Saturday THE ALLIGATOR. THERE is, perhaps, no country in which the Alligator | the river, and having allowed the carcass to become putrid, devour it with disgusting avidity.dent In the Ganges, these creatures may be almost daily seen watching the numerous carcasses which con-w stantly float down that contaminated river, awaiting a the moment when they shall have attained a statera of luxurious maturity. Sometimes a solitary vultured appears sailing down the current, perched upon a human body, which the mistaken attachment of superstitious friends had committed to the stream to send on its road to paradise, tearing the scarcely cold. flesh from the bones, until chased from its horrid repast by the more dominant and not less voracious Alligator. It is a very common thing for the native princes of India, living in the neighbourhood of large rivers, where Alligators abound, to have them caught for the purpose of entertaining their court and guests, by making them fight, or causing them to be attacked by other animals. These fights, as they are called, are so cruel and inhuman, that we will not offend our 293 Christian readers by attempting to describe them. The court of Lucknow used to be very celebrated for such horrid exhibitions, but I believe they are now Imuch less frequently seen in that city. The natural history of the Alligator is sufficiently interesting. It is the most formidable of the amphibious tribes, and is found in most of the large rivers of Asia, Africa, and America. It was originally called by the American-Spaniards a lagato, which was corrupted by our countrymen to alligato, or alligator. When full-grown, these animals frequently reach the prodigious length of twenty-five or twenty-six feet, They resemble the lizard in almost all particulars except in their fierce and implacable character. The head of the Alligator is long and flat, and its prodigious mouth armed with two rows of teeth, so extremely strong and sharp as to make a considerable impression upon steel. This terror of the rivers in which it takes up its abode, has been said to have a peculiar conformation of the jaws, being incapable of moving the upper mandible; but this is quite a mistake, the animal having precisely the same motion of the jaws as other quadrupeds. There is, however, a peculiarity in the structure of the processes which direct the action of the tongue; this member being so strongly attached to the sides of the lower jaw by a very tough membrane, that it cannot be projected beyond the lips. The eyes are placed obliquely in the head, and the eyelids being covered with wrinkles, beneath which the fiery orbs glow with intense brightness, impart an aspect of extreme ferocity to the fierce creature. The body is covered with hard, thick scales, which extend from the head to the extremity of the tail, and are impervious to a musketball. There are two erected ridges, protected in the same manner, running the whole length, only commencing at the junction of the hind-legs, which, as well as the fore-legs, are furnished with strong, sharp, curved claws. The colour of the Alligator is a dark-brown upon the back, and a yellowish-white upon the belly. These creatures will remain a long time without sustenance. It is said, that after a protracted fast they swallow stones and other indigestible substances, in order, by producing distention of the stomach, to alleviate the extreme craving consequent upon long abstinence. They are reported to live a great length of time without any aliment. Brown, in his History of Jamaica, asserts that he has frequently seen them put into ponds, their jaws being previously fastened together with wire, in which state they have lived several months without being permitted to take any food. This animal is much tormented by a sort of leech that adheres to the fauces and tongue, from which it is relieved by a small bird, which enters the monster's mouth, and devours the intruder. The female deposits her eggs in the sand, where they are hatched by the sun. She lays about a hundred in a year; these are not larger than the egg of a goose, which they much resemble. Few of them come to maturity, being destroyed in vast numbers by the ichneumon and vulture. The moment the young are hatched they crawl into the water, and provide their own sustenance, never receiving any assistance from the mother. They are about five inches long when they break from the shell, and grow with extreme rapidity. J. H. C. ON WINTER. A "driving snow-storm" rages. The weather, too, is And lifts up its voice like the angel of death; And career through the water, like clouds through the night, Such an aspect of the skies and earth as we witness, invites the domestic circle, moreover, to double cordiality of intercourse and joint thankfulness to Providence for comparative security and comfort. Another contemporary poet has beautifully said : Though boundless snows the withered heath deform, It is a season to think of promoting not merely the general welfare of those around us, but their particular and detailed happiness; to resolve fondly and fixedly to let all harsh sentiments, unkind purposes, and angry phrases die within us, as the murmurs do in the sea-shells. Feeling; looks; speech; motion; are all to be strictly guarded, lest they express that which tends to produce an atmosphere near the very fire-side almost as chilling and withering as the air without, and to leave impressions