The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-11-02 00:00:00

SELECT EXTRACTS.

MANIAQUA IDEA OF THE SUN.—The sun, by some of the
people of this benighted land, is considered to be a mass of
fat, which descends nightly to the sea, where it is laid hold
of by the chief of a white man's ship, who cuts a portion of
tallow off it, anti giving it a kick, it bounds away, sinks under
the wave, goes round below, and then comes up again in the
east next morning, its fat having again groan.—Sir James
Alexander's Expedition of Discovery into Africa.

A FRIGHTENED LION.—A Buschman was, on one occa-
sion, following a troop of zebras, and had just succeeded in
wounding one with his arriws, when a lion sprang out from
a thicket opposite, and showed every inclination to dispute
the prize with him. The Buschman, being near a con veni-
ant tree, threw down his arm•, and climbed for safety to an
upper branch. The lien, allowing the wounded zebra to
pass on, now turned his whole attention towards the Bosch-
man, and walking round and round the tree, he ever and
anon growled and looked up at the Buschman. At length
the lion lay down at the foot of the tree, and kept watch all
night. Towards morning, sleep overcame the hitherto wake-
ful Boschman, and he dreamt that he had fallen into the
lion's mouth: starting from the effects of his dream, he lost
his seat, and falling front the branch. he alighted heavily on
the lion, on which the monster, thus unexpectedly saluted,
ran off with a loud roar; and the Boschman, also taking to
his heels in a different direction returtied in safety to "his
anxious parents." —Sir James .-aexander's Expedition of Dis-
covery into Africa.

HONEY TAKEE.—A large swarm of bees had fixed their
abode on the ceiling of a verandah, and in due time, when
their honey was deposited, we wished to collect it, but were
for some time at a loss for the means. Hearing, however,
that there was a gardener who possessed a peculiar art of
doing it unhurt, he was sent for, and desired to bring down
the honey. I watched him closely through the whole process,
and was told by him, and believe, that he used no other pre-
caution than the following :—He took some of the plant
called toolsy, and rubbed it over his body, face, arms, and
hands; he then chewed a little, and held a sprig of it in his
mouth. With no other than this apparently slight defence,
he mounted a ladder, a large dish in one hand, and a sharp
knife in the other • and though as thinly clad as his class
usually are, with thousands of bees swanning about his naked
body, he with the greatest sany-froid cut immediately through
the upper part of the comb, where it was suspended to the
roof, and, receiving the whole of it in his dish, brought it
down, without havinq suffered from a single sting I—.lndian
Reminiscences in the Bengal Moofussue.
THE GOYEKNOR OF JERUSALEM.—The governor, as is the
custom of governors in the East, and probably, as Pontius
Pilate did in the time of our Saviour, sat in a large room,
ready to receive anybody who had any complaint to make.
His divan was a raised platform, as an iron camp bedstead,
covered with rich Turkey rugs, and over them a most splen-
did lion skin. His face was noble, and his long black beard
the finest I ever saw. A pair of large pistols and a Damascus
sabre were lying by his side, and a rich fur cloak, thrown
back over his shoulders, displayed a form that might have
served as a model for a Fi et cules. Altogether he reminded
me of Richard in his tent on the plains of Acre. At the mo-
ment of my entry he was breathing on a brilliant diamond,
and I noticed on his finger an uncommonly beautiful emerald.
Be received me with great politeness, and when I handed
him the Pasha's finnan, witii a delicacy and courtesy I never
saw surpassed, he return- i it to me unopened and unread,
telling me that my dr-ss and apearance were sufficient re.
commendation to toe best services in his power. If the
reader would know what dress and appearance are a suffi-
cient recommendation to the Lest offices of a Turkish gover-
nor, I will merely mention that ha':ing thrown off, or rather
having been stripped of, most of my Turkish dress at He-
bron, I stood before the governor in a red tart:ouch, with a
long black silk tassel, a bine roundabout jacket, buttoned tip
to the throat, grey pantaloons, boots splashed with mud, a
red sash, a pair of large Turkish pistols, sword, and my Nu-
bian club in my hand; and the only decided mark of aristo-
cracy about me was my beard, which, though not so long as
the governor's, far exceeded it in brilliancy ofcotnplexiun,—
Stephen's Incidents of Travel.

