MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 725, 14 July 1852, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Laconic Pleas for Robbery.— May Heaven preserve us from all such tranquillity, and such peaceful sentiments, as the Dzhigethiana display towards ihe Russians ! Of many exam-. ples adapted to render the slate of things conceivable, here is one : — Some days ago, at the bazaar, which lies ouiside the fort, but close by the military colony, several shois were heard about midnight. A small number of Dzhigethians had broken into the house of a merchant^ to plunder, but having met with an -unexpected

resistance on the part of the proprietor, bad taken themselves off again with all haste, so a's not to fall into the hands' of the soldiers, who hastened up at the noise. At day-break the merchant was not a little surprised at finding befoie his door the corpse of a man very well known^ to him ; but his astonishment was still more increased, when, a short time after, the brother of the dead man came riding up, in order to fetch the body away, and bury it according to the custom of his village. His brother, he added excusingly, had only joined the robbers in order to get°a piece of cloth which he wanted for a new coat. "But if he had come to me and begged me for it, I would willingly have given him the piece of cloth, without shooting him dead !" replied the merchant. " Yes, but that Js now too late," rejoined the other, " so now give- me the stuff instead ; I, too, want a new coat ; and give me a pall as well, in which I may bury my s brother." — Bodenstedfs Thousand and One Days in the Morning Land.

Presence of Mind. — Presence of mind is occasionally shown in quick conception of some device or expedient, such as we usually suppose to be an emanation of superior intellect. This has been frequently exemplified in rencontres with the insane. A lady was one evening sitting in her drawing-room alone, when the other inmate of the house, a brother, who, for a time, had been betraying a tendency to unsoundJless of mind, came up to her and said, " Margaret; an odd idea has occurred to me. I wish to paint the head of John the Baptist, and I think yours might make an excellent study for it; -so, if you please, I will cut off your bead." The lady looked at her brother's eye, and seeing In it no token of jest, concluded that he meant to do as he said. There was an open window and a balcony by her side, with a street in front ; but a moment satisfied her that safety' did not lie that way.- So, putting on a smiling countenance, she said, with the greatest apparent cordiality," That is a strange idea, George; but would it not be a pity -to spoil this pretty lace tippet I have got ? 11l just step to my room to put it off, and be with you in half-a-rninute." Without' waiting to give him time to consider, she stepped lightly across hej floor, and passed. In another moment she was safe in her own room, whence she easily gave the alarm, and the madman was "secured. — South American Advocate.

The Michaelmas Goose. — Why it is that here in England — "— by custom (right divine) Geese are ordained to Weed at Michael's shrine." is a mystery still unsolved by English antiquaries. For, even if the story that Queen Elizabeth was eating a goose on Michaelmas-day when she received the news of the defeat of the Spanish Armada rested on unquestionable authority, it would not explain the origin of the custom, since Brand has shown, by a reference to "Blount's Jocular Tenures," that it existed as early as the | tenth year of Edward IV. If we seek an illustration from the practice of our continental neighbours, we shall fail, or only learn that we have ! transferred , to the Feast of St. Michael ! a practice which is observed abroad on that of St. Martin, the 11th of November ; indeed,. St. Martin's bird is a name by which the goose is known among many of the continental nations. In the Runic Calendar the 1 lth of November is marked by a goose. In the old " Bauern Praclica" (cd. 1867), Wintermonat or" November boasts, in one of the Rhymes of the Month — Fat geese unto thexichl sell. And in the curious old Story Eook of Peter Leu, Teprinted by Yon der Hagen in his " Narrenbuch" one of the adventures commences : — s It fell upon St. Martin's Day, When folks are wont goose-feasts to keep. A learned German, however, Fork (" Festkalender," s. 567) sees in our Michaelmas goose the last traces of the goose offered of old to Proserpina, the infernal goddess of death (on which account it is that the figure of tins bird is so frequently seen on monumental remains) ; and also of the offerings (among which the goose figured) j formerly made to Odin at this season, a pagan festival which on the introduction of Christianity was not abolished, but transferred to St. Michael. ■ — Notes and Queries.