541 Description of an Irish Potteen Distillery. rejoicing in its proper application, we cannot but coincide in the just opinion, that there is no greater reproach or dishonour, than specious and deceitful words. The end of most fictitious language is, in some form or other, to deceive; and therefore, whether practised in a good or bad cause, it is alike disgraceful and unjustifiable. It is, however, too often employed for the worst purposes :--too often it boldly takes upon itself the advocacy of things which are worthy only of obscurity. Employed then in a bad cause, it imbodies its own condemnation, and, in the estimation of every lover of truth, it must be stamped as injurious to the welfare of man; and, if deserving notice at all, it is only so far as is necessary to counteract any of the mischievous effects it may occasion.! No matter how beautiful and elevating the style by which it is adorned; if captivating to the ear; the evil is equally great, or rather, in such a case, is greatly augmented. We not unfrequently find fictitious language (I mean positive falsehood) employed, for the accomplishment of some object which is good in itself, and with motives which may be justly commended: not so the means employed. Let the cause be more or less important, if it be a good one, it cannot need the adoption of improper measures for its furtherance; and by so much the more it seeks to employ these, in just the same proportion will its claims to excellence be diminished. The sentiment is no less just than it is trite, that "Truth will always illustrate herself by her own light." Let then such a sentiment be adopted in the practice, as well as in the theory of men, and the most beneficial result will be seen to follow. Let us only open our eyes to the bright bearings of truth, instead of introducing false lights, and we shall find that all will be smooth and properous. Specious and feigned language is often adopted upon a principle of false delicacy. Merely for the sake of sparing the feelings, or often for blinding the judgments, recourse is had to this miserable subterfuge. Thus we compel truth to do homage to the capricious whims of man, or sacrifice her at the shrine of false pity and imaginary delicacy. What, if we foresaw the greatest calamity that human nature could suffer, about to fall upon a fellow-creature, should we therefore conceal it from him, and afford him no opportunity to avoid it, because we wish not to harrow up his feelings? Would not the distress occasioned by the discovery, be far less than that which the sudden bursting of the calamity itself would 542 occasion? If we would display true greatness and affection of soul, rather than blind his eyes to the danger, let us unite in commiserating and alleviating his actual dis tress. It has been questioned how far works of fiction, generally so termed, may be justifiable and tolerable. Much has been said for and against them. While it is undeniable that many of them have been, and still are, the cause of much serious evil, and therefore deserve to be rejected with abhorrence, it is equally certain that they have frequently been the means of much usefulness and delight. To condemn them altogether, would be to run into a violent extreme. How many hours of comfort and delight have been spent in the perusal of such works, and how much truth and instruction have been conveyed through their medium! Often have the feelings of the mind been raised to ardent desires after virtue, and sensations of the most unexceptionable nature been kindled by them. Besides, who would consent to lose the beautiful and instructive fables and parables which we have on record, not only in human, but also in sacred literature? Who would wish to hear no more the sweet harpings of poesy, many of which are clothed in the garb of fiction? It is only the abuse of works of fiction which must be deprecated; so long as they keep within certain bounds, the nature of truth will tolerate them. To a certain extent they may go, but no farther. The moment they enter into regions of exuberant fancy and improbability, or exhibit a specious tendency to deceive (which perhaps is the turning point of the question) or venture to pollute themselves with what is obscene and impious, they must, together with all other works composed of such injurious materials, be considered as disgraceful and demoralizing in their nature. The boundaries between right and wrong, between truth and falsehood, are not difficult to be discovered, if examined with an unperverted eye; and the true interests of virtue and religion may be thence clearly developed. - Oxon. J.S. B. DESCRIPTION OF AN IRISH POTTEEN SOME time since, being on a journey 543 Monuments built with Skulls. This place was famous for producing good spirit. The distillery was a very small thatched cabin, at one end of which was a large turf fire kindled on the ground, and confined by a semicircle of large stones. Resting on these stones, and over the fire, was a fortygallon tin vessel, which answered both for heating the water and as the body of the still. Over the fire was an opening in the thatch, with a very low chimney; and through this was conveyed away the smoke, after traversing the whole of the apartment. The fumes of the burning turf were so acrimonious, that my eyes were exceedingly smarted; on perceiving which, the distiller desired me to sit down, as a certain remedy. I did so, and immediately the pain ceased; the fumes occupied the upper stratum only of the air; they consisting chiefly of pyroligneous acid in vapour. 