The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 46 pages of information about The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 46 pages of information about The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction.

The Begharmis, it will be seen, were conquered by the people of Kanem; and Major Denham has translated, and given in the appendix to his Travels, a song of thanksgiving on the triumphant return of the governor, full of the characteristic beauty and simplicity of savage life.  In these struggles it would appear the law of nations is severe on the weakest; for the son of the late sultan of the Begharmis is described as “now a slave of the sheikh of Bornou.”  So wags the world!

LIVING AT TOULOUSE.

Part of a house, sufficient for a small family, unfurnished, may be had for 14 l. a year; and the most elegant in the city, in the best situation, for 60 l., including coach-house, stable, cellar, &c.  A horse may be kept well for 14 l. a year.  The wages of a coachman are 8 l., a housemaid 8 l., a noted cook 16 l., and a lady’s-maid 10 l.  The price of a chicken is 7-1/2 d.; a partridge 1 s.; a hare 2 s. 6 d.; a duck 1 s.; a turkey 2 s. 6 d.; the best bread 1-1/2 d. per lb.; common ditto 1 d.; a bottle of wine 3 d.; brandy is sold by the lb. of 16 oz. and costs 6 d.; grapes 1/2 d. per lb.; meat 3 d.; butter 4 d.; cheese 6d; 50 lbs. carrots 10 d.; other vegetables at the same rate.  A dozen very fine peaches now cost a halfpenny; pears 3 d. a dozen; labourers, who work from sunrise to sunset, are fed by the proprietor, and have 6 d. per day, which, in this part of the country, will go further than three times the sum in England.  The horses and oxen used about the farms are fed chiefly on straw, and do not consume more than 3 d. a day.  The labouring people make a very nourishing diet from maize flour, which is fried with grease; and this, with beans, forms the principal part of their food.  They neither use nor wish for meat; but at this season they have figs and grapes almost for nothing—­Original Letter.

MOHAMMEDAN SUPERSTITION.

The eastern, and all Mohammedan people, considering Alexander the Great as the only monarch who conquered the globe from east to west, give him the title of “the two horned,” in allusion to his said conquests.  They likewise believe that Gog and Magog were two great nations, but that, in consequence of their wicked and mischievous disposition, Alexander gathered and immured them within two immensely high mountains, in the darkest and northernmost parts of Europe, by a most surprising and insuperable wall, made of iron and copper, of great thickness and height; and that to the present time they are confined there; that, notwithstanding they are a dwarfish race,—­viz. from two to three feet in height only—­they will one day come out and desolate the world.  As Lord Mayor’s Day is just approaching, perhaps some of the visiters of Gog and Magog on that occasion may decide this matter.  It is almost akin to our nursery quibble of the giants hearing the clock strike, &c. &c.

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The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.