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Monkish Verses.

Lord Byron's extempore Farewell to Thomas Moore.

My boat is on the shore

And my bark is on the seaBut, before I go, Tom Moore,.

Here's a double health to thee. Here's a sigh for those that love me, And a smile for those that hate; And, whatever sky's above me, Here's a heart for every fate. Tho' the ocean roar around me, Yet it still shall bear me onTho' the desert should surround me, It hath springs that may be won :—

Wer't the last drop in the well,

As I gasp'd upon the brink, Ere my fainting spirit fell,

'Tis to thee that I would drink.

In that water, as this wine,

The libation I would pour Should be "Peace to thine and mine, Here's a health to thee, Tom Moore."

Carmen quiddam valedicens a Domino Byron ad Thomam Morum εξ υπογείου conscriptum.

Me ad littus manet cymba―

Stat in alto navis :-ibo.-
Priùs autem, me sodalis,
Tibi bisque terque bibo.
Qui amâstis me valete-
Valeant et qui oderunt--
Pectus en! quod forte feret
Fata cœli quævis erunt.
Circa licèt mare fremat,

Trans undosos ferar montes-
Circa pateat eremus,

Dulcis aquæ tenet fontes :-
Ima modò restet gutta,
Repâ jacens sicco ore,
Tibi, animâ languente,

Bibam ultimo humore.
Cordis hoc vocisque votum
Equâ illâ hoc ceu vino
Siet-" Tuis Pax meisque
Tibi, Thoma mi propinò."

From Shakspeare's Passionate Pilgrim

Crabbed age and youth
Cannot live together;
Youth is full of pleasaunce,
Age is full of care:
Youth like summer morn,
Age like winter weather:
Youth like summer brave,
Age like winter bare :
Youth is full of sport,
Age's breath is short;

Youth is nimble, age is lame:
Youth is hot and bold,
Age is weak and cold:

Youth is wild, and age is tame.
Age, I do abhor thee;
Youth, I do adore thee;

O, my love, my love is young:
Age, I do defy thee;

O sweet shepherd, hie thee,

For methinks thou stay'st too long.

Quid senectæ cum juventâ,
Simul agunt non securæ ;-
Est juventus plena salum,
Est senectus plena curæ.
Est juventa sol æstivus,
Est senectus brumæ cruda,
Est juventus æstas ardens,
Est senectus hyems nuda.
Plena jocûm est juventa,
Anima senectæ lenta,
Est juventus pede cita,
Est senectus impedita;
Dum juventa fervet-viget-
Heu! senectus fracta-friget.
Venis est juventa plenis,
At senectæ sicca lenis.
Apage senectus-oro;
Te, juventa, te adoro;
O! quam amo quàm decora!
Hinc, senectus, hinc abito-
Pastorelle, hùc et citò,
Nimis enim longa mora.

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a common term among our modern slight
of hand men.
probably, to be found among the old
The origin of this is,
Roman Catholics. When the good people
of this island were under their thraldom,
their priests were looked up to with the
greatest veneration, and their presence
announced in the assemblies with the
terms hic est doctus! hic est doctus! and

this probably is the origin of the modern
corruption hiccius doctius.*

Sun rises

Ady, in his "Candle in the Dark," speaking of common jugglers, that go up and down to play their tricks in fairs and markets, says, "I will speak of one man more excelling in that craft than others, December 19.-Day breaks that went about in king James's time and long since, who called himself the king's majesties most excellent Hocus Pocus, and so was he called, because that at the playing of every trick, he used to say hocus pocus tontus, talontus, vade celeriter jubeo a darke composition of words to blind the eyes of beholders."

Butler, in his Hudibras, has the following

with a slight

Convey men's interest, and right,
From Stiles's pocket into Nokes's
As easily as hocus pocus.

Archbishop Tillotson, in his " Discourse on Transubstantiation," says that "in all probability those common juggling words of hocus pocus are nothing else but a corruption of hoc est corpus," used in the catholic ceremony of consecration.

Vallency, speaking of hocus pocus, derives it with less probability from the Irish "Coic an omen, a mystery; and bais, the palm of the hand: whence is formed coiche-bas, legerdemain; persice, choko-baz: whence the vulgar English hocus pocus."

Another phrase, "Hiccius doctius" is

sets

Twilight ends

December 20.

REMARKABLE DWARF.

M. F."

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December 20, 1735. The Gentlemen's
Magazine records.

A dwarf from France arrived in town,
Measuring but inches twenty-one,
At court a wonder great was shown.
Where he, though aged forty-six,
Performed twenty childish tricks.

MOLES.

In "The Husbandman's Practice; or Prognostication for ever," 1658, there is

much to show what Moles on several

parts of the body denote. For example: If a man have a mole on the place right against the heart, it doth denote him, "undoubtedly to be wicked." If a mole in either man or woman appear on the place right against the spleen, it doth sig

Brand.

