66 This preparatory ceremony being completed, the prayers were renewed, and fresh incense cast upon the fire. Now," said the magician to the boy, "Call the sacred bull." "The sacred bull," the boy exclaimed, and he was asked what he now saw. "I see a great many people leading forth a bull. Now they are preparing to sacrifice him. Now they are eating him." This procession being past, the boy was told to call for the Sultan. The Sultan at the call appeared, attended with a troop of horsemen, and himself riding upon a splendid black charger, from which he alighted, and ascended a throne, his court falling off on each side in the form of a crescent. All these preparatory incantations being duly performed, the conjurer said to me, "Now ask for what you choose, for anything lost, or any person dead or alive, and the boy will see them on the ink-spot in his hand and describe them to you." One of the party had lost some jewelry, and on asking for it, the boy said it was on the person of one of the party, who confessed he had it, and that he had taken and kept it by way of a joke. Many illustrious dead were invoked, and the boy invariably described them as appearing to him in the costume of the age and nation to which they belonged. One of the party asked for a friend who had been some time dead; and he was described as appearing with both his arms, of which the magician was told he had lost one long before he died. "That might be," was the answer;" but all who come at our command, come perfect persons, as God created them.' We cannot lengthen this note, except by exclaiming-Happy long forgotten dead, who escaped from this world in that blessed obscurity which exempts your repose from being disturbed by the earthly agents of evil spirits! Wretched, ye wise and mighty of the dead, whose names are emblazoned on the pages of history, and whose spirits are subject to be touched with madness, and tormented with devils, to gratify the curiosity of those idle and unfeeling, who not only ransack the graves, but harass the souls of their forefathers! What would Henry Cornelius Agrippa say to all this? Formerly men went to get instructions in magic of the devil, in certain caves in the neighbourhood of Toledo, in Spain. Now it is found that the art, as known in the first ages of the world, was never lost in Egypt. 54. A medicine against all manner of infirmitys. Take and drink a cupfull of the juice of betonye, the first Thursday in May, and he shall be delivered from all manner of diseases for that yeare. An annotator, on the margin, calls this a piece of foolish witchcraft." 63. A confection for one that cannot eate well.-Take the juice of fennell two partes, and the third of honye, and seeth them together tyll it be as thicke as honye, and put pepper to it, and take everye day fasting two or three spoonefulls thereof, &c. 71. For to get a stomache. Take rosa solis halfe a pinte, rose water halfe a pinte, a quarter of a pinte of dragon water, and two spoonefulls of sallet oyle, and halfe a pinte of wormewood water, and one nut megge beaten to powder; boyle all these together a little while, and after that take five leaves of liverworte, of lungworte three leaves, and two races of ginger beaten to powder, and put these to the foresayde and drinke of it, eveninge and morninge, twoe spoonefulls at a time, five dayes together. Indolence and sickly constitutions, gave people bad appetites formerly as well as now. The prescriptions for getting a good appetite abound in the manuscript we are quoting from. But beside the indolent who will not take exercise to create a desire for food, and the sickly, to whom nature has denied the pleasure of eating, how many gourmonds are there who, instead of eating to live, live to eat, and are constantly exciting the rapacity of medical avarice by fees for tonics, stimulants, and dinner pills. 78. Forone that is or will be dronken. -Take swallowes and burne them, and make a powder of them; and give the dronken man thereof to drinke, and he shall never be dronken hereafter. We recommend this recipe to the consideration and patronage of the Temperance Societies. What the appearance, the constituent parts, or the taste of the ashes of a swallow may be, we know not, for we have neither seen, analysed, nor tasted a specimen of them. But if they would cure drunkenness, the swallowers of drink would certainly decrease, however gnats might increase in the fens of England, or midges in the moors of Scotland, by the increased demand for swallows. Man settles in marshes, and takes drams and tobacco to correct the effects of the bad air he lives in; and swallows haunt fens and water sides for the winged insects they produce, so that for a considerable part of the year, from the latter end of April to some time in September, the sots that inhabit straths, and moors, and marshy sea-side countries, may easily obtain ashes of swallows to cure them of the malady of drinking. 102. To cause hair to growe.Take the water of flower-de-leuce, and washe thy heade therewith, and it shall cause hayre to growe. Also the water of rosemary hath the same vertue. If thou wash thy head with the same water, and let it drye on agayne by itselfe, it causeth hayre to growe if thou be balde. This may prove a desirable cosmetic to elderly dandies. We can, however, safely aver that the fairies communicated no piece of idle superstition to the Vicar of Warlingham, when they affirmed that water of rosemary was good for the hair, for it nourishes and refreshes it much. 104. For one that hath loste his minde. Takė and shave off the hayre of the moulde of his heade, then take archangell and stampe it, and binde it to his heade where it is shaven, and let him take a sleep therewithall, and when he awaketh he shall be righte weake and sober enoughe. Philips gives as one meaning of mould -"the dent in the upper part of the head;" and Ainsworth renders in Latin, "the mould of the head," by Sutura. Johnson had not found an example of the word. It were well, if shaven scalps, covered with a plaster of archangel, were for a while made fashionable in certain V. H. political circles. (To be continued.) ALTAR WINDOW OF ST. DUNSTAN IN THE WEST, FLEET STREET. DESIGNED BY THOMAS WILLEMENT, F. S. A. (With a Plate.) A STRIKING feature in this newly erected church is the altar window, a finely executed composition in stained glass, which for richness of colouring and propriety of design, is entitled to rank with many