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CHAPTER X.

The cragi repent tjlio ia\cn*B croak In symphony austeio ; Thither the rainbow come?, the cloud, And mists that spread t lie flying shroud. I hare said that the Roy. Owen Gwyav <j;alhcrod up tbe reins into his hand, and drove on ; hut 1 should more correctly have sa;d that he would lw\u driven on, had Ins pony

consented. The pony, haying found some succulent shrub, growing in the loose stone wall which boundod the road, was - not inchned-to leave it at present. A whisk^f the tatl, a tosa ™ of the head, a sidelong movement into the dftch, were all tho results of Owen's manipulations with whip and mns. ' The three n;ost particular curses a man can be afflicted V with,' said Often — 'a jibbing borae, a scolding wife, and a, bucket that's nc.er filled. Well, I'm not tlie most unfortunate man in the wjorW, for I neTcr was married. If I can shame her into moving og, perhaps ? ' Owen threw tl*4 "cms on to tlio spLish board, puthishft/uls into Ins pockets, and began to whistle. 'There!' I*e "aid to himself, 'wewi]\ -,cc which will be tirfld first.' After n time, however, this inaction bocauie irksome, and Owen was again preparing for actiTe measures against the pony, when he heard once more the dull croak of the raven. ' Deed,' said Owen, ' I'll go and look for that sheep. If T find it, and bring it home, Eobert Evani of Esgair w ill gh a me half of it for my trouble ; ami I will have it stewed, and I will eat, and forget all my miseries. In tho meantime, tha pony will be tired of standing, and bo ready to go on when, I corao back.' lie jumped out of the dog-cart, and mada lii« way across the country, by a track ho well knew, to tho mouldering walls of ths old Roman station, of AJediodunuun. Even now, though the wintry rays of tho 51m gave small heat to the froaty air, yet the atmosphere about the ruined tow 11 ft)lt warm and inviting. The ground on which it stood sloped down towards the south, and it was encompas3ed on two sides by the brawling river, whose high banks and rocky, foaming bed afforded ample security against surprise in that quarter. Nature and art combined had scarped the sides of « the plateau farthest from the stream : and the narrow neck which united it with higher hills behind was fortified with a treble series of mounds and ditchea. Seated on the topmost etone of what had once been the Praetorian gate sat the old raven, Bonnoch, regarding the approaching figuro suspiciously with his bright, lucent eyes.. He rose Blowly into the air as Owen approached, oiroled round the rums once or twice, and then settled himself on a farther heap of stones, which lay wide of tho station, just under the detached mass of rock known as theJ^viigddu 1 Ah, that's whore she is, then, the dying sheep,' cried Owen ; ' she has tumbled of? Craigddu, and has broken her leg. " M But there was no dying sheep lying under the Craigddu. Owen began to swear in Welsh. ' Diaoul ' Am Ito have all my trouble without recompense, you miserable deceiver ? Couldn't you be satisfied to sup on nothing yourself without asking mo to the foast, you old deceiver ! Diaoul ! If I hadn't the rheumatism in my right arm, I'd break your leg with a stone, you brute ! B-a-a-a, t>-a-a-a, b-a-a-a! ' shouted Owen in derision to the raven. 'No cold mutton for supper, eh ! B-a-a-a, b-a-a-a ! ' 1 M-a-a-a, m-a-a-a ! ' just like the w.hisper of the ghost of & lamb — Owen heavd faintly from the direction of theCraigddu. ' The Lord have mercy upon me ! Ho has taught the raven to bleat, just as He taught Balaam's ass to speak, to r,epro re me for my sins, miserable, unworthy priest, that I am ! ' Owen really was ftightenqd and perplexed, and for tho moment imagined himself tho object of some special interposition of Providenco ; but tho raven, alarmed at Owen's gestures, rose once more on the wing, and flapped away towards the hills ; whilst again from the Cr&igddu,this time*, more soundly and distinctly, resounded tho cry, ' M-a-a-a, m-a a-a- ! ' ' There's a sheep there, after all,' said Owen, making his way to tho place. The Craigddu was ahuge granito boulder which lay upon a mass of gravel and detritus, the moraine, perhaps, of some antediluvian glacier.; a. smaller rock reclined against it, and the iuterstices of tho rock were filled up by smaller fragments of stones and rubbish from the river floods. There was no living thing lying by the Craigddu. Owen looked round in amazement, and again heard a bleat, this^ time much more distinctly, as though from the very rock under his feet. ' It's tho Tylwyth Teg [the beautiful family — the fairies] said Owen, falling on his knees. He knew a little prayer his grandfather had taught him ; it wasn't to be found in the prayer-book, which contains, indeed, no prayer againit fairies | and warlocks, but it was a prayer to the Virgin, a rhyming Welsh distich, the monks of Cacrhun had taught the people ages ago. ' M-a-a, m-a-a' ' again sounded from under his feet. ' B-a-a-a, ba-a-a !' roared Owen back again. * I may as well; speak them fair,' he whispered to himself; ' and, indeed, it isn't civil not to speak when you're spoken to.' 'M-e-e-a-a, m-e-e a-a ! ' — this time with an altered inflection, and more plaintive cadence. 1 I'm done now,' thought Owen ; 'I've got to the end of* my vocabulary. Namp o' goocbiessi ! bow ever shall I deal, with them ? Let me see, hovr w;ll I begin ? Ahem !' he coughed ia an apologetic and preliminary way. ' Halloo ! ' sounded just below him like a pistol-shot. Owen looked for a hole to hide hin->s<;lf in , n'bifr. of rock a stone tocoverhim; every moment he expected to see filing forth from the ground them; stic battalions of the Tylwylh Teg ,• and woe to him who saw that sight ! For, indeed, a man inherits his fantasies and superotitions, and can no more bhakethem off nt the bidding of reason than he can change the set and, bias of his character by ineje internal resolutions. So, though Owen was conscious he was making a fool of himself, he was completely overpowered by superstitious terror, and tried to. hide himself behind the Craigddu Between, the great crag and the smaller rock which leaned against it,* the earth hud given 'way, and, exposed a bunken chasm ; and when Owen, in his fright, ran round the rock, intending to hide in tbe niche between the two, the ground gave way stijl more, and he half-slipped and half-fell into a dnrk and gloomy cavern, which had existed, undiscovered, for centuries below the Craigddu. 1 They've got me now,' said Owqn. ' What will they do with me p Keep me underground till the day of judgment, marry mo to the queen of the fairies, perhapi ! Name o' goodness, I'll bear it all !' The cavern, though dark, was clean and dry ; its roof was formed by the sloping edges of the rocks above ; its ilooring . was of fine rhcr gravel. As Owen's eyes became accustomed to tho light, he aaw a figure lying in tho comer — a figure, as it seemed to him, of portentous size. 1 Amoyldad ' I thought they were little bits of things ;. they must have grown since the days of my grandfather. Drwg yn fechan, gwaeth yn faur (Bad when little, worse when great), muttered Owen. 'Water , water! drink, drink ' ' snid a hoarse voice from ho corner, and then Owen found that there was no fairy here, but a man who lay in tho corner groaning.

