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THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.

    NUMBER 4.      SATURDAY, JULY 25, 1840.      VOLUME 1.

[Illustration: CAISLEAN-NA-CIRCE, OR THE HEN'S CASTLE.]


Our prefixed illustration gives a near view of one of the most
interesting ruins now remaining in the romantic region of Connemara, or
the Irish Highlands, and which is no less remarkable for its great
antiquity than for the singularly wild and picturesque character of its
situation, and that of its surrounding scenery. It is the feature that
gives poetic interest to the most beautiful portion of Lough Corrib--its
upper extremity--where a portion of the lake, about three miles in
length, is apparently surrounded and shut in by the rocky and precipitous
mountains of Connemara and the Joyce country, which it reflects upon its
surface, without any object to break their shadows, or excite a feeling
of human interest, but the one little lonely Island-Castle of the Hen.
That an object thus situated--having no accompaniments around but those
in keeping with it--should, in the fanciful traditions of an imaginative
people, be deemed to have had a supernatural origin, is only what might
have been naturally expected; and such, indeed, is the popular belief. If
we inquire of the peasantry its origin, or the origin of its name, the
ready answer is given, that it was built by enchantment in one night by a
cock and a hen grouse, who had been an Irish prince and princess!

There is, indeed, among some of the people of the district a dim
tradition of its having been erected as a fastness by an O'Conor, King
of Connaught, and some venture to conjecture that this king was no other
than the unfortunate Roderick, the last King of Ireland; and that the
castle was intended by him to serve as a place of refuge and safety, to
which he could retire by boat, if necessity required, from the
neighbouring monastery of Cong, in which he spent the last few years of
his life: and it is only by this supposition that they can account for
the circumstance of a castle being erected by the O'Conors in the very
heart of a district which they believe to have been in the possession of
the O'Flahertys from time immemorial. But this conjecture is wholly
erroneous, and the true founders and age of this castle are to be found
in our authentic but as yet unpublished Annals, from which it appears
certain that the Hen's Castle was one of several fortresses erected, with
the assistance of Richard de Burgo, Lord of Connaught, and Lord Justice
of Ireland, by the sons of Roderick, the last monarch of the kingdom. It
is stated in the Annals of Connaught, and in the Annals of the Four
Masters, at the year 1225, that Hugh O'Conor (son of Cathal Crovedearg),
King of Connaught, and the Lord Justice of Ireland, Richard De Burgo,
arriving with their English at the Port of Inis Creamha, on the east side
of Lough Corrib, caused Hugh O'Flaherty, the Lord of West Connaught, to
surrender the island of Inis Creamha, Oilen-na-Circe, or the Hen's
Island, and all the vessels of the lake, into Hugh O'Conor's hands, for
assurance of his fidelity.

From this entry it would appear that the Hen's Island, as well as the
island called Inis Creamha, had each a castle on it previously; and this
conclusion is strengthened by a subsequent entry in the same Annals, at
the year 1233, from which it appears that this castle, as well as others,
had been erected by the sons of Roderick, who had been long in contention
for the government with Cathal Crovedearg, and his sons Hugh and Felim,
and had, during these troubles, possessed themselves of O'Flaherty's
country. On the death of Hugh O'Conor, who was treacherously slain by
Geoffry De Mares, or De Marisco, in 1228, they appear to have again
seized on the strongholds of the country, that of the Hen's Castle among
the rest, and to have retained them till 1233, when their rival Felim
O'Conor finally triumphed, and broke down their castles. This event is
thus narrated in the Annals of the Four Masters:--

"1233. Felim, the son of Charles the Red-handed, led an array into
Connaught. Cormac, the son of Tomaltagh (Lord of Moylurg), went to meet
him, and brought him to Moylurg, where they erected a camp at Druim
Greagraighe, and were joined by Cormac, by Conor his son, the inhabitants
of the three Tuathas, and by the two sons of Mortogh Mac Dermot, Donogh
and Mortogh. They here consulted with each other, and resolved upon going
in pursuit of Hugh (King of Connaught) and the other sons of Roderic.
After overtaking them, they defeated Hugh, slew himself, his brother,
Hugh Muimhneach his son, and Donogh More, the son of Dermot, who was the
son of Roderic, and many others besides. There were also slain Raghallach
O'Flanigan, Thomas Biris, Constable of Ireland, his relative John Guer,
and many other Englishmen. This was after the bells and croziers had been
rung against them, after they had been cursed and excommunicated by the
clergy of Connaught; for Hugh Muimhneach had violated and plundered
Tibohine and many other churches, so that he and his adherents fell in
revenge of their dishonour to the saints whose churches they had
violated. The kingdom and sovereignty of Connaught were wrested from the
sons of Roderic, the son of Torlogh, on that day. Felim, the son of
Charles the Red-handed, then assumed the government of Connaught, _and
demolished the castles which had been erected by the power of the sons of
Roderic O'Conor and Mac William Burke_, namely, the Castle of Bon
Gaillimbe, _Caislen-na-Circe_, Caislen-na-Caillighe, and the Castle of
Dunamon."

