The Selector;

AND

LITERARY NOTICES OF

NEW WORKS.

PRINCE E.

Y.

He was a tall man, standing six feet four inches, with a countenance indicative of determination, if not of ferocity. A circular mark, in which the blue colour had begun to yield to the yellow, round his left eye, testified that he had not long before been engaged in personal rencontre ; while the pustulary excrescences that disfigured his aquiline nose, showed that he was not less accustomed to the combats of Bacchus than those of Mars. He wore

a fur tiara, of enormous dimensions and a conical figure. A pewter plate, indented with the royal arms of England gules sable, on a lion passant, guarded by an unicorn wavy, on a fess double of or argent, with a crest sinople of the third quarter proper, and inscribed with the names of several victories, won or claimed by the household troops of England, proved him to be a member of the Horse Guards. A red doublet, with a blue cuff, cape, and lappelles, was buttoned with mother-of-pearl buttons, reaching from his waist to his chin, where they were met by a black leather stock, garnished and fastened by a brass clasp, on which was inscribed, Dieu et mon Droit, the well known war-cry of the English nation. White kerseymere trousers, but toned at the knee, and a pair of D. D. boots as they were called from the circumstance of their having been invented by a Duke of Darlington-completed his dress. His arms were a ponderous cutand-thrust sword, with a handle imitating a lion's head, sheathed in an iron scab

bard, that clanked as he moved along. Over his shoulder was slung a carbine, or short gun, which military law required to be always primed, loaded, and cocked. A pair of horse-pistols were stuck in his leathern belt, and in his hand he bore a large spontoon, or pike. Such was the

dress of the Hanoverian Horse Guards o England at that period; and such, even in secondary occasions, their formidable armour; for the absence of the hauberk, (or morion) and of the ponderous target of bull's-hide and ormolu, showed that the gigantic Hussar was not at present upon actual duty.—Whitehall.

QUACKS.

FORMERLY the mountebank doctor was as constant a visitor at every market-place

Almost all

as the pedlar with his pack. old customs, however, have ceased in our time, and these itinerants are now rarely The travelling doctor, with his zany, I believe, is now no where to be seen in Great Britain; and the mountebank himself is become almost an obso

seen.

lete character. Dr. Bossy was certainly the last who exhibited in the British metropolis, and his public services ceased about forty years ago. Every Thursday, his stage was erected opposite the northplatform was about six feet from the west colonnade, Covent Garden. The ground, was covered, open in front, and was ascended by a broad step-ladder. On one side was a table, with medicine chest, and surgical apparatus, displayed on a table, with drawers. In the centre of the stage was an arm chair, in which the patient was seated; and before the doctor commenced his operations, he advanced, taking off his gold-laced cocked hat, and, bowing right and left, began addressing the populace which crowded before his booth. The following dialogue, ad literatim, will afford the reader a characteristic specimen of one of the customs of the doctor was a humourist. An aged the last age. It should be observed that woman was helped up the ladder, and seated in the chair; she had been deaf, nearly blind, and was lame to boot; indeed, she might be said to have been visited with Mrs. Thrale's three warnings,

and death would have walked in at her

door, only that Dr. Bossy blocked up the passage.

The doctor asked questions with an audible voice, and the patient responded--he usually repeating the response, in his Anglo-German dialect.Doctor. Dis poora voman vot is how old vosh you? Old Woman. I be almost eighty, sir; seventy-nine last Ladyday, old style.-Doctor. Ah, tat is an

incurable disease. Old Woman. O dear

O dear! say not so-incurable! Why you have restored my sight-I can hear walk without my again and I can crutches.-Doctor (smiling.) No, no, good vomans-old age is vot is incurable; but, by the plessing of Gote, I vill cure you of vot is elshe. Dis poora voman ves lame, and deaf, and almost blind. How many hosipetals have you been in ? St. Bartholomew's, and St. George's.Old Woman. Three, sir; St. Thomas's, Doctor. Vot, and you found no reliefs? vot none-not at alls? Old Woman. No, none at all, sir.-Doctor. And how many medical professioners have attended you? Old Woman. Some twenty or thirty, sir. Doctor. O mine Gote! Three sick hosipetals, and dirty (thirty) doctors! I

cultivated fields, with the numerous fires at night, and the columns of smoke which rose in various parts by day, all showed it to be populous. It rose before them in all the splendour of tropical vegetation, one of the most beautiful islands in the world, and doomed to be one of the most unfortunate.

