with people, is drawn about by a multitude of others. This, however, is more practifed among the Gentoos on the coaft of Coromandel, than in Bengal. They inflict a variety of other corporal penances upon themfelves, during this feftival, but the above are the principal. The feftivals are not celebrated every year on the fame day, for they are fometimes anticipated, and fome times delayed, for feveral days, ac. cording to the regulations of lucky aud unlucky days made by the brahmins. In this refpect they are ex c: ffively fuperftitious, and they will never undertake any thing upon a day, which they efteem unlucky. It is the fame with regard to numbers. An odd number is reckoned lucky, and an even one the contrary. Upon receiving or paying fums of money, they will rather lofe a rupee, than either take or give an even number.— Conjurors and ferpent-charmers, are to be met with, in abundance. The latter chiefly refide in the villages, and exercise their art for a trifle of money. When a fnake is fuppofed to have taken up his abode, in a houfe, or in any other place, one of thefe exorcifts is fent for, who performs his office in the following manner: He first creeps upon his hands and knees, all over the ground, fmelling in every hole and corner, and foon discovers the reptile, if there be one, by the scent. Having thus afcertain ed whereabouts the animal is, he fits down, and taking out a little flute, made of bone, plays upon it for fome time, till the fnake comes out of his -hiding-place, and darts at him, with a violent hils; he then drops his flute: catches the creature in both hands, and kills it, at one blow, by ftriking its head against the ground, without being bitten by it. They know how to deprive fnakes of their poifon ufing for that purpofe a little ball of capol, or cotton, with : which they take it from between the teeth, where it lies, inclosed in bladders; and they keep the fnakes, thus deprived of their venomous quality, in wicker baskets, carrying them about the country, and making them dance. When I was at Fultah, I fent for one of them, in order to fee this curious exhibition. He brought three baskets with him in which there were feveral snakes. He took out two of them, both Cobras di Capelli, which are esteemed the moft venomous of all, and threw them upon the ground, in the grafs. They immediately began hiffing, and erecting half of their bodies upright, darted upon, and twined round each other, as often as he encouraged them. They fometimes darted at the byeftanders, but then he fuddenly caught them by the tail, and drew them back. He fometimes excited them against himfelf, and fuffered them to bite his breaft, hands, and forehead, till the blood ftreamed from the wounds. After having made them play their tricks for fome time, he took out of a basket, a very large fnake, which was at least twelve or thirteen feet in length, and beautifully variegated with tints of green and yellow; he made it bite him fo hard in the breast, that it remained hanging by its teeth, without feeming to do him any harm: he then took a fmaller one, put its head into his mouth, and made it seize his tongue, to which it like wife cleaved by the teeth: and throwing them round his neck and arms, was encircled in their folds, without fuffering any other inconvenience, than the blood flowing from the wounds, along his face and breast. Athough these men do not die by the effects of the venom, because, as aforefaid, they have the fecret of de'priving the fnakes of their poifon every day, yet their skin has a leprous and fealy appearance, and they are covered with paftules. DIS DESCRITTION OF A FARM AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. From the fame. ABOUT four o'clock in the after- of buildings, calculated for the flaves, noon, we came to the farm of Melk, which at a distance, and indeed close by, appeared like a whole vil lage. It lies among the mountains, upon the gentle declivity of a high ridge, and on the banks of an everrunning ftream, which Melk has led, along his farm, between two brick walls, like a canal, and which turns a water-mill, for the purpose of grinding his corn. His dwelling-houfe, which was of a confiderable fize, had four or five large and handfome rooms, all furnished in a neat, and even in a coftly ftile, fo that it more refembled a gentleman's villa than the manfion of a farmer. Twenty-five, or thirty paces from the corners of the house, he had four large barns, or warehouses, each one hundred and fifty feet long, in which he houfed his corn and wine. Two of them were now empty; in the third were full one hundred and fifty leagers of wine; and in the fourth fifteen or fixteen hundred muds of corn, twenty-feven of which make a Holland laft, and eighteen a laft of the Cape: each mud being calculated at one hundred and eighty, or ninety pounds weight Amfterdam, according as the grain be heavy or light. Between these he had a blacksmith's and carpenter's workshop, and a cartwright's manufactory, together with other work-people, neceffary for fo large and troublesome a concern. But few of them were Europeans, the largest number were Oriental flaves, who had coft him a great deal of money. Among others, he fhewed me a flave, who understood fmith's work, and making of tires on wheelbands, whom he had purc fed for fifteen hundred rixdollars (upward of 300l. fterling.) A little higher up, ftood a range of whom he had full two hundred: for he declared to me that he did not know the exact number. Every one had a feparate brick dwelling to fleep in. Thofe that were mar ried were kept apart from the others: and every poffible precaution was taken to prevent accidents by fire. the A