Dootie, whence the Jumna flows: thence, towards the east, rose the high peaks which mark the source of the holy river, the Ganges - the Rudru Himaleh, like a white cloud, in the horizon-Kedar Nath and Badri Nath, those mighty objects of Hindoo superstition, mixing with the skies; so far out-topping other heights, that I had almost considered them illusory; I began to doubt, as I gazed on them, whether there was any interval between heaven and earth! When I remembered that I was standing, on the 30th of May, on a mountain covered with snow, not ten degrees from the tropics, and that the peaks I was looking at were higher above me than Mount Blanc from the plain, and Mount Etna from the sea, I was breathless with astonishment. "Before me, towards the south, were less grand, but more varied prospects: at the foot of the hill where I stood, but far below, stretched yellow fields in terraces, to the edge of a winding stream; as well as wooded ridges, and peaks, crowned with pines, their sides blooming with lilac and rhododendron. All around, far as the eye could reach-and that was far indeed, were mountains, interminable mountains, of every shape and every hue: the clefts on the edges of some were masses of snow, shining through the open trees: rough and rugged rocks, opposing their barrenness to gently-rising hills, as carefully and tastefully planted, as if by the hand of art: dark, impenetrable forests, with torrents of water roaring through them; and little clusters of fruit-trees, with birds of sweetest notes singing within them. The summit of Oonchal was, for a time, ecstasy. My descent to the village of Nongong was pure matter-of-fact indeed. It occupied about three hours: such slipping, sliding, and scrambling, no mortal, that has not made the attempt, can form any idea of. We had to creep down by the uneven surface of the stony hill, for a long distance, where the ledges upon which we placed our feet were scarcely broad enough to admit them. Several times I was near falling a victim to love of the picturesque. If I looked round for a moment, which I could scarcely resist doing, I was soon restored to attention by rolling down ten or twenty feet." The first view of the Ganges, or Gunga-jee, had a powerful effect upon the natives of the party, even the Musulmans. After a painful series of descents, they sat down by the banks of the sacred Bhagirathi. It was about eighty yards wide, flowing rapidly over a bed of stone, the water of the colour of sand, and much impregnated with it. After a severe struggle with the difficulties of the journey, they reached Bhairo Ghati, at the confluence of the Jahnavi and the Bhagirathi, the two remote branches of the sacred river. They rush towards each other with tremendous velocity and noise, meeting at right angles, and sweeping away to the west amidst the wildest scenery. At daylight, on the 10th June, they commenced their expedition to Gungoutri, about four miles from Bhairo Ghati. The channel of the river, for half way, is formed of rocky mountains, their peaks rising to a great height. In some places they approach so nearly, as to afford a very narrow vent for the river, through which it rushes with immense force. Gungoutri is at length reached. "A river as wide as the Thames at Windsor running over an uninterrupted bed higher than the crater of Mount Ætna (for Gungoutri is nearly thirteen thousand feet above the level of the sea), would be an interesting object if it had no other claim upon the mind: but the traveller must feel almost disposed to overlook that in the extraordinary scenes that he is destined to witness acted on it. It is impossible to survey this fountain of credulity, to enter this focus of human folly, without feeling as much wonder and astonishment, as the sight of it can inspire devotion and awe in the victims of its superstition, who toil through so many hardships, to bathe in its dirty water. "Here every extravagance that the weakness of the human race can be guilty of, seems to be concentrated:-some, who have been wandering for months to fill their phials at the stream, overcome by the presence of their God, lie prostrate on the banks! others, up to their waists in the water, performing with the most unfeigned abstraction, all the manœuvres of a Hindoo worship. Under the auspices of brahmins, groups were sitting on several parts of the bank, kneading up balls of sand, with holy grass twisted round their fingers, intended as offerings to the Ganges for the propitiation of their fathers' souls, which when ready they drop into the stream with the most profound and religious gravity. Such faith is placed in its power of performing miracles, that many haunt it for the most ridiculous purposes, convinced that what they ask will be accorded. "At this moment, a fanatic is up to his middle in the river, praying it to bestow upon him the gift of prophecy: he has travelled from a village above Sirinagur, never doubting that the Ganges will reward him for his journey, by opening the book of futurity; and if fools may be inspired to foretell, there is some probability of this pilgrim succeeding in his object, for he is simple indeed. He will return, he says, a prophet to his native hill, where all will flock to him to have their fortunes told, and he will soon grow rich. "As I approached the holy shrine, a troop of pallid spectres glided through the woods before me, and vanished like the images in Banquo's glass. I thought I had reached supernatural regions indeed, till a few more yards brought me