The Mirror — Concord, N.H., 1798-03-27 00:00:00, page 4

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^ . THE
SENTIMENTAL MEDLEY.
^fcfflg_n_CT_mgraßrara^maorc^^
THE iftftiulet.
ViRTVE preferable to Beauty.
Hour unhappy the lady ^bofi charm!
Depend an a beautifulJkin;
Who ten an the cast of bfr %,
Regardlef! of graces <w"bin
The rojeon her chuk noillJoan fodc.
And languid the lows ffearkl ng ,e;
No longer tbfflatterer /miles, >
The lever then cecjee tefigb.
'Tie Virtue alone makes us bhfl,
Its charms true erjoynwt impart ;
Such a conwerfe, and friendship and love,
Andpka/ures which flow from the heart.
Theft fill are increasing with time,
Suchjo,e will not fail with the night ;
But rile, like (be junfrom the taft,
And beam more ineffably bright.
Ob bapp, —thrice bap,, the fair,
Where sense and cohere beauty enjoin'd!
With this bow so the eye,
With that foe enraptures the mind.
chusing A Wife with a Pipe of
Tobacco.
TUBE, I love thee as my life ;
By thee I mean to chufe a wife.
Tube, thy color let me find,/
In her ikin and in her mind.
Let her have a shade as fine ;
Let her breath be foeet as thine ;
Let her, when her lips I kiss,
Burn like thee, to give me bliss;
Let her, in some fmoak or other.
All my failings kindly smother ;
Often when my thoughts are low,
Send them where they ought to go.
When to study I incline,.
Let her aid be such as thine:
Such as thine her charming pow'r,
In the vacant social hour;
Let her live to give delight,
Ever warm and ever bright ;
Let her deeds, whene'er the dies,
Mount as incense to the Ikies.
fflfcellanp.
[Published by defire.]
DESCRIPTION
Os a monstrous great SNAKE, in the
Island of Ceylon, called the
ANACONDA ;
In slitter from an EngHjb gentleman reding
in the Raft Indies, to bisfriend in London.
SOME time fiace, the commands of
my diredors carrying me to Ceylon,
to tranfafl an affair of no little conse
quence, I had an apartment prepared me
on the skirt of a principal town, facing
the woods. At some distance from my
window there was a rifiog ground, on
which stood three or four very large palm
trees, that afforded me every morning,
as I lay in bed, a delightful propped.—
One morning as I was looking at these,
I saw, as I thought, a large arm of one of
them in strange commotions, bending
and twisting about, though there was no
wind, and often striking one end to th&
earth, then raifiog it again, and lefirg it
among the leaves. Iwas gazing atthis
with great amazement, when a Ceylon
ese coming in, 1 begged him to look and
wonder with me : he looked, and was
much more amazed and terjifiedthan 1 ;
in Ihort, a palends overspread his whole
face, and he seemed almost finking to the
earth with terror. He conjured me to
bar up all my doors ; then told me, that
what appeared an arm of a tree to me,
was in reality a Serpent of that monftcous
size; diverting irfe!f there with its various
commotions, and now and then darting
down to the earth far pi,. I soon found
out the truth of what be told me, afid
looking more nearly, saw it fcize a small
animal before me, and take it up into the
tree. Enquiring after this miracle, the
Ceylonese told me, thaphe wonder was
only that the creature was so near us, lor 1
that it was a serpent but too well known
in the island; but that it ufualiy kept in
the inland parts and woods, where it ot«>
ten dropt down from thecovert of a large
" TO RAISE THE GENIUS, AND TC MENDTHE HEART.''
trcQ and devoured a traveller alive.—
A relation so strange as this could never
have gained credit with me, but that I
plainly saw, before my eyes a creature,
from its size, capable of doing more than
was related The monster continued
diverting himfelf till we assembled a body
of twelve of us, to go on horseback, well
armed, to destroy him. We rode up to
wards the place in a body ; but, not to
expose ourselves to unnecessary dangers,
we surrounded the ground, and rode be
hind a close thicket ; from whence we
might unseen level our fire armsat him.