of the works of ancient days, whilst, at the same time that the ancient style of design has been preserved, the superiority of modern drawing has not been forgotten. The window which contains the glass is a simple design frequently met with in buildings of the latter part of the fifteenth century; it is divided by mullions into four lights, the mouldings of the central mullion, which is larger than the others, diverging at the upper part of the design, and forming two subarches, which, as well as the spandrils above them, are in their turn subdivided into smaller lights. The artist, in filling up the voids of this window, has very judiciously introduced the representations of the four Evangelists in the larger lights, and filled the smaller divisions with religious emblems, instead of forming, as is often the case, an historical pic ture, the effect of which must be decidedly injured, and its unity destroyed, by the interposition of the stone work. It is evident that the designers of the majority of the ancient church windows were the architects of the building. The figures displayed on the window were in fact only representations of the statuary of the time. They were coloured representations of painted statues. The niche, with its pedestal and canopy, were retained, and drawn in as good perspective as the age could afford; at the same time, in the execution it is observable that greater freedom is displayed in the drawing of the figures, showing that the painter had assumed a greater scope of his genius than the sculptor, for it must be remarked that the actual statue was generally far more stiff and formal than its representation on glass. In the present subject the paintings of the four Evangelists are varied both in the style and colours of their dresses, and also in their positions, happily avoiding that appearance of tameness which some old designs possess. The saintly character of each of the figures is marked by the nimbus which encircles the head, the invariable accompaniment in old examples of a sainted personage. Each figure looks towards the centre of the design, and is elevated on a pedestal of an octangular form, with traceried compartments in the sides, and having an uniform cap and base. Each pedestal is fronted by a shield, over which is a ribbon containing the name of the Saint represented above. The canopies over the head of each figure are uniform, hexagonal in plan, and surmounted by a filiated cupola between two pinnacles. The canopies are relieved with a background of a cerulean blue, and each of the effigies with a richly diapered curtain, or hanging, of cloth of gold. So far the general features of the whole resemble each other. The particular description of each statue is as follows: S. Matheus. An aged man with grey beard and bald forehead, clothed in a tunic or surcoat of scarlet with blue sleeves, a white cope or mantle lined with yellow, fastened at the throat; he holds his Gospel on his left hand, a richly bound and clasped volume in the antique style; on the shield below, the emblem of the Trinity, which may be thus blazoned heraldically:- Gules, an orle and a pall conjoined Argent, thereon four bezants, two in chief, one on the fesse point, and one in base, the two in chief inscribed: the dexter with the word "Pater," and the sinister with "Filius, the one on fesse "Deus," and the one on base, "S'c't's Sp's;" on each of the three parts of the orle the words "non est," and on each of the parts of the pall the word "est.” S. Marcus. In a long green robe with red sleeves, surmounted by a white chasuble; he holds his Gospel in his right hand. The shield is Azure, on the fesse point the Star of Bethlem within the crown of thorns, between three Rails all Proper-a shield of the Passion. S. Lucas. Attired in a blue robe with a white mantle, his Gospel in his right hand; the shield, Gules, a spear in bend, surmounted with a staff, with the sponge in bend sinister Proper; over all a cross Argent, having a scroll on the fesse point, charged with the letters I. N. A. I. Also a shield of the Passion. D. Johannes. The youthful appearance of this Saint is preserved; his robe is grey, surmounted by a white cope, his Gospel in his right hand. The shield Azure, on a mount Or, the Agnus Dei Argent, the head regardant and encircled with a nimbus Or, bearing a banner Argent ensigned with a cross Gules. Above the principal figures, and occupying the minor compartments of the subarches, are the well-known symbols of the Evangelists, deduced from the prophecies of Ezekiel and the Visions of St. John; they are so arranged as to be placed nearly over the figures of the Saints to whom they relate. It is almost needless to add, that these emblems are an Angel, a Lion, a Calf or Bull, and an Eagle. They are here represented white on a red ground. In the spandrils are the sacred monograms, A Q and J. H. S. Above is the descending Dove. The donors of this splendid window have caused a very simple memorial of their beneficence to appear in the design. At the bottom of the window, on a ribbon, is the following inscription. Dea et Ecclesiæ Fratres Hoare dicaverunt, A'o D'ni M.DCCC.XXX.TIT; and this, almost hidden by the ornaments of the altar, is the whole record of the donation of this splendid window. In consequence of this modest retiring feeling, the artist was left to form his own design, and he shows throughout a close resemblance to ancient examples, on which sacred emblems alone formed the ornamental detail. No vain display of family pride, no pomp of heraldry is visible. The only record of the donors is a simple inscription, set up not for the gratification of vanity, but for the information of the historian. Will the day never arrive when so pleasing, so appropriate, so innocent an embellishment to our churches, as stained glass, shall be universally introduced? Let us hope that it will -that one day we shall see a little of the surplus wealth of the times dedicated to the decent and appropriate embellishment of the house of God. When that period arrives, it is to be hoped that windows like the present will be constructed, instead of those vain displays of corporate and individual heraldry which we too often meet with on the altar windows of our ancient churches, in situations where those ornaments alone should be introduced, which may harmonize with the sacred character of the place, and accord with the feelings which ought solely to predominate. E. I. C. |