which they had been scouring for wild | large eels, the greater part of which were | world, in the midst of untamed and savage horses and mules. They brought about thirty with them, which they forced to enter the pool. nature. Now it is the jaguar, the beau- but slightly wounded. Some were taken by the same means toward the evening. The temperature of the waters, in which The extraordinary noise caused by the the gymnoti habitually live, is from 26° to horses' hoofs makes the fish issue from the 27°. Their electric force diminishes, it is mud, and excites them to combat. These said, in colder waters; and it is remarkable, yellowish and livid eels, resembling large that in general, as a celebrated naturalist aquatic serpents, swim on the surface of has already observed, animals endowed with the water, and crowd under the bellies of electromotive organs, the effects of which the horses and mules. A contest between are sensible to man, are not found in the animals of so different an organization fur-air, but in a fluid that is a conductor of nishes a very striking spectacle. The In- electricity. The gymnotus is the largest of dians, provided with harpoons and long electrical fishes. I measured some, that slender reeds, surround the pool closely; were from five feet to five feet three inches and some climb upon the trees, the branches long; and the Indians assert, that they of which extend horizontally over the sur- have seen still longer. We found, that a face of the water. By their wild cries, and fish of three feet ten inches long weighed the length of their reeds, they prevent the twelve pounds. The transverse diameter horses from running away, and reaching of the body, without reckoning the anal the bank of the pool. The eels, stunned fin, which is elongated in the form of a by the noise, defend themselves by the re- keel, was three inches five lines. The peated discharge of their electric batteries. gymnoti of Cano de Bera are of a fine oliveDuring a long time they seem to prove vic-green. The under part of the head is yel-who has so much studied the crocodiles of torious. Several horses sink, beneath the violence of the invisible strokes, which they receive from all sides in organs the most > essential to life; and stunned by the force and frequency of the shocks, disappear under the water. Others, panting, with mane erect, and haggard eyes, expressing anguish, raise themselves, and endeavour to flee from the storm by which they are overtaken. They are driven back by the Indians into the middle of the water; but a small number succeed in eluding the active vigilance of the fishermen. These regain the shore, stumbling at every step, and stretch themselves on the sand, exhausted with fatigue, and their limbs benumbed by the electric shocks of the gymnoti. In less than five minutes two horses were drowned. The eel, being five feet long, and pressing itself against the belly of the horses, makes a discharge along the whole extent of it's electric organ. It attacks at once the heart, the intestines, and the plexus cœliacus of the abdominal nerves. It is natural, that the effect felt by the horses should be more powerful, than that produced upon man by the touch of the same fish at only one of his extremities. The horses are probably not killed, but only stunned. They are drowned, from the impossibility of rising amid the prolonged struggle between the other horses and the eels. We had little doubt, that the fishing would terminate by killing successively all the animals engaged; but by degrees the impetuosity of this unequal combat diminished, and the wearied gymnoti dispersed. They require a long rest, and abundant nourishment, to repair what they have lost of galvanic force. The mules and horses appear less frightened; their manes are no longer bristled, and their eyes express less dread. The gymnoti approach timidly the edge of the marsh, where they are taken by means of small harpoons fastened to long cords. When the cords are very dry, the Indians feel no shock in raising the fish into the air. In a few minutes we had five low mingled with red. Two rows of small The following is an extraordinary pic- to the Oroonoko. Sometimes the river is bordered by forests on each side, and forms a straight canal a hundred and fifty toises broad. The manner in which the trees are disposed is very remarkable. We first find bushes of sauso, forming a kind of hedge four feet high; and appearing as if they had been clipped by the hand of man. A copse of cedars, brazillettoes, and lignum vitæ, rises behind this hedge. Palm-trees are rare; we saw only a few scattered trunks of the thorny piritu and corozo. The large quadrupeds of those regions, the tigers, tapirs, and pecaris, have made openings in the hedge of sausos which we