Manners, Traditions, and Superstitions of the Shetlanders. [Concluded.]

The oats in general use here are the old Scotch or grey-bearded kind, which is pleasant enough to the taste, but darkcolored, and from the very imperfect way of dressing it, the meal is never entirely freed from the chaff and dust. Every family has a small oblong kiln built in their barn, called a cinny, which will dry about a half barrel of oats at a time. This kiln, instead of an iron-plate floor, is furnished with ribs of wood; and these are covered with layers of oat-straw, called gloy, upon which the grain is laid. In an opening about a foot square in the end of the kiln, like an oven or boiler, a gentle fire is kept up till the grain is sufficiently dried. It is then taken off the ribs, put into a straw basket made for the purpose, called a skeb, and while warm, well rubbed under the feet, an operation which is intended to separate the beard and dust from the grain. It is next winnowed between two doors, or in the open air, if there be a slight current, put into another straw basket called a buddy, and carried to the mill to be ground. When brought home from the mill, two sieves are made use of, a coarse and a finer, to separate the seeds from the meal; and it is twice sifted carefully before it is fit to be eaten. The larger seeds taken out with the coarse sieve in the first sifting are given to the cows; and the finer seeds taken out with the smaller sieve are reserved for sowens, a sort of pottage made from the sediment of the meal that rests at the bottom of the vessel in which the seeds are steeped or soaked in water. This is or was a kind of national food in Scotland, when foreign luxuries were not introduced in such abundance; and it is still prescribed to invalids, from its lightness of digestion. Sometimes corn is dried very hard in a pot; the meal prepared from this is called burstane, and is generally ground in the quern or handmill, a simple, primitive instrument, but now rarely found except in Shetland and the museums of antiquarian societies. It consists of two hard flat stones, hewn into a circular shape, the one laid above the other, and perforated with a large hole in the centre, through which the grain slowly filters, and is ground by the rapid motion of the upper stone, into which a wooden peg, sometimes a long shaft, is fixed and turned by the hand..

Our houses and cottages, it must be confessed, are poor and mean, without the neatness and accommodation to be found in the dwellings of the same class in the other districts of the kingdom. In general they are mere huts. The landfords show an aversion to building farmsteading, or if they had erected them once, tenant after tenant must be content to occupy them as they are, and when they become ruinous, he must either repair or build anew for himself.

Dr. Maculloch, when he visited the Western Isles, declared that he often could not distinguish the cottages in the remoter Hebrides from heaps of rubbish. Cottages in Shetland are not much in advance of those in the Hebrides, and have something of the Irish economy about them, contrived, like Goldsmith's chest of drawers, "a double debt to pay," by harboring the quadrupeds as well as the bipeds of the family. They are in general of a rude comfortless description, being usually built of stone and turf, or with dry mortar. The rafters, joists, couples, &c., are nearly in their natural state, being chopped and moulded to fit by a hatchet. The luxuries of slating and ceiling are unknown. Over the bare rafters is laid a covering of pones or divots (sods), and sometimes flaws; and above these a coating of straw, which is secured by ropes of the same material. or of heather, called simnins. The floor is the hardened earth, without carpets, boards, or any other artificial manufacture; and if the weather be wet, which it frequently is, the access is somewhat difficult, especially to those who have any regard for keeping their feet dry and clean. This becomes a difficult matter even in the interior, from the moistened compounds that strew the floor. The dunghill occupies a place as near the door as possible, and before the door of the mansion can be reached, a passage must be made through the byre (cow-house), and perhaps other impediments unnecessary to specify. The furniture is homely, and contains nothing superfluous. It is generally so arranged as to supply the want of partitions, or divisions into rooms, the only apartments being a but and a ben, that is a kitchen and a parlor. In the kitchen end of the house, in addition to the family, there are generally assembled the household dogs and cats, a calf, a patty swine, and, perhaps, some half-dozen caddy lambs; the term being applied to

winter lambs fed in the house, or to those which have lost their dams, and are reared on cow's milk. When an opening has been left for a window, it is sometimes filled up with a bladder or untanned lamb-skin, stretched on a frame, an invention rather superior to the Irish plan of substituting rags and old hats. The cottages have scarcely yet got into the fashion of wearing chimneys, or even the humbler imitations called lums. Instead of these, the frugal inmates have from two to six holes in the roof, to admit light and allow the smoke to escape; and for the better promoting the latter evacuation, a piece of feal or divot, or two pieces of board joined at right angles, called a skyle, is placed on the weather side of the hole, and performs the office of a can or an old wife on your city chimneys. No doubt the skyle has the disadvantage of being immoveable, and to shift and shut it might appear a task or open of some difficulty. But here necessity, it may be indolence, sharpens invention; for instead of mounting on the roof every time the wind changes, some have a long pole reaching down inside, by which this operation is performed; and the order for having this performed is, "Skyle the lum."

