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much such as that of a calf might be, if a calf should attempt to go on only its hind trotters. She was several times hailed by the watchmen as she passed through the streets, but they allowed her to proceed; and at last, sorely spent with the fatigue of her long and unsupported tottering, she reached her father's house.

Poo-Poo had already retired to rest. He was angry at · being thus aroused, but his indignation was beyond all bounds when he heard his daughter's story. I will appeal, he said, to Peking in this matter; and we will hang Ho-Fi in his yellow girdle. »

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Ho-Fi, meanwhile, when the first paroxysms of pain had subsided, sent for a barber-surgeon, and had his wrist, which was swollen to the size of the calf of his leg, examined and dressed. Moreover, having no doubt heard of that ancient practice in chirurgery which cured the wound by anointing the weapon, he had the viper dressed also, and revenge furnished an excellent sauce, and greatly improved his supper.

Poo-Poo, according to promise, made his appeal to the Em'peror. As Ho-Fi boasted his relationship to the imperial family, this was the properest course, though the local courts were not forbidden to exercise jurisdiction in similar cases. Commissioners were sent from Peking to investigate the affair.

Ho-Fi, and his wife, their domestics, Poo-Poo, and a few other parties, who were required as witnesses, were summoned before the tribunal. Some of the relatives of the Yellow Girdle's former wives also took care to be present in the court.

The case was fully examined. Minute evidence was entered into to prove that Ho-Fi had in various ways attempted the life of his lady; all the circumstances connected with their marriage were set forth by Poo-Poo; So-Sli gave her evidence with great perspicuity, and her statements respecting the poisoned tea and the fierce Bou-wou, as well as the viper in the bed, were corroborated by the testimony of the servants. Some amateur witnesses made it pretty apparent that Ho-Fi's former wives had all of them been Burked and Greenacred, and the judges and jury were fully satisfied of his

guilt. The defence did not shake their confidence, though it made faults of less magnitude apparent in some other parties. The verdict of the court having been submitted to Peking, the following proclamation was in a few days received from the Emperor, the Son of Heaven, and Father of the Celestial Empire. It was addressed to all his subjects,-that is to say, to his three hundred and sixty millions of children.

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Pekin; the sixth month; the fourteenth day; the fiftyeighth year of the Emperor Ho-Ho.

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Unless the laws be exercised even on the imperial kindred, they will not be obeyed.

"When the mulberry shall degenerate into the thorn, it is true that it should be rooted out.

«Guilt doth not escape the penetrating search of Ho-Ho. Ho-Ho hath long ears.

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Ho-Ho would emulate the virtues of his father, Ha-Ha, and train up by good example his son, He-He.

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"It hath come to the knowledge of Ho-Ho, that a certain Yellow Girdle, named Ho-Fi, residing in the city of Din-Din, not respecting the imperial pleasure, so often proclaimed, that all shall live peaceably together without committing offences against their neighbours; hath contumaciously presumed to put six wives to death by various devices, and hath in like manner attempted the life of a seventh. The modes of their deaths have been these for each he accounted falsely. The first fell from a rock he ascribed it to female giddiness: the second was drowned-he said that she died of drink the third was hanged-he spoke of her tightness of breath the fourth was poisoned-he declared she was not careful in diet: the fifth was starved-he said that she lived too low the sixth was choked with her share he gave out that she could not say herself how she died. By these evasions he for a while deluded justice, but the truth hath become manifest; the chicken hath pipped the shell (1); the cat can no longer conceal the kittens; the parrot hath moulted; let him be ashamed of his tail.

(') Eggs are close things, but chickens will out at last. >> signifying that murder will out.—Davis.