have just described. Through these the wild animals pass, when they come to drink at the river. As they fear but little the approach of a boat, we had the pleasure of viewing them pace slowly along the shore, till they disappeared in the forest, which they entered by one of the narrow passes left here and there between the bushes. I confess that these scenes, which were often repeated, had ever for me a peculiar attraction. The pleasure they excite is not owing solely to the interest, which the naturalist takes in the objects of his study; it is connected with a feeling common to all men, who have been brought up in the habits of civilization. You find yourself in a new | When the shore is of considerable breadth, the hedge of sauso remains at a distance from the river. In this interme diate ground we see crocodiles, sometimes to the number of eight or ten, stretched on the sand. Motionless, the jaws opened at right angles, they repose by each other, without displaying any of those marks of affection observed in other animals that live in society. The troop separates as soon as they quit the shore. It is, however, probably composed of one male only, and many females; for, as Mr. Descourtils, Saint Domingo, observed before me, the males are rare, because they kill one another in fighting during the season of their loves. These monstrous reptiles are so numerous, that throughout the whole course of the river we had almost at every instant five or six in view. Yet at this period the swelling of the Rio Apure was scarcely perceived; and consequently hundreds of crocodiles were still buried in the mud of the savannahs. About four in the afternoon we stopped to measure a dead crocodile, that the waters had thrown on the shore. It was only sixteen feet eight pland found another, a male, twenty-two inches long; some days after Mr. Bonfeet three inches long. In every zone, in America as in Egypt, this animal attains the same size. The species so abundant in the Apure, the Oroonoko, and the Rio de la Magdalena, is not a cayman, or alligator, but a real crocodile, with feet dentated at the external edges, analogous to that of the Nile. When it is recollected, that the male enters the age of puberty only at ten years, and that its length is then eight feet, we may presume, that the crocodile measured by Mr. Bonpland was at least twenty-eight years old. The Indians told us, that at San Ferando scarcely a year passes, without two or three grown up persons, particularly women who fetch water from the river, being drowned by these carnivorous lizards. They related to us the history of a young girl of Uritucu, who by singular intrepidity and presence of mind, saved herself from the jaws of a crocodile. When she felt herself seized, she sought the eyes of the animal, and plunged her fingers into them with such violence, that the pain forced the crocodile to let her loose, after having bitten off the lower part of her left arm. The girl, notwithstanding the enormous quantity of blood she lost, happily reached the shore, swimming with the hand she had still left. The movements of the crocodile of the Apure are abrupt and rapid when it attacks any object; but it moves with the slowness Crocodiles are excellent swimmers; they go with facility against the most rapid current. It appeared to me, however, that in descending the river they had some difficulty in turning quickly about. A large dog, that had accompanied us in our journey from Caraccas to the Rio Negro, was one day pursued in swimming by an enormous crocodile, which had nearly reached him, when the dog escaped its enemy by turning round suddenly and swimming against the current. The crocodile performed the same movement, but much more slowly than the dog, which happily gained the shore. She was not one of those beauties of whom some of the poets are so fond, with a pensive grace, and a form so excessively slight, that her tread would not depress Or shake the downie blowball from his stalke. A blade of grasse, No, she carried in her face, and in the sighealth and animal spirits: her shape was nificance of her black eyes, the signs of round and fleshy [we abominate this word] where it ought to be so, and when she walked, &c. p. 25. of a salamander, when it is not excited by | There is not even a nobleman in distress | thick upon them. But we must not pass rage or hunger. The animal in running or disguise, or a foreigner instructing us the description of the heroine, for whom makes a rustling noise, that seems to pro- either in liberty or the languages; never- we profess a respect : ceed from the rubbing of the scales of its theless, as we have said, this is a pleasskin against one another. In this movement it bends its back, and appears higher ing story. The principal charm