or traces which can never be effaced like those of external nature. When death strikes at home-when a relative or companion goes to the tomb,-nothing consoles the survivor so much, as the recollection of a constant kindliness of deed, and word, and manner, an inva riable restraint of temper and self-love, towards the deceased. Self-reproach may be the worst and most durable source of regret and sorrow, even when much affection has been entertained and duty generally performed. Washington Irving has illustrated this truth,-too often and widely neglected,-with exqui site pathos in one of his tales. He tells that memory will be more fresh and importunate, when the near and tender ties of life have been broken, in recalling to the mourner the merits which may not have been duly and steadily appreciated,-the perverseness, the injustice, the severity shown,-the sallies of anger or ill-humour, than the main regard, and the benevolent intentions cherished, or the good offices done at intervals of happy sunshine, or in the absence of every provocative to umbrage or spleen. WINTER AND CHARITY.-Public calls are made upon the charity of those who can afford alms to our own suffering poor; to the necessitous who live merit. There is much of this species of truly compas sionable and severe distress, which may be discovered within our community, who "bow before the same sations of good are frustrated or abridged by man's altars," minister to our many wants, and are imme- | folly and passion. This would seem to be the his diately thrown on our bounty by Divine Providence. tory of all human affairs. Let us think, now, only This is no appeal to vanity-no imposition on credu of alleviating the effects of a sad vicissitude-of temlity-but a claim upon an unquestionable duty, an pering for ourselves what may be relatively dark and incitement to unequivocal beneficence-a channel precarious. The truly Christian and pious can have opened to our hearts for the tears of the destitute no difficulty in this work. With regard to themwidow, the cries of the famishing orphan, the groans selves, their content and security are uniform: of honest industry, wholly abortive in its attempts, or Religion! Providence! an after-state ! piteously deficient in its gains. Assistance is invoked Here is firm footing ! here is solid rock ! against the unusual inclemency of the season, for This can support us! all is sea besides, which no humble labourer could be fully prepared; in Sinks under us, bestorms, and then devours. His hand the good man fastens on the skies, behalf of wretchedness that does not stalk abroad or And bids earth roll, nor feels her idle whirl. raise an importunate lament, but shrinks forlorn in Young, one of the great moral instructors the hovel or the chamber, from the public glance; cowers in sad silence over the last embers on the among the poets, has given no truer lesson than hearth; and hails succour, when it comes, with the this; none which the possessors of rank, power, or He has blush of decent pride, and the gratitude of diffident wealth, have had more occasion to feel. expressed also, the peculiar inspirations of this season mutual good-will-preference of mild and generous -or what should be such-charitable sympathyof selfish cupidity and fear. The Gospel breathes or emotions to the gratification of any of the impulses enjoins that humanity be made the minister of merciful Providence; that wealth in the gross, and hoarded, sufferer relieved. We recognise a special efficiency, life-when well-dispersed, "incense to the skies." is disgrace and death-but when diffused, honour and and a special dignity, in the concert of many sym- To be Christians, the creditor must now be doubly pathetic hearts, and open hands, pouring as it were liberal with his debtor; the friend, more free in his a tide of comparative happiness within their own proximate and proper sphere of action. Its generous distribution of their means. aid; the charitable, more ready and expansive in the The poor are suddenly enthusiasm is not vainly romantic; its operation is palpably sure; it is an exercise of the social obli- multiplied, and the pinches of indigence aggravated; gations and affections which is followed by an imme--numbers of worthy persons are reduced to severe diate harvest, which, while it refines and strengthens threatens all others with some serious disadvantage or and unexpected straits;—every increase of these evils the municipal or local spirit, contributes to the good of the whole country or world, upon the principle that if each community or each individual were to perform duly the task allotted by Providence to each, the aggregate of prosperity or blessings, the sum of success, would be the greater, or at the maximum. The application of charity has been well compared to the division of labour in a large and complicated without extraordinary pains, and assuaged without heavy disbursements; and the mitigation of which will open-as the poet says of charity in general "a little heaven" in the breast of each reliever and each system. The severity of the season is the visitation of God; and it seems to be a part of the ordination of the human world, as he has constituted things in his wisdom and goodness, that those whom he has blessed with abundant means should heal in part the evils which he allows to fall on others ;—should serve as auxiliaries and ministers of his ultimate mercies. He has