to a train of naked faquirs whitened all over with ashes: a rope was coiled round thair waists, and their hair hung down to their shoulders, twisted like serpents: their hands close to their sides, they glided along with measured steps, repeating constantly in a hollow tone,Ram! Ram! Ram!' a Hindoo word for the deity. If it required any thing to heighten the wildness of the scene, these unearthly beings were admirably adapted for it. The firmest skeptic in ghost stories would have startled to behold one of these inhuman figures rise suddenly before him; and the slightest shade of superstition would be sufficient to blind the eyes of a believer to the reality of such a form, if in the glimmering of the moon one were to be seen perched upon the brow of a precipice, with an arm raised above the head, incapable of motion, and the nails hanging in long strings from the back of the clenched hand. If the sight of such an apparition could give rise to fear, the deep sepulchral voice with which the words 'Ram! Ram!' fell upon the stillness of the night, and resounded from the rocks around, would indeed complete the scene of terror! "At Gungoutri there are several sheds erected for the shelter of pilgrims; and as the evening was far advanced, and a storm brewing, I went into one of them. It was a long narrow building, and the further end was so wrapped in darkness, that I had been some moments in it before I perceived any thing. I was attracted by a sullen murmur, and went to the spot whence it proceeded. A miserable wretch had just blown a few sticks into a flame; and as the light burst upon his coun tenance, I unconsciously receded, and had to summon all my fortitude to return to him again. His eyes started from his head, and his bones were visible through his skin; his teeth chattered, and his whole frame shook with cold: and I never saw hair longer or more twisted than his was. I spoke to him, but in vain: he did not even deign to look at me and made no motion but to blow the embers into a fresh blaze; the fitful glare of which, falling on his skeleton form, made me almost think that I had descended to the tomb. I found that he had come for the purpose of ending his life by starvation at Gungoutri. Many faquirs have attempted this death, and have lingered on the banks of the river for several days without food. The Brahmin, however, assures me that nobody can die in so holy a place; and to preserve its character for being unconnected with mortality, the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages take care that they should not, and bear them by force away, and feed them, or at any rate give them the liberty to die elsewhere. "A small temple marks the sacred source of the river; and immediately opposite is the orthodox spot for bathing in and filling the phials, which, when ready, receive the stamp of authenticity from the seal of the Brahmin, who wears it as a ring upon his finger: it bears the following inscription engraved upon it-The water of the Bhagirathi, Gungoutri.'-Without such mark the water would not be deemed holy by the purchasers in the plains. “The situation of Gungoutri is sufficiently provoking. The river rather widens above it, and nothing can be traced by the eye that will justify a conjecture of its distance from the source. There is no road beyond; and, with all the effort possible, I question whether a traveller could penetrate much more than a mile further. The river about a quarter of a mile beyond Gungoutri winds to the east, towards the high mountain of the Rudru Himmaleh, in which it is believed to have its source. One peak of this mountain is visible from here; that which contains the fountain of the Ganges. The Hindoos suppose that from each peak of the Rudru a river flows, and consider it (for it has several peaks) the birth-place of the most esteemed ones in the Himmalaya." Captain Skinner's narrative of the incidents and objects met with in his return from these sublime and ridiculous spectacles is sufficiently interesting, but we have not space to extract more. Upon the whole, we recommend the work as a very amusing one; it is written in a matter-of-fact style, without affectation or pedantry. [From "The Penny Magazine, No. 26."] [The "Penny Magazine "is one of the valuable publications of the Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge, in England. It is an entertaining work, intended for popular circulation, and excellently adapted to its purpose. Five numbers, including what is called a Supplementary Number, are published every month. Each number consists of eight long quarto pages, with various wood cuts, well engraved. Many of the articles are written with more good taste and good sense, than the generality of those in British magazines of greater pretension. The yearly price is six shillings, sterling. It might well be imported for circulation in this country. EDD.] ART. III. - Letters on Natural Magic, addressed to Sir Walter Scott, Bart. By SIR DAVID BREWSTER. Murray's Family Library. London, 1832.