arises, in our opinion, from the heroine, who on its legs than when at rest. adheres to her husband, and comforts him through several of those dreary vicissitudes which unfortunately occur but too frequently in life. The descriptions are fresh, and the feelings natural, and there is a good deal of unpretending pathos interspersed throughout the tale. A young man of the name of Francis She wore the gait of a fine woman. Altham, who is a lover of green fields, and sweet sounds, and Shakspeare, com- There seems to have been some archmits himself to the crowd of the pit, in ness about her, though this is converted order to witness the representation of into a paleness and languor, altogether the play of Cymbeline. Whatever attrac-interesting, on Altham's proposing to her tion Cymbeline might have had at another the truly serious question of matrimony. time, Altham's thoughts are drawn for After his interview with her father, they once another way, by " mettle more at-return to the parlour, and the situation tractive," in the shape of a young lady of the lady is excellently well told. She who is called Laura Heseltine. Some is seated at the pianoforte— civility exhibited by Altham at the theatre towards the lady and her father, leads to conversation-the conversation turns on criticism (in which Altham shews himself acquainted with the beauties of the Bard)--they leave the theatre all together. They then naturally enough fall in love, and are married in a reasonable time. It is now necessary to have a house, and this house is situated in the vicinity of London. There are one or two good observations upon the absurdity of people fancying that "the country" can exist no where but at a long distance from the metropolis. The valley of the beautiful Arno, and the neighbourhood of one or two others of the Italian cities, would be ample evidence of the folly of this notion, were not our own green and sweetly picturesque country sufficient. Beyond the house The crocodiles of the Apure find abundant nourishment in the chiguires, (the thick-nosed tapir of naturalists,) which live fifty or sixty together in troops on the banks of the river. These unfortunate animals, as large as our pigs, have no weapons of defence; they swim somewhat better than they run: yet they become the prey of the crocodiles in the water, as of the tigers on land. It is difficult to conceive, how, persecuted by two powerful enemies, they can become so numerous; but they breed with the same rapidity as the cobayas, or little guinea-pigs, which come to us from Brazil. * Altham and his Wife: a domestic Tale. London 1818. 12mo. pp. 198. This is a pleasing little story, and it is very cleverly written. The principal objection to it is its exclusive Epicurean tendency. We are not of any fanatical sect, the creed of which inculcates the necessity of abstaining from all the good things of this world, in order to be sure of happiness in the next, yet we must altogether dissent from a system which has enjoyment for its only object. There Lies a series of meadows large and green, ran She was aware of the interview that had just taken place, and dared not rise or turn toward them as they entered: but with her eyes stedfastly fixed on the music book, over the instrument with uncertain fingers, which in many instances failed to press Her performdown the key they fell on. ance would have put a musician to death. Her father drew near her-her posture was not altered. "My dear," said he, "look round." At these words a blushing face, with eyes full of embarrassment, was turned towards him: when he smiled, and in an instant she was sobbing on his breast.-p. 43-4. As we stated before, the young married folks meet with misfortunes, and if the circumstance from which they proceed had not been the means of producing some very interesting scenes, we should be inclined to censure it as inadequate and improbable. Altham and his wife visit Mr. Marriott, a very intimate friend, is something too so selfish in this, that we reposing full in the face, and, as it were, who has a certain Mr. Simpson for his cannot believe but that the author (who appears to be a feeling and disinterested man) does in fact run counter to the principles which he insinuates through out his work. "Altham and his Wife" is a simple, domestic story. There are no dismal struggles between love and duty-no absent or forgotten lover, to whom eternal affection has been vowed--no mysterious father, or young lady compelled There is a love to conceal her name. affair, to be sure, but it is not protracted beyond the limits of ordinary courtship. * Written by a friend, and adopted, after perusing the volume to which it refers: to us it appears to merge rather more censurably into what has been called the Cockney School.