A strange story comes from Paris. A German professor — the nationality is to be noted — begged two condemned Communists named Dodu and Brim from M. Thiers, in order that lie might as a-scientifio experiment kill them and bring them to life ngam at the end of three months after death. His plan was to inject solution, of calx in the system, by which decomposition was to bo preveuted ; and according to, his theory, the patient might be reTired, not only at the end of three months, but of 300 years, according to desice. In. the presence of medical men and pnbhc functionaries, the professor having administered chloroform to each, of the men, injected the solution, and thcubled them till they died. The corpses were then desaieated by the heat of furnaces. tilt *hey shrivelled, and till the skin became yellow, like leajheq^ In this state they remained in a moderate temperature for the prescribed three months, and the process of revivification began by injecting the bleodof two healthy labourers, and by the application of the galvanic battery. The process completely failed in the case of Dudu. But in that of Brun the result was, to say the least, surprising. First the opaque eyeballs rolled in their yellow sockets, the muscles began, to twitch, the heart to beat ; and at last, after fourteen hours of treatment, Brun spoke, rose from the table, swallowed a bowl of beef tea and several ounces of brandy, and audibly complained of soreness in the limbs, and of pains in the regions that had rested' on the table. He is now alive and well m Switzerland, under tho assumed name of 1 Fourbo while a post mortem examination showed that fatty degeneration of tho hoart had prevented tho revival of Dohu. So. any one who wishes to see how the world looks a hundred years hence, has only to apply solution of calx, aud to leave word when he is to be called. It is singular that the history of so important a scientific discovery mado so near home should have reached us Ma New York and LouisviHe, Georgia. But as everybody knows, it is to America that we must always look for the very earliest information about everything, moro particular!}' inexplicable nonsense.

