Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][subsumed][merged small]

PROCESSION OF JUGGERNAUT.

A. STIRLING, Esq., in his "Account of Orissa," describes the great car festival of Juggernaut, and adverts to the miseries of the pilgrims:

On the appointed day, after various ceremonies are performed within the temple, the images are brought from their throne to the outside of the Lion-gate, not with reverence, seated on a litter or vehicle adapted to such an occasion; but, a common cord being fastened round their necks, certain priests, to whom the duty appertains, drag them down the steps, and through the mud. In this way the monstrous idols go rocking and pitching along through the crowd, until they reach the cars, which they are made to ascend by a similar process up an inclined platform.

VOL. II.

On the other hand, a powerful sentiment of religious enthusiasm pervades the admiring multitude of pilgrims assembled without, when the images first make their appearance through the gate. They welcome them with shouts and cries of jye Juggernaut, victory to Juggernaut ! and when the monster Juggernaut, the most hideous of all the figures, is dragged forth, the last in order, the air is rent with acclamations. The celebrated idols are nothing more than wooden busts about six feet in height, fashioned into a rude resemblance of the human head, resting on a sort of pedestal. They are painted white, yellow, and black, respectively, with frightfully grim and distorted countenances, and are decorated with a head dress of different coloured cloths, shaped something like a helmet.

3 к

The two brothers have arms projecting ho- | jackals, and vultures, are observed watching rizontally forward from the ears. The the last moments of the dying pilgrim, and sister is entirely devoid of even that ap- not unfrequently hastening his fate. proximation to the human form.

Dr. Buchanan, who saw the dreadful scene with his own eyes, says :—

After the tower had proceeded some way, a pilgrim announced that he was ready to offer himself a sacrifice to the idol. He laid himself down in the road, before the tower, as it was moving along, lying on his face, with his arms stretched forwards. The multitude passed round him, leaving the space clear, and he was crushed to death by the wheels of the tower. A shout of joy was raised to the god. He is said to smile when the libation of blood is made. The people throw cowries, or small money, on the body of the victim, in approbation of the deed. He was left to view a considerable time; and was then carried to a place a little way out of the town, called, by the English, Golgotha, where the dead bodies are usually cast forth, and where dogs and vultures are ever seen. There I have just been viewing his remains.

Colonel Phipps, who witnessed the car festival in 1822, thus describes the miseries occasioned by it :

The loss of life, by this deplorable superstition, probably exceeds that of any other. The aged, the weak, the sick, are persuaded to attempt_this_pilgrimage, as a remedy for all evils. The number of women and children, also, is very great. The pilgrims leave their families and occupations, to travel an immense distance, with the delusive hope of obtaining eternal bliss. Their means of subsistence on the road are scanty; and their light clothing and little bodily strength are ill calcu1ated to encounter the inclemency of the weather. When they reach the district of Cuttack, they cease to experience that hospitality shown elsewhere to pilgrims; it is a burden which the inhabitants could not sustain and they prefer availing themselves of the increased demand of provisions to augment the price. The pilgrim, on leaving Juggernaut, has still a long journey before him, and his means of support are often almost, if not quite exhausted. The work of death then becomes rapid; and the route of the pilgrims may be traced, by the bones left by jackals and vultures. The country near the temple seems suddenly to have been visited by pestilence and famine. Dead bodies are seen in every direction. Parriar dogs,

EARLY SETTLERS IN AMERICA.
GRANT THORBURN says:-

In a short time it will be forty winters since I first landed in New York; I was then in my twentieth year, without a face that I knew, or a friend to counsel or direct.

On the first sabbath morning after we landed, three young men of our passengers called and inquired where I was going to-day? I said, "To church." They answered, "We have been near ten weeks confined to the ship; let us now walk out and see the country; our health requires exercise, and we can go to church another day. I said, "As long as I can remember, I have gone to church with my father every sabbath of my life; and when we parted, his last words were, • Remember the sabbath-day.""