―ED. in the benedictions of heaven: the low a hedges that intersect them are saved from Italian character to the outline. This is very pretty description, and we acquaintance. This Simpson is pleased to deceive himself into a notion of his being virtuous, and moreover one of what is called "the elect;" and to this (what we have always considered) very mystic title, is attached the privilege of abusing your neighbour, and drinking brandy and water for a long time with impunity. Simpson and Altham get upon "points debateable," and dress, and perfumes, and music, and other "vanities," are inveighed against with much solemnity and absurdity by the " chosen” man. There is a good passage here-it forms an answer to the Simpsons of the day, who (for want of something better to rely on) pique themselves upon wearing unbecoming garments. When a woman ornaments herself, she pays a homage to nature, one of whose principles is splendour. There is something amounting almost to impiety in the Quaker, who thinks to please the Divine Being by a system so opposite to his own. Shou'd he chance to walk in a spring meadow, what must he think of his eternal drab, on beholding that bright green floor, from which a thousand golden eyes are looking up to a blue arch above them? The dames and chevaliers, he adds, in the pictures of Watteau, with their guitars and fruit, &c. look more like religious and thankful persons. This is true: and were the object of their adornment what the author insinuates, it would be true in fact. - - - Simpson is mortally saffronted by Altham's differing from him this, by the way, is unlikely) and he ccordingly goes about breathing slanders gainst him in the ears of all who know m. About this time the merchant in whose hands Altham's property was, wisely, deposited, misappropriates it, reaks, and flies to America. He writes Altham a letter, confessing this fact, and his contrition, in language which we at once recognise to be sincere. Altham is now reduced to various employments, from each of which he is driven by some invisible and malignant spirit, who turns out eventually to be Mr. Simpson the fanatic. It is under the pressure of this persecution, which occasions the colour of his fortunes to deepen gradually, from the mere shade of inconvenience, down to the dark and dismal calamities of starvation and imprisonment, that the exemplary, wife ises upon our notice. She is the kind and faithful friend, the sad, but uncomplaining wife-cheerful in the presence of her husband, buoying him up when he would otherwise have sunk ;-then his prison companion, his nurse, and lastly, the judicious herald of returning fortune. We think this character very good. She is not, it is true, a "Lady Laura,” plexed both with sentimentality and dis tress, but she is “Higher far descended,” per is could not be Simpson lying before him. How could [his face] be changed to that small, wrinkled, pinched, and white visage. Oh, Mr. Marriott," he cried, "I have ruined that young man. His good name gone, and enemies are all about him. It is 7 who have done this." Here he stopped, and still his eyes moved not, but kept their perplexing stare upon his visitor.-p. 180-1. He then details his acquaintance with a Methodist preacher; his gradual progress to fanaticism and brandy; his hatred of Altham, and his aspersion. The following is very powerful. He saysI am depressed by fancies, as if shadows sate by me in unnatural silence. My own voice startles me-it is so unlike what it used to be. But we must conclude. The merchant's honesty and Simpson's death restore Altham and his wife to liberty and love again, with wealth added to their store. The effect upon Altham, of the transition from the gloominess of a prison, to the comfort of his friend's house, is well described; though we have an objection to the word " crisp" when applied to sheets, as well as to some other peculiarities of thought and expression, which we have no room now to notice. The power of the author lies, we think, in the description of scenery, some of which is very good (for instance, a line of small clouds rising from the horizon to the greatest height, as it were, of the blue sky, "like a troop of shining messengers ascending with some request from earth to heaven," and some others;) and also in pathetic touches, which we must refer the reader to the volume itself. We have said enough to recommend it as an interesting one, but we must again protest against its exclusive Epicurism. for Letters from the North of Italy. By W. Stewart Rose. London 1819. 