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ed spouse, holding lighted torches in their hands, (for in Turkey and Persia this ceremony of the church is celebrated at night only), from whence they direct their steps to the church, accompanied with musical instruments of discordant sounds.

At the end of this rite, the officiating priest, muttering a benediction over it, gives a glass of wine to the new pair, which they drink mutually; after the dispensation of which, the clergyman fastens green and red coloured stuffs (in shape exactly like our suspenders) on the breast of the bridegroom, in a right angular direction from one over another; and he, in the meantime suspends on the neck of the bride a string of silk threads, which are to be tied together three days after their marriage. Then the bells of the church are rung, which is done in publication of their union, because they have no other method to spread such reports about than by the noise of the bells in those countries. As soon as the bride and bridegroom reach the gate of their house, they find a plate of porcelain placed on the threshold of the gate, which the bridegroom treads upon and reduces to pieces, in illustration of his having trampled under his feet the head of Satan, by forsaking his wicked paths,--because they are of opinion that celibacy is always guided by the devil. The hall is deco rated with every kind of oriental magnificence, in which, when they enter, the bride and bridegroom stand in a conspicuous place, when a band of bearded ecclesiastics approach and congratulate them on their happy union; after which, the crowd follow their example. Soon after these professions of joy for the success of their union, the mother of the bridegroom steps forward and takes the bride by the hand, and carries her in the midst of her female companions into another apartment, where they pass three days in successive merriment and joy : so the friends of the bridegroom do in their quarter too. At the expiration of this period, they return to their respective roofs; and, according to the established custom of this nation, the bride is then first formally delivered over by her parents to the impatient bridegroom,-that is three days after the solemnization of the nuptials.

Anecdotiana.

SPRIGHTLY WHALES.

An extraordinary shoal of whales, to the number of sixty or upwards, made their appearance on the 16th ultimo, off Corran Ferry, Linnie Loch, and continued

for some time on the surface of the water. The inhabitants rowed out in boats, with the intention of driving them into the Straits, when the whales became quite outrageous, leaping several yards into the air! and occasioning the surface of the sea, to a considerable extent, to appear like a boiling cauldron. Several shots were fired at them without any apparent effect.

REAL HAVANNAH.

Wallack's Love's Ritornella, in the Bri-
The following laughable parody of
benefit:
gand,' was sung by Harley on his

Real Havannah !
Precious cigar !
Gentle as manna,
Bright as a star-
Pleasant at fireside,
Cheery on road-
Best of all perfumes
At home or abroad.
Real Havannah !
Puff away care-
Blow my misfortunes
Into thin air.

Real Havannah !

O who would dare Meerschaum or hookah With thee compare? When thy bright tip Any mortal may see, Thou art his choice Aud a smoker is he.

Real Havannah, &c.

Real Havannah !

Primest of stuff, Sell me no humbug, Vender of snuffThink not on me

You can cut any jokes'Tis Teper Thomas

Himself who now smokes."
Real Havannah ! &c,

ANOTHER BATCH.

Why is a lady of weak intellect like a part of a word? Because she is a sillybelle. Another-Why is a waiter like a blood horse? Do you give it up?-Because he runs for the plate. The best of Brighton like a person who gets all he all, and spick and span new-Why is can, and keeps what he gets ? Because it is a sell-fish town.

A WATCH.

A watch may represent the mind of man,
While it assures him his life's a span';
The wheels its powers, the balance reason
shows;

Thoughts are the hands, declaring how it goes;
Conscience the regulator, sets it right;
The chain reflection-wind up every night;
With self-examination as the key;

Your words and actions best its goodness prove,
Then strive by these to gain its Maker's love.

The figured dial-plate your heart may be :

Diary and Chronology.

Wednesday, May 26.

St. Augustine.-High Water 41m after 4 Morn -2m after 5 After.

St. Augustine -Our saint mentioned to-day was deputed by St. Gregory the Great to be the apostle of England. He landed on the side of Kent in 596, and converted Ethelbert, the powerful king thereof, with many of his subjects. St. Augustine after a life of labour, ended his days A.D. 604.