It was by this time the beat of the day,
and when we arrived there, we found hito
so much larger than we had conceived,
that we all wished ourftlves fife at home
again ; and it was a long time before
any body dare fire a gun. We had now
time to observe the creature : and believe
me, all the descriptions of monsters of
this kind hitherto given, are trifles to the
truth of what we saw in him. The Cey.
lonefe all agreed that he was much larger
than any they had ever seen, and such a
mixture of horror and beauty together,
no eye but that which saw it can con
ceive. The creature was more than ar
thick as a slender man's waist, yet seem
ed far from fat, and very long in propor
tion to his thickness ; often hanging
himfelf by the tail from the higher:
boughs of the tree, and reaching the
ground with his head. He was most sur
prisingly agile and nimble, and now di
verting himfelf in the heat of the day,
with a thousand gambols round the
branches of the tree, and sometimes
would come down and twist his tail
round the bottom of the trunk, throw
ing himfelf to his whole length all round
it. In the midst of one of these gambols,
we were surprised to fee him get up in
haste into the tree ; but the cause soon
appeared : a small animal of the fox kind,
but not like our English foxes, coming
immediately after it, the serpent had seen
him coming, and took thisway to be pre
pared for him. He darted down upon
the unwary creature from tbs tree, and
fucked him in, in a few minutes, then
licked his chaps with a broad double
tongue of a blackish colour, and laid
himfelf at his tafe at length upon the
ground, but with his tail still twisted
round the tree. In this posture, I had
leisure with hortor, yet with admiration,
to behold him. He was coveted all over
with scales like those of a crocodile, all
ridged up in the middle; his head was
green, with avast black spot in the mid
dle, and yellow Breaks round the jaws ;
he had a yellow circle like a golden collar
round bis neck, and behind that another
great spot of black. His sides were of a
dulky olive colour, and his back more
beautiful than can be well imagined ;—
there ran down the middle of it a broad
chain of black, curled and waved at the
edges ; round this there ran all the way
a narrow one of flelh colour, and on the
outside of that, a very broad one of a
bright yellow, not strait like a ribband,
but waved and curled in various inflec
tions, and spotted all over at small dif
tahces,with great round and long blotch
es of a perfect blood color; his head was
very flat, but extremely broad, and his
eyes monstrously large, arid very bright
and terrible. These were his colors, as
he lay still ; but when he moved about
in the fun, was a thousand times more
beautiful ; the colors, according to the
several foa&s of light, prefeniing the eye
with avast variety of mixtures, and in
many places, looking like our changea
ble colors in silks. We now all aimed
our pieces at him as he lay, and fired at
his head all at the fame instant; but
whether he accidentally moved just at
that time, or out fears made us take bad
fight, or whateverelfe might be the cause,
we either miffed him or never hurt hire :
in /hort, he tock no fort of notice of it ;
and, after a counciiof war, we all agreed
W make no father attempt upon him
thattinfo but to gp^ome and return
with a stronger party next d^y. The
Ceylonese seemed to know the creature
well ; they called it Anaconda, and talk
ed of eating its flefh when they caught it,
as they had no small hopes ofthis; for,
they fay, when one of these creatures
chooses a tree, for his dwelling,, he seldom
quits it iri a long time. I detained my
company of Ceylonese to dine with me,
and the afternoon was spent in relating
the amazing things which one or other
of the company had seen of this fort of
monster, : in Abort,'they told a thousand
things thatoutwent my .redulity; but I
am to inform, that what we few the fol
lowing day, as much exceeded all they
had told t^e, as what they had told me
seemed to exceed truth and probability.
It teems/ the common cuftum of this
creature is, to liein wait for its prey, by
hiding io the boughs of large trees,
whence it unfufyeaed drops upon the
wretched creature, who is seized before
it fees its enemy. But the instance we
saw of this, I must relate to you at large.