8vo. 2 vols. In his various peregrinations, performing a sort of sweep at the foot of the Alps, the Author notices the green fields of Lombardy, which are in colour so unlike those of England. Mr. Rose says, Stept to their pedestals to take the air," in the full confidence of having a sufficient retreat behind them. Yet he does justice to the great Palladio, whose boundless imagination and skill in employing its stores, do indeed merit the highest encomium. Upon this subject we perfectly agree with the Author, who thinks this school better adapted to the modern improvements of London than the Grecian, which has been chosen in imitation of Piranesi. His reasons will be found at pages 165-6, &c. Vol. I. It is singular, that notwithstanding their fine architecture, the mechanical are far behind the liberal arts. The finest palaces are often lighted with leaden casements. Modern buildings, indeed, have sash windows; but here magnificent panes of glass are held by the wooding countries of Germany and Switzerland, work; for, though employed in the adjointhe use of putty is unknown in Italy. The same backwardness will be found in many of the customs of this country, which so strangely mingles the utmost refinement with the grossest barbarism. Almost every newspaper brings us accounts of the savage exploits of organized banditti, who infest the roads, and render travelling dangerous in many parts of Italy. Of these Mr. Rose gives us some extraordinary and atrocious in stances. a villa in the Roman state, walking out An elderly gentleman, the inhabitant of with his two daughters, was surprised, at a turning of his own wall, by ruffians, who carried him off, together with his children. His infirmities, however, preventing his keeping up with the gang, he was murdered by them; a proceeding by no means uncommon with the Roman and Neapolitan banditti. The daughters, after having undergone outrage worse than death,' were afterwards ransomed by the miserable mother. An English gentleman, long resident at Rome, was witness to the following scene: f one may judge, by her inheritance, of the stock from which she sprung. Simpon the slanderer dies, bequeathing his I prefer the Italian, which strikes me, property to Altham, and his death is well from having more of yellow in its compodescribed. He lives in a gloomy house, of yellow light) as infinitely more picsition (perhaps from the greater quantity where pictures in black frames are plen-turesque; nor do I know a more melantiful, and books ("Faith before works, choly combination of colours than that of and the Inefficacy of the latter," &c.) and a dark green ground, turned up with black The tribes of thieves were afterwards adbottles of brandy, stand side by side in clouds, the ordinary livery of the English mitted to an honourable capitulation; and surappalling disorder. Simpson was for- year. rendered for a specified term,on condition of being merly a fat and red-faced man, but now This remark is worthy of attention, lodged and fed at public charge. Will it be beHe turned his head slowly round, and both from those who paint English land-lieved that English ladies went to see them, and made them presents? An Italian gentleman asked fixed his dim eyes on his old friend's coun-scapes, and those who judge of them, enance. Marriott was horror-struck. That and of pictures produced under a foreign me if this was in admiration of their most distinguishing propensity. Instead of diamonds, spades, &c. they have money, swords, and cups. Two men issued from a billiard-table into | only one is in general use. The Author himself, in travelling from Terracina, (some years before) was partially a witness to the horror described in the following. From this place to Cisterna, the road was said to be impassable; and at the inn at Terracina were three men who had been carried up the mountains by banditti, as hostages, whilst their servant went to Cisterna to collect their ransom, fixed, like a military requisition, at so many crowns, so many silver watches, so many pair of shoes, &c. all which having been safely delivered, the hostages, who were of the neighbourhood of Cisterna, were released. A fourth, whose accent betrayed the distance of his home, and consequently the hopelessness of ransom, was stript and butchered in cold blood. As their crimes are horrible, so are some of their punishments ridiculous. What would an English audience think of a thief being punished on the stage, as a part of the evening's amusements? such is the case at Vincenza. A piece (says our author) which I saw exhibited on this theatre, is perhaps deserving of mention: a poor wretch was seated in a chair, on an elevated stage, with fetters on his ancles, to prevent an escape, and a placard pendent from his neck, which described his punishment and crime; an offence which consisted, as the paper spoke, "in attempted rapine." This species of pillory, la berlina, seemed to answer what was the ancient object of such a punishment with us, namely, to