In subsequent times the Hen's Castle reverted to the O'Flahertys, and was
repaired and garrisoned by them till the time of Cromwell, when, as we
are informed by Roderick O'Flaherty, it was finally dismantled and left
to decay. Still, however, enough remains to exhibit its original plan,
which was that of an Anglo-Norman castle or keep, in the form of a
parallelogram, with three projecting towers on its two longest sides; and
the architectural features of the thirteenth century are also visible in
some of its beautifully executed windows and doorways.

The Hen's Castle is not without its legendary traditions connected with
its history anterior to its dilapidation; and the following outline of
one of these--and the latest--as told at the cottage firesides around
Lough Corrib, may be worth preserving as having a probable foundation in
truth.

It is said that during the troubled reign of Queen Elizabeth, a lady of
the O'Flahertys, who was an heiress and a widow, with an only child, a
daughter, to preserve her property from the grasp of her own family and
that of the De Burgos or Burkes, shut herself up with her child in the
Hen's Castle, attended by twenty faithful followers, of tried courage and
devotion to her service, of her own and her husband's family. As such a
step was, however, pregnant with danger to herself, by exciting the
attention and alarm of the government and local authorities, and
furnishing her enemies with an excuse for aggression, she felt it
necessary to obtain the queen's sanction to her proceedings; and
accordingly she addressed a letter to her majesty, requesting her
permission to arm her followers, and alleging as a reason for it, the
disaffected state of the country, and her ardent desire to preserve its
peace for her majesty. The letter, after the fashion of the times, was
not signed by the lady in her acquired matron's name, but in her maiden
one, of which no doubt she was more proud; it was Bivian or Bevinda
O'Flaherty. The queen received it graciously; but not being particularly
well acquainted with the gender of Irish Christian names, and never
suspecting, from the style or matter of the epistle, that it had emanated
from one of her own sex, she returned an answer, written with her own
hand, authorising her good friend "Captain Bivian O'Flaherty" to retain
twenty men at her majesty's expense, for the preservation of the peace of
the country; and they were maintained accordingly, till the infant
heiress, becoming adult, was united to Thomas Blake, the ancestor of the
present Sir John Blake of Menlo Castle, and proprietor of the Castle of
the Hen.

To these brief notices of an ancient castle, not hitherto described, or
its age ascertained, we shall only add, that there are few military
structures of lime and stone now remaining in Ireland that can boast an
equal antiquity.

    P.




OCCUPATIONS FOR THE YOUNG.

BY MARTIN DOYLE.


Habit is said to be a second nature, and it is often stronger than the
first. At first we easily take the bend from the hand of the master, but
the second nature, which is of our own making, is frequently proof
against any alteration. How important, then, is _education_, which gives
the turn and moulding to the mind while it is flexible, fixes the habits,
and forms the character! The discipline of the mind, with respect to its
natural bias, is either misdirected or misunderstood in nine cases out of
ten, and latent talents or tendencies, which by proper culture might be
rendered sources of enjoyment to the possessor, and useful to the
community, are restrained, if not too powerful for suppression, from
their proper developement, by absurd and artificial treatment.

In the upper classes, a parent, perhaps, incapable of estimating the
capacity of his son, determines with himself that the profession, suppose
of divinity, of law, or of medicine, is the most lucrative,
gentlemanlike, or otherwise eligible, and that the boy shall be educated
accordingly.

The unfortunate youth who has no talent for the acquisition of languages,
and cannot comprehend the simplest proposition in geometry, is condemned
to pursue a prescribed routine, and to pass many of the most precious
years of his life in the unavailing effort to learn, through the drudgery
of a classical school, what is repugnant to his taste, and beyond his
powers of comprehension; and all this time, from being constantly engaged
in _thumbing_ the elementary books of the dead languages (which are never
at his _finger ends_, in the acceptation of the common phrase), he grows
up shamefully ignorant of his vernacular tongue, in which he can neither
read with fluency nor spell with correctness.