They went to the country, I went to church; they spent a few shillings of their wages, I put two one-penny corporation bills in the plate. Some of them were good mechanics, and got from eight to ten dollars per weeks; my branch was poor, and it was only by close application Í earned five dollars per week. They continued going in the country, found loose company, spent most of their week's wages, came home half-drunk, sometimes caught by a thunder-storm, which spoiled their fine clothes and hats; rose late on monday morning, bones and head aching, and could work but little all that day. I went to church, saved my wages, rose early on monday morning, my bones rested, my head sound, and started on the labours of the week with a light heart and quiet conscience. At the end of the year they could show fine clothes and powdered heads on sunday; but I could show 100 dollars, piled in the corner of my chest. They have all been gone long ago; having lived fast, they died early; while I, as one consequence of regular living, have not been confined by sickness for one day in all that period.

Now, Mr. Deist and Mrs. Deist, you who profess to reform the world by destroying the bible and abolishing the sabbath, you who profess to speak and write for the

* Paper money then in circulation in New York, before the United States had established a mint. + Collection for the poor.

good of society, I would ask you, who lived the most comfortable life, they or I? Who were the most useful members of society? They died, and left their wives and children beggars. If I die to-night, my family have the tools and hands to make themselves independent of the world. One of the young men of whom I speak was a baker: in a fit of intemperance, while working dough in the trough alone, he lost his balance, tumbled in with his head buried in dough, and in this situation was found dead. This fact is known to scores of his countrymen now in this city.

About three months after I landed, there came from England into the shop where I wrought a man by the name of Williams; he had a fine little woman for a wife, and one or two young children. He was an excellent mechanic, and the first, I believe, who manufactured coach-springs in New York; he was by religious profession a Baptist, and went to the church in Gold street. Dr. Foster, I believe, was then the pastor. He continued a consistent professor, attending church regularly with his wife and children. But William was a warm politician, as redhot as the iron he hammered.

[ocr errors]

and shop, and his worldly circumstances began to fall into decay.

As old shopmates, he and I have ever been, and now are, on the most friendly terms when we meet and from the beginning have I expostulated and warned him of the ruin he was bringing on himself and family in this world, laying the next aside. Though he could not deny the truth of what I said, yet he seemed like one who had gone so far, that he was ashamed to recede.

One morning about ten o'clock, a few weeks ago, he called on me, and asked for something to buy his breakfast, as he had not tasted any thing that day. I looked on him with sorrow, almost to crying. Says I, "William, has it really come to this with you?" He said he had not a halfpenny, a friend, or child to help him in the world. I asked for his sons and daughters by name; they had all gone to ruin, or were dead. The few old friends of the Williams-street illuminati, now that he was poor, knew him not.

66

I gave him a small sum, and told him to call on me in his extremity. Says I, William, there are my sons and daughters; they are an honour to their parents, being all useful members of society. Your children and mine were brought up neighbours to one another, what should make them to differ?" He was silent. Says I,

About this time there came to the city a man by the name of Palmer, who was either born blind, or had lost his sight by disease. This blind leader of the blind" I told you, thirty-four years ago, your used to lecture on deism, in what was then called the Assembly Room, in Williamsstreet. William was led by some of his new associates into this dungeon of despair, and drank deep in their dark and cheerless doctrine. In a short time he came out a flaming deist; and instead of going with his wife and children to church, he led them to Long Island, or the fields in Jersey; or he went by himself to some low tavern, and harangued on Paine's writings, to any set of blockheads who would hear him.