May 26 1827.-Expired the Rev. Mark Noble, F.A.S. Rector of Barming in Kent; a gentleman well known in the literary world as an industrious compiler. Residing upon his living, he had leisure sufficient to bring forth numerous works, Many of his writings are extremely valuable for the research they display, as may be seen by consulting his Genealogical Histories of the present Royal Family of Europe, the History of the College of Arms, and the continuation of Granger.

Thursday, May 27.

St. Bede.-Sun rises 59m after 3-sets 2m after 8.

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St. Bede.-This saint is said to have been a prodigy of learning and plety, and is said also to have surpassed St. Gregory in eloquence. The Sonnet written upon St. Bede by Wordsworth, contains the following lines:-

Sublime recluse !

The recreant soul, that dares to shun the debt
Imposed on human kind, must first forget

Thy diligence, thy unrelaxing use

Of a long life, and, in the hour of death,

The last dear service of thy passing breath.

May 27, 1265.-Born on this day, the eminent Italian poet, Dante. His chief work, the Comedia Divina, is singular in its kind, both as to plan and sentiment, which are sublimely wild and romantic, often satirical and severe; but the diction and har mony is extremely classical, nervous, and poetical.

Friday, May 28.

St. Caraumas, Martyr.-High Water 2m after 6 Morn-2m after 6 Aftern May 28, 1821.-Died Charles Alfred Stothard, son of Thomas Stothard. R.A. This eminent artist and antiquary principally employed his pencil in delineating specimens of ancient costume, and similar subjects, which were most congenial to his predelic tions for antiquarian enquiry. Of this description is his Monumental Effigies of Great Britain, a work of considerable interest, and supplying much information. In 1819, Mr. S. exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries his drawings from the Bayeux Tapestry, accompanied with an historical memoir. A short time previous to his death, he had contemplated a work intended to illustrate the reign of Elizabeth. The calamitous accident that prematurely closed the career of this talented > artist happened as follows:-While copying a window in the church of Bere Ferrers, for a series of illustrations of the County of Devon, in Lyson's Magna Britannica, the ladder on which he stood broke, and, falling against a monument, he was killed on the spot.

Saturday, May 29.

St. Maximinus.-Moon's First Quarter, 48m after 10 Morning.

Our saint, who was a native of Poletiers, was admitted to holy orders in 332, and was one of the most illustrious defenders of the Catholic faith in the Council of Sardica in 347. He is said to have died in Poiton in 349.

May 29, 1648.-Died Louis XIII. at St. Germain en Lay. The character of this monarch manifested that propensity to be governed which displays weakness of the heart, together with a coldness and indifference joined to a melancholy disposition, which rendered his attachments rather the effect of habit than of affection, and inspired all about him with weariness and disgust. One of his principal favourites said to a friend, "How unhappy I am to live with a man who wearies me from morning to night." He was devout, but his devotion showed itself in minute observances, and submission to his confessor. He had a share of judgment and solid sense, and did not want decision. For the administration of justice he was inclined to rigour, and thence, perhaps, acquired the epithet of the Just, though some ascribe it only to the circumstance of his being born under the sign of the Balance. Whit-Sunday, May 30.

Lessons for the Day, 1st lesson 13 chap. Deut. to v. 18; 2d lesson 14 chap. Acts v. 34 morn.

11 chap. Isaiah:

19 chap. Acts to v. 21 even.

St. Walstan. d 1016.-Sun rises 55m after 3-sets 5m after 8. The solemn festival of Pentecost or Whitsuntide was instituted to commemorate the coming of the Holy Ghost upon the heads of the Apostles, in tongues as it were of fire, (Acts, 2, 3). Pentecost in Greek signifies the fiftieth, it being the fiftieth day from the Resurrection. It is also called Whitsunday, from the Catechumens, who were clothed in white, and admitted on the eve of this Feast to the Sacrament of Baptism. Verstegan says, it was antiently called Wied Sunday. i. e. Sacred Sunday, for wied or wived signifies sacred in the old Saxon. Monday, May 31.

