About Cherokee phoenix, and Indians' advocate. (New Echota [Ga.]) 1829-1834 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 1829)
POETRY. From the Sprrit and Manhgrs of the Age THEY ARE NOT THERE! They are not there! where once their W deet ] b : g Light answer to the music beat; . . Where their young v oices sweetly breath’d, Andfragrant flowers they lightly wreath’d. Still flows the nightingal;’s sweet song; Still trail the vine’s green shoots along; Still are the sunny blossoms fair; But they who lov’d them are not there! They are not there! by the lone fount, "That once they lov’d by eve to haunt; ‘Where, when'the day-star brightly set, Beside the silver wave they met. Still lightly glides the quiet stream; Still o’er it falls the soft moon beam; But they who usad their bliss to share ‘With lov’d hearts by it, are not there! "They are not there! by the dear hearth, "I'hat once beheld their harmless mirth; When thro’ their joy came no vain fear, And o’er their smiles no darl’ning tear. It burns not now a beacon star; 'l'is cold and fireless asthey are. Where is the glow it used to wear? >Tis_felt no more; they are not there! Where are they then? Oh, pass’d a i way, ¢ & Like blossoms wither’d in a day. Or; as the waves go swiltly by, Or, as the lightnings leave the sky. But still there isa land of rest; Still hath it room for many a guest; Still is it free from strife and cares And ’tis our hope that they are there! MISCELILANEOUS. SUPERSTITION OF THE MOORS. An opinion prevails, we believe, in all the four states, that it is ordained, that the Moors shall lose their country on Friday, during the hour of prayer, by the invasion of a people clothed in red; yet, so inconsistent are they, that at this hour all the gates of eve ry city are carefully locked, asif bars and - bolts could oppose the de crees of fate. They are not; how ever, mere theorists in predestination, but submit to every change of fortune with humble resignation, passing from a state of opulence to that misery, without a murmur; and when death approaches, the expiring man desires nothing more, than that his foce may be carefully turned towards Mecca, and, when assured of this position, he bears his sufferings with patience, and leaves the world in peace. “When a person is thought tobe dying, he is immediately surrounded by his friends, who begin to scream in the most hideous manner, to convince him there is no more hope, and that he is alrcady reckoned gmong the dead! The noise and horror of this scene canuot surely but hurry the pa tient, worn down already by sickness, to his last state. - 1f the person be in too much pain, (perhaps in a fit.) they put a spoonful of honey in his mouth, which in general puts him out of his misery, (that is to say, he is literally choked;) when, by being treated differently, or even left to himself, he might, perhaps, have re covered. Then, as according to their religion they cannot think the depart ed happy till they are under ground, “they “are washed instantly, while yet warm; and the greatest consolation the sick man’s friend can have, is to see him smile while this operation is _performing, as they look on that asa sign of approbation in the deceased of what he lis doing; not supposing such an appearance to be a convulsion, “occasioned by washing and exposing to the cold air the unfortumate person, before life has taken its final depar ture. This accounts for the frequent instances that happen here, of people ‘being buried alive. Many of the Moors say a third of the population are lost in this manner.” The moment a death happens in a family, the alarm is given by the shrill screaming of the words woulliah woo, repeated incessantly, by the re lations and every body in the house. These cries, heard at a great dis tauce, bring every female acquainted with, or dependant on, the family, to scream over the dead, and mourn with the nearest relations of the de ceased. And it strikes oflg,with the greatest horror, to see the afflicted widow or mother, half dead with grief for her loss, obliged (according to the custom of the country) to re ceive the visits of not less than a hundred different women, who come to condole with her. They each take her in their arms, they lay her head on their shoulders, and scream with ~out intermission for several minutes, till the afflicied object, stunned with the constant howling, and a repetition of her misfortune, sinks senseless from’ their arms on the floor! They likewise hire a number of “’o&*‘,l who make this horrid noise round the bier, piaced in the middle of the court-yard of the mansion, over which these wgmen scratch ;tlieir faces to such a degree, that they appear to have been bled with a lancet at the temples. Alter the ceremony 1s 0- ver, they lay on a sort of white chalk, to heal the wounds and stop the bloed. These women are hired mditierently at burials, weddings, and feasts; at the two latter, they sing the song, 100, 100, 100, and extempore verses. ‘I heir voices are heard at the distance of half a mile. It is the custom of those who can afford it, to give, on the‘evening of the day the corpse in buried, a quantity of hot dressed victuals to the poor, who come to fetch each their portion, and form sometimes immense crowds, and confusion at the doors. This they call the *‘supper of the grave.”’ ‘The dead arc always dressed for the grave; the ears, nostrils and eye lids, are stuffed with a preparation of camphor and rich spices. An un married woman is ornamented as a bride, and bracelets are put on her arms and ankles. The body ils wrap ped in fine white linen, sanctified at Mecca, which is generally procured in their life-time, and carefully pre served for their last dress. At the head of the coffin is placed a turban, if the deceased be a male, correspon ding with bis rank; if a female, a large bouquet of flowers; if a virgin, the 100, 100, 100, is sung by the hired wo men, that she may ot be laid in the ground without having had the bene fits of awedding song. On Fridays, the eve of the Mahomedan Sabbath, the women visit the tombs of their deceased relations, under the idea, that on that day, the dead hover round 'to meet their friends, and to hold converse with those that are de posited near them; and on this ac count, they conceive 1t to be more necessary to dress the dead, that they may not n such an assembly of ghosts, complain of the neglect of their rela tions. The tombs are neatly white washed, and kept in constant repair; flowers are planted around them, and no weeds suffered to grow. Small chapels are generally built over the tombs of persons of rank, and decora ted with flowers, placed in large Chi pa vases. From Scorseby’s account of the Arctic re regions. The Whale.