L&Nsxs.—Tschirnhausen constructed lenses four feet in
diameter, one of which weighed 1601b5.; and produced power-
ful effects no bodies placed in its focus; wet wood kindled
in au instant, water in small vessels boiled, the metals were
melted, and tiles, slate, pumice, &c., were vitrified. Bei.-
'sieves made a lens winch consisted of two glasses in shape,
which were plated edge to edke, so as to enclose a hollow ca-
vity between them. This cavity, which was 5 ft. in diameter,
was filled with spirits of wine, by which a double convex fluid
lens was formed. With this lens two farthings were melted
in half a minute, a small piece of steel began to melt in two
minutes, and small fragments of iron melted in a quarter of
A minute. Mr. Parker, of Fleet-street, some years ago, con-
structed the most powerful burning lens hitherto known. It
was made of flint-glass, and was about three feet in diameter.
At a short distance behind it leas situated another lens, by.
which the rays were converged into a still smaller and there-
fore more powerful focus. With this instrument ten grains
of slate were incited in two seconds, of cast iron in three
seconds, of steel in twelve seconds, of pumice stone in tweets -
four seconds, and of flint in thirty seconds. A diamond of
ten grains was reduced to six grains by exposure for thirty
minutes in the focus of the lens! the gem opened, emitted
white fumes, dosed again, Ana resumed nearly its original
shape. this powerful instrument was sent to China for want
of an English purchaser. The great difficulty of procuring
such large pieces or flint glass has induced Sir David Brewster
to propose that burning glasses should be buia up of several
pieces, each piece being so curved as to contribute to the
generel localizing effect. The same philosopher has also
proposed to combine reflection from mirrors with transmission
through lenses, in order to produce a powerful combined
effect. The rays which fall near the margin of a lens add
but little to the heating power of the focus, on account ot
the abl;qinty with whin h thee fall on the lens. Sir David
Brewster therefore suggests 'that a number of small lenses
should be fitted into the surface of a hollow sphere. SO as to
unite all their foci at its centre. The apparatus must be so
placed that the sun's rays ‘aill pass directly through one or
the small lenses; while those rays which pass through the
other lenses will first be reflected from mirrors properly
placed round the sphere ; so that the whole of the rats will
pass through the various lenses in directions at right angles
to the diameters, and therefore in the insist favourable direc-
tion for producing a powerful focalize(' effect. All the effects
produced by these burning mirrors, lenses, &c. are derived
from the employment of solar light. If the light of a fire or
candle be employed, the effects are far less intense. But it
is a very remarkable circumstance, that the rays froth the
moon produce not the smallest heating effect. Mr. Parker's
leas was exposed to brilliant moon-light, and a delicate ther-
mometer was placed in its focus ; but not the slightest ele-
-aation temperatu-e was indicated. We know that the
moon's light consists of the solar says which are reflected
from her surface; but it appears as if the heat combined v its
the sun's rays was stifled or absorbed, ei'her at the ?noun's
rarfate or in the aerial medium through ishith they have to
Pilllik-rrevabt Magoint,

The sensitive mind discovers poetry everywhere. As it is
touched with whatever is affecting in the chances of life, so
does it taste whatever is picturesque in the objects of nature.
All that is majestic and lovely here is to it a source of delight,
and helps it to form a more just conception of Him who is
the author of so much beauty. It is thus that in the images
of earth may be recognized the tokens of eternity,—in the
canopy of heaven, and the expanse of the ocean,— la the
setting glories of the sun, and the melting colours of the rain-
bow,—visions and emblems of a brighter world.--.llrs. John
Sanford.
MENAI BRIDGE ECLIPSED.—The suspenson bridge at
Freyburgh, the longest in the world, was completed and
thrown open in Int The engineer who conducted it is M.
(Maley, of Lyons. Its dimensions, compared with those ut
►Menai Bridge, are as follow :
Length. Elevation. Breadth.
Freyburg, 9. 5 ft. 174 t't. 28 tt.
Iklenai 5BO 1:30 15 . .

