short duration. The snake began to grow putrid. Large worms were formed in its interior and from each worm arose a male and female Caraibe. As the serpent had been the enemy and destroyer of all nations, so were the Caraibes who arose from its remains. The Onhaquas, on the other hand, regarded the Caraibes as the descendants of tigers. Another nation, the Othomacas, related to Father Gumilla, that a heap of stones, which lay upon the summit of a rock was their primitive father, and that another. large fragment of rock, at the distance of two miles from the first heap was their original mother. They go so far, indeed, as to believe that each of the stones of which the promontory is composed was originally one of their ancestors. For this reason they place the skulls of their dead in the clefts of the rock, in the lap, as it were, of their common mother and amidst the remains of their remotest progenitors. Something like this is in the creed of the Mapoyas. Amongst the Salivas, one tribe held themselves to be sons of the earth, and affirmed that the earth antiently bare men and women as it does thorns and thistles. Other tribes pretend, that certain trees antiently bore the human race of both sexes as they now produce other fruit. Others, again, hold themselves to be descendants of the sun and when the good Father Gumilla, asked them why the sun was no longer delivered of people, and how their first parents could have descended from the sun without having been dashed to pieces, they coolly replied, "that it was impossible to say how matters were managed formerly." Lastly, the Achaguas imagine, that they were originally descended from the trunks of trees or from certain kings, but without ever bestowing a thought on the important question, "Whence these trunks or kings themselves originated?" Such are the views of uncivilized nations regarding this difficult topic. And if we are astounded at the strange opinions entertained by them, we must ourselves recollect, that all our existing knowledge could, of itself, lead us to no philosophical deduction on the subject, and that the great superiority, in this respect, which we possess over the savage and uncultivated is the information comprised in the sacred volumes. Of the various superstitions to which the human mind is so prone, there is no one, which is more prevalent, than that of the belief of lunar influence on the animal body, on atmospheric phenomena and on agriculture. Not many years ago it would have been considered culpably sceptical to disbelieve in the effect imagined to be produced by the full moon on maniacs or, as they have been termed from this very belief in lunar influence, lunatics; yet it has been most unequivocally proved by careful and accurate observation in the large insane establishments of La Salpetriere, in Paris, and of Bedlam in London, that, if the light of the full moon be excluded, the patients are no more liable to exacerbations in their disorder at these, than at other, periods. But the belief in lunar influence has not been restricted to the case of maniacs; even the simple operation of cutting corns could not be ventured upon without attending to her condition. Butler, in his Hudribas, has touched upon this subject of lunar superstitions in describing the qualifications of Sidrophel the conjurer. "He with the moon was more familiar "That some believed he had been there; "For cutting corns or letting blood." "Nor pare their nayles, nor from their hed do cut the heare away: for some time; if it be close, and, as it tics from the look of the moon are also va- "Pallida luna pluit, rubicunda flat, alba serena."* "They also put no childe to nurse, nor mend countable. with doung their ground, "Nor medicine do receyve to make their crased bodies sound, “Nor any other thing they do, but earnestly be fore "They marke the moone how she is placde, and standeth evermore." An enquiry in the "British Apollo," for 1710, exhibits the prevalence of the superstition regarding the lunar influence on the cutting of corns, which, strange to say, is still attended to in many parts of Great Britain; the common people looking in the almanack to find when the moon is in the wane, in order that they may cut their corns with more advantage. "Pray tell the querist if he may They do insensibly decay, Equally ominous is it esteemed when the new moon appears with the old one in her arms, or, in other words, when we see that part of the moon, which is not enlightened by the sun. A hazy circle round the moon is accounted, with more reason, a prognostic of rain. If the circle be wide and at some distance from the body of that luminary, it is believed that the rain will be delayed' 66 The superstitions regarding the moon are, indeed, most multifarious and unacOne of the most ridiculous, gards the first mention of the word which prevails in the north of Scotland, refirst appearance, and the same superstition moon," ," after this planet has made her day of the week called after that luminary. applies to the mention of the name of the by a female, of what age or rank soever, If Monday be first mentioned in company, they account it a most unlucky omen. But for some unaccountable cause it gives term be first mentioned by a male. relief to such feeble minds, if the dread cable superstition is that, which deems it Another equally ridiculous and inexpliextremely unlucky to see the new moon, for the first time, without having silver in the pocket. Copper does not obviate the mischief. The superstitions, connected with the increase, full growth and wane of the moon, were common to both Kelts and Goths. The periods were, with them, the emblems of a rising, flourishing and declining fortune. In the wane they, consequently, carefully avoid entering upon neys they do not marry except in the inany business of importance. In the Orkcrease of the moon, and they would consider the meat spoiled, were they to kill the cattle during the wane. believed, that if a child be put from the In Angus, it is breast, during the waning of the moon, it continues to wane. The superstition with will decay, all the time that the moon conrespect to the fatal influence of a waning moon seems indeed to have been general in Scotland, where it was probably dehence we can account for its prevalence rived from the antient Scandinavians, and the moon in Plin. Hist. Natur. xviii 35 and VirSee the prognostics from the appearance of gil, Georgics. amongst the Germans and other nations of kindred origin.