His heart was filled with anxiety, and so he passed at a distance from the place, and held fast the beldam that she might not leap off. And he looked before him, and before him flowed the azure Pruth; and beyond the river rose higher and higher hills, green and wooded; and beyond them black mountains, the loftiest of which were covered with snow. He ran straightway to the river, jumped in and sank, hoping to drown the hag along with himself, that so he might save his native place and country from her fatal influence. And he himself was drowned: but the Plague, light as a feather, so that he had not even felt her weight while she was on his back, could not sink, and fled, affrighted at this courageous deed, into the woods on the mountains. And so he saved his village, and his parents, and his wife, and his little children, and all the fair land of the Reusses to which he would not carry the fiendish woman."

The tale of the hill of glass, which the unfortunate suitors were obliged to climb in order to reach the splendid castle on the top, inhabited by a princess, seems to be connected with the old notions of hell punishments. That concerning the overthrower of mountains and render of iron reminds us of the Titans and of the giants of the northern mythology.

One of the most significant of these tales, and, as far as we are aware, quite original, is the following:-A young man is promised that he shall have what he wishes for. He accordingly wishes for a sweetheart and a friend. He soon perceives that they become extremely familiar, care nothing about him, and only love one another. Too late he perceives that he has wished for too much at once, and that he ought to have been contented with either a sweetheart or a friend only.

Not less ingenious is the following christian tale: A merchant is saved from imminent danger of life by the devil, who in return demands something that is in the house of the merchant, without his knowing of it. The merchant agrees to the bargain, and learns too late that this unknown price is an infant son, born during his absence. He becomes very melancholy; the son grows up to be a very pious clergyman, and boldly proceeds to hell to fetch back his father's agreement.

The numerous tales relative to Twardowski, the Polish Faust, are better known. Several of them are real Eulenspiegel feats. A poor devil besought Twardowski to rescue him from poverty by his miraculous art. Twardowski took compassion on him, and gave him the following advice. "Go to some far distant place, and seek an empty hut. At nightfall take from thy pouch nine new pieces of money, and count them without intermission from one to nine, and then backward from nine to one; and keep counting away in this manner till it begins to be light. Only be sure to make no mistake in counting, or thy labour is lost. Spirits thou needest not be afraid of, for I give thee my word that these will do thee no harm. Do all this just as I tell thee, and thou shalt surely be a richer man than thou ever wast."

The poor wight obeyed the conjuror's directions. He found an empty hut, seated himself in it, and fell to counting nine groschen forward and backward without stopping. Day began to break, when the Devil appeared to him in the shape of Twardowski, and asked if he had not made some mistake. The poor gentleman joyfully replied in the negative. "Well then, count away," said the Evil One," for morning

will soon be here." With these words he vanished. The poor fellow would have gone on counting, but he knew not where he had left off. His dream of wealth was of course at an end.

Twardowski used to play his wife, who sold crockery, still more vexatious tricks, driving past unknown, like a person of distinction, breaking all her ware, and enjoying her rage. His end is remarkable. "At length the devil became weary of the almost hourly services that he was obliged to render, and, therefore, he had recourse to a stratagem. He assumed the shape of a servant of the court, and begged Twardowski, as an eminent physician, to hasten to the relief of his master, who was sick unto death. The sorcerer followed the messenger to the neighbouring village, the public house in which is called the City of Rome. No sooner had he crossed the threshold of the public house than a flock of screech-owls and ravens settled upon the roof, and filled the air with their sinister voices. Twardowski was instantly aware of the danger of his situation: trembling, he lifted an infant just baptised from the cradle, and walked with it in his arms up and down the room. Presently, in rushed the Devil in his true shape. Though handsomely dressed-he had on a cocked hat, a German frock coat, a long waistcoat hanging down over his thighs, short tight breeches, and shoes with silver buckles - though he was thus handsomely dressed, every body knew him; for horns peeped out from beneath the hat, long claws from the shoes, and a fine tail hung behind. He was about to drag away the captive Twardowski along with him, when he discovered a serious obstacle. This was no other than the little innocent babe, to which the Devil had no right. After long consideration, he went up to the conjuror, and said: Thou art a true gentleman, and knowest that Verbum nobile debet esse stabile.' Twardowski felt that he could not break his word of honour as a gentleman; he therefore replaced the infant in the cradle, and instantly flew up the chimney with his companion. The congregated owls and ravens raised a harsh peal of joy. Meanwhile the two rose higher and higher, but Twardowski did not lose his presence of mind: he looked down, and the gray earth lay outspread beneath him. At length he attained such a height, that the villages looked like midges, the towns like flies, and Cracow itself no bigger than a couple of spiders.* Deep sorrow seized his heart, for there he was leaving behind all that had been dear to him; and, when he got still higher, where neither kite nor eagle of the Carpathian mountains ever flaps the air with his wings, where his eye could scarcely discern the earth, he made a last effort to raise his voice, and began to sing a religious hymn. It was one of those in honour of the Mother of God, which he had composed and daily sung in his youth, before he was acquainted with any black arts, and while his soul was pure and innocent. Though he sang lustily, his voice was drowned in the air; but herdsmen, who were tending their flocks on the mountains below him, looked up in amaze, for they knew not what cloud had sent down to them the words of the pious hymns. For the voice of the sorcerer did not rise, but descended to the earth to edify the hearts of men. So he sang the hymn from beginning to end, and,

