Monthly Mag.
We remember to have seen in Paris a man in a sort of chaise, grinding an organ, drawn by two ponies, and followed by a boy—begging from house to house. From the faded livery worn by the boy, we set the whole down as a burlesque.
* * * * *
SHADOW CATCHER.
I was present, some years ago, at the trial of a notorious obeah-man, driven on an estate in the parish of St. David, who, by the overwhelming influence he had acquired over the minds of his deluded victims, and the more potent means he had at command to accomplish his ends, had done great injury among the slaves on the property before it was discovered. One of the witnesses, a negro belonging to the same estate, was asked—“Do you know the prisoner to be an obeah-man?”—“Ees, massa, shadow-catcher, true.” “What do you mean by a shadow-catcher?”—“Him ha coffin, (a little coffin produced,) him set for catch dem shadow.” “What shadow do you mean?”—“When him set obeah for summary, (some body,) him catch dem shadow and dem go dead;” and too surely they were soon dead, when he pretended to have caught their shadows, by whatever means it was effected.
Barclay’s Slavery.
* * * * *
THE FUNDS.
John Kemble being present at the sale of the books of Isaac Reed, the commentator on Shakspeare, when “a Treatise on the Public Securities” was knocked down at the humble price of sixpence—the great tragedian observed, “that he had never known the funds so low before.”
* * * * *
TEMPUS EDAX RERUM.
“Time is money,” Robin says,
’Tis true I’ll
prove it clear:
Tom owes ten pounds, for which
he pays
in Limbo half a year.
* * * * *
ON JACK STRAW’S CASTLE, HAMPSTEAD HEATH, BEING REPAIRED.
With best of food—of beer and
wines,
Here may you pass a merry
day;
So shall “mine host,” while
Phoebus shines,
Instead of straw, make good
his hay.
J. R.