, 1842-08-13

IT,, but before the close OF the argument,
both, Chat is, body and head) were sud-
denly mounted by a monkey, carparison-
ed in the paraphernalia of the fashiona-
bic r~ace-jocky and the whip and spurs
dexterously and indefatigably applied
Ny sides endured the decorating stings
of the one, and my head the unrelenting
pricks of the other. Strange to add,
during these infections, my mind seemed
TO assume its personal identity and agi-
tated an abstract inquiry on the subject
of specific gravity, viz: Which would
first reach tn bottom, the body or head,
for she was extremely fatigued and eager
ly longed to be at the end of hert jour-
ney. Whilst absorbed in these harass-
ing cogitations, my head was suddenly
reunited to the body and my ears were
stunned by the loud and appalling cxcla-
mation-Hell. OF a Hell, its locality,
and inhabitants, l had comparatively re-
Elected but little; for although raised by
parents protesting Il belief in the sublime
Mysteries of our Religion, they were far
from rigorous in that belief, and never
endeavored to coerce the same on the
minds of their children. The strongest
impression eve made on my mind in re-
lation to a He'll, originated with an anti
quated African negro woman of my
Grand Father who was 'skilled in
legendary ore," and whose favor
ite theme for conversation, was wizards
and witches, ghosts, the devil and hell.
She was the most extraordinary human
being | ever saw, or ever calculate on
again seeing, for the celebrated Meg
Moriles and the renowned Blind Alice,
whose characters have been SO general
ly dressed up by the genius Of Walter
Scott, would sink into insignificance
when brought in conflict with the gigan-
tic intellectual powers Of this splcndidly
eloquent and wonderfully dramatic old
black woman. For at will, she could
raise up a "raw head and bloody bones"
and paint it in colours so strong and vi
vid that you would imagine the reality
itself before you. Many and many an
hour have | sat with hair erect and body
convulsed with terror, in listening TO her
thrilling legends of the marvellous and the
supernatural. She was i~mmoderately
fond Of tea, coffee, whiskey and tobacco;
the last, she smoked, chewcd and snuff
ed. Her fIvourite condiment was indi-
an pepper, and so highly impregnated was
her food with that pod, that nc other per-
son darc 10 taste it. At the period to
which | refer, from the best computa-
ton that could be made, (for she was ia
ken when grown from Africa she could
not have been less than one hundred
years of age, and she was living when |
left Virginia in 1898. Whenever she
wished TO check me in my boyish mis-
chief, she would eXclaim in z voice, the
tones of which were thrilling enough TO
throw a STOCK from his gravity IL ye.
ofthcse times, when you and vour
dog Nimrod are in the woods the old boy
will catch you and carry you 10 his den."
Having cften before described him as a
monster eff gigantic size, black and shay
gy, with seven heads and ten horns, and
4 cloven foot. Il We! she would contin-
Tie, you will get no good eating and
drinking there, for when you are thirsty
he will give you melted lead 10 drink,
and when you are hungry, frogs, snakes
and lizards" With the view of fretting
her, | would reply, that | would make
Nimrod catch and choak him, and that |
would skin him and give her his hide TO
sleep on. Nimrod! Nimrod. she would
did not tell you before hat he
his teeth with i fcnce-rail. Me,
you and Nimrod together would not fill
up the hollow Of his ~jaw-tooth." But
10 return to my hallucination. The rea-
der probably will be astorished TO hear,
that instead of finding myself at the bot
tom of a contracted cavern, on the con-
as far as my vision could extend
found myself standing in dense crowd,
which seemed to be constituted of all
ages and and tonges of the human
While standing amazed at the
spectacle before me, a gentlemanS Of
~countcnance, Of studied artificial
and of Hiph- fOued .1Lpfb j ef;c,y