make the criminal notorious, not to put the weapons of vindictive justice into the hands of a mob. Bat the Vicentine rabble, unlike the crowd which throws Its filth in some less villain's nose, These cards are the same as the Spanish, but are of Italian origin; for it is, I believe, agreed, on all hands, to ascribe the invention of printing on wood to the Italians, the merit of this lying between a Sicilian and a Brescian, who both flourished about the beginning of the fourteenth century. As to these two, I am inclined to assign the palm, such as it is, to the Brescian, for a gentleman of Brescia is actually in possession of a series of blocks, the work of his countryman, amongst which are the plates, if I may use the expression, of the Italian and Spanish cards. Our loo is their pamfil, and casino their game of concina; and there is a general resemblance in other games from those at fairs and festivals, to those of the higher circles. They resemble us also in another point, in which we thought John Bull more singular than he appears to be, though he has certainly the honour of having carried the brutality to a higher pitch than any other people. We allude to pugilism; on which subject, Mr. Rose tells us, Boxing is, I believe, under different forms, common all over Tuscany, but is reduced to least perfection in the capital. There, to recur to poetry for assistance, Their hands fair knocks or foul in fury rain, oozes. Nor stop they there, but in their phrenzy pull at Whatever comes to hand, hair, nose, or gullet. Translation of Battachi. If a man finds himself overmatched at this foul play, he usually shouts "In soccorso!" and by the aid of the first comer turns the tables upon his antagonist. He again finds his abettors, and the combat thickens, till the street wears the appearance of the stage at the conclusion of Tom Thumb. At Sienna, the art puts on a more scientific form. In this city are regular academies surrounded the stage, with faces expressive for pugilistic exercise; there is a code for of painful emotion; and the disgust, evi- the regulation of boxing-matches, a cerdently excited, though not audibly ex- tain time for resurrection is accorded to pressed, at some coarse jests passed be- the one knocked down, and, in short, the tween the criminal and one of the by- strife assumes all the distinguishing feastanders, and which only moved the merri-tures of a courteous combat. ment of the sbirri, proved the generality of this feeling. As our theatrical managers are always running after novelty, they may perhaps improve on this hint, and try to borrow some felons from Newgate or the Peni*entiary, for their melo-dramas and agedies. Gaming, the source of much guilt, is common in Italy as in other nations. heir cards are of three kinds, though In this place also(Vicenza,) and at Florence, people contend with what may be called courteous weapons, that is, with the unarmed fist; but at Pisa and Leghorn, they clench a cylindrical piece of stick, which projects at each end of the doubled fist, and inflicts a cruel wound when they strike obliquely. I am nearly certain that I have seen the representation of some antique statue, with the clenched hand armed in the same manner, and the stick secured to the fist by strings; but I have no recollection where. Speaking of the food and wines of the Italians, we find, in various parts of these volumes, the following observations: I It appears to me a false remark, though a general one on the continent, that the English are a very carnivorous people : believe, for myself, that they eat more vegetables than any other people whatever; for the Frenchman, for instance, only considers vegetables as an indispensable accompaniment to his boulli, while an Englishman pairs every mouthful (of whatever description) which he swallows, with a proportionate allowance of cabbage or potatoes. The Italian is less herbivorous still than the Frenchman, as he even eats his bouilli without browze, except, if I recollect rightly, at Milan, where it is generally a straggling fringed with sour-crout, or border of carrots. The marked difference between the na tives of the Italian provinces is to be traced in the smallest things, even to varieties in their kitchen, though this is fundamentally the same throughout. Thus maccheroni forms the favourite pottage of the Neapolitans, and rice that of the Venetians, and many towns have their peculiar species of paste, which seldom strays beyond the frontier. The great national link is Parmesan cheese, which always crowns the mess. We may observe that the customs of the kitchen are amongst the most permanent of national habits. Thus I have been assured that the emigrants from Suffolk are to be distinguished from the other colonies of North America, by