little farther were two kraals, or inclofures for cattle: they were furrounded by high tone walls, of eight or ten feet, and contained each about two hundred and fifty acres. The sheep, the horses, and the horned cattle were confined at night in thefe, for fecurity against the attacks of wild beafts, efpecially of wolves and tigers, who do not unfrequently make a great havoc here among fmaller fized cattle. He calculated the numbers of his fheep by thoufands; and refpecting his horned cattle, a fmall proof of the numerousness of his herds, was his informing me, in a careless manner, and as if it were a circumftance of no confideration, that he had loft one hundred and twenty head of cattle, a few days before, by the diseases called the klaauw and tongziekte. There were feveral other smaller outhoufes and offices, for various purposes, relative to the economy of the farm. Befide this, he was owner of feven or eight other farms, upon which he had placed ftewards, whe managed them in his behalf, upon hire. Some of these produced corn, fome wine, and fome were fimply deftined for pafturage. With all this, Melk could neither read nor write; but having a good memory, he had the whole in his head of what was neceffary for the due management of his extenfive concerns, for which any other would require a number of books, and a great deal of writing. He He was a native of Pruffia, and had arrived at the Cape, many years ago, in a very low ftation. UnderAtanding the burning of lime, the making of bricks, and fomething of agriculture, he had entered, as head fervant, into the service of the former proprietor of this farm, but which, at that time, had not by far the fame extent as at prefent. When his mafter died, he married the widow (which does not unfrequently happen in this country) and extending his enter prizes from day to day, he at length obtained from the company, the exclufive farm for the fale of wine and fpirituous liquors, by which he cleared one hundred thoufand duilders (about 9000l. fterling) in one year, chiefly by the arrival of the French fleet at the Cape. This enabled him ftill to undertake more important objects, fo that he once bought up all the wine produced in the country, which amounted to fome thousands of leagers. Though this did not conduce to the benefit of the public, yet it fufficient ly fhows the fpirit of enterprize which animated the man. that his wife had her time entirely to herself. Finding that he spoke with much intelligence, refpecting the fituation, of the country, as I, in fact, had been before informed was the case, I asked him his opinion of the plan at present in agitation of exporting the produce of the Cape to Holland*. He affured me, that this would, in time, be of great benefit to the colony, and moft probably alfo to the company; but that to affect this purpofe, other means must be put in practice, and better arrangements made, than had hitherto taken place. In the first place, he said that the company ought to erect ftorehouses in various parts, where the produce of the country could be received, from time to time, when the farmers had opportunities of conveying it from their farms, to those places, in the good feafon, or as foon as the harvelt was got in, in January and February: for the rivers and roads were at that time the eafieft paffable: whereas the conveyance was otherwife both difficult and expenfive: and that the corn would ftand the company in much lefs, if this method were adopted. Further, that the tithes, which the company exacted of the corn grown, were of detriment, iaftead of producing an advantage for the farmers; who, for inftance, though they grew five hundred muds of corn, only declared one hundred, which they fold at a high rate, while the other four hundred were disposed of at a much lower price under hand, by indirect means, in order to avoid payment of the tithes. That the fervants of the company, at the Cape, to whom the purchase is confided, should act more disinterestedly, and not fo arbitrarily toward the farmers, whom they, in fact, were even apt to defraud. That the overfeers of these N n ftore Two things in him excited, in particular, both my admiration and furprize. In the first place, his fteady love for his king, of whom he always fpoke with the deepest respect and affection: he decorated the chimneypieces, and other parts of the house, with the arms of his fovereign, and cherished a fond attachment to his perfon. The other circumflance I allude to, was his gratitude toward his wife, by whofe means, he invariably declared, he had become the man he was: he would not fuffer her to be put to the least trouble in any thing, however trifling: and was anxious that the fhould live entirely at her cafe, and take every diverfion in her power; he even took upon himself the managing the houses, fo Ed. Mag. April 1799. * Our readers need not be told that the Cape is now in the poffeffion of the Eng fh. ftorehoufes would be able to avail of the best opportunities for purchase, when the produce was at the cheapeft; houfing it in them, till the time of dispatching it to the Cape. That, efpecially, fuch ftorehouses ought to be erected at Moffel, or Mufcle, and Saldanha Bays, as the company could, in both places, fetch the produce, direct, by their fhips, inftead of its being, as at prefent, firft conveyed to the Cape by land carriage, where their fervants, who must all derive their emolument from it, receive, or reject it, at their own good pleasure. And, finally, that the land all round the above bays, was very fit for the production of corn: nay, better than in other parts; fo that one mud fown, commonly yielded an increase of fixty or