The Russians are remarkable for the severity and variety of their punishments, which are both inflicted and endured with a wonderful insensibility. Peter the Great used to suspend the robbers upon the Wolga, and other parts of his dominions by iron hooks fixed to their ribs, on gibbets, where they writhed themselves to death, hundreds, nay thousands, at a time. The single and double knoute were lately inflicted upon ladies, as well as men of quality. Both of them are excruciating, but in the double knoute, the hands are bound behind the prisoner's back; and the cord being fixed to a pulley, lifts him from the ground, with the dislocation of both his shoulders, and then his back is in a manner sacrificed by the executioner, with a hard thong, cut from a wild ass's akin. This punishment has been so often fatal, that a surgeon generally attends the patient to pronounce the moment that it should cease. Another barbarous punishment practised in Russia is, first boring the tongue of the criminal through with an hot iron, and then cutting it out: and even the late Empress Elizabeth, though she prohibited capital punishments, was forced to give way to the necessity of those tortures. From these particulars, many have concluded that the feelings of the Russians are different from those of mankind in general.
FIRST RHINOCEROS IN EUROPE.
The first rhinoceros ever seen in Europe was that of which Pliny speaks as having been presented by Pompey to the Roman people. According to Dion Cassius, Augustus caused another to be killed in the Roman circus, when celebrating his triumph over Cleopatra. Strabo states that he saw one at Alexandria, and he has left a description of it. All these were of the one-horned species. At a later period the two-horned species were introduced, as appears from medals bearing their effigies struck in the reign of Domitian. During the time known as the dark ages, investigations in natural history and every other department of science and learning were utterly neglected, and the rhinoceros was as mythical to Europe as the phœnix or the salamander. On the revival of letters, however, and the extension of maritime discovery, a lively interest was manifested in the productions of foreign countries. In 1513 the king of Portugal presented the Roman Pontiff with a rhinoceros captured in India; but, unfortunately, the ship was wrecked on its way to Italy: the pope lost his present, and the rhinoceros his life. All that was preserved was a rough sketch, engraved by Albert Durer; and down to a very recent date, nearly all our representations were taken from this rough draft.
In 1685 a rhinoceros was captured and brought to England. In 1739 and 1741 two others were exhibited in various parts of Europe. In 1800 a young one was brought from India, intended for a menagerie at Vienna, but died at London on the way, and was dissected by Mr. Thomas, who published the results of his investigations, and thus gave the public a better idea of the animal than they ever had before.
TURKISH CARRIAGE.
The curiously-shaped vehicle which we have engraved on the next page, is a Turkish araba, a carriage chiefly used by ladies. An account of one of them is pleasantly introduced by Mr. Albert Smith in his "Month at Constantinople" when describing the visit of the Sultan to one of the mosques:—
"Every Friday the Sultan goes to mosque publicly. It is not known until the very morning which establishment he means to patronise; but your dragoman has secret channels of information, and he always informs you in time to 'assist' at the ceremony.
"The first time I went, Abdul Medjid had selected for his devotions the mosque of Beglerbeg, a village on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, the temple of which stands in the same relation and bearing to St. Sophia—to use a very familiar simile—as Rotherhithe Church does to St. Paul's. It was a perfect English morning—foggy and cold (Oct. 7) with muddy streets and spitting rain. I crossed into Asia—one learns to speak of Asia, at Constantinople, as he would do of the borough—in a two-oared caique, and on landing went up to the mosque, which is close to the shore.
A crowd of people, consisting principally of females, had collected before the mosque, and a square space was kept by the soldiers. Some little courtesy was shown to visitors, as the Franks were permitted to cross this enclosure to a corner close to the door, by which the Sultan was to enter.