It is supported on four cables of iron wire, each containinL;
1,056 wiles, the united strength of which is capable of sup •
bolting three times the weight which the bridge will ever be
likely to bear, or three times the weight of two rows of wag-
gons, extending entirely across it. The cables enter the
ground on each side obliquely for a considerable distance,
And are then carried down vertical shafts cut in the rock, and
filled with masonry, through which they pass, being attached
at the extremity, to enormous blocks of stone. The materi
als of which it is composed are almost exclusively Swiss : the
iron came from Berne, the limestone masonry from the qua-
ries of the Jura, the woodwork from the forest of Freynurg ;
the workmen were, with the *exception of one man. natives
who had never seen such a bridge before. It was completed
iu three years. at an expense of about 600,000 frs. (1:25,000
sterling.)—Howt book Jro Switzerlaud.
ONE of THE CAI SkS of THE SEPARATION OF ENGLAND
FROM THE CHURCH OF RoME.—The schism between Eng-
land and Rome, which commenced in the reign of Henry
VIII. was rendered irreconcileable by the irreverent beha-
viour of Sir Thomas Boleyn's dog to Pope Clement VII.
Sir Thomas Boleyn, was the father to the celebrated Anne
Boleyn, who was afterwards one of the queens of Henry VIII,
hid been created Earl of Wiltshire by that monarch, and
was at the head of the embassy appointed by him to argue
the point of his divorce from Queen Catherine, before the
council assembled at Bologna, in the presence of the Pope.
The Pope, when he gave audience to the eats, required that
he should acknowledge his supremacy by kissing his toe.
This, the earl, being of the reformed religion, positively re-
fused to do, although it was a piece of homage which all the
soverigns of Europe were accustomed to do, when admitted
into the presence of the head of the papal church. While
Clement, in a very high tone, was insisting on the propriety
of the English earl submitting to this ceremony, and extend-
ing his toe significantly towards him at the same time, the
earl's dog imagining, no doubt, that some signal insult was
intended to his master by this gesture, sprang forward, and
bit his holiness's toe; which provoked a general burst of
laughter from all present, and was so highly resented by the
Pope, that he refused to admit the earl to a second audience.
The Earl of Wid-hire returned to England with his suite;
and the separation of this country from the papal see took
place in less than four hours after this ridiculous incident.—
Fisher's Jurenite Scrap-book.
DOG-EATING.—The feast [at Hawaii, in the Sandwich
Islands] consisted of dogs, poultry, pigs, &c. Witted; that is,
after bewg carefully wrapped in leaves of the ti plant, cooked
by being buried amidst stones heated for the purpose. They
were then served up with boiled taro tops, which are a good
substitute for spinache. Meats cooked alter this manner
have a slight taste of the it plant, and are very savoury. This
mode of cooking fish, the mullet particularly, is preferable
to any other that 1 have seen. The Hawaiians take great
pains to have fine fi,b. They take them when small, and con-
vey them from the sea to a pond of salt water, where they
are fed for several months; thence they are carried into
brackish water, and finally introduced into fresh ponds,
where they are carefully tended. Near my place at table
was a fine young dog, Milled, the flesh of which was declared
to be excellent by all who partook of it. To my palate, Its
taste was what I imagine would result from mingling the

flavour of pig and lamb, and I did not hesitate to make my
dinner of it, in spite of some qualms at the first mouthful.
I must confess, when 1 reflected that the puppy now trussed
up before us might have been the affectionate and frolicsome
companion of some Hawaiian fair, they all have pet pigs or
puppies, I felt as if dog-eating were only a low grade of can-
nibalism. What ! eat poor Ponto !
" the poor dog, in his life :he firmest friend,
The first to welcome, foremost to defend ;
Whose,honest heart is still his master's own •
Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone;
Unhonour'd falls, unnoticed all his worth,
Denied in heaven the soul he held on earth."
However, the edible dug is not one of your common curs,
but a dainty animal, fed exclusively on vegetables, chiefly
taro, in the form of piie, and, at the age of two years, is con-
sidered a dish wherewith to regale royalty.—Ruschenberyer's
Nan alive.