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A Chinese proverb,

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But it is agreeable to the rules of justice that the punishment should bear some reference to the particular nature of the crime. This was the attempted murder of his seventh wife, which he hath essayed by poison, by a dog, and by a viper. It is the will, then, of Ho-Ho, that Ho-Fi be punished in this manner that he be stung to death by adders, and that his heart be filled with poison, and given to the dog Bou-wou. In consideration of his former enormities it is further ordered, that his body be cut into exceeding small pieces, one of which shall he sent to every square mile throughout the empire, and stuck upon a thorn. That his ten nearest relatives be put to death also; but as it is well to temper justice with mercy, they shall be merely strangled. His wife So-Sli shall be strangled likewise. His servants shall submit each to two hundred strokes of the bamboo; Poo-Poo, the father of So-Sli, shall receive five hundred, shall wear the wooden collar for twelve calendar months, a proper reward for his heretical doctrines; the allowance of pay and rice to all Yellow Girdles shall cease for three years; and the principal mandarin of Hum shall be hung up in his house. "

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For hung up in his house, some versions of the proclamation read « suspended in his office. »

The wind-up of this enunciation of the celestial will is too long for insertion here; it exhibits a fine struggle between a proper humility aud conscious wisdom.

The story of Ho-Fi is told. Chinese and poetical justice go hand-in-hand. His name has long been universally execrated throughout the Celestial Empire. The Greeks borrowed it, and among them off was an expression equivalent to 0 thou serpent! » Even among us barbarous inhabitants of the isles of the Western Ocean O Fye! is to this day used to convey a reproach.

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The critics perchance may address it to me, and consider my story as poo-poo nonsense! They may do as they please, but I shall sing

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ENGINEERING WORKS

OF THE ANCIENTS,

N° I.

PASSAGE OF SEAS.-BOSPHORUS-HELLESPONT-GULF OF SALAMÍS.

Darius, () having determined on an expedition against the Scythians, gave orders to throw a bridge over the Thracian Bosphorus, or, as it is now called, the canal of Constantinople. This bridge was placed at Chalcedon, or, as Herodotus conjectures, nearly midway between Byzantium and the temple at the entrance of the Euxine, and was constructed under the direction of Mandrocles, a Samian, who executed it so much to the satisfaction of Darius, that he made him many valuable presents. With the produce of these presents Mandroclos caused a representation to be made of the Bosphorus with the bridge thrown over it, and the king seated on a throne, reviewing his troops as they passed. This he afterwards consecrated in

(') Herodotus-Melpomene.

the temple of Juno, with an inscription paraphrased by Beloe thus

Thus was the fishy Bosphorus inclos'd,
When Samian Mandrocles his bridge impos'd:
Who there, obedient to Darius' will,

Approv'd his country's fame, and private skill.

This is perhaps one of the earliest instances of a votive offering, and of an artistical commemoration of an engineering work.

Xerxes the successor of Darius, in his previously mentioned campaign against the Greeks, also had occasion to pass the same sea, but at another point. (1) While he was preparing to go to Abydos, numbers were employed in throwing a bridge over the Hellespont from Asia to Europe. The coast toward the sea from Abydos, between Sestos and Madytus in the Chersonese of the Hellespont, is described as rough and woody; the distance from Abydos heing seven stades, or nearly a mile. The work however commenced at the side next Abydos. The Phoenicians used a cordage made of linen, the Egyptians the bark of the biblos. The bridge was no sooner completed than a great storm arose which destroyed the whole work ; which when Xerxes heard, he ordered, as is well known, the Hellespont to be flogged, and a pair of fetters to be thrown into it. The engineers got worse off, for they were sentenced by the king to be beheaded. Our historian goes on to say, with some näiveté, that a bridge was then constructed by a different set of engineers-which we should naturally imagine; for it is difficult to conceive how men who were beheaded, could very easily preside at works à la Saint Denis. The mode employed, as far as it can be made out, was to connect together ships of different kinds, some long vessels of fifty oars, others three-banked galleys. These were arranged in a double row, one set transversely, but the other in the direction of the current. When these vessels were firmly connected to

(') Herodotus, Polyhymnia.

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