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In "A Thousand notable Things," we find that moles on the arm and shoulder, denote great wisdom; on the left, debate and contention. Moles near the armpit riches and honor. A mole on the neck is commonly a sign that there is another near the stomach, which denotes strength. A mole on the neck and throat denotes riches and health. A mole on the chin, that there is another near the heart, and signifies riches. A mole on the right side of the forehead is a sign of great riches both to men and women; on the other side quite the contrary. Moles on the right ear denote riches and honor; on the left, they signify the reverse.

The signification of moles is derivable from the mole books still published for the satisfaction of the curious in secret matters.

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of Hainalt Forest, in the county of Essex. a distance of about sixteen miles from the Metropolis. Perhaps a more singular being was never known for the last twenty years of her life she resided in her wretched abode, accompanied by at leat ten or twelve goats: these animals were her constant companions; if any of them were sick she attended them with the anxious solicitude of a parent. Some of the neighbouring gentry, from motives of humanity as well as curiosity, frequently paid her a visit; she was, in general, any thing but communicative, a few incoherent and barely civil sentences usually escaped her in answer to their enquiries. It is supposed that a love affair, in the time of her youth, caused this strange alteration in her habits and manners. At the time of her decease she had a brother living in affluent circumstances, who took care while his unfortunate sister was living she should be placed beyond the reach of poverty, and who also gave her remains a decent interment. She used, during the winter, to sit crouching with her goats before a huge wood fire; her skin was completely changed to a yellowish brown from the filth and smoke of her dwelling: she chiefly lived on the produce of her goats, their milk. She at length died, worn out by extreme old age, and a few years ago was buried in the church yard of the vil lage church, where she for years resided. Her remains were attended to their last resting place by nearly the whole population of the place, very few of whose inhabitants but remember "Mother Balls the goat woman."

GIPSIES.

J. W. B

From a dissertation on the Gipsies, by Grellman, and the authorities he cites, together with some striking proofs derived from the language of the Gipsies, it is presumable that they came originally from Hindostan, where they are supposed to have been of the lowest class of Indians, namely Parias, or, as they are called in Hindostan, Suders. They are thought to have migrated about A. D. 1408, or 1409, when Timur Beg ravaged India for the purpose of spreading the Mahometan religion, and so many thousands were made slaves and put to death, that a universal panic took place, and a great number of the terrified inhabitants endea

voured to save themselves by flight. As every part towards the north and east was beset by the enemy, it is most probable that Zinganen, the country below Multan, to the mouth of the Indus, was the first asylum and rendezvous of the fugitive Suders. Here they were safe, and remained so till Timur returned from his victories on the Ganges, when they first entirely quitted the country, and probably with them a considerable number of the natives, which will explain the meaning of their original name. By what track they came to us cannot be ascertained. If they went straight through the southern Persian Deserts of Sigistan, Makran, and Kirman, along the Persian Gulf to the mouth of the Euphrates, from thence they might get, by Bassora, into the great deserts of Arabia, afterwards into Arabia Petræa and so arrive in Egypt by the Isthmus of Suis. If they had not been in Egypt before they reached us, it is incomprehensible how the report arose that they were Egyptians. Harrison, in his description of England prefixed to Holinshed's Chronicle, 1587, describing the various sorts of cheats practised by the voluntary poor, after enumerating those who maimed or disfigured their bodies by sores, or counterfeited the guise of labourers or serving men, or mariners seeking for ships which they had not lost, to extort charity, adds: "It is not yet full three score years since this trade began; but how it hath prospered since that time it is easy to judge, for they are now supposed of one sex and another to amount unto above ten thousand persons, as I have heard reported. Moreover, in counterfeiting the Egyptian Roges, they have devised a language among themselves which they name Canting; but, by others, pedlers French, a speech compact thirty years since of English, and a great number of odd words of their own devising, without all order or reason; and yet such is it as none but themselves are able to understand. The first deviser thereof was hanged by the neck, a just reward no doubt for his deceits, and a common end to all of that profession."

Browne, in his Vulgar Errors, gives this general account of the Gipsies: "They are a kind of counterfeit Moors, to be found in many parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. They are commonly supposed to have come from Egypt, from whence they derive themselves. Munster discovered in the letters and pass, which they ob

tained from Sigismund the Emperor, that they first came out of Lesser Egypt, that having turned Apostates from Christianity and relapsed into Pagan rites, some of every family were enjoined this penance, to wander about the world. Aventinus tells us, that they pretend, for this vagabond course, a judgment of God upon their forefathers, who refused to entertain the Virgin Mary and Jesus, when she fled into their country. Their first appearance was in Germany since the year 1400." Nor were they observed before in other parts of Europe, as is deducible from Munster, Genebrard, Crantsius, and Ortelius."

