The formidable weapon which we here engrave, is a concealed ranseur of the time of Henry VIII., from Genoa. It forms one long instrument, but our limits have compelled us to divide into three parts. 1, is the butt: 2, the middle; and 3, the point. The upper part is an iron cylinder, with a cap on the top. This is opened by touching the bolt seen a little below it in front, and then, by giving the weapon a jerk forwards, the blades fly out, and produce the form of the partisan. Upon those, on each side, is written, "Al Segno Del Cor"—"To the mark of the heart." When in the state seen in the engraving, the blades are held so firmly that they cannot be thrust back; and the only mode of returning them into the cylinder is by striking the butt end against the ground, when they instantly fall in.
This weapon, we apprehend, must have been more formidable in appearance than useful in action. Once let a man get a fair thrust with it at his enemy, and, it is true, the effect of that one stroke would be fatal, but in battle it would most probably prove fatal also to the man who wielded the weapon, for before he could have time to draw it back, a comrade of the wounded man would have plenty of opportunity to rush in and cut the striker of the blow down. On seeing this and other clumsy weapons which were so much in vogue in former times, we cannot be surprised that none of them have continued in use to the present day. Weapons such as the one we here engrave, have long been thrown aside, and short weapons are now only used for all hand to hand encounters.
THE BABES OF BETHLEHEM.
It is an ancient custom at Norton, near Evesham, Worcestershire, on the 28th of December (Innocents' Day) to ring a muffled peal, in token of sorrow for the slaughter of the hapless "babes of Bethlehem," and, immediately afterwards, an unmuffled peal, in manifestation of joy for the deliverance and escape of the infant Saviour.
GAUNTLET OF HENRY PRINCE OF WALES.
The highly interesting relic of which we here give a sketch is of a russet colour, engraved and gilt, the ornamental parts being sunk lower than the surface. The initials of the owner, surmounted by a coronet, occur in two places, as do also the rose and thistle. Henry was born on the 19th of February, 1594 and was nine years of age when his father ascended the throne of England. When seven, he commenced the acquirement of martial exercises—as the use of the bow, pike, firearms, and the art of riding; and at ten applied to Colonel Edmondes to send him a suit of armour from Holland. On the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, Lord Spencer made him a present of a sword and target; and, in 1607, Louis, the Dauphin, son of Henry IV. of France, sent him a suit of armour, well gilt and enamelled, together with pistols and a sword of the same kind, and the armour for a horse. His martial and romantic disposition displayed itself on the occasion of his being created Prince of Wales in 1610, when he caused a challenge to be given to all the knights in Great Britain, under the name of Mæliades, Lord of the Isles; and on the day appointed, the Prince, assisted only by the Duke of Lenox, the Earls of Arundel and Southampton, Lord Hay, Sir Thomas Somerset, and Sir Richard Preston, who instructed his Highness in arms, maintained the combat against fifty-six earls, barons, knights, and esquires. Henry himself gave and received thirty-two pushes of the pike, and about three hundred and sixty strokes of the sword, not being yet sixteen years of age. From the size of the gauntlet, the initials H. P., and a prince's coronet, if not made on this occasion, it could not have been much anterior; and, from most of his armour being sent from abroad, the impression would be that it is of foreign manufacture. Yet there is in the State Paper Office an original warrant ordering the payment of £200, the balance of £340, for a rich suit of armour made for Henry Prince of Wales, dated July 11, 1614, he having died on the 6th of November, 1612. This document is directed by King James I. to the Commissioners for the exercise of the office of High Treasurer of England, and states that, "Whereas there was made, in the office of our armory of Greenwich, by William Pickeringe, our master workman there, one rich armour with all peeces compleate, fayrely gilt and graven, by the commaundement of our late deere sonne Prince Henry, which armour was worth (as we are informed) the somme of three hundred and forty poundes, whereof the said William Pickeringe hath receaved of our said late deere sonne the somme of one hundred and forty poundes only, soe as there remayneth due unto him the somme of two hundred poundes"—therefore they are ordered to discharge the same forthwith.
THE SIMOOM.
Arabia is frequently visited by the terrible simoom, called by the natives shamiel, or the wind of Syria, under whose pestilential influence all nature seems to languish and expire. This current prevails chiefly on the frontiers, and more rarely in the interior. It is in the arid plains about Bussora, Bagdad, Aleppo, and in the environs of Mecca, that it is most dreaded, and only during the intense heats of summer. The Arabs, being accustomed to an atmosphere of great purity, are said to perceive its approach by its sulphureous odour, and by an unusual redness in the quarter whence it comes. The sky, at other times serene and cloudless, appears lurid and heavy; the sun loses his splendour, and appears of a violet colour. The air, saturated with particles of the finest sand, becomes thick, fiery, and unfit for respiration. The coldest substances change their natural qualities; marble, iron, and water, are hot, and deceive the hand that touches them. Every kind of moisture is absorbed; the skin is parched and shrivelled; paper cracks as if it were in the mouth of an oven. When inhaled by men or animals, the simoom produces a painful feeling as of suffocation. The lungs are too rarefied for breathing, and the body is consumed by an internal heat, which often terminates in convulsions and death. The carcases of the dead exhibit symptoms of immediate putrefaction, similar to what is observed to take place on bodies deprived of life by thunder, or the effect of electricity.