صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

were too good observers not to know that woman, | and which modify them, remain imperfect and withby her less stature, her weaker organization, her out action, until the age of puberty, and that children predominant sensibility, and her peculiar function of of both sexes have nearly the same appetites, the educating a family, was not destined by nature to same wants, and the same inclinations. It is hence such toilsome labours as men. We seek, accord- we recognise in them nearly the same physiogingly, to develop in woman that modesty and gen-nomy, a similar tone of voice, and similar manners. tleness which are proper to her, that soft and at- This will be the less surprising, when it is known tractive air which characterizes her, and those that the internal organization, even the structure of seductive graces which distinguish her. The con- the bones, has a greater resemblance in early life stitution of women, indeed, bears only moderate ex- than at a subsequent period. Thus, until they arrive ercise. Their feeble arms cannot support severe at maturity, the pelvis or basin, is rarely larger than and long-continued labour. It renders them meager, in youths. Hence all the exercises which depend and deforms the organs, by compressing and de- upon position and walking, will not be more difficult stroying that cellular substance which contributes to for them than for boys; while, for full-grown wothe beauty of their outlines and of their complexion. men, these exercises are more difficult and embarThe graces accommodate themselves little to labour, rassing. perspiration, and sun-burning.

With regard to the vital or nutritive system, it is not less certain that exercise augments the circulation and respiration, and perfects the formation of the blood and the nourishment of the body, in the same proportion in which the power of the lungs is developed.

By carrying toward the exteriour the forces which, during a state of repose, tend almost always to concentrate themselves either in the brain or in the abdominal organs, exercise makes of these forces a more exact distribution, re-establishes or maintains their equilibrium, and, by exciting the circulation, provokes the insensible perspiration, without which health and beauty are impossible.

This community of structure, as well as the fact We must not, however, conclude from this, that that, at this early age, activity, restlessness, and the females should be kept in a state of continual re- desire of motion are remarkable in girls, all point pose, or that the delicacy of their organization pre- out the danger of repose. Instead, therefore, of vents their taking exercise. It is a fact, that labour, being afraid of exercise for young girls, they should even the most excessive, is not so much to be feared be subjected to it as soon as possible; and, when as absolute idleness. The state of want which this is the case, they uniformly prove the truth of forces some women of the lowest class to perform the observation, made by teachers of exercises, that labours that seem reserved for men, deprives them females, in agility, precision, and address, surpass only of some attractions. Excessive indolence, on boys of the same age. So much for the effects of the contrary, destroys at once health, and that which exercise upon the locomotive system. women value more than health, though it never can subsist without it, namely, beauty. The more robust state of health in females brought up in the country, is attributable to the exercise they enjoy. Their movements are active and firm; their appetite is good, and their complexion florid; they are alert and gay; they know neither pain nor lassitude, although they are in action without cessation under all kinds of weather. It is exercise which gives them vigour, health, and happiness-exercise to which they are so frequently subjected, even in infancy and youth. We observe, also, that in a family where there are several sisters of similar constitution, the one who from circumstances has been accustomed to regular and daily exercise, almost always possesses most strength and vigour. Mothers and teachers, therefore, instead of fearing that their children should fatigue themselves by exertion in active sports, should subject them early to it. They will thus give them more than merely life and instruction; they will confer on them health and strength. But some mothers are afraid to see their daughters entering with spirit into exercises, and are of opinion that health cannot be obtained without sacrificing the graces, which a female who is intended for society, should possess. They may rest assured that no recommender of exercise would endeavour to make a stout robust woman of a little, delicate, and nervous girl, or would prescribe for her the female gymnasticks of the half-naked women of Lacedemon, as instituted by Lycurgus. What we can, and what we should endeavour to do, is to obtain a good constitution, absence from all deformity, and sufficient strength to prevent the display of vicious sensibility, but not to destroy that delicacy and those attractions which constitute beauty and grace.

But it may be feared that the peculiar structure and the natural weakness of woman, may render dangerous the exercises intended to combat it.

