[The Seahorse.] The ancients, attracted, perhaps, by its singular form, attributed many wonderful properties to it, which, with greater or less absurdity, have been related by most of their authors. At the present day, in Dalmatia, it is supposed to possess several healing properties, while on the other hand, the Norwegians consider it a poison. tion. THE HYSSOP. THE hyssop of the Sacred Scriptures has opened a wide field for conjecture, but in no instance has any plant been suggested that at the same time had a sufficient length of stem to answer the purpose of a wand or pole, and such detergent or cleansing properties, as to render it a fit emblem for purificaOur wood-cut represents a shrub remarkable in both these respects, which is the Phytolacca decandra. We do not indeed assert that this was the individual species in question, but we have no doubt in our own mind that the hyssop belonged to this genus. The length and straightness of the stem form a characteristick of the several kinds of Phytolacca with which we are acquainted, affording an [The Hyssop.] obvious reason why the Roman soldier placed a sponge filled with vinegar upon hyssop, in order to raise it to the lips of the Saviour, (John xix., 29.) The Phytolacca decandra, and other species of the genus, contain an enormous quantity of potash, so that a hundred pounds of its ashes afford forty-two pounds of pure caustick alkali; hence we obtain a striking illustration of that expression used in Psalm li., "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean"if we suppose that a shrub of this kind was meant. The only doubt that hangs about the supposition is the North American origin of the Phytolacca decandra; but others are found in the old continent, near Aleppo, and in Abyssinia, which may, though not hitherto submitted to a chymical analysis, have answered the same purpose equally well. While travelling in Mexico we met with an old man who told us that a kind of Phytolacca, which was growing near a cottage, was formerly used by the Indian female instead of soap, such was the detergent nature of the foliage. This unexpected piece of information led us to think that the hyssop of Scripture must have been allied to this American plant, or Congoran, in structure as well as in property. The Phytolacca belongs to the family Chenopodea, of which the barilla-plant form a part, but it is unlike the rest of its congeners in the exceeding beauty of its flowers, which are of a fresh and lively pink, disposed in elegant racemes or clusters; the berries are compounded of a circle of Carpella or minute fruits, closely joined together, and afford a blooming die. The leaves are generally smooth, and neatly shaped; and the stem is long, smooth, and wand-like. In short, there is a peculiar grace in every part of the plant, which, in the case of decandra, renders it | sword; and the person who was daring enough to a great favourite in the garden. There exists a pluck it from the earth, was subject to manifold dangreat similarity between the several species of the gers and diseases, unless under some special proPhytolacca, so that an acquaintance with one spe-tection; therefore it was not unusual to get it eradcies suggests a correct idea of the whole; for this icated by a dog, fastened to it by a cord, and who reason the reader is presented with a figure of decan-was whipped off until the precious root was pulled dra as an average specimen. Two or three species out. According to Josephus, the plant called Buaare found in Oahu, Sandwich islands, which have the ras, which was gifted with the faculty of keeping stem of an extraordinary length, and which, from its off evil spirits, was obtained by a similar canine weakness, lies extended upon the vegetation around; operation. Often, it was asserted, did the mandrake and here and there supports a cluster of lovely flow-utter piteous cries and groans, when thus severed ers, to beautify the wild waste amidst the mountains. from mother earth. Albertus the Great affirms that the root has a more powerful action when growing under a gibbet, and is brought to greater perfection by the nourishing secretions that drop from the criminal's dangling corpse. Among its many wonderful properties it was said to double the amount of money that was locked up with it in a box. It was also all-powerful in detecting hidden treasures. Most probably the mandrake had bad qualities to underrate its good ones. Among these we must certainly class the blackest ingratitude, since it never seemed to benefit the eloquent advocates of its virtues, who in general were as poor as their boasted plant was rich in attraction. It was also supposed to possess the delightful faculty of increasing population and exciting love; and the emperour Julian writes to Calixines that he is drinking the juice of mandrake to render him amorous. Hence was it called Love-apple; and Venus bore the name of Mandragontis. It has been asserted by various scholiasts that the mandrake which Reuben found in the fields and carried to his mother Leah was the mandragore; but the Dudaim which he gathered was not, according to all accounts, an unpleasant fruit, but is supposed to have been a species of orchis, still used in the East in love-philters and prolifick potions. The word Dudaim seems to express a tuberculated plant; and in Solomon's Songs he thus describes it: "The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved." Now it is utterly impossible, whatever may have been the revolution in taste since the days of Solomon, that the nauseous and offensive mandrake could have been considered as a propitiating present to a lady. Frontinus informs us that Hannibal employed mandrake in one of his warlike stratagems, when he feigned a retreat, and left in the possession of the barbarians a quantity of wine in which this plant had been infused. Intoxicated by the potent beverage, they were unable to withstand his second attack, and were easily put to the sword. Was it the mandrake that saved the Scotch in a similar ruse de guerre with the Danish invaders of Sweno? It is supposed to have been the Belladonna, or deadlynightshade, the effects of which are not dissimilar to those of the plant in question. The word vesano clearly refers to the supposed power it possessed of exciting delirium. It was also named Circea, from its having been one of the mystick ingredients employed in Circe's spells; al- In the north of Europe this substance is still used though the wonderful mandrake was ineffectual for medicinal purposes; and Boerhaave, Hoffberg, against the more powerful herb the Moly, which and Swediaur have strongly recommended it in Ulysses received from Mercury. This human re- glandular swellings, arthritick pains, and various semblance of the root, which is moreover of a diseases where a profuse perspiration may be