——By means of the tail, principally, the whale advances through the water. The greatest ve locity 1s produced by powerful strokes against the water, impressed alter nately upwards and downwards; but a slower motibn, it is believed, is ele gantly produced by cutting the wa ter laterally and obliquely down wards, in a similar manner as a boat is forced along with a single oar, by the operation of sculling. The fius are generally stretched out in a hori zontal position; their chief application seems to be the bhalancing of the anim al, as the moment life is extinct, it al ways falls over on its side, or turns upen his back. They appear also to be used in bearing off their young, in turning and giving direction to the ve locity prodnced by the tail. | Bulky as the whale is, and inactive ‘or indeed clumsy as 1t appears to be, “one might imagne that ali its motions would be sluggish, and its exertions productive of no greatcelerity. The fact, however, is the reverse: A whale extended motionless on the sur face of the sea, cansink in the space of 5 or 6 seconds or less, beyond the reach of ils human enemies. Its ve locity along the surface, or perpend icularly or obliquely downwards, the same. I 'have observed a whale de scending after I harpooned it, to the depth of four hundred fathoms, with the average velocity of seven or eight miles per hour. The usual rate at which whales swim however, even when they are on their passage from one situation to another, seldom ex ceeds four miles an hour; and though when urged by the sight of an enemy, or alarmed by the stroke of a har poon, their extreme velocity may be at the rate of eight or nine miles: an hour; yet we find this speed never continues longer than for a few min utes, before it relaxes to almost to one half. Hence for the space of a few minutes, they are capable of darting through the water with the ve | locity almost of the fastest ship under sail, and of ascending with such rap idity as ‘o.leap entirely out of water. This feat they sometumes perform as | an amusement appaienddy of the high | admiration of the distant quctalo‘r;"_ but to the unexperienced fishers, who, - even under suth circumstances, are often ordered by the fool-hardy har pooner, to ‘puil away, to the attack. Sometimes the whalés throw them selves to perpendicular posture with their beads downwards, and rearing their tails high in the air, beat the water with awful violence. In both these cases, the sea is thrown wmto foam, and the air filled with vapors; the noise in calm weath er, is heard to a great distance; and the excentric waves produced by the concussion on the water, are commu nicated abroad to a considerable ex tent. Sometimes the whale shakes its tremendous tail in the air, which cracking like a whip, resounds to the distance of two or three miles.— When it retires from the surface, it first lifts its head, then plunging it un der water, elevates its back like the segment of a sphere, deliberately rounds its way towards the extremi ty, throws its tailout of the water, and then disappears. In their usual conduct, whales remain at the sur face to breathe about two minutes, seldom longer; during which time they blow eight or nine times, and then descend for an interval usually of five or ten minutes; but sometimes when feeding fifteen or twenty.— The depth which they commonly de scend, is not known, though from the teddy’ occasionally observed on the “water, it is evidently at times only tri fling. But when struck, the quantity of line they sometimes take out of the boats in a perpendicular descent, af fords a good measure of the depth.— By this rule they have been known to descend to the depth of an English mile; and with such velocity that in stances * have occurred, in which whales have been drawn by the line attached from a depth of seven or eight hundred fathoms, and have been found to have broken their jawbones, and sometimes crown bones, by the blow struck against the bottom. Some persons are of opinion that whales can remain under.a field of ice, or at the bottom of the sea in shallow water, when undisturbed, for many hours at a time. Whales are seldom found sleeping; yet in calm weather, among the ice, instances oc casionally occur. The food of the whale conists of actima, cliones, se pia, medusa, cancri, and helices; or at least some of these genera are al ways seen to be where any tribe” of whales is found stationary and feed ing. In the dead animals however, in the very few instances in which 1 have been enabled to open their stom achs, squille or shrimps were the on ly substances discovered. In the mouth of a whale just killed 1 once found a quantity of the same kind of insects. When the whale feeds, it swims with considerable velo city below the surface of the sea, with its jaws widely extended. A stream of water consequently enters it a capacious mouth, and along with its.large quantity of water insects.