CANAL TRAVELLING IN AMERICA.—The canal travelling

in many parts of America is conducted with so little regard
to the comfort of passengers as to render it a very objection-
able conveyance. The Americans place themselves entirely
in the power and at the command of the captains of the ca-
nal boats, who often use little discretion or civility in giving
their orders; and strangers who are unaccustomed to such
usage, and would willingly rebel against their tyranny, are
in such cases compelled to be guided by the majority of
voices, and quietly submit to all that takes place, however
disagreeable it may be. About eight o'clock in the evening,
every one is turned out of the cabin by the captain and his
crew, who are occupied for some tune after the cabin is
cleared in suspending two rows of cots or hammocks from
the ceiling, arranged in three tiers, one above another. At
nine the whole company is ordered below, when the captain
calls the names of the passengets from the way-bill, and at
the same time assigns to each his bed, vrhilth must imineei-
ately be taken possession of by its rightful owner on pain of
his being obliged to occupy a place on the floor, should the
number of passengers exceed the number of beds—a circum-
stance of very common occurrence in that locomotive laud.
I have spent several successive eights in this way, in a cabin
only 40 feet long by 11 feet broad, with no less than 40 pas-
sengers; while the deafening chorus produced try the creak-
ing of the numberless bull-frogs that frequent the American
swamps was so great as to render it often difficult to make
one's self heard in conversation; an.l, of course, nearly im-
possible to sleep. The distribution of beds appear to be ge-
uerally regulated by the size of the passengers, those that
are heaviest Dying placed in the berths next the floor.—
The object of this arrangement is partly to ballast the
boat properly, and partly, in the event of a breakdown,
to render the consequence less disagreeable arid dangerous
to the unhappy beings in the lower pens. At five ~'cluck in
the morning, all hands are turned out in the same abrupt and
discourteous style, and forced to remain on clerk in the cold
morning air, while the hammocks are removed, and breakfast
is in preparation. The interval is occupied to the duties of
the toilette, which is not the least amusing part of the ar-
rangement. A tin vessel is placed at the stern of the boet,
which every one washes and fills for his own use from the
water of toe canal, with a gigantic spoon formed of the same
metal. A towel, a brush, and a comb, intended for the ge-
neral service, hang at the cabin door, the use of which, how-
ever, is fortunately quite optional. The breakfast is served
between six and seven o'clock, dinner at eleven, and tea at
five. The American canal travelling certainly forms a great
centres, to that of Holland and Belgium. The boat in which
I was conveyed on the canal between Ghent and Bruges, fur
example, was commodiously fitted up with separate state
rooms, containing *one berth in each, and was, in other re-
spects, a most comfortable and agreeable conveyance. But
1 trust the reader will not form an estimate of American tre-
Yelling from what has just been said, nor take this single
specimen of it as a criterion of the whole. In the eastern
and earlier settled districts of the country. no such g. ievances
have to be suffered, and there are many hundreds of persons
in that part of the United States who hardly believe iu their
existence. eSselong as the traveller keeps on tke east of the
Alleghana{Mountains, all goes on smoothly; but if he at-
tempts to cross their summits, and penetrates into the " far
west," be must look for treatment such as I have described.
There is, indeed, as great a difference in this respect between
the seaward and interior states of North America, as there is
between the counties of Kent and Caithness.—Steeenson's
Sketch of Civil Engineering in America.
SuPEßsTlTiaus Blume or THE NIL:SLIMS IN DREAMS.—
That dreams are reirerded by the Muslims as being often
true warnings or indications of Inure events, I have men
tioned in a former note. This belief sanctioned by tne pro-
phet will be well illustrated by the following anecdote, which
was related to me in Cairo, shortly after the terrible plague
of the year 1833, by the iheykh Mohammad Et-Tantawee,
who had taken the trouble of investigating the fact, and hail
ascertained its truth. A tradesman, living in the quarter of
ElsElairafee, iu Cairo, dreamed, during the plague above-
mentioned, that eleven persons were earned out from his
house to be buried, victims of this disease. He awoke in a
state of the greatest distress and alarm, reflecting that eleven
was the total number of the inhabitants of his house, inclu-
ding himself; and that it would be rain in him to attempt,