Those who make such objections should recollect that the circumstances which distinguish the sexes,

In relation to the diseases of this system, it is evident that, when the circulation is reanimated and accelerated, fewer engorgements of blood take place in the abdominal and inferiour regions.

In regard to the mental system, exercise, while it increases the activity of the muscles, prevents, as we have seen, the vicious predominance of the sensitive system. Diseased sensibility can never exist where the constitution has not been suffered to become enervated by indolence. When external agitation employs our faculties, the interiour reposes. If already the defective power of the mental functions tend to too vivid mobility, exercise gives them more of the stability of energy. The nervous susceptibility, which is increased by weakness, is reduced to its proper degree, as soon as exercise has strengthened the organs. By this useful diversion, the affections of the heart are calmed. But this is not all: by diminishing the causes of exaggeration in the affections and passions, mildness and goodness, the most certain sources of happiness, remain in conjunction with health.

There can, therefore, be no doubt of the utility of exercise in remedying whatever may be defective in the female organization, and laying the foundation of a constitution exempt from infirmities and discase.

MISCELLANY.

THE WHITE INDIANS.

IT is a fact, perhaps not generally known, that there does exist in the far west, at least two small tribes or bands of white people. One of these bands is called Mawkeys. They reside in Mexico, on the southwest side of the Rocky mountains, and between three hundred and five hundred miles from Santa Fe, towards California; and in a valley which makes a deep notch into the mountain, surrounded by high and impassable ridges, and which can only be entered by a narrow pass from the southwest. They are represented, by trappers and hunters of the west, known to the writer of this, to be men of veracity, to be an innocent, inoffensive people, living by agriculture, and raising great numbers of horses and mules, both of which are used by them for food. They cultivate maize, pumpions, and beans, in large quantities.

These people are frequently plundered by their more warlike neighbours; to which they submit, without resorting to deadly weapons to repel the

aggressors.

Not far distant from the Mawkeys, and in the same range of country, is another band of the same description, called Nabbehoes. A description of either of these tribes, will answer for both. They have been described to the writer, by two men in whose veracity the fullest confidence may be placed; and they say the men are of the common stature, with light flaxen hair, light blue eyes, and that their skin is of the most delicate whiteness. One of my informants who saw seven of these people at Santa Fe, in 1821, in describing the Mawkeys, says :-"They are as much whiter than I am, as I am whiter than the darkest Indian in the Creek nation;" and my informant was of as good a complexion as white men generally are.

it by rubbing the juice of some plant on their skin. The female slaves of this race which are found among the Malays have no appearance of it.

With regard to their funeral ceremonies, the corpse is placed in a coffin, and remains in the house till the son, the father, or the nearest of blood, can procure or purchase a slave, who is beheaded at the time that the corpse is burnt, in order that he may become the slave of the deceased in the next world. The ashes of the deceased are then placed in an earthen urn, on which various figures are exhibited, and the head of the slave is dried, and prepared in a peculiar manner with camphire and drugs, and deposited near it. It is said that this practice often induces them to purchase a slave guilty of some capital crime, at fivefold his value, in order that they may be able to put him to death on such occasions.

With respect to marriage, the most brutal part of their customs is, that nobody can be permitted to marry till he can present a human head of some other tribe to his proposed bride, in which case she is not permitted to refuse him. It is not, however, necessary that this should be obtained entirely by his own personal prowess. When a person is determined to go a head-hunting, as it is often a very dangerous service, he consults with his friends and acquaintances, who frequently accompany him, or send their slaves along with him. The headhunter then proceeds with his party in the most cautious manner, to the vicinity of the villages of another tribe, and lies in ambush till they surprise some heedless, unsuspecting wretch, who is instantly decapitated. Sometimes, too, they surprise a solitary fisherman in a river, or on the shore, who undergoes the same fate. When the hunter returns, the whole village is filled with joy, and old and young, men and women, hurry out to meet him, and conduct him, with the sound of brazen cymbals, dancing in long lines to the house of the female he A trapper on one occasion, in a wandering ex-admires, whose family likewise comes out to greet cursion, arrived at a village of the Mawkeys. He was armed with a rifle, a pair of belt-pistols, knife and tomahawk; all of which were new to them, and appeared to excite their wonder and surprise. After conversing some time, by signs, he fired one of his pistols; instantly the whole group around him fell to the earth, in the utmost consternation; they entreated him not to hurt them, and showed in several ways, that they thought him a supernatural being. He saw vast numbers of horses and mules about the village.