— the water escapes again at the sides; but the food is entangled and sifted as it were, by the whale bone, which from its compact arrangement, and the thick interval covering of hair, does not allow a particle, the size of of the smallest grain to escape. EICHHORN, Professor in the University of Gottingen. Among the professors in the institu tion, there is none whose name is so well known in the United States, as Eichhorn, the father. My imagina tion had drawn a splended picture of his physical as well as mental being; what' then was my surprise, on being ushered into his presence, to see a: small -man, of only five feet six inches in height, rather corpulent, and not having any resemblance to the pic ture fancy had drawn. His face is fine, and in his youth he must have been a very handsome man, and as such he was doubtless regarded by the German mademoiselles, some fifty or sixty yearssince. His hair, which is very long, is as white as snow, and is thrown back, falling ever his shoulders. His eye; notwithstanding his close application, is very promi nent, not having sunk in its orbit, as is almost always the case with such intense students as he has been. Though now seventy-three years old, he has much of the freshness of mid dle age in his face, but inhis walk you discover the influence of time. He received me with great politeness, and in that open manter, which in a few mioutes wade we feel quite at my ease. We talked about Charles X. Mr. Villele, krench pohiics, the progress ol liberty m kuiope, and the Pope, on which topics he emewdl with a great deal of animation. | He has now almost finished the fif ty-first year ol lis proiessorship, Liaving leen chosen when he was twenty-two years of age. luis gen erally admitied by all who know hiw, that he has been one of the most ii lustrious examples of mental apphca tion ever known in Gerwany. WUne who has long known him, and whose knowledge of his habiis is such as to leave no doubt of the truth of the statement, has informed me, that du ring the last fitty-five years, he has been in the habit of studying sixteen heurs a day. What an exhibition of the improvement of time! /I could not look at him without feeling that he was almost without a parallel, as an example of assidmity. He seemed to me like a uoble doric column, up on which time had beaten almost in vain. . It is now forty-six years since he published his lutroauction to the Old Testament, a work of immense re search, unequalled by any within my knowledge in the Knglish language: No one can read it without being as tonished at the extent of his attain ments at the early age of twenty seven. Before him many of the ex egets of Germany had published his torical views of the individual books of 'the Old Testament; but he was the first writcr who presented a com plete and connected history of the canonical books, in relation to their collection, original form, history of the texts, critical aids, with an analy sis of each book. The historical part of his work is without a competitior, and will probably remain so for a long time to come. He feels asif very many of those writers who have followed him, had stolen from him! and judging from those works which I have read, his opinion is not without foundation.—Dwight’s Travels. JEWISH SANHEDRIN. The unanimous tradition of the Jews is, that every great council con sisted of seventy men, over whom was placed a President, as the rep resentative of Moses, thus making the whole number seventy one. There was no preference given to ahy tribe, yet the members of the Sanhedrin were generdlly priests. The tribe of Levi was less occupied with agricul ture,—more at leisure to become fa miliar with the law, and from the an nual tithes, more able to labor with out emolument in this court, than o< ther tribes; while they were also fre quently called to Jerusalem, where this assembly met. Yet the Levites and Priests, as such, had no prece dence of their brethren, and even the High Priest was not a mamber of this Council, by virtue of his ponfiticate, but only when qualified, and duly call ed. So that if the Priests and Le vites were not found with the neces sary attainments, ‘‘it was good and lawful, even for the whole Senate to consist of Israelites of three tribes.” . “The King of Israel was not a member of the Sanhedrin, because it is lawful to dissent from* him, or to contradict ~ his word. | The High Priest, however, may be a member, if his wisdom correspond with his dig nity. The kings of the house of Da vid, though not admitted to the Coun cils, sat and judged the people by themselves. From the Talmud it ap pears that Proselytes might attain to this honor. The qualifications re quisite in Judges are laid "down both negatively and positively, by the Rab bins. 1. A man decrepit from age was excluded. 2. An unfortunate order of men whom the ancients sup posed to be peculiarly cruel. 3. A childless man. ‘4. A mere youth.— 5. A man without useful employment. 6. A man remarkably deformed. The following were the positive qualifica tions. 1. Height of stature. 2. Eminent wisdom. 3. A pleasing form.. 4. Maturity of years, verging ’towards* age. 5. Skill in magic. 6. Acquaintance with the 70 lan guages, so that he should not need an interpreter. This skill in magic is well satirized by Cunzus, and the knowledge of the 70 languages is not only incredible, but, silly, absurd, and altogether laughable. It is known, however, that the Jews supposed this to be the exact number of human lan guages.— Bible Repository. : It has been calculated that the skit’ is perforated by a thousand holes in the tength of an inch; and if we “esti mate the whole surface of the body of a middle sized man to be sixteen square feet, it must contain not less than two millions three hundred and four thou sand pores. These pores are the mouths of so many excretory vessels, which perform the important function of perspiration. ~ The lungs discharge, every minute, six grains, and the sur face of the skin from three to twenty grains, the average over the whole body being about fifteen- grains of lymph, which consists of water with a very minute admixture of salt, acetic acid, and a trace of iron.—L7r. Gro~ ham’s Chemical Catechism. Were bashfulness without merit is’ awkward; and merit without modesty insolent. But modest merit has a double claim to acceptance, and gen erally meets with as many patrons as beholders.— Hughes. - : He whose first emotion, on the view of an excellent production, is to under value it, will never have one of his own to show.—Aiken. > NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER, PUBLISHED in the City of Waching-~ ton by Gar Les & Searon, 'l'he Na tional Intelligencer is an old established Journal, at the seat of the general Govern ment. 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