783 Gleanings.-Literary Notices. Chimneys.-Chimneys were scarcely known in England in the year 1200, one only being allowed in a religious house, one in a manor house, and one in the great hall of a castle, or lord's house-but in other houses they had nothing but what was called Rere Dassc, where their food was dressed, where they dined, and the smoke found its way out as it could In King Henry the Eighth's time, the University of Oxford had no fire allowed-for it is mentioned, that, after the Stewards had supped, which took place at eight o'clock, they went again to their studies till nine, and then, in the winter, having no fire, they were obliged to take a good run for half an hour, to get heat in their feet before they went to bed. What is Law like?-Law is a country dance; people are led up-and-down in it till they are fairly tired out. Law is like a book of surgery-there are a great many terrible cases in it. It is like physic too, they that take the least of it are best off. It is like a homely gentlewoman," very well to follow"-and like a scolding wife, very bad when it follows us. Law is like a new fashion, people are bewitched to get into it," and like bad weather," most people are glad to get out of it.-Weekly Times. Abolition of Suttees.-We mentioned about two months ago that the Governor-General of India, Lord William Bentinck, had had the courage to issue a proclamation, abolishing Suttees. Our information was derived from a letter from Benares, in which the writer stated that he had himself heard the proclamation read. Although it therefore appeared almost impossible that he could be mistaken, we began to fear that, as neither the Company nor the Government had received any intelligence of such a step, some error must exist. By the last accounts from india, we are happy to find that this is not the case, and that the barbarous practice of female immolation has really been abolished, not merely at Benares, but in Bengal, and we should suppose in all parts of India. The Bengal Hurkaru, of the 1st of December, a Calcutta paper, states, that the measure had not been attended with any violent opposition. "On Thursday last," says the Hurkaru, a woman within a short distance of Calcutta, was about to be burnt with the body of her deceased husband; but, on being informed by the constable that such an act was con trary to the government regulations, she appeared delighted, and joyfully returned home." If these regulations are properly acted upon throughout the whole of the company's territories, Lord William Bentinck will have had the honour and happiness of saving se veral thousands of widows every year from the most cruel and painful of deaths, and of abolishing a prac tice which has long been a disgrace to those by whom it has been permitted.-Liverpool Times. General Cemetery Company.-The establishment of a General Cemetery has been in contemplation ever since 1825. The design is to provide places of interment, secure from violation, inoffensive to public decency, and ornamental to the metropolis, in shares of 25 each. The capital required is estimated at £200,000. A public meeting was held on Wednesday, June 9th, at Freemason's Tavern. Shares may be ob tained of Messrs. Snow, Paul, and Paul, Temple Bar without, on account of the Provisional Trustees; Lord Viscount Milton; Sir John Dean Paul, Bart.; Andrew Spottiswoode, Esq. M.P.; and George Frederick Carden, Esq. Singular Power of the Mole.-A gentleman of Bath, who was riding on the outside of the coach during the late severe frost, observed a man near Old Down at work with a pick-axe on a piece of ground, which was so completely frozen as to require his whole strength to make any impression; when, strange to relate, a mole, at the same time, and within a few feet of the labourer, worked his way to the surface, raising his little mound of earth, crumbled to the finest powder. Large Tree.-A chesnut tree, the property of Lord Ducie, at Tortworth, Gloucestershire, is the oldest, if not the largest, tree in England; having this year attained the age of one thousand and twenty-nine years! and being 52 feet in circumference; yet it retains so much vigour, that it bore nuts so lately as two years ago, from which young trees are now being raised.June 20, 1829. A Hint to Quacks.--A knowledge of the structure and functions of the body, says Lawrence, is the basis of all rational medicine. Doctrines, systems, and theories, which will not bear examination by the test of anatomy and physiology, are only to be regarded as random guess-work or idle dreams. No one would attempt to mend a clock, watch, steam-engine, or the 784 commonest piece of machinery, unless he understood its construction, unless he knew what we may call its anatomy and physiology-that is, the nature of the materials which compose it, the configuration, adjustment, and mutual action of the parts. Yet persons are constantly attempting to rectify the disorders of the human machine, not only with a slight and vague knowledge of its construction, but even in perfect ignorance of it, although, as a piece of machinery, the human body is far more complicated than any instrument of human fabrication. Literary Notices. Just Published. No. XVI. of the National Portrait Gallery, with Likenesses and Memoirs of Baron Lyndhurst, Lord High Chancellor; James Duff, Earl of Fife; and Sir Thomas Le Breton, Bailli of the island of Jersey. Address delivered by the Rev. J. Fletcher to the Rev. John Pyer, on his Designation to the office of City Missionary, and Agent to the Christian lustruction Society, 8vo. Six Letters, by the Rev. J. Pyer, addressed to a Trustee of Canal-street Chapel, Manchester, 8vo. Practical Exposition of Psalm CXXX, by John Owen, D.D. New Edition, revised. The Pulpit. Vol. 14. The Blindness and Indifference of Men to Futurity. A Discourse on the Death of His late Majesty George IV., by Robert Ainstie. Nathaniel, or Letters on Christian Experience, by the Rev. Joseph Irons, of Camberwell. Parts 6 and 7 of County Records of Crime, or Newgate and York Castle in the Nineteenth Century; with Observations and Reflections, by Leman Thomas Rede, Esq. The Principles and Rules of English Grammar. Abridged and Versified, for the Use of Schools and Young Persons. Second Edition. By R. Tobitt. Facts of Years, with A Brief Account of the Oddingly Murders, a Poem, by H. Burdett. 