place. The mother suckles and cares for them with great tenderness, and defends them with fury. When these creatures go on shore, or mount a piece of ice, they use their tusks to assist them in raising the heavy mass of the body from the water. They appear to eat sea-weed as well as animal sub stances. In spite of the dangers of navigation in the Arctic seas, the vessels of all northern people go there to hunt the walrus, not only for the tusks, which furnish very good ivory, but also to extract from its blubber the abundant oil, which is better than that of the whale, as well as for its skin, which is manufactured into coachbraces. Hunters formerly found them in immense herds on certain shores, and it was not uncommon for them to kill from twelve to fifteen hundred of them in a single voyage; but at the present day they are rarely found, except in small troops or in families. In the sea they are harpooned in the same manner as whales, and if found on the shore they are killed with a lance. When a walrus finds himself wounded he gets into a terrible passion, and if he can not reach his enemy he tears the earth about him with his tusks, he breaks the weapons of the venturesome hunter, and finally, in the height of his wrath, he covers his head with his paws and rolls down the slope into the sea. If they are in great numbers when they are attacked in the water, the protection which they mutually afford each other renders them audacious. In this case they do not flee. They surround the boats and try to sink them by pulling them under with their tusks, or by tearing the planks, of which they often take away large pieces. At such times, and in their combats with the white bear, in which they always conquer, they frequently lose a paw; but the remaining one is used with no less effect on that account. If the hunters succeed in harpooning one they generally add several more, for these creatures use all their exertions to defend and deliver their comrade. If frightened by their number and their fury, and especially by the mad bellowings that rend the air, the hunters deem it prudent to retreat, the walruses pursue them for a great distance and do not seem to give up their project of vengeance until the boat is lost from their sight. And, life on life sublimely piled, Look how a star of glory swims Down aching silences of space, Flushing the darkness till its face With beating heart of light o'erbrims! So brightening came babe Christabel, To touch the earth with fresh romance, And light a mother's countenance With looking on her miracle. With hands so flower-like, soft, and fair, She caught at life, with words as sweet As first spring violets, and feet As faery-light as feet of air. The father, down in toil's murk mine, A pillow for the baby-head! Their natures deepen, well-like, clear, The red rose-heart of dawn would blow, Of what their budding babe shall grow, And they should bless her for a bride, In some heart's seventh heaven, should sit, As now in theirs, all glorified! But O! 'twas all too white a brow To flush with passion that doth fire With Hymen's torch its own death-pyre, So pure her heart was beating now! And thus they built their castles brave In faery land of gorgeous cloud; They never saw a little white shroud, Nor guess'd how flowers may mask the grave. THE humblest of the Magyars love to and ornamented with jewels. To honot palmy fine arts, sumptuous His father, Hunyad, had rendered Hun- creations, Corvinus invited to his capital He rear'd his throne by Duna's banks, Preserves his memory still. It was at this point, also, in later times, that the son of Almos, the leader of the Magyar hordes, crossed the Danube in his invasion of Hungary. At Kelemfold, Arpad the bold Louis the Grand had immortalized Visegrad; Corvinus made his court at Buda the most brilliant in Europe. His palace, the foundation of which had been laid by Sigismond, overflowed with silver and gold. The pope's legate declared that fifty wagons would not suffice to carry the royal plate made of precious metals The pomp and show at the great festivals, and the splendor of the receptions, corresponded to this royal luxury. The embassador to France was accompanied by three hundred young nobles, in scarlet and diamonds, and mounted upon as many horses exactly alike in size and color. Corvinus caused his sumptuous apartments to be decorated with statues in imitation of Greek and Roman art, and after the fatigues of the day retired in them to listen to his favorite authors. At the brilliant fêtes the guests not unfrequently saw themselves surrounded by allegorical figures representing the souvenirs of classic times. Besides his national idiom, the king spoke, with equal fluency, Latin. French, German, and Italian, and had a perfect acquaintance with the great authors of antiquity. He founded the library at Buda, at that time the most celebrated in the world for the number and richness of its oriental works. Thirty calligraphists mountains north of Buda were clothed with an immense forest, where the oak and the chestnut grew in all their native strength and beauty. The gentle slope toward the village of Budakeszi was dotted with grassy openings. In the vast forest, so near the capital, were celebrated the royal hunts, the delight of Corvinus, and close at hand were the pastures of the queen's flocks. One day the king left his companions in the chase in the neighborhood of Virányos. Passing out of the forest he found himself near the royal pastures, and paused to admire the magnificent prospect opened to VOL. XIII.-14 |