PRAGUE, 7th Sept.
To-morrow I shall start for Dresden, The diligence goes off only once a week, but I have engaged a car or rather light basket waggon drawn by two horses (a vehicle very common in Germany) to convey me to Dresden in two days and half. I am to pay for half of the waggon, and another traveller will pay for the remaining half.
Before I leave Prague I must tell you that I have found out the origin of the German phrases Jemand den Korb zu geben (to give the basket), which means a refusal of marriage. Thus when a young lady refuses an offer of marriage on the part of her admirer, the phrase is: Sie hat ihm den Korb gegeben (She has given him the basket). Hitherto I have not met with any one who could explain to me satisfactorily the origin of so singular a phrase; but on reading lately a volume of the Volksmährchen (Popular tales) I found not only the derivation of this phrase, but also that of the name of the city of Prague. Both are connected in the same story, and both concern the history of Prague. The story is as follows.
Libussa, Duchess of Bohemia, had three lovers, two of whom were not remarkably intelligent, but the third possessed a great deal of talent and was her favorite. She was much importuned by the rival suitors. She appeared before them one day with a basket filled with plums in her hand; and said she would give her hand in marriage to whoever of them should guess the following arithmetical riddle. She said: "One of you shall take half the plums that are in this basket, and one over: another shall take half of what remains, and one over: the third shall take half of what still remains and three over, and then all the plums will have been taken. Now tell me how many plums there are in the basket." Her favorite was the only one who could guess the number of plums which was thirty. To him therefore she gave her hand and the plums, and to the other suitors the empty basket. Hence the phrase. The solution of the question is as follows:
A takes half of the plums in the basket (30) and one
over . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 + 1 = 16
B half of what remained (14) and one over . . . . . 7 + 1 = 8
C half of what remained (6) and three over . . . . . 3 + 3 = 6
—-
Total 30
Now with regard to the origin of the city of Prague. The former residence was much too small, and Libussa directed her workmen to build a town on the spot, where they should find at midday a man making the best use of his teeth. They began their research and one day at that hour discovered a carpenter sawing a block of wood. It struck them that this laborious man was making a better use of his teeth (viz., teeth of his saw) than the mere feeder and they judged that this ought to be the place where the town should be built. They therefore proceeded to trace with a plough the circumference of the town. On asking the carpenter what he was about to make with the block he was sawing, he said " A threshold for a door," which is called Prah or Praha in the Bohemian language and Libussa gave to the city the name of Praha or Prag.
BERLIN, 24th Sept.
Berlin has a splendid and cheerful appearance, with fine broad streets, superb white buildings and Palaces, for the most part in the Grecian taste; it has quite the appearance in short of an Italian city. Nearly all the streets are at right angles; they are kept very clean and the shops make a brilliant display. I felt so much pain in my legs, from the effect of my pedestrian journey, that I was obliged to remain in my chamber one entire day. There is a very good table d'hôte at my bin for twelve Groschen. Wine is paid for extra, and at the rate of from 12 to 18 Groschen the bottle. The sort usually drunk here is the Medoc. The prices of articles of prune necessity are dearer in Berlin than either at Dresden or Vienna; particularly the article of washing, which is dearer than in any country I have yet visited.
The next morning I began my rambles, and directed my course to the favorite and fashionable promenade of the beau monde, at all hours of the day, I mean in the fine street or alley Unter den Linden, so called from it being planted with lime trees. There is a range of elegant buildings on each side, and at the end, near the Thier Garten (Park), is a superb gate called the Brandenburger Thor in the shape of a triumphal arch ornamented with a statue of Peace, with an olive branch in her hand, standing on a car drawn by four horses abreast, the whole groupe being of bronze and of exquisite workmanship. The four horses are imitated from the Corinthian horses at Venice and yield to them in nothing but antiquity. Indeed they have a much more pleasing and striking effect, in being thus attached to a car, than standing by themselves, as the Venetian ones do, on the top of the façade of a church. This Brandenburger Thor is constructed after the model of the Propylaeum of Athens.
The Opera House, a building in the Grecian taste erected by Frederic the Great with the inscription Apollini et Musis, and after that the Academy of the Fine Arts engaged my attention. Both these buildings are remarkable, and they are near the Linden. The old town is much intersected by canals communicating with the Spree which divides it. I call it the old town, to distinguish it from the quarter composed of streets of recent construction between the former enceinte of the town and the Brandenburger Thor. The Hotel of the Invalides, a ponderous building, bears the following inscription: Laesis non victis. The Bank and the Arsenal next engaged my attention, as also a Guard House of recent construction in the shape of a Doric temple. The Royal Palace is an immense building, partly in the Gothic and partly in the Grecian style. It is very heavy but imposing. The interior of this Palace is royally fitted up, except the little room occupied by the great Frederic, which is left in the same state as when he occupied it; and you know he was not fond of superfluous ornament. In the green before the Palace stands the statue of the Prince of Anhalt Dessau, the founder of the Prussian Infantry system, and at a short distance from this, on the Lange Brücke, stands the colossal equestrian statue in bronze of the Great Elector.