mad principles would beggar yourself, and ruin your family. While you carried your children to the fields, or left them to wander in the road to destruction, I carried mine to the church, where they were not exposed to bad company; and now they walk in the ways of wisdom, which are pleasantness and peace." I added, "You must now be convinced that religion is the best thing for this world; and, in the next, they who profess it will be as well off as you. But if the bible is true, you may say with the miser, 'I was starved in this, His children, as they grew up, being left and damned in that which is to come."" to wander as they pleased, soon associated He confessed I had the best of the arguwith bad company, and turned out worsement, and said he might have been a rich than good for nothing. He had commenced business for himself, and for some time was in a very thriving way. But now every thing was forgotten in his zeal for propagating his new principles. You might find him in every street and corner, pouring out his new light; and so vulgar and brutish was the language in which he blasphemed every thing which society in general holds sacred, that moderate men of any principles got disgusted, shunned his company

|

man if he had stuck to the principles he brought with him from England. He said he thought of going into the alms-house, it was a good last retreat. "And for this," says I to William, you have to thank christianity; for where the bible is not known, they have neither alms-house nor hospital."

66

I have only to add, that this story is no fiction, nor combination of characters that may have existed; but is literally true.

My friend William now lives; he is a man of truth, though a deist, and will vouch for what I have said, were he asked. If any one doubts, I can point them to some of the men, still alive.

and

Have just had a visit (this August 2, 1833) from my friend William; he calls as usual when his funds run low. Gave him something of the needful. Being a hot day, and not many customers, we sat and conversed about old times. Says I, "William, it is now thirty-nine years since the first week that you and I wrought together. Now," says I, "William, there is no use of disguise about principles, or any thing else, between you and me. You must be in the grave soon, and I, though nearly twenty years younger, may be there first; but would you do as you have done, could you I recall the last forty years of your life?" He answered firmly, he would not. Says I, "In what would you improve?" Says he, "I never again would deny my religion, or forsake my church;' added, he believed he would have been among the richest mechanics in New York, had he only continued in the principles he brought with him from England. I said I believed he was right; for, said I, "William, you will remember often when you got engaged in a dispute, your bellows and hammer lay still, and your fire went out, while mine was flying like the clapper of a grist mill." He smiled and said I was correct. I asked, where he found those who were most ready to help, now that he could not help himself, among his freethinking friends, or among the church-going folks? He said, Last winter he was some time confined to bed by sickness, and was often visited by ladies and gentlemen from the Methodist and other churches, and by the humane societies. They told him, (it is his own words,) though they were opposed to his principles, yet it was their duty not to see him want; and added, that they were very kind to him; but very few of his freethinking brethren ever came near "Now, William," says I, "twentyfive years ago you branded all these churchgoing people as a set of unqualified hypocrites; but you have lived to experience the benefits of their principles and practice; they, at least in this way, follow the example of the Master they profess to serve, for he always was found in the hovels of the poor, and by the sick-bed of the wretched. Did you ever see Miss Fanny Wright brave the winter's blast and enter the abodes of misery, like those ladies you

him.

speak of? Did you ever hear of a deist founding a hospital? Did you ever hear of a deist giving thirty thousand dollars to a blind institution, as was lately done by a rich professor in Boston?" He acknowledged he had not, and that religion was the best thing for this world, and would do no harm in the next. He said he had gone wrong; but now it was too late to retract.-Forty Years' Residence in America.

[merged small][graphic][merged small]

"By the rivers of Babylon," (the streams of the river Euphrates,) "there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof." -Psalm cxxxvii. 1, 2.

MR. VERNON, Turkey merchant at Aleppo, transplanted the weeping willow from the river Euphrates, brought it with him to England, and planted it at his seat in Twickenham Park.

This is the original of all the weeping willows in our gardens. How pleasing is the idea that every incidental circumstance furnishes to the observant mind a collateral proof of the unimpeachable veracity of Holy Writ!

Ought we not to regard every weeping willow that comes under our observation, as an illustration of the authenticity, as well as of the accuracy, of the Israelitish captives' song, as handed down to us in the passage above quoted?

INSECTS.-No. XXVI.