Fishing and farming continue to be joint occupations, to the great detriment of the latter; but in other respects, improvement has taken place, chiefly through the liberal and enterprising spirit of some of our principal landowners. Farm-cottages are now building on a better plan, and the spirit of emulation is beginning to be excited. Among the landed proprietors who have given encouragement to this spirit, are Sir Arthur Nicholson, Bart; Messrs. Mouat, of Garth; Hay of Lexfirth; Scott, of Melby; Edmondson, of Buness; Bruce of Simlister, whose mansion-house in Whalsey, built of granite, cost 20,000l.; Gifford, of Busta; Ogilvy, of Quarff; Bruce, of Bunavoe, and various others.

An old soldier, Mr. Jerome Johnson, who had been with General Abercromby in Egypt, and at Gibraltar and Minorca, on returning home at the close of the war, set himself to carry into effect the knowledge he had acquired in foreign parts. Commencing with the kail-yard, he gradually converted it into a neat, small garden, bearing shrubs, flowers, currants, onions, carrots, tobacco, &c.; and, as he owned a few acres of land, he became a

zealous agriculturist, and had the honor of being the first that introduced the culture of the field turnip into Fetlar.

The Moon not Inhabited.

Human curiosity has often raised the question, Is the moon inhabited? Do intelligent beings such as we, dwell there, and look out from their lunar homes on surrounding worlds and admire the Creator's works? But hitherto no voice has responded to the question, and till lately no telescopic-eye has been farreaching enough to penetrate the moonlit regions, and discover the habitations of beings either sinful or holy. But it would seem that Lord Rosse's monster telescope has the power to descry its condition and solitudes. Dr. Scoresby, in a late astronomical lecture says:

With respect to the moon, every object on its surface of the height of one hundred feet was distinctly to be seen; and no doubt, that under very favorable circumstances it would be so with objects sixty feet in height. On its surface were craters of extinct volcanoes, rocks, and masses of stones almost innumerable. He had no doubt whatever that if such a building as he was then in were upon the surface of the moon, it would be rendered distinctly visible by these instruments. but there were no signs of habitations such as ours; no vestiges of architectural remains, to show that the moon is or ever was inhabited by a race of mortals similar to ourselves. It presented no appearan ces which could lead to the supposition that it contained anything like the green fields and lovely verdure of this beautiful world of ours.-There was no water visible-not a sea or a river, or even the measure of a reservoir for supplying town or factory; all seemed desolate. Hence would arise the reflection in the mind of the Christian philosopher-why had this devastation been? It might be further inquired-Was it a lost world? Had it suffered for its transgression? Analogy might suggest the question-Had it met the fate which Scripture told us was reserved for our world? It was obvious that all this was mysterious conjecture.

The proprietors of the pigeon expresses have so worked the markets up and down, that Rothschild has persuaded the railway companies not to transport their return birds.-Lond. Paper.

THE NEW YORK AND BOSTON RAILROAD.

MIDDLETOWN, Sept. 17, 1846. According to promise, I write to give you some idea of the interest the people of Middletown feel in the projected New York and Boston Railroad. The books were opened for subscription in this place, on the 9th instant, and there are now two hundred and eighty-eight thousand dollars subscribed; and there will, in all proba. bility, be a further amount of fifty to seventy thousand dollars more, on the return of some of the influential and wealthy citizens, who are now absent. Should they get three hundred and fifty thousand dollars (and I have no doubt they will), I think the farmers and manufacturers on the route within the State will do as much more-making one-third of the whole amount required by the charter to be subscribed before the Road can be commenced. If so, can they not say with some confidence, Boston and New York will take the balance? Then the public can calculate upon the Road being commenced forthwith; and when the people can begin to see the advantages of this Road, and the immense travel upon it, they will no doubt see that this section of the Road will be quite as profitable as any other. No opposition can in any way rise to affect this section, other than the boats on the Connecticut River.

The general opinion here is, that the Road, when completed, will pay larger dividends than any other railroad company in the Union. Having for its terminus the two great cities-New York and Boston-and, being almost a straight line from city to city, it never can be superceded, and the profits must be great. The public certainly will patronize this route in preference to any other, avoiding the rough weather on the Sound, and shortening the time from city to city about one half, enabling business men to leave either city in the morning, say 6 A. M., be at either terminus in the fast train at 12 M.,-leave again at 4 P. M., arriving at their place of business at 10 P. M.,-giving them four business hours and a good dinner in either city; and passing through on the route, cities, towns and villages, averaging one every five miles-being more in number than there are on the great Railroad from Liverpool to London, which is about the same

length. But I must conclude by only stating, that this Road will probably be the commencement of the great National Road that must be built, and shortly, too, terminating at New Orleans, on equally as straight a line-running through all our principal cities, viz: Boston, New York, Phildelphia, Baltimore and Washington, leaving Mobile but a few miles from the straight line, which all may see by drawing a thread on the map, one end at Boston and the other at New Orleans-enabling all our Southern cities, on the Atlantic, to build branches on the valleys of the rivers (a great advantage in point of expense), nearly all running at right angles with this great National Road, bringing the extremities of our Union within a three day's journey. Think me not extravagant, the time is not far distant when this must take place.-N. Y. Express.