* In the Swedish portion of Scandinavia, according to Jamieson, great influence is, even now, ascribed to the moon, not only as a regulator of the weather, but as influencing the affairs of life in general. The Swedes have still a sort of lunar calendar, said to have been handed down from the monks, to which considerable regard is paid. According to this, no stress is placed on the state of the weather, on the first and second days of the moon. The third is of some account; and it is believed that the weather, during the rest of the month, will correspond to that of the fourth and fifth days. The calendar is thus expressed : Prima, secunda, nihil; Quarta, quinta, qualis, "As soon as you see the first new moon of the new year, go to a place where you can set your feet upon a stone naturally fixed in the earth, and lean your back against a tree; and in that posture hail, or address, the moon in the words of the poem which are marked; if you are ever to be married, you will then see an apparition, exactly resembling the future partner of your joys and sorrows." "O, new moon! I hail thee ! "Or man to marry me, "This blessed night!" Another form is for the girls to get astride of a gate at just sight of the new moon and say : "All hail to the moon, all hail to thee, knew two maids, who sang this, and then, going to bed, dreamed of the two men whom they respectively married afterwards. A number of the popular superstitions regarding the moon, still prevalent in this Aubrey, in his "miscellanies," who apstate, equally acknowledge a Scandinavian pears, by the bye, to have been somewhat origin. For example, at this day, the low-superstitious, actually declares, that he er orders in Sweden, and even a number of the better sort, will not fell a tree for agricultural purposes, in the wane of the moon: else, it is believed, it will shrink and not be durable. A good house wife will not kill for her family, else the meat will shrivel and melt away in the pot. Gardeners, in planting and sowing their crops, also pay particular attention to the state of the moon. "Whether the wane be, or increase, "Best to set garlick or sow pease." Tusser in his "five hunderd points of husbandry" decides for the former :"Sowe peason and beans in the wane of the wise." Such are a few of the numerous superstitions with regard to the "orb of night," medical, meteorological and miscellaneous; all founded upon a want of accurate observation, and the fondness of the human Its direct influmind for the mysterious. ence on the animal body is clearly mythical. On atmospheric changes it may exert some agency: the aqueous tides may produce corresponding impressions on the aerial medium, but these impressions are so modified by innumerable circumstances of a meteorological character, as to preclude the possibility of attaining any accurate prognostics. There are, doubtless, certain physical circumstances which occasion the shape of to-day's clouds to differ from those which have passed away, but these circumstances are inappreciable by us. Lastly, Dr. Jamieson has given, in an extract from the poems of the Revd. J. Nicol, Lastly, the other presumed lunar influan instance of the grossest superstition and ences may all be resolved into the most divination, practised in some parts of Scot- unqualified superstition. Far be it from us land as well as England, with regard to to deny the possibility of some connexion this luminary. The following is Mr. Nic-existing between the relative and the ante ol's account of this heathenish act. * See Cæsar, de Bell, Gallic. lib. 1. c. 5. and Tacitus de morib. Germanor. cedent; between the effect produced and the assigned cause; that is not the question. The onus probandi is with the party asserting that such connexion exists; and "Demandez à un crapaud ce que c'est que la beauté, le grand beau, le to Kalon: il vous repondra que c'est sa crapaude avec deux gros yeaux ronds sortant de sa petite tête, une gueule large et plate, un ventre jaune, un dos brun. Interrogez un nègre de Guinée: le beau est pour lui une peau noire, huileuse, des yeux enfoncés, un nez épaté." VOLTAIRE Dictionaire Philosophique. "Ask a toad what is beauty, the supremely beautiful, the to kalon: he will tell you it is my wife, with two large round tell you it is my wife, with two large round eyes projecting from her small head, a large and flat neck, a yellow belly, a brown back. Put the question to a Guinea negro: the beautiful is, with him, an oily, black, skin, hollow eyes and flat nose." There is no question, which has given rise to more frequent disputations amongst Estheticians,* if we may, with the Germans, so denominate them, than that of the origin of beauty: whether, for example, such a thing as a beau-ideal actually exists in nature, that which would be esteemed beautiful by the natural, unsophisticated man, the "Homo sapiens ferus," as Linnæus imagined him, in other words, by one who has never been placed in the social condition: or whether, on the other hand, all our ideas of beauty are not the result of association. Like all contested subjects much may be, and much has been, said, and ingeniously too, on both sides of the question : but, again, like all contested points of metaphysical inquiry, notwithstanding the proselytes which each party may have gained from time to time, the matter remains The word Esthetick is, used by the Germans to signify the Philosophy of Art. nearly, if not equally, unsettled as ever, and so it must necessarily continue, seeing that we cannot reduce ourselves to this state of nature, in which we may forget all experience, and be given up to simple, instinctive, actions: and if we were able we should necessarily be incapable of deducing any inferences whatever. A short inquiry into some points of Anthropology, so far as regards the customs of mankind under certain circumstances, and into the notions which different nations possess