The comparison of the numerous steeples of Cracow with spider's legs is proverbial among the common people.

when he had finished, he perceived to his astonishment that he was no longer borne upward, but that he was fixed in the air as though nailed to the spot. He looked around: his companion was gone. He heard only a loud voice above him, saying: "So shalt thou hang, till the last day, between earth and heaven!" And so he actually does hang to the present hour; and though he has not the power of utterance, though no one can any longer hear his voice, yet, only a few years ago, aged people, when the full moon was shining in all her glory, would point out a minute speck in the heavens, which, they swore, was the body of our necromancer." Twardowski had previously changed a faithful disciple of his into a spider, and this is now in the habit of letting itself down from the air, to learn tidings of the earth, for the purpose of carrying them back to him. May not this be a myth of the floating cobwebs which are known by the name of gossamer?

The collection contains much that is akin to the German tales, and some of very great antiquity, which were current in the East. Among the witch-tales, that of Hare-heart is one of the most original. A cruel knight having taken prisoner an old woman, she contrived, while he was asleep, by conjuration, to take the ferocious heart out of his bosom, and to place a hare's heart there in its stead. The tale of the evil eye is here very prettily told. Stories of found and lost treasures likewise occur; and we also meet with that of the storm raised by witches, which one may still by flinging a knife that hits the witch, and drops to the ground covered with blood.

The custom of the huntsmen in Podlachia of plunging their guns, on Twelfth day, into a holy pond, in consequence of which every shot is sure to hit the mark, reminds us of the many sorceries and consecrations with holy water which Grimm enumerates in his German Mythology.

ITALIAN, FRENCH, AND ENGLISH DICTIONARY. New Pocket Dictionary of the Italian, French, and English Languages. By Stefano Egidio Petronj and John Davenport. 2 vols. Dulau and Co. 1839.

We were much gratified, a short time ago, by seeing announced for publication, a new Pocket Dictionary of the Italian, French, and English Languages, by S. E. Petronj and John Davenport, not only because there existed a real necessity for a superior work of the kind, but because the reputation earned by those gentlemen by their former lexicographical labours might be considered as a guarantee for the assiduity, care, and discrimination, with which the present work would be compiled. The New Pocket Dictionary is now before us, and we are happy to find all our anticipations realized; for, although it might naturally be expected that, in a work so much smaller, some of the excellencies that distinguish the larger one must be sacrificed for want of space, it will, notwithstanding, be seen that all have been retained and incorporated.

This desideratum has been effected: 1. By the suppression of that part of the former dictionary, which, commencing with the French first, was obviously but of little use to English students. 2. By the adoption

of a small but beautifully distinct type; and, 3. By a few judicious curtailments.

This dictionary, consequently, is not like too many books of the same class, a mere bald vocabulary, but a repertory of philological information, which will render the sedulous consulter of it almost independent of a grammar, and enable him to read the works of Dante, Petrarca, and Boccacio, without a glossary. The chief advantages of this work may be ennumerated as follows:

1. The fixing the exact pronunciation of the double sound of the e and o.

2. The pointing out all the senses and persons of the irregular

verbs.

3. The shewing all the doubtful plural terminations.

4. The pointing out a great number of obsolete words, with their substitutes, as used in the language of the present day.

5. The exhibiting, by means of an appendix, the irregular parts of verbs, whose infinitives cannot be discovered on mere inspection; poetical words, and forms of locution; numerous corrections and additions suggested to the Crusca Academy by the celebrated Vincentio Monti.

One word more as far as regards what is technically called the getting up of the work. From the beauty of the type, the excellence of the paper, and the tastefulness of the binding, it must be inferred that the publishers are of opinion that not only truth, but likewise instruction, may be best conveyed in an agreeable form, and that they are determined by every means in their power to do justice to the beautiful language, immortalized by Dante, Petrarca, and Boccacio.

1

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

FRANCE.

