel to an uninformed VOL. XIII.

but attentive heathen, and explaining to him "in
his own tongue, wherein he was born*, the won-
derful works of God," would be interesting to the
Christian reader, even without the epitaph which
accompanies the plate; but the brief sketch of this
*The words in Tamil, on the left page of the book, signify, The
NEW TESTAMENT.
389

good man's life, which is here given in simple and I voted. Rottler was twenty-two years a labourer in appropriate language, has induced us to inquire the same vineyard with Swartz, and survived him further into the particulars of his history. Bishop thirty-eight years. For the last twenty years he Heber speaks of him in his Journal in terms of bore a prominent part in all the measures adopted affection and respect, as "good old Dr. Rottler;" for the improvement of the mission in Southern and writing to Mrs. Heber in 1826, he says, "I am India, first under the Society for Promoting Christian greatly impressed with reverence for the worthy old Knowledge, and afterwards, on its transfer to the missionary, Dr. Rottler." At a later period, (February, superintendence of the Society for the Propagation 1835,) in a charge delivered by the present Bishop of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. In his latter days, he of Calcutta, to the reverend Missionaries at Vepery, witnessed the erection of the new mission church at his lordship alludes to Rottler, as "one of the three Vepery †, (the chief station in the neighbourhood of honoured Missionaries who have laboured for fifty Madras,) the enlargement of the school, and the years or more in the fields where Ziegenbalg and establishment of a seminary for training native youth Swartz, Gerické and Pohlé, Jonické and Haubroe, to the duties of Catechists, and eventually for the had laboured before them, and who still survive to sacred office of Missionaries. In all these works he bless us with their advice and their prayers." zealously co-operated with the local committees, and with his brother missionaries; giving them the benefit of his counsels and experience, when his infirmities had diminished the powers of bodily exertion.

This excellent and learned person was born at Strasburg, in June, 1749, where he received his early education, which was continued at Copenhagen: he was admitted a candidate for ordination from the latter place, by the bishop of Zealand, in 1775. He embarked for India when ordained, arrived early in the year 1776, in the service of the Royal Danish Mission*, at Tranquebar, and there laboured faithfully for many years. In the year 1803, he was nominated by the brethren at Tranquebar, to assist in the superintendence of the Vepery mission, in consequence of an application made to them on the removal to Calcutta of Mr. Pozold, and the death of Gerické, which had left the station without a missionary.

The connexion thus formed did not extend beyond the year 1807; Mr. Pozold having resumed his labours at Vepery: and Dr. Rottler remained at Madras, as Secretary and Chaplain to the Female Orphan Asylum, the duties of which appointment he conscientiously discharged for many years. The death of Mr. Pozold brought him once more, towards the close of 1817, into the service of the SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, and from that time until the day of his death, he continued a missionary in its employ at Vepery, frequently preaching in Tamil to the native congregations, and giving satisfactory proof of his ministerial zeal and usefulness. In 1833, the SOCIETY, in consideration of his valuable services, and also of his advanced age, allowed him a pension to the full amount of his stipend. He died on the 24th of January, 1836, in his eighty-seventh year. The Rev. C. Calthrop wrote as follows:

His venerable remains (attended by the Archdeacon and clergy at Madras, and a great number of Europeans, East Indians, and natives), were interred in the Vepery Mission churchyard, on Sunday evening, the 31st of January; I reading our solemn funeral service in English, and my brother Missionary, Mr. Cæmmerer, in Tamil. Through the kind offer of the Rev. Mr. Cubitt, I addressed the English congregation in the evening, from 2 Kings ii. 11th and part of 12th verses. May God own and bless what was prepared in much haste and confusion, and delivered in much weakness and sorrow! Such a funeral I never before witnessed, so solemn and affecting. From the feelings and tears which were manifested, I trust it

may be long, yea, ever remembered by us.

The loss of this truly primitive Christian minister The loss of this truly primitive Christian minister seems to mark an epoch in the history of the Protestant Mission in the south of India: for the long period of his faithful labours connect him with the earliest days of Christian knowledge in that country, and with the planting of many churches by the apostolic Swartz, and his contemporaries, under the blessing of Him to whose glory they were de

As early as the year 1710, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge assisted in the support and enlargement of the Protestant Mission, then maintained by the King of Denmark at Tranquebar, for the conversion of the heathen.

Among the most essential benefits he conferred on the mission in his private hours, were a revision of Fabricius's Translation of the Old Testament, and the preparation of a Tamil version of the Liturgy of the Church of England, now in general use throughout the congregations in union with the Church of England in Southern India, and also, it is believed, in those holding communion with the Wesleyan Methodists: he was likewise engaged to the last days of his valuable life in compiling a Tamil and English Dictionary, now in the press, to which he had devoted a certain portion of his time for twenty years.

In the earlier seasons of his residence in India, he pursued in his leisure hours the study of Botany: in which science he attained to great eminence. Having been in communication with the most eminent botanists in Europe, he received in acknowledgment of his high attainments, the diploma of a doctor of physical sciences, from the University of Vienna. He bequeathed to the Vepery mission his valuable Herbarium, his books and manuscripts, together with the contingent reversion of some other property.

In his public and private character no one could be more deservedly loved and respected. During a long period, he persevered in his holy calling, while heavily afflicted with sickness. For the last ten years of his life in India he was a constant sufferer, seeking his recreation in the most becoming and innocent pursuits, and in the end was brought to his heavenly rest in peace. A worthy associate of Swartz and Gerické! the last but one or two of those holy men, who were the privileged few, in early years, to have had committed to them amongst the heathen, in a land of darkness, the ministry of reconciliation through Christ.

The project for erecting this tablet originated with the Madras Diocesan Committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, they having communicated with the reverend Missionaries on the subject, and appointed a Committee in England, who exerted themselves in procuring additional subscriptions. It was also proposed to apply the surplus, had there been any, to founding scholarships in the Vepery Mission School, to be designated "Rottler's Scholarships." This latter object, however, we understand, has not been attained, the amount collected proving sufficient only for carrying the original design

of a tablet into effect.

"At Vepery is the finest Gothic church, and the best establishment of native schools, both male and female, which I have yet seen in India."-BISHOP HEBER'S Journal in India.

The Herbarium has been sent to England by the executors of Dr. Rottler, and placed at the disposal of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, who have deposited it in the Museum of King's College, London. It is said to be rich in fine and rare specimens of Eastern plants.

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