The schoolmaster, however, is expected to prepare him for the university
within a given time, and he must be _made up_ for entrance accordingly.
If the parents are told that Young Hopeful has no turn for a literary
life, no capacity for learning what is required, they doubt the judgment
of the informant, who tells them the truth; for the acknowledgment of
this would be an indirect admission of their own incapacity; and in
proportion to their ignorance and dullness, is their self assurance that
their booby has excellent abilities. The youth is therefore forced
forward in spite of his natural repugnance to books; and if afterwards
smuggled through the university into a profession which may give him
place or emolument, without ability or exertion on his part, he disgraces
his station by general ignorance and unfitness; and if he be admitted
into a profession which yields honour or emolument only in proportion to
talents and industry, he totally fails of the object, and it is
discovered too late that the selection of his avocation was in some way
_unlucky_.

Now, it is very probable that if such an every-day boy had been permitted
to pursue some track for which his inclinations qualified him, instead of
being limited to a course of unsuitable and distasteful occupations, he
might have acquired useful knowledge of some sort. For example, supposing
him to stumble at metrical "longs and shorts," or to be stuck between the
horns of a dilemma, or be lost amidst the mazes of metaphysics, he might
have that peculiar turn which would render him a good farmer, an
excellent judge of "long and short wools" or of "long and short horns,"
or that shrewdness which would render him a clever tradesman, a man

    "Who knows what's what, and that's as high
    As metaphysic wit doth fly."

And so certain am I that many young men who enter our university would
prefer and far better comprehend the plain and practical lecture of a
professor of agriculture, surrounded by models of machinery and plates of
cattle, &c., than lectures of a far more pretending character, that I
cannot avoid lamenting the deficiency in the department of agriculture
which Socrates designated "the nurse and mother of all the arts," and
Gibbon "the foundation of all manufactures."

The example afforded in this respect by the University of Edinburgh is
worthy of the imitation of Trinity College. To afford at least the
opportunities of gaining such information on this subject as the mind may
be capable of receiving or predisposed to receive, cannot but be deemed
judicious. And the theoretical knowledge of husbandry is incalculably
more needed by the gentry and middle classes of Ireland than by those of
the same grades in Scotland, where almost every land-proprietor and
farmer understands the subject more or less.

Far be it from me to decry the advantages of what is called learning, but
I would have a more diversified course, both in our schools _of every
class_, and in the universities, so as to comprehend those useful
branches of information, to which the student, if denied by Providence
the faculties requisite for the attainment of others, may apply himself
with pleasure or advantage.

I have met with many young persons of exceeding dullness in _book
learning_, of decided distaste to the pursuits of _literature_, who have
manifested a quick apprehension of _mechanical contrivances_, practically
exhibited a love of natural history, of gardening, of agriculture, of
something, in short, of a utilitarian character. If these tendencies had
been duly cultivated, the results would have been favourable to the
individuals themselves, and probably to the public also.

I have often been puzzled to account for the pre-eminence of the Scotch
as a clever and a _thinking_ people: it cannot be from atmospheric
influence; and I am disposed to question the correctness of the assertion
of a grave Caledonian, that the fine spirit of philosophical inquiry
which distinguishes his countrymen is mainly attributable to their use of
oatmeal porridge; it must rather be from well-directed education, from
the early acquired habit of _thinking for one's self_, and of giving _a
reason_ for every thing as far as they can, that the Scotch are so
intelligent and so fitted for their respective stations in the social
circle.

My own countrymen are _naturally_ as shrewd and intellectual as the
Scotch, but their minds are too generally ill disciplined, and school
education, for all classes, is too generally defective _every where_.
Several hours of the day are passed in wearisome restraint within the
walls of a schoolroom, in learning words without ideas, sounds without
sense; the mind being seldom engaged in the tasks with either pleasure or
profit.

And besides the impediments which obstruct the progress of useful
occupation, arising from the blindness of parents, the unfitness of
teachers, and the incapacity of pupils, there are to be encountered in
all schools the natural preference of idleness to any kind of systematic
occupation, the love of mischief and freaks, which prevail among
combinations of boys, and the difficulty of analysing character and
dispositions in crowded seminaries.

But in schools for the poor, where order and discipline are easily
enforced; in places of _private_ education, and under the paternal roof,
where, by far the greatest degree of happiness and simplicity of
character are enjoyed and preserved--in such cases, in which instructors
and parents are qualified to educate, a system of literary instruction,
combining with it relaxation of a useful kind, may be pursued.