In "The Art of Jugling and Legerdemaine," by S. R. 4to. 1612, is the following account: "These kinde of people about an hundred yeares agot, about the twentieth yeare of king Henry the Eight, began to gather an head, at the first heere about the southerne parts, and this, (as I am informed) and as I can gather, was their beginning. Certaine Egyptians, banished their cuntry (belike not for their good conditions,) arrived heere in England, who being excellent in quaint tricks and devises, not known heere at that time among us, were esteemed and had in great admiration, for what with strangeness of their attire and garments, together with their sleights and legerdemains, they were spoke of farre and neere, insomuch that many of our English loyterers joyned with them, and in time learned their crafte and cosening. The speach which they used was the right Egyptian Language, with whom our Englishmen conversing with, at least learned their language. These people continuing about the cuntry in this fashion, practising their cosening art of fast and loose and legerdemaine, purchased themselves great credit among the cuntry people, and got much by palmistry and telling of fortunes, insomuch they pitifully cosened the poor cuntry girls, both of money, silver spones, and the best of their apparell, or any good thing they could make, onely to heare their fortunes." Further, "Giles Hather (for so was his name) together with his woman, Kit Calot, in short space had following them a pretty traine, he terming himself the king of the Egiptians, and she the queene, ryding about the cuntry at their pleasure uncontrolld." The author then mentions the Statute against them of the 1st and 2d of Philip and Mary, on which he observes: "But

what a number were executed presently upon this Statute, you would wonder: yet, notwithstanding, all would not prevaile; but still they wandered as before, up and down, and meeting once in a yeere at a place appointed-sometimes at the Devils Ain Peake in Darbishire, and otherwhiles at Ketbroke by Blackheath, or elsewhere, as they agreed still at their Meeting." Speaking of his own time, he adds: "These fellowes, seeing that no profit comes by wandring, but hazard of their lives, do daily decrease and breake off their wonted society, and betake themselves, many of them, some to be pedlers, some tinkers, some juglers, and some to one kinde of life or other."

The Gipsies spread into every country of Europe. It would occupy too much space to follow them beyond France, where they appear to have settled very early. Pasquier, in his "Recherches de la France," says, "On August 17, 1427, came to Paris twelve penitents (penanciers) as they called themselves, viz. a duke, an earl, and ten men, all on horseback, and calling themselves good christians. They were of Lower Egypt, and gave out that, not long before, the christians had subdued their country, and obliged them to embrace Christianity, or put them to death. Those who were baptized were great lords in their own country, and had a king and queen there. Some time after their conversion, the Saracens overran their country and obliged them to renounce Christianity. When the emperor of Germany, the king of Poland, and other christian princes, heard this, they fell upon them and obliged them all, both great and small, to quit their country, and go to the pope at Rome, who enjoined them seven years' penance to wander over the world without lying in a bed; every bishop and abbot to give them once ten livres tournois, and he gave them letters to this purpose, and his blessing. They had been wandering five years when they came to Paris. They were lodged by the police out of the city, at Chapel St. Denis. Almost all had their ears bored, and one or two silver rings in each, which they said was esteemed an ornament in their country. The men were very black, their hair curled; the women remarkably ugly and back, all their faces scarred (deplayez) their hair black, like a horse's tail, their only habit an old shaggy garment (flossoye) tied over their shoulders with a cloth or

cord-sash, and under it a poor petticoat or shift. In short they were the poorest wretches that had ever been seen in France; and, notwithstanding their poverty, there were among them women who, by looking into people's hands told their fortunes et meirent contens en plusieurs mariages; for they said, thy wife has played thee false (Ta femme t'a fait coup) and what was worse they picked people's pockets of their money and got it into their own by telling these things by art, magic, or the intervention of the devil, or by a certain knack." Thus Pasquier. It is added that they were expelled from France in 1561.

The Gipsies were banished from England by Act of Parliament, so early as 22d Henry VIII. By statutes in 1st and 2d Philip and Mary, and 5th Elizabeth, persons importing them were to forfeit £40; and if the Egyptians remained one month in the kingdom, or if any person fourteen years old, whether natural-born subject or stranger, were seen or found in the fellowship of such Egyptians, or had disguised him or herself like them, for one month at one or several times, it was felony without benefit of clergy. And sir Matthew Hale says, that at one Suffolk assize, no less than thirteen persons were executed upon these Statutes a few years before the Restoration.

In Scotland they seem to have enjoyed some indulgence for a writ of Privy Seal, dated 1594, supported John Faw, lord and earl of Little Egypt, in the execution of justice on his company and folk, conformable to the laws of Egypt, and in punishing certain persons there named, who rebelled against him, left him, robbed him, and refused to return home with him. James's subjects were commanded to assist in apprehending them, and in assisting Faw and his adherents to return home. There is a like writ in his favor from Mary queen of Scots, 1553; and in 1554 he obtained a pardon for the murder of Nunan Small. So that it appears he had staid long in Scotland. The Faws had been previously for some time in England, and from him this kind of strolling people might receive the name of "Faw Gang," which they afterwards continued to retain.

There is a well-known Scottish song entitled "Johnny Faa, the Gypsie Laddie." An advertisement appeared in the Newcastle Courant, July 27, 1754, offering a reward for the apprehending of

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