behaviour of the brokers. The brokers seat themselves, and prepare the bill of sale as the last act of the ceremony. All that has passed is pure acting, and considered indispensable to the etiquette of the sellers of Cashmere shawls; for if the Indian merchant has not been sufficiently pinched, and pulled, and pushed from side to side, and his head and arms bruised with the ardour of the sale, he will fancy he has parted with his goods too readily, and repent of the sale before the next July fair brings him to Nijnii again. The whole affair rested on this important difference: the Indian merchant asked 230,000 rubles for his bale, and the buyer gave him but 180,000 of which the brokers receive two rubles out of every hundred,

The whole company-buyer, seller, witnesses, and brokers then seated themselves cross-legged on a carpet with deep fringes. We were handed ice, served in vases of China porcelain. Instead of spoons, we had little spatulas of mother-of-pearl, whose silver handles were ornamented with a ruby or an emerald, or some other precious stone. When these refreshments were taken, the shawls were delivered. All the marks and descriptions were found perfectly right, the goods being precisely as the brokers had declared. The time of payment caused another contest; and when that was adjusted, all the parties concerned were expected to say a private prayer. I did as the others did; but I fear I was more employed in reflecting on the variety of religions that had met together on the business. There was the Indian adorer of Brama and other idols; two Tatars, who submitted their destinies to the regulation of Mohammed; two Parsees, worshippers of fire; a Calmuck officer, who, I verily believe, had a reverential regard for the Grand Lama; and three Christians, of different communions-an Armenian, a Georgian, and, meaning myself, a Lutheran. One of the company told me he had prayed that the ladies of Europe might abate their extravagant desire of possessing Cashmere shawls. As he was, like me, only one of the witnesses, I may venture

to conclude, that he did not draw any profit from this article of luxury, or he would never have put up so perverse a prayer at the grand fair of Nijnii-Novgorod.

INSECTS IN THE STOMACH.

IN the country parts of Scotland, we often hear stories related of people swallowing, by accident or unwittingly, small reptiles or insects, which live and breed in the stomach, and put the unhappy person who has received them to great pain. There is reason to believe that these stories are in general fabrications, or that they are greatly exaggerated. It is found that, except in rare cases, no animal can live in the stomach, from its heat, and from the juices which prevail in it. Worms of a certain description, however, can exist with perfect security in the stomach and intestines. We are informed that 1200 species of these intestinal worms have been discovered, and that sixteen of these have been found in the human body. Some of these worms are thin, flat, like pieces of tape; and others are round, or consist of a sort of elongated cartilage in joints. That insects were, in some rare cases,' says the author of Insect Transformations, 'introduced into the human stomach, has been more than once proved; though the greater number of the accounts of such facts in medical books are too inaccurate to be trusted. But one extraordinary case has been completely authenticated, both by medical men and competent naturalists, and is published in the Dublin Transactions, by Dr Pickells of Cork. Mary Riordan, aged twenty-eight years, had been much affected by the death of her mother, and at one of her many visits to the grave, seems to have partially lost her senses, having been found lying there on the morning of a winter day, and having been exposed to heavy rain during the night. When she was about fifteen, two popular Catholic priests

had died, and she was told by some old women that if she would drink daily, for a certain time, a quantity of water mixed with clay taken from their graves, she would be for ever secure from disease and sin. Following this absurd and disgusting prescription, she took from time to time large quantities of the draught. Some time afterwards, being affected with a burning pain in the stomach, she began to eat large pieces of chalk, which she sometimes also mixed with water, and drank. Now, whether in any or in all of these draughts she swallowed the eggs of insects, cannot be affirmed; but for several years she continued to throw up incredible numbers of grubs and maggots, chiefly of the church-yard beetle." "Of the larvæ of the beetle," says Dr Pickells, "I am sure I considerably underrate, when I say that not less than 700 have been thrown up from the stomach at different times since the commencement of my attendance. A great proportion were destroyed by herself, to avoid publicity; many, too, escaped immediately by running into holes in the floor. Upwards of ninety were submitted to Dr Thomson's examination, nearly all of which, including two of the specimens of the weal-worın, I saw myself thrown up at different times. The average size was about an inch and a half in length, and four lines and a half in girth. The larvæ of the bipterous insect, though voided only about seven or eight times, according to her account, came up almost literally in myriads. They were alive and moving." Altogether, Dr Pickells saw nearly 2000 grubs of the beetle, and there were many which he did not see. Mr Clear, an intelligent entomologist of Cork, kept some of them alive for more than twelve months. Mr S. Cooper cannot understand whence the continued supply of the grubs was provided, seeing that larvæ do not propagate, and that only one proper and one perfect insect were voided; but the simple fact, that most beetles live several years in the state of larvæ, sufficiently accounts for this. Their existing and thriving in the stomach, too, will appear less wonderful from the fact, that it is exceedingly

