Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

Sixteen hundred and seventeen years afterwards, curious persons began to dig and excavate on the spot, and lo! they found the city very much as it was when overwhelmed. The houses were standing, the paintings were fresh, and the skeletons 10 stood in the very positions and the very places in which death had overtaken their owners so long ago!

The marks left by the cups of the tipplers still remained on the counters; the prisoners still wore their fetters, the 'belles their chains and bracelets; the miser held his hand on his

[graphic]

CASTS OF BODIES DISCOVERED IN THE RUINS OF POMPEII.
(In the Museum at Naples.)

hoarded coin; and the priests were lurking in the hollow images of their gods, from which they uttered responses and deceived the worshippers. There were the altars, with the blood dry and crusted upon them; the stables in which the victims of the sacrifice were kept; and the hall of mysteries, in which were 'symbolic paintings.

The researches are still going on, new wonders are every day coming to light, and we soon shall have almost as perfect an idea of a Roman town in the first century of the Christian era as if we had walked the streets and gossiped with the

idle loungers at the fountains. Pompeii is the ghost of an extinct civilization rising up before us.

adula'tions, flat'teries.
antiq'uities, curios'ities.
appetites, desires'.
archives, rec'ords.
belles, la'dies.

bouquets (boo-kas), bunches
catastrophe, calam'ity.
del'icate, choice.
delightful, charm'ing.
discoursed', gave forth.
dun geons, cells.

Illustrated Magazine of Art.

embroi'dered, sewed.
ex'cavate, hollow out.

fash'ionable, much

fre

man'sion, large house. mys'teries, se'cret rites. respons'es, an'swers. saun'tering, stroll'ing. stimulate, excite'. symbol'ic, emblematic. tap'estry, nee'dle-work. tempt'ingly, attractively. ter'rified, fright'ened. tremen'dous, horrible. ves'tibule, en'trance-hall.

fatigues', toils. [quent'ed.
festiv'ities,entertain'ments
frivolities, frol'ics.
gar lands, wreaths.
gos siped, tat'tled.
grate ful, pleasant.
imprecations, curs'es.
lux'uries, indulgences.

1 Fres'coes, paintings made upon the | walls themselves. In fresco-painting, the colours are laid upon the lime while it is still soft and wet.

'Belgra'via, the south-western district of London, built between 1826 and 1852, on land belonging to the Marquis of Westminster, one of whose titles is Viscount Belgrave; hence the name. Being full of splendid mansions, it is taken as the type of fashionable London.

A'trium, the principal public apartment, or reception-room, in a Roman house. There was an opening in the centre of the roof, towards which the other roofs sloped so as to throw down the rain into an open cistern in the middle of the floor, called the impluvium (Lat. pluvia, rain).

* Tabli'num, a recess or room at the farther end of the atrium, of which it formed a part.

" Paved with mosaic.—Originally, Roman floors were beaten down with rammers; hence pavement (from Lat. pavio, I beat). Sometimes pieces of marble were embedded in it; and this probably suggested the idea of mosaics, which are devices formed by in-laying a neutral ground with stones of different shapes and colours.

Per'istyle, an open court, larger than

the atrium, in the back part of the house. It was surrounded by columns, with garden in the centre. From the columns it received its name,-peristyle being a Greek word meaning a range of columns around a building.

7 Arabesque, a style of decoration in which the Arabians excelled, in which fruit, flowers, and other devices were interwoven with carved lines.

8 Libation on the altar of Bac'chus, wine poured out in honour of the god of wine.

Sco'riæ, the slaggy, vitreous lava sent forth by volcanoes. Pu'mice is a light porous substance, like stony froth, found in all volcanic regions. It is used for polishing ivory, marble, glass, and metals.

10 Skeletons. In 1865, while the excavations were proceeding under the direction of Signor Fiorelli, the workmen discovered peculiar cavities, at the bottom of which bones were discernible. These cavities were filled with liquid plaster, and when this had hardened, and the outer crust of pumice was removed, the casts of several human bodies were displayed. These, with many other relics of the buried city, are to be seen in the National Museum at Naples.

QUESTIONS.-In what relation did Pompeii stand to Rome? How were its inhabitants chiefly occupied? What was the atrium in a Pompeian house? Describe the tablinum. What was the peristyle? How was it decorated? Describe a Pompeian dinner party. When did the eruption which buried the city take place? How were the inhabitants occupied at the time? When did the work of excavation begin? In what condition was the city found?

THE SOUTH-WEST MONSOON IN CEYLON.

MAY is signalized by the great event of the change of the monsoon,1 and all the grand 'phenomena which accompany its approach. It is difficult for one who has not resided in the tropics to comprehend the feeling of enjoyment which accompanies these periodical commotions of the atmosphere. In Europe they would be fraught with annoyance, but in Ceylon' they are welcomed with a relish proportionate to the monotony they dispel.

Long before the wished-for period arrives, the verdure produced by the previous rains becomes almost 'obliterated by the burning droughts of March and April. The deciduous trees? shed their foliage, the plants cease to put forth fresh leaves, and all vegetable life languishes under the unwholesome heat. The grass withers on the baked and cloven earth, and red dust settles on the branches and thirsty brushwood.

The insects, deprived of their accustomed food, disappear under ground, or hide beneath the decaying bark; the water-beetles bury themselves in the hardened mud of the pools; and the snails retire into the crevices of the rocks or the hollows among the roots of the trees. Butterflies are no longer seen hovering over the flowers; the birds appear fewer and less joyous; and the wild animals and crocodiles, driven by the drought from their accustomed retreats, wander through the jungle, or even venture to approach the village wells in search of water. Man equally languishes under the general 'exhaustion, ordinary exertion becomes distasteful, and the Singalese, although inured to the climate, move with lassitude and reluctance.