* Price 5s. NATURAL MAGIC is the name given to those combinations of natural agencies, which, by the illusion or surprise which they produce, seem to us to possess supernatural power. Nor is the name an inappropriate one, though somewhat strange in sound. Magic, in the ordinary sense of the word, that is, supernatural power in human hands, exists only in the imagination; it is not a thing which has ever really been; it is a mere fancy, the offspring of ignorance and superstition, and nothing more. But if we can actually produce, by natural means, the same effects which the believers in magic say are to be achieved by the aid of spirits or other supernatural agents, we have a right to give the name of magic also to the art by which we do this, adding the epithet natural, to intimate that it is only the products of the magician's trickery which are imitated, and not his pretended mode of operation. If the impostor who professes to raise a spectre by a charm or incantation, calls the deception a piece of magic, the philosopher who does the same thing by an ingenious arrangement of mirrors, is still entitled to give it the same name. On this subject Sir David Brewster has here produced a learned, instructive, and amusing work. The only regret or disappoint*ment that the reader feels is on account of the parts of the subject which are only alluded to or slightly touched upon. The examples of the wonders of science given in the present volume are only a selection from a much more abundant store of materials of the same kind. It is a selection, however, very judiciously made, and so as, if not to exhaust the subject, yet to present a view, more or less full, of each of its principal departments. First we have the illusions which affect us through the eye very largely treated of. The appearance of spectres to a brain or nervous system in a diseased or extraordinarily excited state, the case of persons who are insensible to particular colors, - the tricks of the necromancers with concave mirrors, the magic lantern and phantasmagoria, the spectre of the Brocken, and the Fata Morgana, are included, among many other things, under this head. The illusions depending on the ear, including the modern exhibition of the invisible girl, ventriloquism, the effects produced by the voice on glasses, the phenomena of echoes, &c. are considered in several of the following chapters. Then come two highly interesting chapters on mechanical feats and contrivances, such as remarkable exertions of strength, the automata of the ancients, Degennes's mechan [Republished by Messrs. J. & J. Harper, New York.] ical peacock, Vaucanson's duck, which ate and digested its food, Baron Kempelen's famous automaton chess-player, Duncan's tambouring machine, Babbage's calculating engine, &c. Lastly, the volume closes with a rapid survey of several of the most remarkable wonders of Chemistry. The art of breathing fire, that of walking upon red-hot iron, Aldini's incombustible dresses, the spontaneous combustion of human beings, the effects of the nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, and the very curious subject of certain elastic gases which the author himself has discovered in the cavities of gems, are some of the topics among which the reader is led on through this department. What we have stated is enough to show what a fund both of amusement and of philosophy the book is. It is an excellent work for a mechanic's or village library. The following is, we think, the most extraordinary of all the author's statements. The work, it is to be recollected, is addressed in the form of letters to Sir Walter Scott: * 'One of the most remarkable and inexplicable experiments relative to the strength of the human frame, which you have yourself seen and admired, is that in which a heavy man is raised with the greatest facility, when he is lifted up the instant that his own lungs and those of the persons who raise him are inflated with air. This experiment was, I believe, first shown in England a few years ago by Major H., who saw it performed in a large party at Venice under the direction of an officer of the American navy. As Major H. performed it more than once in my presence, I shall describe as nearly as possible the method which he prescribed. The heaviest person in the party lies down upon two chairs, his legs being supported by the one and his back by the other. Four persons, one at each leg, and one at each shoulder, then try to raise him, and they find his dead weight to be very great, from the difficulty they experience in supporting him. When he is replaced in the chair, each of the four persons takes hold of the body as before, and the person to be lifted gives two signals by clapping his hands. At the first signal he himself and the four lifters begin to draw a long and full breath, and when the inhalation is completed, or the lungs filled, the second signal is given, for raising the person from the chair. To his own surprise and that of his bearers, he rises with the greatest facility, as if he were no heavier than a feather. On several occasions I have observed that when one of the bearers performs his part ill, by making the inhalation out of time, the part of the body which he tries to raise is left as it were behind. As you have repeatedly seen this experiment, and have performed the part both of the load and of the bearer, you can testify how remarkable the effects appear to all parties, and how complete is the conviction, either that the load has been lightened, or the bearer strengthened by the prescribed process. At Venice the experiment was performed in a much more imposing manner. The heaviest man in the party was raised and sustained upon the points of the fore-fingers of six persons. Major H. declared that the experiment would not succeed if the person lifted were placed upon a board, and the strength of the individuals applied to the board. He con * [We recollect seeing the experiment successfully performed in our country about ten or twelve years since.] |