Among the latter I would place gardening and botany foremost among the
out-of-door occupations, and these pursuits apply to both sexes, and to
the humblest of the peasantry, as well as to the nobles of the land, for
with the idea of a garden is connected every association that is pure and
heaven-born. I myself even now look back upon those of my childish hours
which were employed in the garden, with unmixed pleasure, and the first
early crop of radishes which I raised with my own hands in a garden
border, afforded me more innocent pride than any far more valuable crop
that I have subsequently raised upon my farm. The care of flowers and
shrubs, and the absence of corrupting influences, during the indulgence
of this pursuit, render it a subject of extreme interest in the formation
of individual and national character.

Those of the poor who are disposed to take a real interest in their
gardens as is the case of thousands of the English peasantry, instead of
finding their summer evening occupations in their allotments wearisome
after their day of other toil, seem to find relaxation in the
comparatively light work which they thus perform for _themselves_; and in
the pleasurable contemplation of their own flowers, though they be but
_common_ beauties, and of their own tiny crops, they feel that calmness
and tranquillity, that quiet satisfaction, which lay the passions at
rest, and therefore indispose for the boisterous mirth and the ungodly
society of the frequenters of the beer-house or the gin-shop.

Poultry, pigeons, and rabbits, may be reared by young people, both for
amusement and profit. The child who understands much of the natural
history of domestic animals from practical observation, and perceives the
force of those influences which unite the parent and the offspring, will
so far sympathize with, and apprehend the nature of, those influences, as
to feel pain at the thought of wantonly dissociating that connection, and
would be far less likely "to rob the poor birds of their young," than the
child who had not been familiarized with the nature and habits of the
feathered race.

Children who have watched over a brood of chickens from the moment of
their first disengagement from the shell, and witnessed the instinct with
which the Creator causes them to come at the call of their mother, and
contemplate the love with which "the hen gathers her chickens under her
wings," will take no pleasure in destroying that life of which they had
anxiously traced the progress from the hour in which the first sign of
developed animation appeared. It is improbable that the boy (and far more
so that the girl, who is naturally kind) to whose hand the birds have
fearlessly looked for food, while they clamorously delighted in his
presence, could in his manhood witness any torturing of the feathered
race, such as the diabolical barbarity of throwing at cocks on Shrove
Tuesday, which used to disgrace Great Britain; or take pleasure in the
barbarities of a cock-fight[A] or a gander-fight.[B]

For those who are excluded from the enjoyments of rural life, and those
occupations to which I have referred, there remain other pursuits of
extreme interest, according to their respective tastes--geology,
chemistry, mechanics, which employ both the head and the hand. Many a
youth may be taught "sermons in stones," &c.--see the quotation in
Shakspeare, _As You Like It_--and be kept from bad company, by having
access to a lathe, and becoming practically "a tool-making animal," who,
from his distaste to books, would be otherwise miserably destitute of
rational employment. I do not wish to see either young or old persons too
much

    "Agog for novelty where'er it lies,
    In mosses, fleas, or cockleshells, or flies"--

But natural history, to a reasonable extent, is surely a useful and
improving study for both rich and poor; it leads them to look from the
creature to the Creator; to contemplate His works, His glories, and His
beneficent _designs_, both in the material and the spiritual world. In
short, I would supply the mind and body with those occupations which best
harmonise together, and most powerfully tend to overcome the degrading
and demoralising effects of ignorance, which is confessedly the greatest
enemy to religion, to peace, good order, and social happiness.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] We learn from a German writer the origin of this cruel custom. When
the Danes ruled In England, the native inhabitants of some town formed a
conspiracy to regain possession of it by murdering the Danish usurpers.
Their design, however, was defeated by the crowing of some cocks. When
the English afterwards regained authority, they instituted the barbarous
and childishly resentful practice of throwing at cocks tied to a stake on
the commemoration day of their disappointment through the vigilance of
the cocks.

[B] "At St Petersburgh, in Russia (says Dr Granville), they have no
cock-pits; but they have a goose-pit, where in the spring they fight
ganders trained to the sport, and to peck at each other's shoulders till
they draw blood. These ganders have been sold as high as five hundred
roubles each; and the sport prevails to a degree of enthusiasm among the
hemp-merchants. Strange that the vicious and inhuman curiosity of man can
delight to arouse and stimulate the principles of enmity and cruelty in
these apparently peaceful and sociable birds!

