The complicated, and, at first sight, somewhat incomprehensible sketch which we here lay before our readers, was taken from an interior wall of a palace in Egypt. It is, of course, by Egyptian artists, and the subject of it is no other than an Egyptian dinner-table set out and adorned for a banquet.
At a dinner in ancient Egypt, small and low circular tables were used, standing on a single pillar, with a dilated base; sometimes one of these was apportioned to every guest, the viands being brought round by the servants successively, from a larger pillar-table which had been brought in readily set out by two men. The accompanying engraving shows a table thus laid out, requiring, however, a little allowance for the lack of perspective. Round and oblong cakes of bread flattened and pricked in patterns, a goose, a leg of a kid or antelope, baskets of figs and other fruit, are crowned by a huge bunch of the lotus-lily. Under the table are bottles of wine placed on stands in a series, and crowned with a lotus-garland, upon which is thrown a long withe of what seems from the tendrils a vine, loaded with clusters of grapes, as well as thickly set with foliage.
ELEPHANT-GOD OF BURMAH.
A white elephant is a great rarity, and whenever one is caught, the Burmese treat it as a god and pay worship to it. Captain Yule thus describes the white elephant of 1855, and his palace at Amarapoora, the capital of Burmah:—
"In the area which stretches before the Hall of Audience are several detached buildings. A little to the north is the "Palace," or state apartment, of the Lord White Elephant, with his highness's humbler every-day residence in rear. To the south are sheds for the vulgar herd of the same species, and brick godowns in which the state carriages and golden litters (the latter massive and gorgeous in great variety of design) are stowed away. Temporary buildings, used as barracks and gunsheds, run along the wall. The present white elephant has occupied his post for at least fifty years. I have no doubt he is the same as Padre San-germano mentions as having been caught in 1806, to the great joy of the King, who had just lost the preceding incumbent, a female, which died after a year's captivity. He is a very large elephant, close upon ten feet high, with as noble a head and pair of tusks as I have ever seen. But he is long-bodied and lanky, and not otherwise well made as an elephant. He is sickly and out of condition, and is, in fact, distempered during five months of the year, from April to August. His eye, the iris of which is yellow with a reddish outer annulus, and a small clear black pupil, has an uneasy glare, and his keepers evidently mistrust his temper. We were always warned against going near his head. The annulus round the iris of the eye is pointed out as resembling a circle of the nine gems. His colour is almost uniform all over; nearly the ground-tint of the mottled or freckled part of the trunk and ears of common elephants, perhaps a little darker. He also has pale freckles in the same parts. On the whole, he is well entitled to his appellation of white. His royal paraphernalia, which are set out when visitors are expected, are sufficiently splendid. Among them was a driving-hook about three feet long, the stem of which was a mass of small pearls, girt at frequent intervals with bands of rubies, and the hook and handle of crystal tipped with gold. His headstall was of fine red cloth, plentifully studded with fine rubies, and near the extremity having some valuable diamonds. To fit over the two bumps of the forehead were circles of the nine gems, which are supposed to be charms against evil influences. When caparisoned he also wore on the forehead, like other Burmese dignitaries, including the King himself, a golden plate inscribed with his titles, and a gold crescent set with circles of large gems between the eyes. Large silver tassels hung in front of his ears, and he was harnessed with bands of gold and crimson set with large bosses of pure gold. He is a regular "estate of the realm," having a woon or minister of his own, four gold umbrellas, the white umbrellas which are peculiar to royalty, with a suite of attendants said to be thirty in number. The Burmese who attended us removed their shoes before entering his 'Palace.' The elephant has an appanage or territory assigned to him 'to eat,' like any other dignitary of the empire. I do not know where his estate is at present, but in Burney's time it was the rich cotton district of Taroup Myo."
SUPERSTITION IN 1856.
In April, 1856, a poor woman, residing in a village about three miles from Pershore, acting upon the advice of her neighbours, brought her child, who was suffering from whooping cough, to that town, for the purpose of finding out a married couple answering to the names of Joseph and Mary, and soliciting their interference on behalf of her afflicted child, as she had been informed that if two married persons having those names could but be induced to lay their hands on her child's head, the whooping cough would be immediately cured. After scouring the town for a considerable time in search of "Joseph and his fair lady," they were at length discovered in the persons of a respectable tradesman and his wife residing in Bridge Street, to whom the poor silly woman made known her foolish request, which at first excited a smile from the good woman of the house, but was quickly followed, not by "the laying on of hands," but by good advice, such as mothers only know how to give in these matters. The poor mother then thankfully departed a wiser woman.
PRAYING BY WHEEL AND AXLE.