Remarkable Structure of Chrysalises. CHRYSALISES or pupæ, possess similar organs of respiration with caterpillars and perfect insects; and as the former have eighteen spiracles which communicate with the double windpipe of caterpillars, so the same apparatus is always found in chrysalises, situated on the sides

of the abdominal wings. This has been, the water, swimming with its head upproved by numerous experiments. wards instead of downwards as before. When a chrysalis, for instance, is sus- That it may maintain this position, the pended by a thread, and immersed in oil pupa is further provided with a fin-tail, up to the tip of the wing-cases, it does like a fish, by which it can move itself not seem to be much injured, and the with pleasure in the water. It no longer, perfect insect is disclosed in due time. indeed, requires to take food, but air is If respiration, therefore, be essential to indispensable; and water being so unthe fe of the chrysalis, it appears as if it stable, were the pupa incapable of swimcould exist with at least the greater num-ming, it would seldom escape being ber of its spiracles obstructed; but this does not happen with a chrysalis just formed, which always dies. By immersing the whole chrysalis in oil, it is certainly killed; and it is so even by immersing its head downwards as far as the first pair of spiracles situated near the head. This seems to indicate that the first pair is more essential to the insect than all the rest; and in other experiments it is also found to emit a much greater quantity of air by this first pair.

drowned. Its breathing apparatus consists of two tubes, situated behind the head, or what may be called the shoulders. They are of a funnel shape, and project very sensibly. The transparency of the pupa renders it easy to see in it the parts of the gnat.

An apparently more simple, though no less remarkable apparatus for respiration was observed by Reaumur in the pupa of a small crane-fly. It consisted in a single tube, two or three times longer than the Reaumur also placed pupa of various body of the pupa, and as fine as a hair. species in the exhausted receiver of an The point of this hair always remains air-pump, and at every fresh stroke of the above or at the surface of the water, for piston their bodies both bulged out, and the purpose of breathing, till the perfect became lengthened: because, as he in- fly is ready to emerge from the water. ferred, the envelope is not pervious to the In another genus of this family, the exair contained in the body, and the spira-ternal organs of respiration are very elecles do not allow of its escape with sufficient rapidity to keep pace with the exhaustion of the receiver, contrary to what happens when caterpillars are subjected to the same circumstances.

On examining the structure of the spiracles, he further discovered that their mouths are furnished with valves, which are shut when the chrysalis is plunged into water, but opened again when it is taken out. This also accounts for the swelling of the body under the exhausted receiver of the air-pump, for it may be supposed that the animal would closely shut the valves when it felt the air forcibly extracted from its body. It is remarkable, however, that though the shutting of the valves prevents the entrance of water, it has not the power of excluding oil; because, as Reaumur conjectures, it is not, in the ordinary course of things, exposed to such an accident, and therefore Providence made no provision against it.

The beautiful apparatus for respiration in the larvae of the gnat family, has been already described; (see Weekly Visitor, .vol. i., p. 293;) but this is rivalled by the organs destined to the same purpose in their pupa, and which are situated in the head instead of in the tail. Accordingly the pupa changes its position in

[ocr errors]

gant in form, resembling more the fibrillæ of minute aquatic mosses than the appendages of an animal. The larva is usually less than half an inch long, flat, and jointed like the wire-worm, with several small appendages at the tail, which appear to be breathing tubes, of the nature of gills; for the larva lies under water in streams and ditches, enclosed for the most part in a tube of earth. It is of a fine crimson colour, hence it is called the "blood worm ;" but it becomes more dark and opaque in its pupa state.

The appendages which are thrown off by the larva are replaced by a rush-like bunch of bristles, the points of which, it is probable, have the power of extracting air from the water; and a similar coronet is produced on each side of the head, disposed in a five-rayed star of plumes. It is not a little remarkable, that a double envelope for the feet projects from each side of the breast, which seems peculiar to this insect. In a few days it is changed into a pretty gnat,with feathered antennæ.

How appropriate and beautiful are these contrivances. They are manifestations of an infinite Mind. And yet, filled with admiration at discoveries thus minute, we must exclaim, "These are but parts of his ways." Even when attainments are made as far surpassing ours

« PreviousContinue »