St. Cantius and others martyrs.-High Water 38m after 8 morn.-15m after 9 Aftern. May 31, 1821-Expired at Cheshunt, T. 79, Mr. Oliver Cromwell. This gentleman was a lineal descendant of the protector, being great grandson of Henry, his fourth son, who was Lord Deputy of Ireland and M.P. for Cambridge. Mr. C. was the author of a recent work entitled Memoirs of the Protector Oliver Cromwell, and his sons Ri chard and Henry, illustrated by original letters and other family papers, with portraits. At one period of his life he practised as a solicitor, but of late years relinquished all professional employment.

Part XXXIII. with four Engravings, is published with this Number.

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FIlustrated Article.

UNDA;

A TRADITION OF TYROL.

..

WHEN the wanderer, traversing the beautiful valley called the Ortzhall, in Tyrol, has passed the magificent waterfall of Stuben, and the path, gradually becoming narrower and steeper, winds on among detached masses of rock, sometimes along fearful abysses on the one hand, and sometimes beneath immense perpendicular walls of stone on the other, he comes to a rude, uncultivated track, where, at the foot of a beetling cliff, overhanging the foaming torrent of the impetuous Ortzbach, there is a cavern almost closed by a block of gigantic magnitude. Having squeezed himself with difficulty through the narrow aperture, he discovers in the interior, which is nearly choked up with rubbish, seven crosses of black wood; and, in the rock forming the side of the cavern are to be seen the same number of crosses, and an inscription now nearly obliterated, cut in the decayed stone, and bearing the stamp of very high antiquity. 22 VOL. V.

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It cost me cnsiderable trouble to make out the date 1198, and the word UNDA. The romantic wildness of the spot, the evidences of some vast convulsion, and the singular situation of the place itself, together with these symbols apparently denoting some fatal catastrophe, excited my curiosity; but neither my guide nor any of the persons whom I met with could give me further information than that this was the burial-place of some people who had been killed by lightning. The traveller in these parts is accustomed to memorials of such accidents, for he frequently meets with votive tablets, as they are called, upon which is to be seen painted the melancholy story of one who has perished by the fall of a rock or a tree, or tumbled down a precipice, or been drowned by the sudden swelling of some mountain torrent. I conjectured, therefore, that the more modern crosses might commemorate an event of this kind; but that there should be the same number hewn in the rock with so ancient a date and a long superscription, to me to be sure illegible, piqued my curiosity, and I suspected that this might be the scene of

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I hoped to obtain information on this subject from the priest at the parsonage of the contiguous village of Solden, where I experienced a kind reception, but was referred to the archives of the neighbouring hospice. I took the trouble to turn over the not very copious collection of manuscripts, and, among several legends, I met with the following, which, on account of the date, the name of Unda, and the popular tradition, I could not help applying to this rude mausoleum.

When the emperor Frederic Barbarossa kept his court at Wimpfen on the Necker there lived at that place Unda von Wangen, an orphan adorned with all the charms of youth, beauty, and innocence. Henry of Neiden, one of the first nobles of the court, saw her by accident, conceived a passion for her, and from that moment never ceased to persecute her with his importunities. Peremptorily as she rejected the coarse advances of the knight, he was not to be daunted. One evening, in a fit of inebriety, he penetra

ted to her apartment, and would have clasped her in his arms, but, slipping from his grasp, she darted down stairs with the speed of a chased deer. The knight followed, but his limbs refused their office; he fell in descending the stairs; his dagger, being displaced by the shock, pierced his breast, and he was found weltering in his blood. The weak, the delicate Unda, was accused of his murder. The emperor was enraged at the loss of his favourite; and Unda, who protested her innocence, having no other witnesses but God and her own conscience, was doomed to die.

Justice seems to have been in those days tolerably rapid in its movements, and to have begun with execution, and finished with an investigation of the alleged crime. On this point, however, the legend merely intimates that she was made acquainted with the sentence. At this ceremony, Frederic of Reifenstein, who had been sent to the emperor's court by his uncle, the bishop of Trent, had an opportunity of seeing the fair Unda. He、 was captivated by her beauty, enchanted by the innocence of her look and demean

our, and deeply affected by her melancholy fate. He vowed within himself to save her. But a few hours were left for the accomplishment of his design. He bribed the guards, procured the keys of the prison-how, my legend does not explain and at midnight bore off the fainting Unda, who imagined that she was to be led forth to die. Consigning her to the care of his faithful Bertram, he ordered him to convey her to his castle of Naturns, in the Vintschgau. He himself remained for some time at court as if nothing had happened; he then returned to his uncle, and flew to Naturns to receive the thanks of the lovely Unda.