Bankruptcies, especially of booksellers and printers, have recently become so frequent in Paris, that upwards of eight hundred compositors and pressmen are thrown out of employment.

Pierre Lavaux, who is admitted to be the profoundest philosopher and the most speculative genius in France, was originally a printer, and, after working several years at his trade in the country, returned to Paris, his birth-place, obtained employment in the printing-office of the " Globe," raised himself, by means of several clever papers, to be one of the contributors, and, in 1830, chief editor of that journal; and he is now editor of the "Encyclopédie nouvelle," an undertaking to which the most eminent literati of the capital lend their assistance.

M. Didron, secretary to the historical committee for arts and monuments, has set out for Greece, with a view to the study of the Greek christian religion, in its architecture, sculpture, painting, and church ceremonies. He intends to visit the diocese, of which Mistr (Sparta) is the capital, the archbishopric of Athens, the apocalyptic churches of Smyrna, Ephesus, Miletus, and the convent of Mount Athos. Two draughtsmen accompany him. Government contributes to the expence of his travels.

The first volumes of M. Capefigue's promised work, "L'Europe sous le consulat et l'empire de Napoleon," will be published about the end of October.

VOL. I.—NO. V.-SEPTEMBER, 1839.

N X

M. de Salvandy has in the press an octavo volume, entitled "Napoleon." A translation of Nicholas Nickleby is preparing by M. Eugène de la Bedol. lière, in two 8vo volumes.

M. Andryane, author of Memoirs of a Prisoner of State, is about to publish "Souvenirs de Genève."

Messrs. Didot have been for three years engaged in the preparation of au English and French Dictionary, compiled from the Dictionary of the Academy, in two volumes, 4to., by Messrs. Flemming and Tibbins. It was their intention to have published the two volumes together, but circumstances have induced them to determine on bringing out the work in weekly numbers.

One of the most interesting of the works published under the auspices of the Geographical Society of Paris, is that just sent forth to the world by M. D'Avezac, being the first complete edition of the " Relation des Mongols ou Tartares," by Friar Giovan del piano di Carpine, of the order of FriarsMinorites, Legate of the Holy See and Nuncio in Tartary, during 1245-6-7, and ultimately Archbishop of Antivari. This edition has been compiled from the MSS. of Leyden, Paris, and London, and is preceded by a notice of ancient voyages in Tartary in general, and of that of the author in particular. The learned editor has shown his usual skill and depth of research in this publication, and he has done good service to the history of geography in giving us this interesting relic of the most extensive traveller of the thirteenth century.

M. Dusommérard's splendid work," Les Antiquités du Moyen Age," is at its 15th and 16th livraisons. The accompanying album is also far advanced. The text is as interesting as in any of the former numbers, and the plates are highly valuable to all antiquarians and lovers of the art of former days. This gentleman is reprinting, in the course of this work, the highly curious engravings of the ancient Chateaux of France, by Israel Sylvestre, originally published about 1660.

There is a very indifferent book on the state of ancient Paris now coming out in numbers, the illustrations of which are clumsily and coarsely lithographed, after the very valuable plates in the topographical collections of the Bibliothèque du Roy. An English gentleman, now resident in Paris, and a member of the "Comité Historique des Arts et Monuments," is occupied on a work on the Medieval Antiquities of Paris and the environs, something in the style of Pugins' Normandy, and is far advanced in the necessary drawings, plans, &c.

M. de Larochefoucauld's " Pélérinage à Goritz" is a very interesting work, and gives many highly curious anecdotes of the illustrious family, rendered still more illustrious by their misfortunes, which they bear so nobly, now residing there. It would appear, from a conversation with the Duke d'Angoulème, that the nomination of the Polignac administration was anything but consonant to the better judgment both of his royal father and himself.

The Princess de Salm has published a third edition of her Pensées," a work of no small interest for the enlightened piety and good sense that pervade every page.

A third edition of a curious book, entitled "Physiologie et Hygiène des Hommes livrés aux travaux de l'esprit," by Dr. Réveillé-Parise, Member of the Academie de Medecine, has just been put forth. It treats of all the habits, maladies, and regime of literary men, artists, lawyers, and all who lead a sedentary life with mental occupation.

The "Revolutions des peuples de l'Asie Centrale," by M. Jardot, is highly spoken of. The author comprises in it an able summary of all the researches hitherto made into the flux and reflux of the Barbaric tribes that were the progenitors of our modern European nations. In so doing he has availed himself of the most recent discoveries, and has profited by the learned inquiries of Humboldt, the missionaries to China, Sir William Jones, &c.

M. Xavier Marmier, one of the savans who went to the north of Sweden and Norway with M. Gaimard, on his late expedition (a very paltry affair, by