regarding the beauty of the human form, will tend to shed some light on this subject. The follower of the doctrine of original, intrinsic, beauty, has acknowledged that these national feelings and customs are weighty difficulties in his theory. Many of these may, indeed, be satisfactorily explained by him, from particular circumstances of religious or other enthusiasm, perverting the just ideas on the subject: there are numerous others which can only be accounted for, by referring to the force of custom, which frequently renders an individual capable of strongly admiring that which was, in the first instance, highly disagreeable to him. Every one must have experienced this on a sudden and preposterous change of fashion in dress the eye is actually at first offended. All the ideas of beauty, which custom had assigned to a dress of a former figure, are outraged; and yet, in a short space of time, the mind becomes so habituated to the change, that every alteration from it excites similar unpleasant sensations. Estheticians have endeavoured to ac count for those different national ideas with neral, however, they have wisely referred regard to beauty, in various ways. In gedoned the idea of any beau-ideal, of one, to the principle of association, and abanat least, that would be considered such by all nations. "One who would change the worship of all cli mates "And make a new religion where'er she comes "Unite the differing faiths of all the world "To idolize her face." DRYDEN. There are several nations, whom Meiners classes as the ugly, who are distinguishfrom the beautiful, not only by a totally different form of body, but who hold their natural deformities to be beauties, and port her, and a perfect beauty is a load for a camel. In consequence of this prevalent taste for unwieldiness of bulk, the Moorish ladies take great pains to acquire it early in life, and for this purpose many of the young girls are compelled, by their mothers, to devour a great quantity of kouskous and drink a large bowl of Camel's milk every morning. It is of no im strive to augment them as much as pos- | without a slave under each arm to supsible. Amongst the Keltic and Gothic races, who have been esteemed the most noble, it has been extremely rare for any one to hold a real defect to be a beauty : still such instances do occasionally occur. A gentleman, who was particularly handsome, in travelling over the Alps was detained by a fever in one of those villages where almost every adult has the kind of swelling of the neck called goitre: techni-portance whether the girl has an appetite cally Brochocele; of which some are nearly as big as the head. The first sunday, that he was able, he went to their church, being a Roman Catholic, to return thanks to God for his recovery. A man of so good a figure and so well dressed had rarely, if ever, been in the walls of that chapel. Every body's eyes were therefore fixed upon him, and as he went out they remarked, sufficiently loud for him to hear It was, probably, from the most common them, "Oh! how thoroughly handsome shape of his countrywomen, or perhaps of would that man be, if he had but a goi- his inamorata, that Rubens delighted to retre!" present even his graces with a consideAmongst the "ugly" races there are sev-rable share of corpulence, to an extent, ineral nations who actually admire deformi- deed, which detracts greatly from their ties as beauties and do all in their power appearance in our estimation. to magnify and encourage them. or not, the kouskous and milk must be swallowed, and obedience is frequently enforced by blows. Mr. Park adds “I have seen a poor girl sit crying with the bowl at her lips for more than an hour, and her mother, with a stick in her hand, watching her all the while, and using the stick without mercy, whenever she observed that her daughter was not swallowing." A nearly globular form of the head is said to be peculiar to the Algonquin and bordering nations, as well as the aboriginal Mongols of Asia, (Pallas) and when the heads of their new-born infants deviate from the beau-ideal, the mother uses every exertion to give the yet unossified scull, the desired spherical figure, whence they have been called Tetes de Boule or ball heads. (Chailevoix) Most savage tribes, however, especially in this continent, prefer the pyramidal shape of the head to ev The Chinese and the Southern Asiatics generally consider obesity in this light, and as a mark of honorable distinction. In consequence of this idea they prefer the most nutritious meats and drinks, and spend their lives in the most slothful inaction. The desire for unwieldy obesity, many of the Hindus, of the superior castes, seem to have adopted from the lower races of Mongolian origin who wait upon them; and hence they drink copiously of melted butter and other oleaginous substances, to at-ery other, and accordingly the Indians tain a deformity which was punished by most of the Keltic tribes, as well as by several of the nations of Greece, in antient time, as a mark of a soft and effeminate life. The Hindoos, however, do not esteem obesity in the fair sex, whilst the other orientals reckon a fat female as the beauideal. "The Moors of Africa," says Mr. Park, "have singular ideas of feminine perfection the gracefulness of figure and motion, and a countenance enlivened by expression, are by no means essential points in their standard: with them corpulence and beauty appear to be terms nearly synonimous. A woman of even moderate pretensions, must be one who cannot walk about the Mississippi, as well as in the province of Maynas, (Charlevoix, Pallas) used to apply two pieces of clay, one to the forehead and the other to the back part, on which they placed two thin boards, and, tying a bandage round, draw it tighter and tighter, till it assumed the desired shape. The practice of lengthening and pointing the heads of children, was formerly, and is still, customary in Asia. Hippocrates (de Aere, Aquis et locis, cap. xxxv.) speaks of these, and says they were regarded as a sign of nobility and as very beautiful; accordingly, the mothers strove to mould the heads of the tender infants by pressure, by bandages, and other means, |