Bertram had meanwhile conducted the lady in safety to the castle, and delivered her into the hands of the aged Buda, who had been the knight's nurse, and whose assiduous attentions and kindness dried her tears and silenced her apprehensions. The gratitude which she felt towards her deliverer was soon changed by the old woman's praises of her master into a warmer feeling. Frederic arrived. My legend says not a word about raptures, or love; nor is it till seven years afterwards that I find Unda again mentioned as a wife and the mother of several blooming children.

This brings us to the precise period when, Pope Urban III. having died of fright and grief on receiving the melancholy tidings of the conquest of Jerusalem by the great Sultan Saladin, his successor Celestine III. summoned all the princes of the West to the rescue of the holy city from the hands of the Infidels. The kings of England and France, with the bravest of their nobles, and the great emperor Frederic Barbarossa, at the head of the flower of German chivalry, obeyed the call. Reifenstein, with his men-atarms, prepared to join the latter. Unda, bathed in tears and filled with sinister presentiments, strained her husband to her bosom. He commended her and his children to the care of the Almighty and of his trusty castellan, Ulric of Gruns berg, tore himself from her embrace, mounted his charger, hastened to Meran, and with many of the neighbouring gentry joined the main army on the Austrian frontiers. He assisted to strike terror into the Greeks, participated in the glory of the victory over the Seldjukes, was engaged in the storming of Acre, entwined his brow with laurels, and bore seve ral scars as tokens of his valour.

Not far from the spot where the cold waters of the Cydnus had well nigh caused the death of Alexander the Great, the emperor Frederic perished by impru dently bathing in the equally cold and

impetuous Saleph. His second son, of the same name, conducted the troops further into the Holy Land, and took part in the siege of Acre, where many soldiers and persons of distinction fell. Our Frederic's brave band too was reduced to a very small number, and, as the discord which divided the princes and the army prevented further progress, he prepared, just at the moment of the arrival of a fresh body of warriors, to return to his country and to his family.

Unda lived meanwhile in close retirement in the castle of Naturns, and shed many bitter tears on account of her beloved consort, attending mass twice a day, and offering up ardent prayers to heaven for the speedy return of her beloved Frederic. Ulric taught the boys to ride in the castle-yard, while the lady Unda instructed the girls in the innermost bower, and thus the time passed slowly and sadly away.

On the festival of St. Corbinian, Unda, in fulfilment of a vow, repaired to Mais, and, after performing her devotions in the chapel dedicated to that saint, rested herself in the shade of the lofty chesnuttree which overhung it, contemplating, beside the solitary spring, the beautiful prospect presented by the surrounding country. Meek and pious as she was, Unda nevertheless had, unknown to herself, a most malignant foe. Hermgard, the wife of Rudolph of Vilenzano, had once cherished hopes of obtaining the hand of Frederic. He preferred Unda, and Hermgard, in despair, united herself with Rudolph, with whom she led a miserable life.

She accused Unda as the author of her wretchedness, conceived the bitterest hatred against her, and vowed signal revenge. The tidings of her happiness only served to strengthen this vile passion, which was continually receiving fresh food from her own unfortunate situation. Her dark spirit did not meditate murder; she sought a species of revenge of slower but equally fatal operation; she wished to enjoy the gratification of seeing her hated rival pining under a protracted decay. Long had she waited for an opportunity: the favourable moment seemed now to have arrived. She too had gone on the same day to Mais, not indeed to perform religious duties: but, inquisitive respecting every movement of Unda's, she had gained information of her intended journey, and it was only on such an occasion that she could see her, for Ulric cautiously guarded the entrance to Naturns, and his mistress never ventured beyond the precincts of the castle.

With syren look and speech she ap proached the pious pilgrim, whom Ulric

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