endowed our race with the principle of benevolence, so that the gratification of it reacts most pleasurably, and its exercise seems indispensable for the excellence and felicity of our nature. One great purpose of society is to furnish opportunities of mutual aid and support: to improve those opportunities is to strengthen all the social bonds, to employ and heighten a salutary, genial instinct, to conform to the original temperament of the moral frame. We do not dwell alone upon the clear and positive injunctions of revealed religion, and the lessons of Divine example in this respect;-charity is a tenet likewise of natural theology, as it is of the more general philosophy of man ;-the movements and relations of liberal and grateful sympathy, are primary properties, which refine and expand with the progress of reason and civilization. The philosophical poet, Akenside, in the second book of the Pleasures of the Imagination, has splendidly discussed the pain and pleasure incident to compassion. Malevolence too often mars the bounties of Heaven and the intentions of human wisdom: Divine dispen loss. General forbearance, then, on the part of the more prosperous; some voluntary privations or sacrifices; a concert of public-spirited and philanthropic efforts; the renunciation of mere prejudices and party-ties; these are the true expedients of relief and the duties of this critical juncture. Let self-love be pushed or yielded to social-a considerate mood prevail wherever and in whatever form claims shall be made. When pleas for indulgence or succour are real-when they have been rendered necessary by abrupt embarrassment and misfortune-when lenity or generosity may avert ulterior loss, or final ruinno good and wise man will hesitate to comply with the times. is an infallible rule :-resolutely to smooth the brow; In regard to individual and family comfort, there to reject sombre ideas and anticipations; to allow all amusement and indulgence that is compatible with duty and prudence. It is well, not merely to kindle the fire in the hearth, and defeat the inclemencies and glooms of the external sky, but to make the heart and countenance glow and brighten until the cast of thought loses all paleness and wrinkle. A certain degree of relaxation in a particular season and for a given time, may be salutary for the whole moral being.-WALSH. VIRTUE is the queen of labourers: opinion the mistress of fools: vanity the pride of nature; and contention the overthrow of families. Virtue is not obtained in seeking strange countries, but mending old errors. Pythagoras compares virtue to the letter Y, which is small at the foot, and broad at the head; meaning, that to attain virtue is very painful, but its possession very pleasant. Real virtue may always continue unarmed: it is its own sufficient guard; for if it be real, it hath such an indomitable awe and reverence in its appearance, as will always effectually daunt the dastard front of vice.-?. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. No. II. WIND INSTRUMENTS. MANKIND, by the invention of the trumpet, having discovered the property possessed by a hollow tube of producing a certain sound; would naturally soon discover, that the note varied according to the length and capacity of that tube. We may suppose that some idea of combining these various notes so as to produce a tune, would soon arise; but, let the number of notes employed be many or few, one performer would be required to produce each distinct sound, which would be a manifest waste of time. A com musical chord, and answered the same purpose as the drone in the modern bagpipes, thus leaving the two hands at liberty to regulate the notes produced by the short pipes. The engraving is after a medal of the time of Nero. The Chinese, who are extremely minute and fanciful in all their systems, have divided all sounds into eight species, each of which, they say, can be produced from a certain substance only, from which substance the kind of sound takes its name, as the sound of metal, produced by a bell; of stone, from pieces of sonorous rock, struck with a stick; of silk, from strings of that material stretched over a sounding-board, and played on with the fingers like the chords of a lute: of bamboo, used in the same manner as in our pan-pipes; of a calabash, produced by the singular instrument figured below; of baked earthenware, struck like the stone; of the skin of animals, as in the drum; and of wood; a curious instrument to represent this sound is in the form of a great wooden chest, with a crouching tiger on the top; on the back of the tiger are what are intended for twenty-five hairs, but more like the teeth of a saw; these hooks are struck with a small stick to produce the required sound. THAT OF 209893 3000 vent doidw Fig.am The Cheng, the instrument that produces the sound of the cala-sadins Pease bash, displays considerable ingenious1x10 nuity. Formerly a calabash, a domed bo species of gourd, was employed to make the cheng; it was dried, and the upper part being cut off, its place was supplied by a flat modo ob 90mx piece of wood, bored with as 637 many holes as it was intended there should be tubes, the number of these varying, being 24, 19, or 13. The tubes are formed of bamboo, and close to the insertion of each into the calabash there is a small hole. Fig. a, by the side of the instrument, showing the lower part of one of the tubes, explains this better. That