How fab we Sera — Herschcl uas of opinion thnt, with the telescope* he used in those rcsqp'chcs in the heavens which immortalized his nmno in the nnuals of science, he could penetrate 497 times further than Sinus, assumed to - be at least so far distant thnt the sun is near at hand in. comparison. While exploring w ith that inst riuuent, 116,000 stars flitted by tho object-glass in one quarter of an hour, and Ilmt subtended an an pie of only 15 degree. So all Hie worlds are moving rapidly m space. Reckoning from tho limited zone thus inspected, the whole celestial region could be examined by giving time enough to the enterprise ; and judging from a few sections only within the scope of assisted vis-.on, more than five billions of fixed stars might be reasonably supposed to bo recognisable, and could be seen with modem improved instruments. But more are bujond* vastly bejond, ' and %vo are hoping and expecting, sa^a the Scientific American, that when Mr Clark, the self-made astronomer of Cambridge Mass., and the in.os(. progressive telescope manufacture now known to scientists, has completed his great work, far more amazing discoveries will be made in the firmament. Surely, the mechanism of tho heavens demonstrates tho existence of n y Intelligent First Cause, since such magnificent displays of unnumbered worlds, regulated by law, which seciue order in the unherse, could not have originated, themselves. God surely reigns and directs. «* When a man is nppoiiilqd to a po9t under the Crown, wliy arc you hound by the laws of courtesy to take oil' jour lio^ to him ? — Uecauso he tales office (off hit).