deblackish hue and hairy, inspired the vulgar with the sirable. idea that it was nothing less than a familiar demon. Machiavel has made the fabulous powers of the It was gathered with curious rites: three times a mandrake the subject of a comedy, and Lafontaine magick circle was drawn round it with a naked has employed it as an agent in one of his tales. THE WILD BOAR. The Wild Boar.] THE boar generally lives to twenty-five or thirty years, if he escapes accidents. They feed on all sorts of fruits, and on the roots of many plants; the roots of fern in particular seems a great favourite with them and when they frequent places near the seacoasts, they will descend to the shores and demolish the tenderer shell-fish in very great numbers. Their general places of rest are among the thickest bushes that can be found: and they are not easily put up out of them, but will stand the bay a long time. In April and May, they sleep more sound than at any other time of the year, and this is therefore the successful time for the taking them in the toils. When a boar is roused out of the thicket, he always goes from it, if possible, the same way by which he came to it; and when he is once up, he will never stop till he comes to some place of more security. If it happen that a saunder of them are found together, when any one breaks away, the rest all follow the same way. When the boar is hunted in the wood where he was bred, he will scarce ever be brought to quit it; he will sometimes make toward the sides to listen to the noise of the dogs, but retires into the middle again, and usually dies or escapes there. When it happens that a boar runs ahead, he will not be stopped or put of his way by man or beast, so long as he has any strength left. He makes no doubles nor crossings when chased; and when killed makes no noise, if an old boar; the sows and pigs will squeak when wounded. The season for hunting the wild boar begins in September, and ends in December. If it be a large boar, and one that has lain long at rest, he must be hunted with a great number of dogs, and those such as will keep close to him; and the huntsman, with his spear, should always be riding in among them, and charging the boar as often as he can, to discourage him; such a boar as this, with five or six couple of dogs, will run to the first convenient place of shelter, and there stand at bay and make at them as they attempt to come up with him. There ought always to be relays also set of the best and stanchest hounds in the kennel; for if they are of young eager dogs, they will be apt to seize him, and be killed or spoiled before the rest come up. The putting collars with bells about the dogs' necks, is a great security for them; for the boar will not so soon strike at them when they have these, but will rather run before them. The huntsmen generally kill the boar with their swords or spears: but great caution is necessary in making the blows; for he is very apt to catch them upon his snout or tusks; and if wounded and not killed, he will attack the huntsman in the most furious manner. The place to give the wound with the spear, is either between the eyes in the middle of the forehead, or in the shoulder; both these places make the wound mortal. When this creature makes at the hunter, there is nothing for it but courage and address; if he flies for it, he is surely overtaken and killed. If the boar comes straight up, he is to be received at the point of the spear: but if he makes doubles and windings, he is to be watched very cautiously, for he will attempt getting hold of the spear in his mouth; and if he does so, nothing can save the huntsman but another person attacking him behind: he will on this attack the second person, and the first must then attack him again: two people will thus have enough to do with him; and were it not for the forks of the boar-spears that make it impossible to press forward upon them, the huntsman who gives the creature his death wound, would seldom escape falling a sacrifice to his revenge for it. The modern way of boarhunting is generally to despatch the creature by all the huntsmen striking him at once: but the ancient Roman way was for a person on foot, armed with a spear to keep the creature at bay; and in this case the boar would run of himself upon the spear to come at the huntsman, and push forward till the spear pierced him through. Hunting the wild boar, at the present time, is by no means a common amusement. The king of Naples, still encourages the breeding of those animals in his royal hunting grounds, for the purposes of the chase; in some parts of Africa also, and in the East Indies, this dangerous sport is still followed. The cut on the opposite page, is from a picture by Horace Vernet: it represents a scene which occurred near Algiers, since it has been occupied as a French colony. The principal individual is Joussouf Bey, a man whose devotion to the French, and whose influence over the Turks, are well known. LIVING COSTUMES. THE Bedouin Arabs in general, are small, meager, and tawny; more so, however, in the heart of the desert than on the frontiers of the cultivated country; but they are always of a darker hue than the neighbouring peasants, They also differ among themselves in the same camp; and M. Volney remarked, that the shaiks, that is, the rich, and their attendants, were always taller and more corpulent than the common class. He has seen some of them above five feet five and six inches high; though in general they do not (he says) exceed five feet two inches. This difference can only be attributed to their food, with which the former are supplied more abundantly than the latter: and the effects of this are equally evident in the Arabian and Turkmen camels; for these latter, dwelling in countries rich in forage, are become a species more robust and fleshy than the former. It may likewise be affirmed, that the lower class of Bedouins live in a state of habitual wretchedness and famine. It will appear almost incredible to us, but it is an undoubted fact, that the quantity of food usually consumed by the greatest part of them does not exceed six ounces a day. This abstinence is most remarkable among the tribes of the Najd and the Hedjaz. Six or seven dates soaked in melted butter, a little sweet milk or curds, serve a man a whole day; and he esteems himself happy when he can add a small quantity of coarse flour, or a little ball of rice. Meat is reserved for the greatest festivals: and they never kill a kid but for a marriage or a funeral. A few wealthy and generous shaiks alone can kill young camels, and eat baked rice with their victuals. In times of dearth, the vulgar, always half famished, do not disdain the most wretched kinds of food; and eat locusts, rats, lizards, and serpents, broiled on briars. Hence are they such plunderers of the cultivated |