Western Democrat.

PECULIARITIES OF THE DAYAK.

THE most numerous class of the inhabitants of Borneo, and probably the aborigines, are the Dayak. Their manners are characterized by some strange peculiarities, and uncommon features of barbarism; but the spirit of these traits has never been elucidated, nor the system of religious or superstitious opinion with which they are connected, examined.

him with dances, and provide him a seat, and give him meat and drink. He still holds the bloody head in his hand, and puts part of the food into his mouth, after which, the females of the family receive the head from him, which they hang up to the ceiling over the door.

If a man's wife die, he is not permitted to make proposals of marriage to another, till he has provided another head of a different tribe, as if to revenge the death of his deceased wife. The heads procured in this manner they preserve with great care, and sometimes consult in divination. The religious opinions connected with this practice are by no means correctly understood: some assert, that they believe that every person whom a man kills in The this world, becomes his slave in the next. Idaan, it is said, think that the entrance in Paradise is over a long tree, which serves for a bridge, over which it is impossible to pass without the assistance of a slave slain in this world.

In appearance, the Dayak are fairer and handsomer The practice of stealing heads causes frequent than the Malays; they are of a more slender make, wars among the different tribes of the Idaan. Many with higher foreheads and noses; their hair is long, persons never can obtain a head, in which case they straight, and coarse, generally cut short round their are generally despised by the warriours and the woheads. The females are fair and handsome. Many men. To such a height it is carried, however, that of the Dayak have a rough, scaly scurf on their a person who has obtained eleven heads has been skin, like the Jacong of the Malay peninsula. This seen, and at the same time he pointed out his son, a they consider as an ornament, and are said to acquire young lad, who had procured three.

[ocr errors]

LITERARY NOTICES.

Sheppard Lee. Written by HIMSELF. In two volumes. New York: Harper & Brothers. One of the most amusing books that has been published for a long time, and one for which we predict an extensive demand. The author not only entertains us with his own adventures, and the details of his own life, but having been so unfortunate as to be drowned, his spirit passes successively into the lifeless bodies of Dawkins, a decayed dandy, Skinner, a shaver of all kinds of securities, Longstraw a philanthropick philanthropist, Tom, a Virginia negro, and Megrim, a dyspeptick fashionable. The book will well repay one for its

perusal.

A Compendious History of Italy. Translated from the original Italian. BY NATHANIEL GREENE. This book forms the seventy-ninth number of Harpers' Family Library. It is a brief and concise history of Italy, from the earliest ages to the present time, translated from an Italian author of great repute. The translation is well executed and retains in an eminent degree the spirit of the original. We hope Mr. Greene will be induced to give us something else from the Italian.

[blocks in formation]

The following notice of this print is valuable as coming from the pen of one who had frequent opportunities of a personal intercourse with this distinguished individual :

"The recent death of this illustrious patriot and statesman has given peculiar value to this fine print, which, whether as a painting, a likeness, or an engraving, is certainly one of the finest works of art which has yet been produced in this country. This portrait with those who are familiar with the features of the venerable Ex-President, will be most highly prized, as conveying as faithful and accurate an idea of his features, as it would be possible for the pencil to give. It was painted only two years since, when the venerable sage was in the full vigour of his green old age, and consequently represents him at a time of life which is replete with interest to the admirers of his character.