their pudding-eating propensities, which, I dare say, they inherited at first hand from their Anglo-Saxon ancestors; and I suppose that even the squab-pye of Devonshire, were the pursuits of our Antiquarian Society rationally conducted, might be traced up to the heroic ages of the Heptarchy. A learned and ingenious friend observes, that Greek colonies, wherever they have been planted, have introduced the passion for cheese as a principal ingredient in cookery. The fact, as far as my observation extends, is true, though I never yet met with it in negus, as Nestor and Machaon drank it. But cheese seems to have spread from the Greeks to the Romans, is general throughout Italy, and, as I said before, is the great bond of union between her various kitchens. - Every foul that flies, and every fish that swims, is meat in Italy; whilst, on the contrary, some of the greatest delicacies which sea and air offer, are rejected by us. Amongst these I should class all small birds, which are here dignified by the appellation of birds of the gentle beak, such as thrushes, robin-red-breasts, as contradistinguished from sparrows, and others which may be said to be of the burgher beak. * Minestra. 2 The cuttle-fish is also a luxury stewed in its own ink and oil. the (To be concluded in our next.) thyrambics. But neither those of the first, tations, and the tasteful carved and enor even of a secondary description, will bear graved ornaments, is certainly the finest in The best wine in Rome, the vino d'Or- carriage; and the Tuscan wine, whether the Osmanic Empire. Many oriental travieto, is to be considered but as a better drunk in Rome or in London, has a taste vellers pronounce it to be the most beautibreed of vinegar; and hence a foreigner, perfectly distinct from what it has in Flo-ful in the world, but probably they never resident there, of I know not what counrence. I was assured, by all of whom I in- saw that master-piece of Arabian architectry, but who had studied in an English quired on this subject, that the wine ex-ture, the Mosque of Cordova, nor the brewery, conceived the project of introduc- ported was universally governato-a term great Persian Mosques of the Moguls at ing the use of beer. The scheme suc- which, in Florentine, corresponds with our Agra and Dehli. It is, however, unquesceeded beyond his hopes, and even the expression of doctored. The worst pro- tionably a perfect jewel of Saracen archiRomans followed the example of the Eng-perty is its extreme delicacy, already exem- tecture. It has not, like other Mosques, lish, Swiss, and Germans, who flocked by plified in its not bearing carriage. This is, a court-yard, with a colonnade, but immehundreds to his vats. Whilst he was thus indeed, such, that if you take the oil from diately opposite to the entrance there is a in the high road to wealth, a rich and power-leave it open for an hour, the nectar be- are covered externally with pieces of red, top of the flask which contains it, and simple terrace of white marble. The walls ful noble begged the diritto esclusivo, or monopoly of this article, from the pope. comes absolutely vapid. green, blue, yellow, black, and white mar Having obtained it, he sent for the poor ble, which at a distance give it the appearbrewer, and communicated the intelligence, ance of inlaid variegated mosaic work. kindly informing him that he might still conThe ornaments of the window frames and tinue the trade, as his agent. He subscribed door reach to the gabel of the front, and to his conditions, since it might no better consist of Arabian inscriptions, which are be, and went on with his brewery. But the so exquisitely carved and polished, that the tax levied by the puissant peer was so characters seem to be formed of reflecting great, that he was under the necessity of at metal. But the finest part of the whole once lowering his beer and raising his price. edifice is the door itself, which, from the reThe consequences may be guessed: custodundancy and delicacy of its rich sculpture, mers disappeared; the noble took little by excites the astonishment of the beholder. his motion; the brewer became bankrupt, The founder devoted no less than three and the people were poisoned as before. M. Von Hammer describes the other years to its completion, and expended on The wines of Lombardy are in genemosques in the order of their founders; but it forty thousand ducats. Above the enwe cannot accompany him through all the trance the name of the founder is inscribed, very bad: the renowned and classi- details into which he enters. The oldest as follows, in gold characters, on an azure cal "Falernian" is inferior to small of these edifices is the Mosque of Orkhan, ground:-Sultan Mahammed I. the son of beer. the second Sultan of the Osmans and the Sultan