portion which is inserted into the calabash is cut smaller, having a shoulder to prevent its entering too far; the lower orifice is plugged up with wood, and a small hole is bored, so as to enter the hollow of the cane at its lower end, above the shoulder; below this, and near the lowest extremity, a tongue of thin metal or hard wood is fixed, with the upper end free. The The Cheng, or Chinese ราย Mouth-Organ, mouth piece of the cheng is in the form of a goose's neck, and arises from the body of the calabash; through this the breath is forced, and the sounds are produced by stopping with the fingers any of the small holes at the foot of each tube. Most of our modern wind-instruments are but improvements on the ancient inventions; but we cannot well close this paper without a short account of the progress of the most splendid of all instruments of this kind, namely, the Church Organ. The earliest notice we have of an instrument called an Organ is in a very ancient Greek author, Athenæus, who says it was invented in the time of the second Ptolemy Euergetes, by Ctesibius, a native of Alexandria, and by profession a barber, or rather that it was improved by him; for "Plato gave the first idea, by inventing a water-clock, clepsydra, which played upon flutes the hours of the night, at a time when they could not be seen on the index." In the collection of antiquities bequeathed by Christina, Queen of Sweden, to the Vatican, there is a large and beautiful medallion of Valentinian, on the reverse of which is represented an Hydraulic Organ, with two men, one on the right and one on the left, who seem to pump the water which plays it, and to listen to its sounds. It has only eight pipes, placed on a round pedestal, and as no keys or performers are visible, it is probable it was played on by mechanism. The first Organ that was seen in Europe is believed to have been sent to France from Constantinople in 757, as a present from the Emperor to King Pepin. It is uncertain at what date Organs were first used in churches, but it seems certain, that they were common in Europe in the tenth century. As daily experience makes it evident, that misfortunes are unavoidably incident to human life, that calamity will neither be repelled by fortitude, nor escaped by flight; neither awed by greatness, nor eluded by obscurity; philosophers have endeavoured to reconcile us to that condition which they cannot teach us to merit, by persuading us that most of our evils are made afflictive only by ignorance or perverseness, and that nature has annexed to every vicissitude of external circumstances some advantage sufficient to over-balance all its inconveniences.-Rambler. How can any person have faith to believe that all the wonderful things of this world were made by chance,-and yet stagger at so plain, and easy a proposition, as that they must be made by some intelligent being!-GILPIN. SECH facetiousness is not unreasonable or unlawful, which ministereth harmless_divertisement and delight to conversation; harmless, I say, that is, not intrenching upon piety, nor infringing charity or justice, nor disturbing peace. For Christianity is not so tetrical, so harsh, so envious, as to bar us continually from innocent, much less from wholesome and useful pleasure, such as human life doth need or require. And if jocular discourse may serve to good purposes of this kind; if it may be apt to raise our drooping spirits, to allay our irksome cares, to whet our blunted industry, to recreate our minds, being tired and cloyed with graver occupations; if it may breed alacrity, or maintain good humour among us; if it may conduce to sweeten conversation and endear society, then it is not inconvenient or unprofitable. If for these ends we may use other recreations, employing on them our ears and eyes, our hands and feet, our other instruments of sense and motion, why may we not so well accommodate our organs of speech and interior sense? Why should those games which excite our wit and fancies be less reasonable, since they are performed in a manly way, and have in them a smack of reason; seeing, also, they may be so managed as not only to divert and please, but to improve and profit the mind, rousing and quickening it, yea, sometimes enlightening and instructing it, by good sense, conveyed in jocular expression,-BARROW. A CHARADE. DIZUM I am double, am single, am black, blue, and gray, I am watery and moist, I am fiery and dry. I am spoken of sometimes as if I were glass, Or you may, though the treatment appears to be rough, IF you should happen to meet with an accident at table, endeavour to preserve your composure, and do not add to the discomfort you have created, by making an unnecessary fuss about it. The easier such things are passed over, the better. I remember hearing it told of a very accomplished gentleman, that when carving a tough goose, he had the misfortune to send it entirely out of the dish, and into the lap of the lady next to him; on which he very coolly looked her full in the face, and with admirable gravity and calmness, said, "Ma'am, I will thank you for that goose." In a case like this, a person must necessarily suffer so much, and be such an object of compassion to the company, that the kindest thing he could do, was to appear as unmoved as possible. This manner of bearing such a mortifying accident gained him more credit, than he lost by his awkward carving.-The Young Lady's Friend |