by adding one or more members to his household, to elude
tire decree of God, and give himself a chance of escape; so,
calling together his neighbours, he informed them of his
dream, and was counselled to submit with resignation to a
fate so plainly foreshown, and to be thankful to God for the
timely notice with which be had been mercifully favoured.
On die following day, one of his children died; a day or two
after, a wife; and the pestilence continued its ravages among
his family until he remained in his house alone. It was im-
possible 'fur him now to entertain the slightest doubt of the
entire accomplishment of the warning: immediately, there-
fore, after the last death that had taken place among his
household, be repaired to a friend at a neighbouring shop,
and, calling to him several other persons from the adjoining
and opposite shops, he reminded them of his dream, ac-
quainted them with its almost complete fulfilment, and ex-
pressed his conviction that he, the eleventh, should very
soon die. " Perhaps," said he. " I shall die this night : I
beg of you, therefore, for God's sake, to come to my house
early to-morrow morning, and the next wonting, and
the next if necessary, and to see if I be dead, and, when
dead, that I am properly buried; for I have no one with me
to warn arid shroud me. Fail not to do me this service, which
will procure you a recompense in heaven. I have bought
my grasee!inen: you will find it in a corner of the room in
which I sleep. If you find the door of the house latched,
and I et, not answer to your knocking, break it open."—
Soon after situset he laid himself in his lonely bed, though
without any evsectation of closing his eyes in sleep ; fur his
mind was absorbed in reflections upon the awful entry into
aunt her world, and a review of his pest life. As the shades of
night gathered around him, he could ahnost fancy that be
beheld, in one faint object or another in his gloomy chamber,
the dreadful person of the Angel of Death; and at length he au-
Wally perceived a figure gliding in at the door, and appreaeh-
ing his bed. Starting up in horror, he exclaimed, " Who
art thou ?"—and a stern and solemn voice answeterl, " Be
silent! I am 'Azraeel, the Angel Death !"—" Alas!" cried
the terrified man, " I testify that there is no deity but God,
dud I testify that Mohamtnad is God's Apostle ! There is ne
strength nor power but in God, the High! the Great! TO
God we belong, and to Him we must return !"—He then
covered himself over with his quilt, as if for protection, and
lay with throbbing heart, expecting every moment to have
his soul torn from him by the inexorable messenger. But
moments passe I away, and minutes, and hours: vet without
his experiencing, any helm of escape; for he imagined that
the angel was waiting for him to resign himself, or teed left
him for a while, and was occupied in receiving flea the souls
of the many hundred human beings who attained their pre-
destined term in that settle night and itt the same city, and
the souls of the thousands who were doomed to emp:oy him
elsewhere. Daybreak arrived befere his sufferings tenni-
minated ; and his neighbours coming according to their pro-
mise, entered his chamber, and found him still in bed; but
observing that he was covered up, and motionless as a cos pse,
they doubted whether he were mill alive, and called to hint.
He answered with a faint voice, " I am not yet dead ; but
the Angel of Death came to me in the dusk of the evening,
and I expect every moment his return, to take inv sett':
therefore trouble me net, but see me washed and buried."—
" But why," said his fi iends, " was the street door left un-
latched?"—" I latched it," tie answered, "but the Angel of
Death may. have opened it." "And whit," they asked,
the man in the court ?" Ile answered, " I know of no
man in the court : perhaps the angel, who is waiting for Inv
soul. has merle himself visible to
Sou, arid been mistaken, in
the twilight, for a man."—" He is a thief," they said, " who
has gathered together every thing in the house that he could
carry away, and has been struck by the plague while cluing
so, and now lies dead in the. court, at the feet of the stairs.
grasping in his hand a silver candlestick." The master of
the house, after hearing this, paused for a moment, and then
throwing off his quilt, exelaimed, '• Praise be to God, the
Lord of ail creatures! net is the eleventh, and lam safe!
Ni. doubt it was that rascal who came to me, and said that
he was the Angel of Death. Praise be to God! praise be to
God !"—This man survived the plague. and took pleasure in
relating the above store. The thief had overheard his con-
versation with his neighbours, and, c. ming to his house in
the dusk, hail put his shoulder to the wooden lock, and se
eersert the door, and displaced the lett h within.—.L2ne's
Notes to his NEW rtesnelation, ofthi Arabian Nos,.