Bajazet I. the son of Sultan Murad Í. conqueror of Brussa. This Mosque, which The splendour and taste of this strucstands within the castle, and which has sin- ture, fully justifies the name of Tschelebi, gularly resisted the ravages of time and which the Osmanic historians apply to Sulconflagrations, is now shut up and aban-tan Mohammed; the meaning of this word ral for itself. TRAVELS IN ASIATIC TURKEY. Observations on a Journey from Constantinople to Brussa and Mount Olympus, and thence back to Constantinople by the way of Nice and Nicomedia. By Joseph von Hammer. Published at Pest. doned. THE MOSQUES OF BRUSSA. I know (says Mr. R.) but four wholesome species of what Icall table wine in Lombardy; the first is the Vicentine, at least in my estimation; the second, a stronger wine, is produced near Verona; the third is grown The Mosque of the son and successor of on the Euganean hills; and the fourth, Osman, namely, Murad I. stands on the west which I have met with at inns, on the bor-side of the town, in the quarter of the Old der towards Piedmont, is called il vin rosso Baths. The architect was a Frank, and it delle colline-a denomination which speaks has this peculiarity, that a College is included in the same building. A hawk There are few strong wines grown in Lom-well sculptured in stone, is placed on one of bardy; but these, when kept long enough, the arches, but the ingenuity of the workare excellent, as the piccolit of Friuli, and manship is not sufficient to satisfy the Bethe Vino di Breganza. Most of the others are lievers. They must have a miracle added. what is called in Italian, vini da pasto, or vini The story is, that a hawk belonging to da pasteggiare; that is, wine to be drunk Murad I. having flown to this spot, he in at meals, like our beer; for the Italians are vain called it to him. Finding that he could not much addicted to strong or foreign not prevail on it to return, he wished" that wines, which are only to be met with in the it might sit there for ever." The obstinate houses of the straricchi, or over rich, and hawk was immediately converted into stone, are even there insufferably bad. They are, and remains there as a warning against disperhaps, right in their fear of strong wines, loyalty and disobedience. as there is no doubt that all strong liquors are more prejudicial to the health in hot countries than in cold. But good and evil are more complicated than we are, at first sight, disposed to admit, and the dangers of acid may, perhaps, be set against those of alcohol. "The Mosque of Sultan Bajilzet Yadirim is picturesquely situated at the eastern extremity of the town, remote from any other building; the architecture is simple; it has only one door and one minaret. This, as well as the great Mosque, was left unfinished by Bajazet. The completion of To return to Italian wines, and to the these and many other great works, was inTuscan in particular, nothing is more deli-terrupted by the battle of Angora, which he cious than what is in that country called the vino usuale di Firenze, and which in Florence, when good, and two years old, seldom costs more than two-pence a bottle. This I should prefer even to the Montepul ciano, termed by Redi, the King of Wines, and, indeed, to all the others specified in his di lost, and with it his liberty, for he died the "The Mosque of Sultan Mohammed the is something between the French petitmaitre and the English gentleman, and does not entirely correspond either with the German Junger Herr or Edler Junker. At the entrance of the Mosque, beneath the choir, over which the Sultan's upper Mosque is placed, the spectator is agreeably surprised by the chinro-scuro effect of the glittering pottery with which the walls are covered. The Mosaic formed of this pottery, or rather of Persian porcelain, represents two large green curtains, with a basket of flowers in the centre. The Mosque, consists of three great rotundas, of which one forms the centre of the building, and the others the two wings. In the great Mosque in the city, which was completed by Sultan Mohammed, the pillars were gilt to the height of five or six feet; and in this building the walls are covered with blue Persian porcelain, with inscriptions from the Koran in white enamel. The Mihral, or niche in which the Koran is deposited, and which supplies the place of the European altar, is formed of red marble, richly ornamented with sculpture, so that in artificial splendour it fully corresponds with the opposite door. This Mosque, together with the tomb of the founder, in its vicinity, is commonly called Yeshil Imaret or the green edifice, because the minarets and cupolas were formerly covered with green Persian porcelain, so that when the sun shone they appeared like colonnades and domes of |