The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-10-10 00:00:00

VARIETIES.

NoT
BAD.—Some time ago, a gentleman passing
rough Lancaster was taken ill. A friend of his, looking
lxver the list of surgeons in the directory, asked " who
Was the great gun ?" whereupon a certain clergyman
present :replied, "Mr. .Howitzer," (Mr. Howitt, sir.) ;
r. Howitt being a surgeon, at Lancaster, of great skill
and extensive practice.

A MANX LEGEND.—From the summit of the gravel
boss of the Calf Islet was once witnessed a scene, some
account of which will serve as a specimen of the rich le-
gendary history scattered about these pages. It appears
that in the early days of Olave Godredson, a Norman ba-
ron, with dreadful sporting propensities, had so nearly
exhausted the race of bisons and elks that, to check the
hunter and save what they could of the little he had left,
the people had, of course, recourse to magic. While he
Was one day chasing the red deer of the Calf, and his
stout-lunged cook, Eaoch, was sleeping by the side of the
Witch, pot in the castle kitchen of Barrull, a Manx
"oh, named Ada, set the fat running over and therewith
Put fire to the castle. Eaoch roared so loud that his mas-
ter, the Baron Kitter, heard him, though ten miles off.
He jumped into a boat with all his followers, to gain the
main island from the Calf; but the witch touched the
""helm, the prow touched a rock, and the whole of them
-ent to the bottom. The poor cook was forthwith seized
!is the author of all the evil and condemned to death, with
Vie solitary privilege allowed to that early Ude, of choos-
-41,4 bow he would die. " Well (said Eaoch to Olave the
'11g), if it be so, I wish my head to be laid across one of
Your Majesty's legs, and there cut off by your majesty's
the Macabuin, which was made by Loan Maclibhuinwa,
dark smith of Drontheim." The king's scimetar s
tempered that it would cleave through a mountain of
Rtauite : he felt, we may suppose, a little, uneasy about
tke tibia and fibula ; but his word was pledged and his
V„e,.dg,e Was not to be forfeited. Al the precaution taken
by Ada the witch—who placed a dressing of nine
I,:lea nine filthy and witch-like components between his
triestY's leg and the head of Eaoch the cook. All these
Inga (says Mr. Cumming) being properly adjusted, the
treat sword Macabuin, made by Maclibhuin, the dark
133,Tith of Drontheim, was lifted with the greatest caution
one of the king's most trusty servants, and laid gently
Ltlle neck of the cook ; but ere its downward course
E7,be stayed, it severed the head from the body of
last n' and cut all the preventives asunder except the
ti,„l wiereby saving the king's leg from harm. When the
C.,4 smith of Drontheim heard of the stratagem submit-
by ,e by Olave to thwart the efficacy of the sword Macs-
hum, he was so highly offended that he despatched his
;_alomerman, Haillus-nanurd, who had only one leg, hay.
7.4_!8' lost the other when assisting in making that great
°or word, to the Castle of Peel, to challenge King Olave, or
any of his people, to walk with him to Drontheim. It
Was
accounted very dishonourable in those days to refuse
Challenge, particularly if connected with a point of, ho--
hour. Olave, in mere compliance with this rule, accepted
the challenge, and set out to walk against the one-legged
I.,4lweller from the Isle of Man to the smithy of Loan
•naclibhuin, in Drontheim. They walked o'er the land,
41;k1 sailed o'er the sea • and so equal was the match that,
~When within sight of the smithy, Haillus-nanurd, who was
lt, called to Loan Maclibhuin to open the door, and
him called out to shut it. At that instant, pushing past
sheevident
of the one leg, the king entered the smithy first, to
Zle evident discomfiture of the swarthy smith and his as-
ust_aot. To show that he was not in the least fatigued
i ,
Fge lifted a large forge hammer, and, under pretence of
bl
lie
lag the smith, struck the anvil with such force that o
ve
1, it, not only from top to bottom, but also the
Loan upon which it rested. Emergaid, the daughter of
tiee, seeing Olave perform such manly prowess, fell so
Wasply in love with him that, during the time her father
Don 'placing the block and the anvil, she found an op
Pla ;nnitY of informing him that her father was only re-
te,lo the studdy to finish a sword he was making, and
'lest' lean decoyed him to that place for the purpose of
,woact, as it had been prophesied that the sword
sftinold be tempered in royal blood, and in revenge for the
of the cook's death by the sword of Macabuin.
Nos not your father the son of old Windy Cap, King of
fatilway ? said Olave. `He ''Thenis d Emergaid. fis her
via et entered the smithy. (cried the King of
tuv,ll4',as he drew the red steel from the fire) the prophecy
liftZ °e fulfilled !' Emergaid was unable to stay his up-
fatt; hand till he quenched the sword in the blood of her
•heinn;!:, and afterwards pierced the heart of the one. legged
life--;74ernian, who he knew was in the plot for taking his
aCO , Such a dramatic legend would be nothing without
the ilculsion, with a marriage tacked to it. Accordingly,
to legend of the cook and the one-legged hammerman
tlxe'Lloated conjugally. Emergaid married with alacrity
Witlfe7al murderer of her father : just as Chimene. but
Who more show of reluctance, espoused the valiant Cid,
AUet,:c.,el7 properly slew that tedious and rude old gentle-
3enct '"°11 Gomez, the lady's sire. As for the Manx le-
%anti we suppose there is a moral to it, if it could be
tio, for the seeking. To our thinking the chief instruc-
-4 thennveyed by it is, that cooks should not go to sleep
impe kitchen fire; and that, if they do, it is perfectly
asiWes!il:ile for them to calculate the consequences. At the
ott 10:,1,_,me, every cook who falls asleep is not to suppose,
toarri"*.log, that the first step has been made towards the
Church of a king with a monarch's grand-daughter.—
if Rnpland Quarterly Review.