A Yix\?>ciatj Dktekrext. —Mr Cardwcll's new tinny scheme, while it benefits the soldier by giving him a clear la a day with a fioo ration, provides that on a medical Jt officer certifying that a soldier is in hospital from his own 01 misconduct, the whole of his pay should be stopped dining such losidenee. Hithei to a p.vi t only has been withdrawn. We think this an exceedingly wise meisuro. We may hope that in time the debauchery winch has hitherto Leon the bane of the army will be consideuihly lessened. The jiBw regulations for shurt-term service will increase facilities for mauiago The improve I pay and position of the soldier will alao tend to foster that spii it of self-iespcct which is a greiter safeguard against the worst kinds of dissipation. The ho*vy tine, aR>, on the consei|ueuces of i vice which Mr C.udwell's plan inflicts cannot fail to have a deterrent effect.— Medical Ttmps and Gazette, American Items. — Irish potatoes are so cheap in Kansas as not to be worth digging.— A Saratoga county , New York, farmer recovered $800 of a neighbour for slander, and was himself sent fire years to State Prison for perjury committed during the trial. The Boston Congregationalist tells us of a deacon, who, in giving notio of a church meeting recently, added, " There as no objection to the femalo brethren remaining."—Economy is | wealth. A well-regulated Newark iamily ate hash for breakfast in 3G5 different styles last ye.ir, and the mother is in consequence enabled to blow her "noso on a ninet} -dollar lace handkerchief. — The pension office at Washington was startled the other day by the receipt of the following communication from a Vermonter :— " Have my name dropped fiom the pension rolls, as I can nearly do as much work as ever, and I feel m my heart that l"can do without it better than the Government can pay it." — A Cali£>rnun writes that they have fire-flie3 so larjo in that interesting State, that they use thorn to cook by They set the kettles on their hinder legs, which are bent for the purpose like pot-hooks. — Tlioro aro various ways of ascertaining whether a gun is loaded, but blowing in at tho muzzle and pressing the hammer back with the foot at the same time is not a good way. A young inau m New Providence, Indiana, adopted this plan ,a few days ago, and though the coroner concluded that the gun was loaded, tho information was of no usi> to the young man. — An eminent civil engineer and geologist gave the following certificate to the starters of an American coal mine : — " At the urgent request of the directors of the Ojibbeway Coal Company, I have tested tho sample of coal sent to me, and it- is my firm opinion that when tho great conflagration of the world shall take place, anil which is expected to happen on the final day, tho man who shall stand upon that coal mine will be the very last man who shall be burned." Cuitior-5 Names. — In the course of my experience I have met with some singular surnames, as, for instance, Godbelieve, Gotobed, Godbolt, Godson, Brandy wine, Portwine, Beer, and Drinkwater. Hell, Heaven, Doath— a corruption of tho Norman D'Aeth— Coffin, Allboae, Smallbones, and Graves. VVellbeloved, Aflgood, Toogood, Goodman, Kind, Love, Dcarlorc, and Dearman, Oldinan, Youngman, Middleman, Blackman, Wlutcman, Bedman, Greenman, Stiffman, Jackman, and Dollman. De Foe has been thought to have invented the name of Crusoe, but there arc still Crusoes in England. In the city of Ely there's a market gardener called Applegarden, and atßasidt, near London, where Warwick, " tho Last of tho Barons," fought and fell— there is a nurseryman named Cutbush. In London there are two firms, respectively , Ridley and Latimer, and Flint and Steel. The points of the compass are represented by East, West, North, South, Western, Southoren, and Easton. A man servant of ours once gave us his name a3 * Germany, by which designation ho was generally known, but his real name waj far more aristocratic— Jormjn. The pronunciation of names is very arbitrary, thus Cliolmondely is Chumleigh ; Lcvcston-Gofter is Lewson-Gorc ; Beauchamp, Beech am ; GeOghan, Gagail ; St John, Singen ; Knolhs, Enorlcs ; Sandys, Sands ; Wcinyss, Winis j Cirencester, Cister ; Biccster, Bister; Derby, Darby j Marylcbono, Marrybun ; Worcester, Wooster, &c. There used to bo in London a dissenting minister whoso name was Pigg, and who had three deacons named Hogg, Bacon, and Hogsflesh. Hogsflesh ultimately became Hoflcsh, an aspiring Hogg m Biggleswade becamo first Hoggs, and then Arcbdale. The difficulties of pronouncing the names of towns was once experienced by an Irish friend of ours, whose reverence for Charlotte Bronte led him to perform a pilgrimage to the scene of her labours. Arrived at Keighlcy —pi onounced Keithley— in Yorkshire, he inquired for Ha- worth, but everybody said there was no such place in the neighbourhood. At last an old greybeard, after laboriously scratching hia head, said, '' Dost mee-an Orth ? " After that the way was easily found. In Pall Mall, London, theie is a respectable tradesman named Strong-i-the-arm, who, if he be worthy of his cognomen, would be a tough customer to box with. At a meeting we once attended with John Noble, the political writer and orator, he remarked, " Now you will see some fool is sure to make"a pun on my name," and sure enough a would-be wit did refer to the fact that a " Nobleman " was present. Such names jvj Oldboy, Littleboy, Tallboys, Littlejohn, Greathead, Redhead, .md Whitehead, are^often a nuisance. We once knew a man called Makin. Child, who certainly obeyed the pivine command to " increase and multiply." One of tho most curious corruptions of names we ever met with was in Ireland, where L' Espinasse is known among the lower prders as Spinach.