12mo. bds. God the Setter up of Kings, and the Remover of Kings, a Discourse Preached on Occasion of the Demise of George IV., by John Morrison. By an Officer of the Line, Author of "Sketches, Scenes, and Narratives," a Poem entitled "Visions of Solitude." A Funeral Discourse on the Death of the Rev. William Orme, by Joseph Fletcher, A.M. The Elgin Literary Magazine, being a Series of Original Tales, Essays, &c. from July, 1829, to June, 1830, by the Editor of the Elgin Courier. The Eton Greek Grammar, trauslated into English, with Additional Notes, by G. N. Wright, A.M, Alfred the Great, a Drama, in Five Acts. Thoughts on Education, an Address delivered to the Friends and Supporters of Llandaff-house Academy, Cambridge. The Pocket French Grammatical and Critical Dictionary, by Gabriel Surrenne, F.A.S. Discourses on the Millennium, &c., by the Rev. Michael Russel, LL.D. Address of Earl Stanhope, President of the Medico. Botanical Society, for the Anniversary - meeting, January, 1830. Astriel, a Poem. Miscellaneous Pieces in Verse, Moral and Religious, by Richard Manley, of Southmolton, Devon. The Pulpit, Nos. 391-394. Anti-slavery Monthly Reporter, Nos. 62, 63, and Supplement. The Christian Manual, or the Soul turned to God, from the writings of the Rev. William Law, M.A, An Introduction to Systematical and Physiological Botany, &c. by Thomas Castle, F.L.S. In the Press. No. I. of Views in India, from Sketches by Capt. Robert Elliot, R.N. Each number will contain Three highly-finished Engravings, with descriptive LetterPress. Boswell's Life of Johnson, complete in One small Octavo Volume. Preparing for Publication. Lectures on Colonial Slavery, by the Rev. B. God. win, of Bradford. The British Pulpit, under the sanction of the Ministers whose discourses will appear in its pages, to be continued periodically. The first Part will appear in September next. A History of the County Palatine of Lancaster. By Edward Baines, Esq.. Author of the "History of the Reign of George III." and of the " Topography of Lancashire," &c. LONDON: PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BY II. FISHER, SON, AND CO. THE Emperial Magazine; OR, COMPENDIUM OF RELIGIOUS, MORAL, & PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE. SEPTEMBER.] "PERIODICAL LITERATURE IS THE GERM OF NATIONAL LEARNING." [1830. EASTERN PART OF FA-RE HARBOUR IN HUAHINE, AN ISLAND IN THE SOUTH IN our Number 138, for June last, we to an ingenious and industrious young man, whose name was Navenavehia, and who, although an inferior chief in Huahine, had accompanied Mahine to Eimeo, where he had resided in the family of Mr. George Bicknell, by whom he had been taught in some degree the use of tools, and the art of burning lime. It is not easy, nor is it material, to determine which of these two houses was finished first. They were certainly both in hand at the same time, and the periods of their completion were probably not very remote from each other. A new order of architecture was thus introduced to the nation, and the names of Tamatoa, king of Raiatea, and of Navena vehia, the more humble chief in Huahine, ought not to be forgotten, in connexion with the introduction of a style of building which has since prevailed so extensively among the people, greatly augmenting their social and domestic comforts, changing the appearance of their villages, and improving the beautiful scenery of their islands. "These two houses were not only the first in the Leeward group, but they were the first of the kind ever erected, for their own abode, by any of the natives of the South Sea Islands. now It is not, however, either its mountains or valleys, its rocks or its vegetation, its billows or its shores, that confer the highest interest on Huahine. The favourable changes which have taken place in the moral and civil condition of the inhabitants, are subjects of more important moment. They have abandoned idolatry, have em- "The success of these individuals enbraced Christianity, and turned their atten-couraged others, although we found great tion to the cultivation of the useful arts, in difficulty in persuading them to persevere which they have already made an almost in the heavy labour this improvement reunexampled progress. It is therefore pleas- quired, particularly as they were ing to contemplate the infant efforts of a actively employed in the erection of a people emerging from barbarism, and ad- spacious chapel, and the frames of our vancing towards a state of civilization and dwellings. It was no easy task for them to refinement, and to trace the development of build houses of this kind; there were no intellect displayed in their dress, their man- regular carpenters and masons. Every ners, and their habitations, as delineated in man had, in the first place, to go to the the following extracts:woods or the mountains, and cut down trees for timber, trim them into posts, &c. and remove them to the spot where his house was to be built, then to erect the frame, with the doorway and windows. This being done, he must again repair to the woods for long branches of hibiscus for rafters, with which he framed the roof. "On our first visit to Raiatea, in January 1819, the servants of Tamatoa, the king of that island, were plastering a house for his residence: it was nearly finished; the outside was completed, and they were at work within. A day or two after our return to Huahine, we were delighted to see one in the district of Fare actually finished. It was smaller than Tamatoa's, and differently shaped, his being oval, and this being nearly square, with high gable-ends. It belonged 141.