The barbarities of which the human character is capable from habitual
indulgence in such brutal sports are almost inconceivable.

Every one has heard the horrible story of Ardesolf of Tottenham, who,
about forty years since, bring disappointed by a famous game-cock
refusing to fight, was incited by his savage passion to roast the animal
alive whilst entertaining his friends. The company, alarmed by the
dreadful shrieks of the victim, interfered, but were resisted by
Ardesolf, who threatened death to any who should oppose him; and in a
storm of raging and vindictive delirium, and uttering the most horrid
imprecations, he dropped down dead. I had hoped to find this one among
the thousand fanatical lies which have been coined in the insane
expectation that truth can be advanced by the propagation of falsehood;
but to my sorrowful disappointment, on a late inquiry among the friends
of the deceased miscreant, I found the truth of the horrible story but
too probable."--_Mowbray's Treatise on Poultry._




ALEXANDER AND THE TREE.

     "From this tree it was that the Voice came which spake of old
     to Iskander (Alexander the Great), saying, as an oracle,
     'Iskander indeed cometh into India, but goeth from thence into
     the Land of Darkness.'"--_Apocryphal History of Alexander the
     Great._


    The sun is bright, the air is bland,
      The heavens wear that stainless blue
    Which only in an Orient land
      The eye of man may view;
    And lo! around, and all abroad,
      A glittering host, a mighty horde--
    And at their head a demigod
      Who slays with lightning-sword!

    The bright noon burns, but idly now
      Those warriors rest by copse and hill,
    And shadows on their Leader's brow
      Seem ominous of ill:
    Spell-bound, he stands beside a tree,
      And well he may, for through its leaves
    Unstirred by wind, come brokenly
      Moans, as of one that grieves!

    How strange! he thought:--Life is a boon
      Given, and resumed--but _how_? and _when_?
    But now I asked myself how soon
      I should go home agen!
    How soon I might once more behold
      My mourning mother's tearful face;
    How soon my kindred might enfold
      Me in their dear embrace!

    There was an Indian Magian there--
      And, stepping forth, he bent his knee:
    "Oh, king!" he said, "be wise!--beware
      This too prophetic tree!"
    "Ha!" cried the king, "thou knowest, then, Seer,
      What yon strange oracle reveals?"
    "Alas!" the Magian said, "I hear
      Deep words, like thunder-peals!

    "I hear the groans of more than Man,
      Hear tones that warn, denounce, beseech;
    Hear--woe is me!--how darkly ran
      That stream of thrilling speech!
    'Oh, king,' it spake, 'all-trampling king!
      Thou leadest legions from afar--
    But Battle droops his clotted wing!
      Night menaces thy star!

    "'Fond visions of thy boyhood's years
      Dawn like dim light upon thy soul;
    Thou seest again thy mother's tears
      Which Love could not control!
    Ah! thy career in sooth is run!
      Ah! thou indeed returnest home!
    The Mother waits to clasp her son
      Low in her lampless dome!

    "'Yet go, rejoicing! He who reigns
      O'er Earth alone leaves worlds unscanned;
    Life binds the spirit as with chains;
      Seek thou the Phantom-land!
    Leave Conquest all it looks for here--
      Leave willing slaves a bloody throne--
    Thine henceforth is another sphere,
      Death's realm, the dark Unknown!'"

    The Magian paused; the leaves were hushed,
      But wailings broke from all around,
    Until the Chief, whose red blood flushed
      His cheek with hotter bound.
    Asked, in the tones of one with whom
      Fear never yet had been a guest--
    "And when doth Fate achieve my doom?
      And where shall be my rest?"

    "Oh, noble heart!" the Magian said,
      And tears unbidden filled his eyes,
    "We should not weep for thee!--the Dead
      Change but their home and skies:
    The moon shall beam, the myrtles bloom
      For thee no more--yet sorrow not!
    The immortal pomp of Hades' gloom
      Best consecrates thy lot.

    In June, in June, in laughing June,
      And where the dells show deepest green,
    Pavilioned overhead, at noon,
      With gold and silken sheen--
    These be for thee--the place, the time;
      Trust not thy heart, trust not thine eyes,
    Behind the Mount thy warm hopes climb,
      The Land of Darkness lies!"

    Unblenching at the fateful words,
      The Hero turned around in haste--
    "On! on!" he cried, "ye million swords,
      Your course, like mine, is traced;
    Let me but close Life's narrow span
      Where weapons clash and banners wave;
    I would not live to mourn that Man
      But conquers for a grave!"