3

Meanwhile the air becomes loaded to 'saturation with aqueous vapour, drawn up by the augmented force of evaporation acting vigorously over land and sea: the sky, instead of its brilliant blue, assumes the sullen tint of lead; and not a breath disturbs the motionless rest of the clouds that hang on the lower range of the hills. At length, generally about the middle of the month, but frequently earlier, the sultry suspense is broken by the arrival of the wished-for change. The sun has by this time nearly attained his greatest northern declination, and created a torrid heat throughout the lands of Southern Asia and the peninsula of India.

4

The air, lightened by its high temperature and such watery vapour as it may contain, rises into loftier regions, and is re

placed by in-draughts from the neighbouring sea; and thus a tendency is gradually given to the formation of a current bringing up from the south the warm humid air of the equator. The wind, therefore, which reaches Ceylon comes laden with 'moisture, taken up in its passage across the great Indian Ocean. As the monsoon draws near, the days become more overcast and hot, banks of clouds rise over the ocean to the west, and in the twilight the eye is attracted by the peculiar whiteness of the sea-birds that sweep along the strand to seize the objects flung on shore by the rising surf.

At last the sudden lightnings flash among the hills and sheet among the clouds that overhang the sea, and with a crash of thunder the monsoon bursts over the thirsty land, not in showers or partial torrents, but in a wide deluge, that in the course of a few hours overtops the river banks and spreads in 'inundations over every level plain. The rain at these periods excites the astonishment of a European. It descends in almost continuous streams, so close and dense that the level ground, unable to absorb it sufficiently fast, is covered with one uniform sheet of water; and down the sides of 'declivities it rushes in a volume that wears channels in the surface. For hours together, the noise of the torrent, as it beats upon the trees and bursts upon the roofs, flowing thence in rivulets along the ground, occasions an uproar that drowns the ordinary voice, and renders sleep impossible.

This violence, however, seldom lasts more than an hour or two, and gradually abates after 'intermittent 'paroxysms, and a serenely clear sky supervenes. For some days heavy showers continue to fall at intervals in the forenoon; and the evenings which follow are embellished by sunsets of the most gorgeous splendour, lighting the fragments of clouds that survive the

recent storm.

The extreme heat of the previous month becomes modified in June; the winds continue steadily to blow from the southwest, and frequent showers, accompanied by lightning and thunder, serve still further to diffuse coolness throughout the atmosphere and verdure over the earth. So instantaneous is the response of nature to the influence of returning moisture, that in a single day, and almost between sunset and dawn, the green hue of reviving vegetation begins to tint the saturated ground.

In ponds from which, but a week before, the wind blew clouds of sandy dust, the peasantry may now be seen catching the

reänimated fish; and tank-shells and water-beetles revive and wander over the 'submerged sedges. The electricity of the

air stimulates the vegetation of the trees; and scarcely a week elapses before the plants are covered with the larvæ of butterflies, the forest is murmuring with the hum of insects, and the air is harmonious with the voice of birds.

[blocks in formation]

J. EMERSON TENNENT. (6)

phenomena, appearances. saturation, fulness. signalized', distinguished. stim'ulates, excites'. submerged', immersed'. suspense, delay'.

temperature, degree of heat.

vegeta'tion, plant life.

1 The monsoon.-The monsoons are called tropic [Gr. trepo, I turn], or turningperiodical winds which prevail in the Indian Ocean, especially between Africa and Hindustan, blowing half the year in one direction, and the other half in the opposite direction. The north-east monsoon, which carries rain to Africa, blows from November to April. The south-west monsoon, which carries rain to India, blows from May to October, being caused by the higher temperature of the continent of Asia during that season.

2 Deciduous trees, trees which lose their leaves in autumn, as opposed to evergreens.

3 Singalese, natives of Ceylon.

point, because then the sun's path turns southward again. The turning-point is also called the solstice [Lat. sol, sun; sto, I stand], because at that time the sun seems to stand still in its position in the zodiac for several days. This point is 234 degrees north of the equator. The sun reaches it on the 21st of June, which is called the summer solstice, and marks the longest day in the year in the northern hemisphere. Six months later (22nd December) the sun attains its greatest southern declination, forming the winter solstice, and marking the shortest day in the northern hemisphere. The circle of the globe drawn through this point is the Tropic of Capricorn; so called because then the sun enters the constellation Capricornus. At the intervening middle points the sun's path crosses the equator, making the Equinoxes of spring and autumn, when day and night are of the same length all over the globe.

4 Greatest northern declina'tion that point in the sun's apparent path at which it reaches its greatest northern distance from the equator. The circle drawn round the Earth at this point is called the Tropic of Cancer, because the sun then enters the constellation Cancer. It is QUESTIONS.-What is the monsoon? When does its change occur in Ceylon? How are the commotions of the atmosphere which accompany the change regarded? In what state is vegetable nature before it arrives? What effect has the drought upon the animal creation? What are the first indications of the approaching change? Whence does the wind derive its moisture? By what is the arrival of the monsoon accompanied? What is remarkable about the rain? How soon do its effects appear in nature?

AMBITION CLAD IN HUMILITY.

"TIS a common proof
That lowliness is young Ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber upward turns his face;
But, when he once attains the utmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend.
SHAKESPEARE.

« ForrigeFortsett »