-VOL. XII. "The leaves of the pandanus were next gathered and soaked, and sewed on reeds, with which the roof was thatched. This 3 D 787 Eastern Part of Fa-re Harbour in Huahine, in the South Seas. formerly would have completed his dwelling, but he now had to collect, with great labour, a large pile of firewood, to dig a pit, to dive into the sea for coral rock, to burn it, to mix it with sand so as to form mortar, wattle the walls and partitions of his house, and plaster them with lime. He then had to ascend the mountains again, to cut down trees, which he must either split or saw into boards for flooring his apartments, manufacturing doors, windows, shutters, &c. This was certainly a great addition of labour; and hence many occupy their cottages as soon as they have finished | the roof, the walls, and the door-levelling the ground for the floor, and spreading grass over it-occupying one part, while they board or plaster the other. "In this state we found Navenavehia's house, when we paid him our first visit. We recommended him to persevere in completing it, and, in order to encourage him, promised him a few nails to make doors, and whatever else was wanting. He assured us of his intention to board the floor, and partition off their bed-room; but said, he thought they might as well live in it while he was doing this, and therefore had occupied it as soon as the walls were dry. "The settlements in the Leeward Islands now began to assume an entirely new aspect. Multitudes flocked from the different districts, to attend the means of instruction in the school, and on the Sabbath. The erection of a house upon the improved plan, regulating its size by the rank or means of the family for whom it was designed, became a kind of test of sincerity in professions of desire to be instructed; for to embrace Christianity, with the precepts which it inculcated, nothing could be more at variance than the habits of indolence and unsightly filthiness of their former habitations. "Activity was now the order of the day. Frames of buildings were seen rising with astonishing rapidity, in every part of the district; and houses of every size, from the lowly snug little cottage with a single door and window in front, to the large twostoried dwelling of the king or the chief. Buildings, in every stage of their progress, might be seen in a walk through the settlement sometimes only a heap of spars and timber lay on the spot where the house was to be raised, but at other places the principal posts of the house were erected, others were thatched, and some partially or entirely enclosed with the beautiful white coral-lime plaster. Axes, hatchets, planes, chisels, gimlets, and saws, were, next to 788 their books, the articles in greatest demand and highest esteem. "No small portion of our time was occupied in directing and encouraging them in their labours. We had, however, occasion to regret that we were sometimes at as great a loss as the people themselves. They usually formed the walls of their dwellings, either by mortising upright posts into large trees laid on the earth, or planting the posts in the ground about three feet apart. The spaces between the posts, excepting those for doors or windows, were filled with a kind of hurdle-work, or wattling of small rods or sticks, of the tough casuarina. This they plastered with the mortar composed of coral-lime and sand, forming a plain surface, and covering also the posts on the outside, but leaving them projecting within. "The next object was to make the doors and window-shutters; thus far they had been able to proceed in the erection of their dwellings without nails; but to make doors and shutters without these, brought them at first to a stand. We were glad to furnish the chiefs and others with these most valuable articles, so far as our stock would allow, but it was useless to think of supplying the wants of the entire population; we only regretted that we could not have more ready access to our friends in England, many of whom, we had no doubt, would readily have supplied them with an article easily procured in abundance there, but which was here exceedingly scarce. Nails are still among the most valuable manufactures they can receive. Their invention and perseverance at length overcame the difficulty, and they constructed their doors by fastening together three upright boards, about six feet long, by means of three narrow pieces placed across, one at each end, the other in the middle. These latter were fastened to the long boards by strong wooden pegs. wanted in strength, they determined to supply by numbers, and I have seen upwards of fifty or sixty hard pegs driven through one of these cross-pieces into the boards forming the door. In order to prevent their dropping out when the wood shrunk by the heat, they drove small wedges into the ends of the pegs, which frequently kept them secure. In the same manner they fastened most of their floors to the sleepers underneath, using, however, large pegs resembling the treenails in a ship's plank, more than the nails in a housefloor. What the pegs "When the door was made, it was necessary to hang it; but only a few of the most highly favoured were, for many years, |