And here it is impossible to refrain from dwelling on the picture given by the first discoverers, of the state of manners in this eventful island before the arrival of the white men. According to their accounts, the people of Hayti existed in that state of primitive and savage simplicity, which some philosophers have fondly pictured as the most enviable on earth; surrounded by natural blessings, without even a knowledge of artificial wants. The fertile earth produced the chief part of their food almost without culture, their rivers and sea-coast abounded with fish, and they caught the utia, the guana, and a variety of birds. This, to beings of their frugal and temperate habits, was great abundance, and what nature furnished thus spontaneously, they willingly shared with all the world. Hospitality, we are told, was with them a law of nature, universally observed; there was no need of being known to receive its succours, every house was as open to the stranger as his own. Columbus, too, in in a letter to Luis de St. Angel, observes, "True it is that after they felt confidence, and lost their fear of us, they were so liberal with what they possessed, that it would not be believed by those who had not seen it. If anything was asked of them, they never said no, but rather gave it cheerfully, and showed as much amity as if they gave their very hearts; and whether the thing were of value, or of little price, they were content with what ever was given in return.

* In all these islands it appears to me that the men are all content with one wife, but they give twenty to their chieftain or king. The women seem to work more than the men; and I have not been able to understand whether they possess individual property; but rather think that whatever one has all the rest share, especially in all articles of provisions."

One of the most pleasing descriptions of the inhabitants of this island is given by old Peter Martyr, who gathered it, as he says, from the conversations of the admiral himself. "It is certain," says he, "that the land among these people is as common as the sun and water; and that mine and thine,' the seeds of all mischief, have no place with them. They are content with so little, that in so large a country they have rather superfluity

6

than scarceness; so that they seem to live in the golden world, without toil, living in open gardens; not entrenched with dykes, divided with hedges, or defended with walls. They deal truly one with another, without laws, without books, and without judges. They take him for an evil and mischievous man, who taketh pleasure in doing hurt to another; and albeit they delight not in superfluities, yet they make provision for the increase of such roots whereof they make their bread, contented with such simple diet, whereby health is preserved and disease avoided."

Columbus had at first indulged in the error that the natives of Hayti were destitute of all notions of religion, and he had consequently flattered himself that it would be the easier to introduce into their minds the doctrines of Christianity; not aware that it is more difficult to light up the fire of devotion in the cold heart of an atheist, than to direct the flame to a new object, when it is already enkindled. There are few beings, however, so destitute of reflection, as not to be impressed with the conviction of an over-ruling deity. A nation of atheists never existed. It was soon discovered that these islanders had their creed, though of a vague and simple nature. They believed in one Supreme Being, who inhabited the sky, who was immortal, omnipotent, and invisible; to whom they ascribed an origin, who had a mother, but no father. They never addressed their worship directly to him, but employed inferior deities, called Zemes, as messengers and mediators.

It re

The ideas of the natives with respect to the creation were vague and undefined. They gave their own island of Hayti priority of existence over all others, and believed that the sun and moon originally issued out of a cavern in the island to give light to the world. This cavern still exists, about seven or eight leagues from Cape François. It is about one hundred and fifty feet in depth, and nearly the same in height, but very narrow. ceives no light but from the entrance, and from a round hole in the roof, from whence it is said the sun and moon issued forth to take their places in the sky. The vault was so fair and regular, that it appeared a work of art rather than of nature. In the time of Charlevoix the figures of various Zemes were still to be seen cut in the rocks, and there were the remains of niches, as if to receive statues. This cavern was held in great veneration. It was painted, and adorned with green branches and other simple decorations. There were in it two images of Zemes. When there was a want of rain, the na

tives made pilgrimages and processions to it, with songs and dances, bearing offerings of fruit and flowers.

They believed that mankind issued from another cavern, the large men from a great aperture, the small men from a little cranny. They were for a long time destitute of women, but, wandering on one occasion near a small lake, they saw certain animals among the branches of the trees, which proved to be women. On attempting to catch them, however, they were found to be as slippery as eels, so that it was impossible to hold them. At length they employed certain men, whose hands were rendered rough by a kind of leprosy. These succeeded in securing four of these slippery females, from whom the world was peopled.

While the men inhabited this cavern, they dared only venture forth at night, for the sight of the sun was fatal to them, turning them into trees and stones. There was a cacique, named Vagoniona, who sent one of his men forth from the cave to fish, who lingering at his sport until the sun had risen, was turned into a bird of melodious note, the same that Columbus mistook for the nightingale. They added, that yearly about the time that he had suffered this transformation, he came in the night, with a mournful song, bewailing his misfortune, which is the cause why that bird always sings in the night season.-Irving's Life of Columbus.

PASQUIN OR PASQUINADE, Takes its name from a cobbler at Rome, called Pasquin, famous for his sneers and gibes; and whose shop was the resort of a number of idle people, who diverted themselves with bantering folks as they passed by. After Pasquin's death, as they were digging up the pavement before his shop, they found a statue of an ancient gladiator, well cut, but maimed, and half spoiled. This they set up in the place where it was found, at the corner of the deceased Pasquin's shop; and by common consent, called it by the name of the defunct. From that time all satires and ampoons are ascribed to this figure. This statue is to be seen in a corner of the Palace of the Ursini, at Rome, and lampoons are frequently put in its mouth or pasted against it. P. T. W.