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THE COUNTRYMAN,
Conversation of the Vultures:
(Supposed to be held between an old Vulture and her
young ones, and overheard by a Bohemian shep
herd while tending his flocks.)
i “ My children,’’ said the vulture, ‘ you
have seen me snatch from the farm the
household fowl, seize the leveret in the
bush, and the kid in the pasture. But you
remember the taste of more delicious food.
I have often regaled j ou with the flesh
of man.’
‘ Tell us,’ said the young vultures,
‘ where man may be found, and how he
mav be known. His tiesh is surely the nat
ural food of the vulture. Why have you
not brought a man in your talons to the
nest.’
* He is too bulky,’ said the mother :
* When we find a man, we can only tear
away his flesh and leave his bones on the
ground.’
‘ Since man is so big,’ said the young
ones, 1 how do you kill him ? You are afraid
of the wolf and the bear : by wbat power
are vultures superior to man ? Is man
more defenceless than a sheep V
* We have not the strength of man,’ re
turned the mother, ‘ and I am sometimes in
doubt whether we have bis subtlety : and
the vultures would seldom feed upon his
flesh, lu-d not nature that devoted him to
our use, infused into him a strange feroci
ty, w hich I have never observed in any
other being that feeds upon the earth.
Two herds of men will often meet, and
shake the ground with noise, and fill the
air with fire. When you hear noise, and
see fire which flashes along the ground,
hasten to the place with your swiftest, wing,
for men are surely destroying one another.
You will find the ground smoking with
blood, and covered with carcasses, of which
many are mangled for the use of the vul
ture.’
* But when men have killed their prey,’
6aid the pupils, ‘ why do they not eat it?
When the wolf has killed a sheep, he suf
fers not the vulture to touch it, till he
has satisfied himself. Is not man another
kind of wolfV
‘ Man,’ said the mother, is the only beast
who kills what be does not devour, and
this quality makes bim so much a benefac
tor to our species.’
‘ If men kill our prey, and lay it in our
way,’ said the young one, ‘what need
shall we have of laboring for ourselves V
‘Because man will sometimes,’ replied
the mother, * remain for a long time quiet
in his den. The old vultures will tell you
when you are to watch bis motions. When
you see bodies of men in great numbers,
moving closely together like a flock of
storks, you may conclude that they are
bunting each other, and that you will soon
revel in human blood.’
‘ But still,’ said the young one, ‘ I would
gladly know the reason of this mutual
slaughter. I could never kill what I would
not eat.’
‘ My child,’ said the mother, * when I
was young, I used to visit an old vulture on
the Carpathian Rocks. He. had fed, year
after year, on the entrails of men. He
said that as the boughs of an oak aie dash- ;
ed together by the storm, that swine may
fatten on the fallen acorns, so men are, by
some unaccountable power, driven one
against the other, till they lose their mo
tion, that vultures may be fed. And those
that hover round them, pretend that there
is, in every herd, one that gives direction
to the rest, and seems t,o be more eminent
ly delighted with a wild carnage. What
it is that entitles him to such pre-eminence,
we know not. He is seldom the biggest or
the fleetest, but he shows, by his eagerness
and diligence, that he is more than any of
the others, a friend to the vultures.’ ”
A Phenomenon—Sword in the Heavens.
“ We are informed by gentlemen whose
veracity cannot be questioned, that on the
23d ult., near Grooversville, Georgia, a
phenomenon of remarkable significance was
witnessed in the heavens, at about 4 o’clock
in the evening. It was a perfect represen
tation of a sword—handle, blade and point
all visible. The blade was red, and the
handle silver color. The blade pointed to
the northeast, and the handle to the south
west. It was high up in the heavens, ap
pearing to the eye to be about twenty feet
long, and two feet broad. Soon after it was
witnessed, a wind springing up, heavy
clouds appeared, and screened it from view.
We are not one of those who attach a pe
culiar significance to remarkable dreams,
believe in witchcraft, or view every celestial
phenomenon as an omen of good or evil.
But no similar phenomenon to the one in
question has been witnessed for many gen
erations, and we are, therefore, owing to
the peculiar circumstances surrounding us,
inclined to regard it as significant.
Flavius Josephus, iu his history of the
Jews, refers to a similar appearance in the
heavens just previous to the destruction of
Jerusalem. He says that a star, resembling
a sword, stood over the city, and a comet
that continued a whole y ear. Another wri
ter, we are informed, describes the sword
as hanging over the city with the point
down.
After the destruction of Jerusalem, the
star disappeared. This phenomenon has
always, by learned divines, been described
as the “ Sword of the Lord." From the
destruction of Jerusalem to the present pe
riod, no such representation has been beheld
in the heavens.”
The above is copied from the Family
Friend of Monticello, Fla., in order to
show what folly and fanatacism exist, even
in our day.
“ Here’s Tour Mule.’*
The editor of the F. & F. having been
written to concerning the origin of the
above phrase, says : “ It is said to have
originated near Manassas, sometime last
year. A member of an Alabama Regi
ment was imitating the nasal intonations of
a certain long-eared animal, when one af
ter another of his comrades joined in the
refrain; whereupon a member of a Missis
sippi regiment remarked, ‘ here’s your
mule.’ Instantly there was a deafening
chorus of ‘here’s your mule,’ from the
Mississippians, which completely drowned
the braying of the Alabamians: whereup
on, it is said, the original brayers were pe
culiarly indignant, and avowed that they
could whip the Mississippians : but timely
intervention prevented any attempt at the
fulfilment, of the belligerent purpose.”
In response to the above, “A Member of
the 6th Alabama” writes to the F. & F. as
follows:—“Having seen in the Fireside
your answer to the interogatory, as to the
origin of the phrase, ‘Here’s your mule,’
I take this method of correcting you. It
originated from a member of the 6th Ala
bama Regiment, Capt. Weem’s Co., from
Russel Co., Ala., on their way from Mont
gomery to Corinth, Miss., about the latter
part, of May, 1861. I was a member of
that company, and on the cars at the time,
but do not recollect the exact particulars
of it, but suppose it started, as you said,
(by Perkins, for that was his name) imita
ting a mule, and some one in his own com
pany cried out,‘here’s your mule, Perkins’
—and from that the whole regiment got
hold of it, and it finally spread over the
whole army at Manassas, after wc got there.
Poor Perkins was taken prisoner, just be
fore the battle of Manassas, while out on
picket, and did not have the pleasure of
participating in it. He was kept in Wash
ington 6 months, and finally released on
parole. It was a general saying amongst
the boys, that he had gone to Washington
city to hunt his mule. I should have said
that there was no Mississippi regiment
about, when it originated. I wish you to
publish this for the information of ‘C. D.
K.’ ” _____
“ Few people know how to be old.”