The next morning we assembled more
than a hundred at the old thicket, where
, we had the pleasure, if I dare call it so, to
find our enemy still at his old post ; he
seemed very fierce and very hungry this
morning, and we soon saw the amazing
effeas ofit. There are great plenty of
tygers io this country : one of these, of
a monstrous fi%e, not lower than a com
mon heifer, as he went along, came at
length under our serpent's tree. In a
moment we heard a dreadful ruffling in
the tree, agd, fwift as thought, the ser
pent drept upon him, seizing him across
the back, a little below the Shoulders,
with his horrible mouth, and taking in a
piece of the back bigger than a man's
bead. The creature roared with agony,
and to our unspeakable terror, was run
ning with his enemy towards us: his
course, however, was soon Hoped, for the
nimble adversary winding his body three
or four times round the body of his prey,
girting him so violently, that he fell down
in agony. The moment the serpent had
fixed his folds, he let go the back of the
creature, and raising and twining round
his head, opened his horrid mouth to its
full extent, and seized the whole face of
the tyger In it, biting and grinding him
in a most horrid manner, and at once
choaking and tearing him to pieces.—
The tyger reared up again on thi, and
words are too poor to paint his seeming
agony ; he wreathed and tolled about,
but io vain; the enemy, wherever he
went, was with him, and his hollow
roaring from withip the destroyer's
mouth was dreadful beyond expression.-
I was for firing on the creature fa this
Bate, but they all declared against it ;
they told me they knew his customs so
well, that they were now sure of him
without any trouble or hazard if they let
him alone ; but if they disturbed him in
this conditions he would be so outrage
ous that several of our lives, would as
suredly pay the forfeit. They seemed to
know so well what they were about,
that I readily acquiesced. Several of us
spent the whole day, in observing this
rirange fight; and surely the agonies of
the tyger were beyond all that can be
conceived, and his death more horrid
than a thousand other deaths ; with all
their tortures put together. The tyger
was a very ftromg and fierce creature, &
though unable to hurt or get rid of its
cruel enemy, yet gave him a world of
trouble; a hundred times would he rear
up, and run away, but soon fell down
again, partly oppressed by the weight,
and partly by the folds and wreathed
twists of the serpent round his body :
but though he fell, he was far from be
ing conquered, or at all manageable.—
Alter some hours he seemed much spent,
and lay as if dead : and the serpent, who
had many times violently girted himfelf
round him, attempted to break his bones,
but in vain ; now let go his hold, twist
ing his tail only round the .tyger's neck,
who was now in no condition either to
refill or escape ; he made towards the
tree, dragging, with some pains, the
vidimafter him.
\C<mtirMcd to the firfl IWA
the ffloraltfl.
No character contain# such
in affertibkge of tow and
I picked qualities as the hypocrite
in friend(hip. He who studies to
make you believe that he is your
friend and cockquently gains your
confidence, and when your back
is turned betrays you and endeav
ors direaiy or indiiedly io de
tra& from yper merit, to diminish
you in the good opinion of 'the
worid, or butt your good name.
"WOVi—W^- MW III —^
isa)envious man, it a coward, ii
a proud man, it a traitor, is at
heart a tyrant, is a robber, is a
murderer, as Shakespeare fays of
another charader, “ „ fa for no'i
but trea/ons. stratagems find spoils
—Let no Jueb man bo trafted?'—
Such a difpofirion is like the fun :
when he mounts above the eattern
hills, he fmilei upon the earth and
fill# all things with joy, and, fays
the pagan, 66 if such is the counte
nance of this god of day, what ben
igni, must be in bis heart." But
tor the interferance of Providence
no tender plant Ihould please the
eye or warm the heart with its gai
ety and innocence ; for his fmilea
are malignant, and hit heart the
abyss of hell.
— ="—-===^^
Banquet of omus.
DR. JOHNSON was one day
in company with a very
talkative lady, of whom he ap
peared to take very little notice.
She in a pique said to him
" Why, Dodor, I believe you
prefer the company of men to
that of ladter." " Madam," re
plied he, "I am very lend of the
company of ladies; I like their
beauty, I like their delicacy, I
like their vivacity, and I like their
^filence.
Curious Combat.
A MOST uncommon circum
stance occurred on Teufday so the
city road, A large dog of the
miftiff breed, happened to pass
near a game cock, when the lat.
ter without any provocation, as
sailed the dog with the utmost vi
olence. The dog became irritate
ed, and in hit turn attacked the
game cock. A severe combat
ensued § but the vigilance and
dexterity of the cock eluded every,
attempt of the dog to hurt him,
at length the cock flew upon the
dog's back, sod with hit beak ac
tually beat out both hit eyes.— —•
He then coGtioued the attack
with so much ferocity, that in a
short time the dog fell to the
ground, when the cock ftrock him
a blow with his heel, which pene
trated to hit brains, and he instant
ly expired. There were above
500 persons witneffei to this curi
ous battle. Fifty guineas were
offered for the game cock and re
futed. Eog. Pap.
SOME ladies walking in the
fields, met a labourer with a little
kid, which he was carrying to
market" See I fee I" said one of
them, , what a pretty little goat,
though it has no horns." The
rustic cried, “ Ladies, he is not
married?'
A YOUNG lady hiked a gen
tleman who was a lawyer, what
was the most lurprifing curiosity
in all Sir Hani Sloan's collection ;
he answered, a virgin of fifteen ,
years of, age. Indeed, Sir, replied•
the lady, you are mistaken, for I
have been cold by several, that it]
hit whole collection, there is noth
ing so curious as ad bonefl lautyer.