difficult to kill this insect; for Mr Henry Baker repeatedly plunged one into spirits of wine, so fatal to most insects, but it revived, even after being immersed a whole night, and afterwards lived three years. That there was no deception on the part of the woman, is proved by the fact, that she was always anxious to conceal the circumstance, and that it was only by accident that the medical gentlemen, Drs Pickells, Herrick, and Thomson, discovered it. Moreover, it does not appear that, though poor, she ever took advantage of it to extort money. It is interesting to learn that, by means of turpentine in large doses, she was at length cured.'

A QUEER OLD JUDGE.

On the appointment of new sheriffs for the city of London, it was, and, we believe, is still customary for them to be harangued on the duties of their office by one of the judges or barons of the high courts of the land. On one of these occasions, in the year 1659, the following speech was delivered. The speaker was an inferior or puisné baron of Exchequer, by name Baron Tomlinson, and a merry, truth-telling old soul he must have been-a good deal, we suspect, like the Scotch judge, the late Lord Hermand. Two citizens, named Warner and Love, were the newly appointed sheriffs whom Baron Tomlinson addressed.

'How do you, Mr Warner? Save you, Mr Love. Gentlemen citizens, I observe in you three things: first, that ye are well clad; from whence I note, that ye are no slovens. Truly I wish I were a sheriff, so it were not chargeable, and that I might always be in the office; for certainly a sheriff can never be a-cold, his gown is so warm; and, on my word, yours seem to be excellent good scarlet. Some men may ask, why do you wear red gowns, and not blue or green? As for blue, it is a colour which signifies constancy; now constancy cannot be

attributed to sheriffs; for a sheriff is a sheriff this year, and none the next. As for green, it is Mohammed's colour, and so too heathenish for a Christian. I confess fuille morte, which signifies decay, had been the most proper colour for a sheriff, because he puts off his gown with the fall of the leaf; and, secondly, because it may decay his estate, if he be too expensive in his office. But next to that, red is the most convenient colour; for indeed most handsome and delectable things are red-as roses, pomegranates, the lips, the tongue, &c.; so that, indeed, our ancestors did wisely to clothe magistrates with this decent and becoming colour. It is true I have a gown too, but they make me wear the worst of any baron of the Exchequer; it is plain cloth, as you see, without any lining; yet my comfort is, I am still a baron, and I hope I shall be so as long as I live: when I am dead, I care not who is baron, or whether there be a baron or no. The next thing I observe is, that ye look plump and ruddy; from whence I give a shrewd guess, that ye feed well; and truly if you do so, then you do well, which is my third and last observation concerning ye. But do you know wherefore you come hither? I do not question but you do; however, you must give me leave to tell ye; for in this place I am a better man than either of you both, or indeed both of you put together. Why, then, I will tell ye ye come hither to take your oaths before me. Gentlemen, I am the puisné baron of the Exchequer : that is to say, the meanest baron; for, though I am not guilty of interpreting many hard words, yet this hath been so continually beaten into my head, that I do very well understand it however, I could brook my meanness well enough for some men tell me that I deserve no betterwere it not the cause of my life's greatest misery; for here I am constrained, or else I must lose my employment, to make speeches in my old age, and, when I have one foot in the grave, to stand here with the other talking in public. Truly, gentlemen, it is a sad thing; you see what a forced put I am put to. May I soon be out of this sinful world; for when my bones are at rest, my tongue