feventy, while, at most other places, between ten and twenty, and fometimes thirty, muds was the ufuat harvest from one mud of feed. That the company would doubtlefs be able to purchafe wheat there at one rixdollar per mud; whereas they now paid eighteen, twenty, and fometimes twenty-four rixdollars per cart-load of ten muds, because the conveyance by wheel-carriage is fo expenfive to the farmers, that they could not do it at all, if they did not receive the above prices per cart-load. REMINISCENCES. From the Works of Horace Walpole Earl of Orford. ONE of the most remarkable oc. currences in the reign of George I. was the open quarrel between him and his fon the prince of Wales. Whence the diffenfion originated; whether the prince's attachment to his mother embittered his mind against his father, or whether hatred of his father occafioned his devotion to her, I do not pretend to know. I do fufpect from circumftances, that the hereditary enmity in the house of Brunfwic between the parents and their eldest fons dated earlier than the divifions between the two firft Georges. The princess Sophia was a woman of parts and great vivacity: in the earlier part of her life she had profeffed much zeal for the depofed houfe of Stuart, as appeared by a letter of hers in print, addreffed, I think, to the chevalier de St. George. It is natural enough for all princes, * : who have no profpect of being bene- *It is remarkable, that either the weak propenfity of the Stuarts to popery, or the vifible connection between regal and ecclefiaftic power, had fuch operation on many of the branches of that family, who were at a diftance from the crown of England, to wear which it is neceffary to be a proteftant, that two or three of the daughters of the king and queen of Bohemia, though their parents had loft every thing in the ftruggle between the two religions, turned Roman catholics; and fo did one or more of the fons of the princess Sophia, brothers of the protestant candidate, George the firft. himfelf to the oppofite party. But if he and his mother efpoufed different factions, Sophia found a ready partifan in her grandfon the electoral princet; and it is true, that the demand made by the prince of his writ of fummons to the Houfe of Lords as duke of Cambridge, which no wonder was fo offenfive to Queen Anne, was made in concert with his grandmother, without the privity of the elector his father. Were it certain, as was believed, that Bolingbroke and the Jacobites prevailed on the Queen to confent to her brother coming fecretly to England, and to feeing him in her clofet, fhe might have been induced to that ftep, when provoked by an attempt to force a diftant and foreign heir upon her while ftill alive. The Queen and her heirefs being dead, the new king and his fon came over in apparent harmony; and on his Majefty's firft vifit to his electoral dominions, the prince of Wales was even left regent; but never being trufted afterward with that dignity on like occafions, it is probable that the fon difcovered too much fondnefs for acting the king, or that the father conceived a jealoufy of his having done fo. Sure it is, that on the king's return great divifions arofe in the court, and the whigs were divided -fome devoting themselves to the wearer of the crown, and others to the expectant. I fhall not enter into the detail of those fquabbles, of which I am but fuperficially informed. The predominant minifters were the Earls of Sunderland and Stanhope. The brothers in law, the viscount Townf hend and Mr Robert Walpole, adhered to the prince. Lord Sunder land is faid to have too much refembled as a politician the Earl his father, who was fo principal an actor in the reign of James the fecond, and in bringing about the revolution. Between the Earl in queftion and the prince of Wales grew mortal antipathy; of which an anecdote told to me by my father himself will leave no doubt. When a reconciliation had been patched up between the two courts, and my father became first lord of the treafury a fecond time, Lord Sunderland in a tête-à-tête with him faid, Well, Mr Walpole, we have fettled matters for the prefent; but we must think whom we will have next' (meaning in cafe of the king's demife.) Walpole replied, Your lordship may think as you please, but my part is taken;' meaning to fupport the eftablished fettlement. Earl Stanhope was a man of strong and violent paffions,, and had dedicated himself to the army; and was fo far from thinking of any other line, that when Walpole, who firft fuggefted the idea of appointing him fecretary of flate, propofed it to him, he flew into a furious rage, and was on the point of a downright quarrel, looking on himfelf as totally unqualified for the poft, and fufpecting it for a plan of mocking him. He died in one of those tempestuous fallies, being pushed in the house of Lords on the explofion of the South Sea fcheme. That iniquitous affair, which Walpole had early expofed, and to remedy the mifchiefs of which he alone was deemed adequate, had replaced him at the head of affairs, and obliged Sunderland to fubmit to be only a coadjutor of the administration. The younger Craggs, a fhowy vapouring man, Nn 2 had Afterward George the Second. I believe it was a fact, that the poor weak Queen, being difpofed even to cede the crown to her brother, confulted bishop Wilkins, called the Prophet, to know what would be the confequence of fuch a ftep. He replied, Madam, you would be in the Tower in a month, and dead in three.' This fentence, dictated by common fenfe, her majefty took for inspiration, and dropped all thoughts of refigning the crown. . James Craggs, jun. buried in Weftminfter-abbey, with an epitaph by Pope. |