THE BLACK STONE AT MECCA.
Near the entrance of the Kaaba at Mecca, at the north-eastern corner, is the famous Black Stone, called by the Moslems Hajra el Assouad, or Heavenly Stone. It forms a part of the sharp angle of the building, and is inserted four or five feet above the ground. The shape is an irregular oval, about seven inches in diameter. Its colour is now a deep reddish brown, approaching to black; and it is surrounded by a border of nearly the same colour, resembling a cement of pitch and gravel, and from two to three inches in breadth. Both the border and the stone itself are encircled by a silver band, swelling to a considerable breadth below, where it is studded with nails of the same metal. The surface is undulated, and seems composed of about a dozen smaller stones, of different sizes and shapes, but perfectly smooth, and well joined with a small quantity of cement. It looks as if the whole had been dashed into many pieces by a severe concussion, and then re-united—an appearance that may perhaps be explained by the various disasters to which it has been exposed. During the fire that occurred in the time of Yezzid I. (A.D. 682), the violent heat split it into three pieces; and when the fragments were replaced, it was necessary to surround them with a rim of silver, which is said to have been renewed by Haroun el Raschid. It was in two pieces when the Karmathians carried it away, having been broken by a blow from a soldier during the plunder of Mecca. Hakem, a mad sultan of Egypt, in the 11th century, endeavoured, while on the pilgrimage, to destroy it with an iron club which he had concealed under his clothes; but was prevented and slain by the populace. Since that accident it remained unmolested until 1674, when it was found one morning besmeared with dirt, so that every one who kissed it returned with a sullied face. Though suspicion fell on certain Persians, the authors of this sacrilegious joke were never discovered. As for the quality of the stone, it does not seem to be accurately determined. Burckhardt says it appeared to him like a lava, containing several small extraneous particles of a whitish and yellowish substance. Ali Bey calls it a fragment of volcanic basalt, sprinkled with small-pointed coloured crystals, and varied with red feldspar upon a dark black ground like coal, except one of its protuberances, which is a little reddish. The millions of kisses and touches impressed by the faithful have worn the surface uneven, and to a considerable depth. This miraculous block all orthodox Mussulmans believe to have been originally a transparent hyacinth, brought from heaven to Abraham by the angel Gabriel; but its substance, as well as its colour, have long been changed by coming in contact with the impurities of the human race.
PARAGRAPH FROM THE "POSTMAN" IN 1697.
"Yesterday being the day of thanksgiving appointed by the States-General for the peace, His Excellency, the Dutch ambassador, made a very noble bonfire before his house in St. James's Square, consisting of about 140 pitch barrels placed perpendicularly on seven scaffolds, during which the trumpets sounded, and two hogsheads of wine were kept continually running amongst the common people."
LORD MAYOR'S FEAST IN 1663.
Pepys gives a curious account of a Lord Mayor's dinner in 1663. It was served in the Guildhall, at one o'clock in the day. A bill of fare was placed with every salt-cellar, and at the end of each table was a list of the persons proper there to be seated. Here is a mixture of abundance and barbarism. "Many were the tables, but none in the hall, but the Mayor's and the Lords' of the Privy Council, that had napkins or knives, which was very strange. I sat at the merchant-stranger's table, where ten good dishes to a mess, with plenty of wine of all sorts; but it was very unpleasing that we had no napkins, nor change of trenchers, and drank out of earthen pitchers and wooden dishes. The dinner, it seems, is made by the Mayor and two Sheriffs for the time being, and the whole is reckoned to come to £700 or £800 at most." Pepys took his spoon and fork with him, as was the custom of those days with guests invited to great entertainments. "Forks" came in with Tom Coryat, in the reign of James I.; but they were not "familiar" till after the Restoration. The "laying of napkins," as it was called, was a profession of itself. Pepys mentions, the day before one of his dinner-parties, that he went home, and "there found one laying of my napkins against to-morrow, in figures of all sorts, which is mighty pretty, and, it seems, is his trade, and he gets much money by it."
THE CUPID OF THE HINDOOS.
Among the Hindoo deities Camdeo, or Manmadin differs but little from the Cupid of the ancients. He is also called Ununga, or, without body; and is the son of Vishnu and Lacshmi. Besides his bow and arrows, he carries a banner, on which is delineated a fish: his bow is a sugar-cane; the cord is formed of bees; the arrows are of all sorts of flowers; one only is headed, but the point is covered with a honeycomb—an allegory equally just and ingenious, and which so correctly expresses the pleasures and the pangs produced at one and the same time by the wounds of love. Manmadin is represented, as in the annexed plate, riding on a parrot.