— Troy Times. An extraordinary case has been before the liish Court of Exchequer. It is an action by a Mrs Sheridan against her parish priest, tho Rev Mr Judge, for false arrest and malicious prosecution " in respect of a sacrilegious outrage committed last May in smeari.ig lar on the pews of the Roman Catholic chapel of Bohala, county Mayo." Mr Judge is accused of having denounced Mrs Sheridan from the altar as tho doer of the deed, and of having her arrested falsely by the police. The testimony has been of a strange character. John Sheridan, plaintiff's stepson, said that on Sunday, the 19th of May, tho Rev Mr Judge speaking of tho tarring of the seats, smd he was at tho tuno looking at the person who did it, and he pointed to the plaintiff, and named her. Then, in an excited state, he quenched the candles, turned the mass-book, jumped upon fie altar, and cursed the guilty parties. At the second mass the Rev Mr Judge said he wa3 sorry for having b#cn so excited in the morning, but ho referred to a family in the county who had been cursed by the priest r and had since disappeared ; a futo w Jucll would happen to the person who had tarred the seats, and to whom he had alluded at first mass. He then said : " May tho arm that is now sick be stretched powerless by her side before this day twelve months." Was your step-mother's arm (the witness was ,'asked) powerless at tho time ?—lt? — It was. From what causo ? — Her arm was accidentally crushed by a beam a few days before. Margaret Clarke, plaintiff's niece, in her testimony, also said that, at mass, the Rev Mr Judge officiated in his vestments, after which he alluded to the tarring of tho seats, quenched tho candles, turned the mass-book, and cursed the gudty parties, adding, " I am looking now at tho person who did this, and could leave my hand on her, and that is Mrs Sheridan." At the second mass, tho curate, Mr GalJaghor, officiated. Wkt>ft it was over Mr Judge, who wore his stole and sou+ane, addressed the congregation. The examination was continued, and tho witness was a3ked : — What did the Rev Mr Judge say then ?— He apologised for what lie said in tho morning, saying that he was excitod and in a passion; but ho added, "My words aro gone before tho Throne of Heaven and before the Judge, from whom I hope there will be revenge." He also stated that he knew a family in the county Shgo with whom tho priest fell out. He cursed them from tho altar, and after a short time they all disappeared«and tho grass grew over tho house where they lived. The same, ho said, would happen to tho party to whom ho had referred before a year had passed, adding, " May the arm that is now sick shng dead and powerless by her side." William Clarke deposed thafc, immediately after second mass, he saw Mr Judge going on tho platform in front of the altar, and heard him say that what ho said at first mass was gone up — that he had never cursed before but once, and that was a dog that bit him, and tho dog went mad. The case was going on. A worthy boronet in one of the midland counties was lately returning homo in tho evening from a visit, and found the seat in the dog-car rather colder than he expected. His coachman being attired in his livery great coat, was desired by his master to let him put it qn, and to take his lighter one, as he would not feel the cold so much. On the baronet's arrival a 1 ; home and ringing the bell, the footman on opening the door, and without lookmg who was in the great coat, says, »' So you havo left the old d 1 behind ? " " No," exclaims tho baronet : " the old d lis here, and ho gives you: a month's warning !" Nothing. — A shoolinaster put the question to the scholars "What is nothing?" A pauso ensued until an urchin, whose proclivities for turning a penny wero well-known a-uongthe schoolfellows, got up and loplied, "It's when a man asks you to hold Ms horse and jisfc says thank ye." Tho answer has sinco earned some notoriety for the youngster.

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WT18730621.2.10.2

Bibliographic details

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 175, 21 June 1873, Page 2

Word Count
3,635

CHAPTER X. Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 175, 21 June 1873, Page 2

CHAPTER X. Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 175, 21 June 1873, Page 2

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