The soft'ning twilight overspreads, The straggling herds have left the plain, Ah! much this silent hour I prize, EN VOYANT LE PORTRAIT DE MADAME SERVAIT D'Un peu de fard. QUI SE L'artiste qui a peint ce Portrait, N'a que copié l'ouvrage d'un autre: ANECDOTES. ONE of the first English vessels that visited the Indian Seas, fell in, when off the Coromandel coast, with a catamaran; there were two natives on it, whose bodies of course seemed to be rising out of the water, and they were paddling in their usual E manner, that is, with quick strokes alternately to the right and left. The crew of the ship, as may well be imagined, were greatly surprised and alarmed at this strange and unheard of phenomenon; and the report of it entered in their logbook, ran as follows:-" Good ship. The trades increase. August 15th, 1615-Lat. -, Long. —, at 2 P.M.-beheld distinctly two black devils in the water, playing at single-stick!!! They were within twenty fathom of the ship, and the whole crew saw, and can vouch for the truth of this statement these infernal imps remained visible for at least an hour, and were then lost in the distance. They who go down to the sea in ships shall see the wonders of the deep,'-and from this, learn, ye incredulous, how vain be the hardness of your hearts! (N.B. Certes this matter should portend a great storm,-or some revolution in the states of Europe,- or, peradventure, somewhat relating to the Pope of Rome!! Heaven send no ill betide us !") AT a dinner, where a fine English ham was the chief sufferer, puns happened to be the order of the day, and they flew about very abundantly on all sides. One gentleman, however, was much the most successful, and grew, at length, himself so pleased with his 'ben trovatos,' that, in a little fit of vanity, he challenged any present to give him words on which he could not make puns:-" We will try that," cried one," Shem, Ham, and Japhet:" to which he instantly replied, assuming an Irish accent, "Shem on me if this is n't as good a Ham as ever entered my Jaw-fait!" "Ah! spare yon emmet, rich in hoarded grain, He lives with pleasure, and he dies with pain." SIR WM. JONES' TRANSLATION FROM "SADI." |