    M.




APOLOGUES AND FABLES,

IN PROSE AND VERSE, FROM THE GERMAN AND OTHER LANGUAGES.

(_Translated for the Irish Penny Journal._)


No. II.--THE THREE RINGS.

In the reign of the Sultan Sal-ad-Deen there lived in the city of
Damascus a Jew called Nathaniel, who was pre-eminently distinguished
among his fellow-citizens for his wisdom, his liberality of mind, the
goodness of his disposition, and the urbanity of his manners, so that he
had acquired the esteem even of those among the Mooslemin who were
accounted the strictest adherents to the exclusive tenets of the
Mahommedan creed. From being generally talked of by the common people, he
came gradually to attract the notice of the higher classes, until the
sultan himself, hearing so much of the man, became curious to learn how
it was that so excellent and intelligent a person could reconcile it with
his conscience to live and die in the errors of Judaism. With the view of
satisfying himself on the subject, he at length resolved on condescending
to a personal interview with the Jew, and accordingly one day ordered him
to be summoned before him.

The Jew, in obedience to the imperial mandate, presented himself at the
palace gates, and was forthwith ushered, amid guards and slaves
innumerable, into the presence of the august Sal-ad-Deen, Light of the
World, Protector of the Universe, and Keeper of the Portals of Paradise;
who, however, being graciously determined that the lightning of his
glances should not annihilate the Israelite, had caused his face to be
covered on the occasion with a magnificent veil, through the golden
gauze-work of which he could carry on at his ease his own examination of
his visitor's features.

"Men talk highly of thee, Nathaniel," said the sultan, after he had
commanded the Jew to seat himself on the carpet; "they praise thy virtue,
thy integrity, thy understanding, beyond those of the sons of Adam. Yet
thou professest a false religion, and showest no sign of a disposition to
embrace the true one. How is this obstinacy of thine reconcilable with
the wisdom and moderation for which the true believers give thee credit?"

"If I profess a false religion, your highness," returned the Jew
modestly, "it is because I have never been able to distinguish infallibly
between false religions and true. I adhere to the faith of my fathers."

"The idolaters do so no less than thou," said Sal-ad-Deen, "but their
blindness is wilful, and so is thine. Dost thou mean to say that all
religions are upon the same level in the sight of the God of Truth?"

"Not so, assuredly," answered Nathaniel: "Truth is but one; and there can
be but one true religion. That is a simple and obvious axiom, the
correctness of which I have never sought to controvert."

"Spoken like a wise man!" cried the sultan;--"that is," he added, "if the
religion to which thou alludest be Islamism, as it must be of course.
Come: I know thou art favourably inclined towards the truth; thou hast an
honest countenance: declare openly the conviction at which thou must have
long since arrived, that they who believe in the Koran are the sole
inheritors of Paradise. Is not that thy unhesitating persuasion?"

"Will your highness pardon me," said the Jew, "if, instead of answering
you directly, I narrate to you a parable bearing upon this subject, and
leave you to draw from it such inferences as may please you?"

"I am satisfied to hear thee," said the sultan after a pause; "only let
there be no sophistry in the argument of thy narrative. Make the story
short also, for I hate long tales about nothing."

The Jew, thus licensed, began:--"May it please your highness," said he,
"there lived in Assyria, in one of the ages of old, a certain man who had
received from a venerated hand a beautiful and valuable ring, the stone
of which was an opal, and sparkled in the sunlight with ever-varying
hues. This ring, moreover, was a talisman, and had the secret power of
rendering him who wore it with a sincere desire of benefiting by it,
acceptable and amiable in the eyes of both God and man. It is not
therefore to be wondered at, that the owner continually wore it during
his lifetime, never taking it off his finger for an instant, or that,
when dying, he should adopt precautions to secure it to his lineal
descendants for ever. He bequeathed it accordingly first to the most
beloved of his sons, ordaining that by him it should be again bequeathed
to the dearest of _his_ offspring, and so down from generation to
generation, no one having a claim in right of priority of birth, but
preference being given to the favourite son, who, by virtue of the ring,
should rule unconstrained as lord of the house and head of the family.
Your highness listens?"

"I listen: I understand: proceed," said the sultan.

The Jew resumed:--"Well: from son to son this ring at length descended to
a father who had three sons, all of them alike remarkable for their
goodness of disposition, all equally prompt in anticipating his wishes,
all