The History of Virgil A. Stewart, and his Adventure in Capturing and Exposing the Great "Western Land Pirate," and his Gang, in Connexion with the Evidence also of the Trials, Confessions, and Execution of a number of Murrell's Associates in the State of Mississippi, during the Summer of 1835, With respect to the engraving, it is but justice to state that we and the Execution of Fire Professional Gamblers, by the Citi- have but in rare instances seen a finer specimen of the art. It is zens of Vicksburgh, on the sixth of July, 1835. Compiled by H. a highly finished mezzotinto and has all the richness and softR. HOWARD. New York: Harper & Brothers. The title of this ness of that style with the truth and accuracy of a line engraving. book explains sufficiently the nature of it. It is a brief and exciting The spirit and expression of the original have been fully preservnarrative of a gallant enterprise for the capture of one of the mosted and as a work of art it deserves the high commendation of villanous desperadoes that has ever infested this or any other country. The South and Southwest are under incalculable obligations to Mr. Stewart. The appendix amply refutes all the charges made against Stewart's private character.

Harry and Lucy, with other Tales. By MARIA EDGEWORTH. In two volumes. New York: Harper & Brothers. These tales are, as it is well known, particularly adapted for youth; they are now collected in an elegant form and published uniformly with the other works of Miss Edgeworth.

being a credit to its condition in the United States. This beautiful and valuable portrait, which in London would be usually published at from twenty-five shillings sterling to two guineas, is sold in Washington at the very low price of two dollars. A circumstance which, however otherwise remarkable, gives us pleasure, since it puts it in the power of every one to possess themselves of an admirable likeness of this great American legislator and statesman."

Sleigh's New York Discussion on the Subject of Divine ReveThe first volume of the Western Messenger, Devoted to Reli-lation, is now publishing by Charles H. Jackson & Co., New gion and Literature, which is published at Louisville, Ky., by York, in numbers of twenty-four pages, price twelve and a half Messrs. Morton & Smith, is just completed. This highly suc- cents each. The book will be embellished with a portrait of cessful and entertaining periodical contains much that is interest- Dr. Sleigh and with four other engravings. Those who have ing to our Northern friends; we have marked the article on the had no opportunity of hearing Dr. Sleigh speak, can now form manners and habits of the Western Pioneers for insertion in the their own opinion of his merits as a controversialist. pages of the Family Magazine. As a new volume commenced in August, the present is a goed opportunity for subscribing. The price of this periodical is only three dollars per annum.

The Southern Literary Journal, which is issued monthly at Charleston, S. C., is truly creditable to the South. In its pages Petit Courrier des Dames, or Monthly Journal of Fashion. may be found many contributions of great merit, from the pens New York: Behr & Astoin. This publication, the fit compan- of some of the most distinguished writers in our country. In ion of a lady's boudoir, was commenced in April last; it appears fact, many of those gentlemen who contributed so essentially to regularly on the first and fifteenth of every month, and each the prosperity of the Southern Review, have selected the Literanumber presents sixteen pages of letter-press and three or fourry Journal as the medium of their intercourse with the publick, coloured plates. The design of the undertaking is to put the American ladies in possession of the late fashions, and for this purpose the plates are shipped from France, one week before they are published there. The letter-press consists of prose and poetry, part of which is original, and the rest selected with great discrimination and good judgment from the popular periodicals of the day. The work is conducted with spirit, and we hope that it will be encouraged. Six numbers have now been issued.

Lord Roldan, a romance. BY ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. New York: Harper & Brothers, 82 Cliff street. One of Harpers' wonderfully cheap fifty-cent books; and one of the happiest efforts of Allan Cunningham, whose reputation as a writer of light literature in England is deservedly high.

and have come forward with true chivalrick feeling in its support. Added to this the accomplished editor, MR. WHITAKER is determined to spare no pains to render his magazine in every way worthy of publick patronage. We sincerely hope that the Southern Literary Journal will find a reception at the North equal to its deserts, and that our friends will by their patronage of it, strengthen the literary bond of union between the North and South.

Pelayo, or the Cavern of Covadonga, a romance. By ISABEL. New York: Harper & Brothers. The publication of a poem is such an uncommon event in the literary world, that it would be almost unpardonable for us not to mention it. The poem is founded upon history, and the scene is laid about the year 718.

[graphic][merged small]
« السابقةمتابعة »