Trees-There are more than a hundred and forty kinds of trees in North America. There are forty-four species of oak, the smallest of which is called chincapin, growing seven or eight feet high. The cork tree is also a species of oak. About 2,000,000 of corks are used annually in France. In the United States there are four principal kinds of oak most commonly known; first, white oak, which grows from seventy to eighty feet in height. This tree is the most valuable of the species, the wood being very hard and durable. Next is live oak, which is one of the most remarkable trees in the world. It is only found in the south. The best of it grows in Louisiana and Florida, never more than twenty-miles from the sea-shore. lasts a long time. The black oak is most common. It grows eighty or ninety feet high, and is perhaps used much more for burning than the rest. The red oak grows nearly eighty feet high. The acorns are very large, and áre a favorite food of pigs. The wood is poor, but is used when no other can be obtained.

It

Among other varieties of oak is the mossy-cup oak. The acorn is nearly as large as a hen's egg. The post oak is sometimes so called because it is often made into posts. The over-cup oak, the running oak, and the pin oak, are other sorts of the same kind of trees.-From a little Girl's School Compositions.

THE PASSION-FLOWER.

Or this singular flower we have already given a descriptiom, with a brief history of the plant, and a notice of its varieties. It forms one of the most favorite creepers, and is peculiarly adapted to the decoration of a trellis or column at the entrance of a house, though it requires protection in winter and care in training. It is, however, deficient in fragrance, and its colors, although various, are delicate rather than bright. The singularity of its flowers, and their delicacy combined with its rarity, have their influence in making it a favorite.

How pitiable is the superstition which regards a flower with veneration, from a supposed connection between it and the only true object of adoration! The Romanists fancy that the pistil of the passionflower represents the cross of Christ, the anthers the nails which fastened his hands and feet, and the petals the rays of divine glory with which their painters are accustomed to surround his head. Those of us who duly appreciate the superior importance of fixing the mind and the feelings on the Scriptures and their doctrines, will endeavor to remove such puerilities from view, and devote the time spent by many, to things more becoming a human soul.

Be kind to Domestic Animals. ONE of the patriots and heroes of the War of Independence, who died suddenly, some years ago, in his barn-yard, said, with his last breath, to his servant near by, "Take care of these creatures." By the same kind direc

re

tion we are bound to study the means of serving the health and administering to the wants of domestic animals, by all those precepts in " Holy Writ," which recommend kindness to them, and protection from outrage and oppression. A portion of the human spirit of those precepts has pervaded all countries, and descended in a particular manner to the nations of the East.

We are also bound to study the diseases of domestic animals, and the remedies that are proper to cure them, by a principle of gratitude. They live only for our benefit. They require in exchange for their labor and all the other advantages we derive from them, nothing from us but food, shelter, and these often of the cheapest and coarsest kind, so that there is constantly due to them an immense balance of debt from us. This motive to take care of their health and lives will appear more striking, when we consider the specific benefits we receive from each of them. The horse is not only an important appendage, but a necessary part of the cement of civilized society. He plows our fields, he draws home our harvests and fruits to our barns and cellars. He conveys them from distant parts of the country, oftentimes over rough and difficult roads, to our sea-ports and market towns. He receives, in exchange for them, the products of foreign climes, and transports them to the interior and remote parts of the country. He administers to our health and to our pleasures under the saddle, and in the harness. In short, he adds to the increase of our commerce, national wealth, and happiness.

To the horned cattle and sheep, we are indebted for many of the blessings and comforts of life. The strength and patience of the ox in the plow and in the team, have added to the wealth of the farmer in every age and country. The cow has still greater demands upon our gratitude. Her milk, in its simple state, furnishes subsistence to a great part of mankind. Its products in cream, butter, and cheese, form the most agreeable parts of the aliment, and even the luxuries of our tables. Her flesh affords us food. Her skin protects our feet and legs from the inclemencies of the weather in the form of boots and shoes. The sheep affords us, by her wool, a great portion of our clothing during every year of our lives, and likewise furnishes us with a wholesome aliment in the form of mutton and lamb. The hog is said, like the miser, to do good only when he dies. But this is so far from being true, that he is dishonored by the comparison. He fattens by the offals of our kitchens, and is also made to perform the office of scavenger in cleaning our streets. At his death he bequeaths us his flesh for food, his hair for brushes, and his fat for culinary purposes, and is useful in the arts. Other benefits are derived from the ass, the goat, the cat, the dog, and other animals.-American Agriculturist.