544 | warm, a large pailful of cold water from an adjoining stream was dashed in with sufficient force, as he said, to make the hot water run over, it being lighter; and this cooling process was continually applied to. In this way, the singlings were drawn off in about two hours; and the singlings of four distillations made one charge of the still to produce the potteen. The malt was preparing by enclosing the barley in a sack, and soaking the sack and its contents for some time in bog water, which is deemed the best; then withdrawing and draining it. The malt was then made to germinate in the usual manner. When it had grown sufficiently, it was conveyed in a sack to the kiln, along with some sacks of raw corn, for the purpose of concealment. The raw corn was spread out on the kiln; but during the night, when the kiln owner had retired to rest, the raw corn was removed, the malt spread on, dried, and replaced by the raw grain before day. The owner of corn drying on a kiln sits up all night to watch it. In this way discovery was eluded, and the malting completed. The body of this still cost one pound; its head about four shillings; the worm cost twenty-five shillings; the mash-tun and flakestand might both be worth twelve shil The whole distillery was, therefore, worth about three pounds; and it is purposely constructed on this cheap plan, as it holds out no inducement to informers or excisemen. Sometimes they have been on an extensive scale.- Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia, vol. iii.: being a Treatise on Domestic Economy, vol. i. The mash-tun was a cask hooped with wood, at the bottom of which, next the chimb, was a hole plugged with tow. This vessel had no false bottom: in place of it the bottom was strewed with young heath; and over this a stratum of oak husks. Here the mash of hot water and ground malt was occasionally mixed up for two hours; after which time the vent at bottom was opened, and the worts allowed to filter through the stratum of oat husks and heath. The mash-lings. ing with hot water on the same grains was then repeated, and the worts were again withdrawn. The two worts being mixed in another cask, some yeast was added, and the fermentation allowed to proceed until it fell spontaneously, which happened in about three days. It was now ready for distillation, and was transferred into the tin body, which was capable of distilling a charge of forty gallons. A piece of soap, weighing about two ounces, was then thrown in, to prevent its running foul; and the head, apparently a large tin-pot with a tube in its side, was inserted into the rim of the body, and luted with a paste made of oatmeal and water. The lateral tube was then luted into the worm, which was a copper tube of an inch and a half bore, coiled in a barrel for a flakestand. The tail of the worm where it emerged from the barrel was calked with tow. The wash speedily came to a boil, and then water was thrown on the fire; for at this period is the chief danger of boiling over. The spirit almost immediately came over it was perfectly clear; and by its bead, this first running was inferred to be proof. Its flavour was really excellent; and it might well have passed for a spirit of three months old. As soon as the upper stratum of water in the flakestand became MONUMENTS BUILT WITH SKUlls. PASSING through the north of Persia, the embassy at length arrived at Damogen, or Domghaun, at that time the military capital of the kingdom. Here they saw a monument of a new and terrific character: the market-place was ornamented with four great towers, each a stone's throw in height, and built entirely of human skulls, the interstices being filled up with mud. To erect this edifice, Timur had massacred sixty thousand Turkomans, or White Tatars, as they were called, who, after being vanquished in the field, were cruelly hunted down, and nearly exterminated, by the relentless victor. After leaving this place, the ambassadors experienced the distressing effects of the hot winds of the desert; and on arriving at a city called Vascal, they were not allowed a moment's respite to refresh themselves, but were obliged to proceed immediately on their journey; such being the will of the dreaded Timur.-Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia.-History of Maritime and Inland Discovery, Vol. I. CELESTIAL PHENOMENA. ρ THE motions of the two superior planets, Saturn and Jupiter, and the eclipses of the satellites of the latter, will afford the observer a considerable degree of gratification during the evenings of this and the following month. In our last number, the reader will find an account of the phenomena they will present, we shall therefore direct his attention in the present paper to the planet Mars, which is a conspicuous object during the mornings of this month, under the two western of the four stars in square. He is situated in the constellation Aquarius; above him on the first are noticed three stars, one of the fifth and two of the sixth magnitude; the star to the west is marked 54 Aquarii; the brightest of those to the east σ, and the other 58 Aquarii. On the 3rd, he passes under the two latter stars, and is observed in a line with them and p Aquarii, which is of the fifth magnitude; a little to the west of this star is ç Aquarii, a star of the fourth magnitude. He now directs his course to three stars of the sixth magnitude, in a line with each other, and a little more than a degree apart. The northernmost is marked 64, the middle 65, and the southernmost 70 Aquarii. On the 6th he passes under 64, on the 8th under 65, and on the 10th very near 70; on this day he is noticed in a line with the two former stars, and to the south of him is observed a star of the sixth magnitude marked 74 Aquarii. This star forms a scalene triangle with + 1 and 2 and 8 Aquarii. On the 11th he is noticed between X and 74, and in a line with the latter star and Aquarii. His course is now directed to the small stars in the stream; and on the 15th he is observed under1 Aquarii. On the following morning he is noticed in a line with this star and X; there are also two stars in the same line with these; the northern one is of the fifth magnitude, and marked x Aquarii; it is also called Situla; the southern star is of the sixth magnitude, and marked 51 Aquarii. On the 19th he is seen under four stars; two of the sixth, and two of the seventh magnitude; the two of the sixth are marked h 1 and 4, the northern of the seventh is marked 81, and the southern h 2; they are all of this constellation. 138.-VOL. XII. POETRY. DEATH. 546 O DEATH, how still and pompless is thy reign! On pride and human pomp thou look'st with scorn, Thou sparest not the laurelled hero, Death, Who to obtain fame's perishable wreath,' Dark streams of blood to flow: but all is vain; There mingled with the dust forgotten lie, How little heed'st thou beauty's winning form, When health's sweet roses bloomed, thou bid'st the worm Perform his horrid work, till we can trace But, Death, stern tyrant, tremble; for an hour Loud shall it sound its freedom, from thy kingdom's night. Then Time, on whose dark silent wings thou dost Shall not be dimmed by sorrow's slightest smart: But there's a world, whither the voice of peace Then, Ab, my soul, bethink thee! haste and bring 547 Review. Walsh's Notices of Brazil in 1828-9. SUMMER, ROUSE thee, muse, from dreary slumbers, Of man's faults no longer dream, True yet pleasing be thy numbers, Summer next shall be thy theme. Note her beauties, well portraying Those that have most charms for thee, Nature's wondrous works surveying, Wiser, happier, we shall be. Look, the orient skies grow clearer, Smiling comes the blushing dawn, Sky-larks rise, with songs to cheer her, From the flower-bespangled lawn. O'er the hills in matchless splendour, Shines the glorious orb of day; Countless voices, sweet and tender, More pathetic notes they're pouring, How can man with reason gifted, While creation's voice is lifted, Grateful, to the throne on high. Lazy mists are slowly creeping, Off the marsh, and up the glade : Lofty trees are wet and dripping, With the tears that night had shed. Health's fair daughters now are singing On the dewy glittering meads, While the milky treasures bringing Safely home upon their heads. Brawny youths in rows are binding, Laving prostrate with the scythe, Grass and clover, which are sending Rosy nymphs are busy spreading, They are innocent and gay. What to them are fame and honour? To the fields a frequent comer, Yet thy charms, delightful summer, Claim a more prolific muse. THE first volume of this very interesting work, which was reviewed in our preceding number, referred almost exclusively to the town of Rio Janeiro, its localities, appendages, and institutions, together with the manners, laws, customs, and peculiarities of its inhabitants. The second volume, which now claims our attention, takes us into the country, where we are introduced to scenes that are at once varied, novel, and interesting. But, as on the former occasion, we deemed the author's observations preferable to our own, and inserted extracts from his book accordingly, so on the present he shall speak for himself, and we doubt not that 548 the reader will feel highly gratified with the varieties he is able to supply. Of the vampire bat, Mr. Walsh speaks as follows: "When setting out in the morning, I perceived a large wound in the neck of my horse, from whence issued a stream of blood. Alarmed, lest he should have been stabbed, or wounded maliciously, so as to disable him from proceeding, I inquired into the cause, and Patricio informed me it was occasioned by the morcego. This is a large bat, which, like the devil of Surinam, attacks both man and beast. When a party under Cabeca da Vacca were exploring the sources of the Paraguay, in the year 143, they attacked him in the night, and seized on his toe; he awoke, and found his leg numbed and cold, and his bed full of blood; they at the same time eat off the teats of six sows. They fix on the thumbs or great toes of men; and the rumour of the country is, that while they suck the blood through the aperture they make, they keep waving their sooty wings over their victim, to lull him to a death-like repose, from which he never wakes; and in the morning he is found lifeless, and the floor covered with pools of coagulated blood, disgorged by the vampire when full, to enable him to extract the last drop of the vital current. They sometimes grow to the size of pigeons. One of these horrid animals had attached itself to the throat of my horse when the stood in a shed, and clasping his neck with his broad sooty wings, had continued to suck till it fell off, gorged with blood; and if not timely driven away, might have left him dead in the morning. They reckon in Brazil no less than eighteen kinds of morcego, nine of which are voracious blood-suckers."p. 46. To an English ear, if associated with the common feelings of humanity, the following statement respecting slaves, cannot but prove disgusting and affecting. Imported from Africa, landed at Rio, sold in the public market, and driven into the country, by the inhuman traders in the flesh and blood of man, Mr. Walsh calls us to contemplate them as herds of cattle in a retail market, obeying the lash and brutality of the merciless drover. "A scene now presented itself highly repugnant to European feelings, particularly those who wit ness it for the first time. We had overtaken on the road several troops of slaves, bought at Rio, and driven like sheep into the country to be sold at the different villages. A market was here opened, just before the inn door, and about thirty men, women, and children were brought there. The driver was the very model of what I had conceived such a fel. low to be. He was a tall, cadaverous, tawny man, with a shock of black hair hanging about his sharp but determined-looking visage. He was dressed in a blue jacket and pantaloons, with half boots hanging about his legs, ornamented with large silver spurs. On his head he wore a capacious straw hat, bound with a broad ribbon, and in his hand was a long whip with two thongs; he shook this over his drove, and they all arranged themselves for examination, some of them, particularly the children, trembling like aspen leaves. He then went round the village, for purchasers, and when they arrived the market was opened. The slaves, both men and women, were walked about, and put into different paces, then handled and felt exactly as I have seen butchers feel a calf. He occasionally lashed them and made them jump, to shew that their limbs were supple, and caused them to shriek and cry, that the purchasers might perceive their lungs were sound. "Among the company at the market, was a Brazilian lady, who exhibited a regular model of her class in the country. She had on a round felt hat 549 Review-Walsh's Notices of Brazil in 1828-9. like an Englishman's, and under it a turban, which covered her head as a nightcap. Though it was a burning day, she was wrapped up in a large scarlet woollen cloak, which, however, she drew up so high as to shew us her embroidered shoes and silk stockings; she was attended by a black slave, who held an umbrella over her head; and she walked for a considerable time through the slaves, looking as if she was proudly contrasting her own importance with their misery. "On turning away from a spectacle, where every thing, though so novel, was so revolting, we were accosted by a man with a gaudy flowered silk waistcoat, who spoke a little English, and said he was a German Doctor, settled in the Aldea. He informed us, that the people in the neighbouring valley treated the slaves with the greatest inhumanity. They allowed them but a scanty portion of farinha or feijao, and never any animal food; yet on this they compelled them to work fourteen hours a day, exposing them to the alternations of heat, cold, and wet, without the smallest regard to health, comfort, or life. The consequence was, that the deaths exceeded the births in such a proportion, that if it was not for the constant supply sent down in this way, the negroes of the district would soon become an extinct race. He himself possessed two slaves, which he kept alive and healthy by a different treatment, which he recommended in vain to his neighbours to adopt, even for their own sakes, if not for that of humanity."-P. 53. The ant hills, which Mr. Walsh describes with minuteness and perspicuity, cannot fail to prove entertaining to the reader, whose personal observations have never extended to foreign scenery, nor noticed, on a large and diversified scale, the varied modes in which animal life appears. "But the circumstance that most attracted my attention was the ant-hills. These were conical mounds of clay, raised by the industry of their inhabitants to the height of ten or twelve feet; I rode close by several which were considerably higher than my head on horseback, and nine or ten feet in circumference. The exterior coat is a yellow hard clay, but on making a perpendicular section, the inside is found divided by a number of horizontal floors, or stories, of a hard black earth, in thin plates, shining sometimes like japan-ware. These are inhabited by myriads of large brown ants, who are capable of exuding a viscid fluid, which tempers the clay to the moisture necessary to form those floors. Some species make covered ways in this manner, and I have seen tubes, or tunnels, of a considerable length, by which they pass and repass unseen, from one habitation to another, for a considerable distance. 1 "They sometimes migrate, and their progress is attended with extraordinary circumstances; they then go straight forward, devouring every thing in their like a flight of locusts. A garden near way, Rio obstructed their line of march; they found a stick accidentally lying across a deep ditch of water, which they used as a bridge, and continued to pour in such myriads by this passage, that in a few hours the garden was full of them, and every thing green disappeared. From hence they proceeded on, till they met the house of Mr. Westyn, the Swedish charge d'affaires, and they made their way through it. He told me he was suddenly awoke in the night by a horrid sensation, and on jumping out of bed, he found himself covered with these insects, whose crawling and biting had awoke him. The whole house was full of them. Impelled by some extraordinary instinct, they continued to advance till the whole body passed through, and the next morning there was not one to be seen. In their progress they devoured every other insect. Spiders, cockroaches, flies, and every similar thing of the kind that infested the house, became their prey; and when they disappeared, all other insects disappeared along with them. I 550 have seen them frequently take up their abode in a large bamboo, and every joint of the long cylinder was a separate colony swarming with an ant population. "To the ant-mounds of the Campos, the negroes attach an extraordinary superstition. They call them copim, and they say they contain a toad, a serpent, and a bird; that the toad eats the ant, the serpent the toad, and the bird the serpent, who then flies off, and leaves the copim empty. We saw several of them in that state, the interior all falling away, and nothing remaining but the crust. We discovered, however, another cause for it. The armadillos have here burrowed every where over the plains, and their holes are full as numerous as the ant-hills. They frequently perforate below the copims, and getting inside, devour the ants, and destroy the structure of their habitation. We discovered one fellow in the very act; he immediately bolted, and we pursued him. I think I never saw a droller chase; the awkward speed of the animal, so unfitted for running, and the eagerness of the negroes, who every moment threw themselves on him, to endeavour to keep him down. At length we captured him. head resembled that of a pig, with a flat circular snout, used, like a pig's, for the purpose of rooting up the earth. His body was clothed in a dense, tough, scaly coat, like that of a crocodile, which hung down over his sides, as the flap of a saddle, and so resembled a coat-of-mail, that the animal is justly called the hog in armour; and he was armed with very strong claws, by which he burrowed in the ground. I secured him in a bag, and had great hopes of keeping him alive, and of observing his habits."-p. 79. His In the mining districts tradition has preserved the following singular prophecy, in which the natives place much confidence. They feel assured that one part has been already accomplished, and this they consider to be a certain indication that the remaining portion will in due time receive its fulfilment. "In this serra it is that the General Mining Association are pursuing the precious metals by shafts, adits, and levels. Tradition has handed down a singular prophecy connected with this mountain, which the present generation at S. Jose think is about to be fulfilled. The prophecy is, that a day will come when men from the east will cross the seas, and arrive at S. Jose to dig under the serra, where they will discover immense riches. In the course of their operations, however, they will reach a subterraneous river, which, thus set free, will rush from its bed and overflow the town. The establishment of a company from England to mine in this serra, the people say, is the accomplishment of the first part of the prophecy; the labours of the company, they add, will fulfil the second part; and the old vigario tells them that the third part of the prediction will shortly come to pass, and that the river which is to overflow and ruin S. Jose, is the taste for luxury and dissipation, which these foreigners have introduced." p. 112. Of revolutionary commotion and military despotism, we may perceive the effects in the paragraphs which follow: "It is a usual practice in Brazil for young men to assemble, armed, on festival days; particularly on that of Corpus Christi, which is held the highest in the calendar. In June, 1826, about eighty persons paraded for the purpose, with their officers, on the green of S. Jose: and after the ceremony and procession, they were marched to the camera, where their arms were deposited, and they were dismissed. But instead of being suffered to return home they were surrounded by a troop of cavalry; every man was seized, and they were given to understand that they were enrolled as soldiers. Some were refractory, but they were treated with great seve |