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Leader (1850-1860), 11th November 1854, Edition Country of 2, Page 18, 107* THE LEADER. [Saturday,

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      Ceyi-On Has Been Pronounced By Tradition...

      position ; he cannot accelerate the -work much by Ma presence , but he knows that if he is absent , the business will be retarded . Daring the other months of the year , hoeing and weeding , thinking of dinner , and wondering -whether the bug will visit him , or whether he will ever be cleaT from its present attack , form the chief employmeat and most interesting speculation of the coffee-planter in the jungle . CATCHING ELEPHANf 8 . The manner of catching them is simple enough , and , - with the stealthy , cat-like peculiarities of the Moormen of Ceylon , is attended with little danger . When a herd lias been discovered , in which there are young ones , they watch them till mid-day , when they are either drowsy or asleep , and then creeping up behind with ropes , fasten iflieir hind legs together ; they then set up loud yells and fire guns , to frighten away 4 he old ones . The course of education afterwards pursued is very simple , but speedy and effective : they are left tied , with no water or food , for three or four days , when these requisites are administered as sparingly as possible ; in a week they become so -tractable as to kneel down and rise up at the word of command .

      ELErHANT SHOOTIITG . My idea of the sport , from that day ' s experience , -was , that in ordinary cases it was one of two extremes—either too tame to afford the necessary amount of excitement , or too dangerous to leave mnch room for agreeable sensations . The shooting is very -difficult , and requires the sportsman to be almost as quick a snap shot as if firing at snipe . Of course , when the elephant stands till you take a deliberate pot-shot at his liead at short pistol range , anybody who does not shtit his eyes when firing , may make < ertain of killing ; but in thick jungle , when he is moving rapidly about , and only « xposing the vulnerable parts of his body for a second or two at a time , the hunter must be as quick as lightning . Elephant and snipe-shooting illustrate the old adage , ihat extremes frequently meet . In the former case you slay an enormous animal ¦ with , an incredibly small piece of lead ; hi the latter , you destroy a minute bird with an expenditure of powder and lead equally disproportioned ; and in both cases it is * nap-shootang , and the one depends almost as much on practice as the other .

      THE POWER OF AN ELBPHAJNl ' s TRUNK . One has been apt to consider Nasmyth ' s steam-hammer , which can with one blow exert a force of two tons , and with another break a nut without injuring the kernel , & s a triumph of human ingenuity , and so itis : but how insignificant -when placed in comparison with the trunk of an elephant ; for not only can the latter strike a blow of A ton or so , and break an egg or a nut , but it can pick up a pin from the floor , or pull dq-vra . a tree ; project "waterwith the force of a 20-man power forcing-pump , or vuncork and drink a hottle of sbda-ivater without spilling a drop !

      107* The Leader. [Saturday,

      107 * THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

      A Hew Novelist. Ajraja, A.Norwegian Andl...

      A HEW NOVELIST . AJraja , a . Norwegian andLapland . ' Tale ; or , Life and Love iri Norway . Translated from the German of Theodore Mttgge , by Edward Joy Morris . Sampson Low and Sons . We ate informed by the translator of this work that the author is one of the most distinguished -writers of fiction , in Germany , and that A / raja , on its original publication in that country , in the spring of the present year , was received with considerable approbation by the public and the press . To a new candidate from abroad for literary honours in England we gladly offer our beat welcome in the shape of a special and separate article . Our author ' s book is well vrorth reading on many accounts , and might have been aufiered to recommend itself by its own merits to the English public . Bat

      the translator , J & r . Morris ( apparentl y an American ) , has not thought it ^ desirable to let Mr . Theodore Miigge work his way by himself . In a ° short Introductory preface of only two pages , Mr . Morris contrives , in two ways , to show want of tact and taste . In the first place , he tries to recommend A / raja by quoting a perfectly conventional German " puff , " in its lionour , by a writer entirely unknown to the English public . In the second place he tries to strengthen the weak and false position in which he has already placed the German author , by asserting that his work is a model of moral purity as to tone and sentiment , and that it is likely to act as a proper corrective , in England , to the unhealthy and depraved influences of our own

      -contemporary fictitious literature . This assertion—on the bad taste of which it is needless to comment—is as false , in reference to our modern English movels , as the euloghjm which precedes it is false in reference to Mr . Theodore Miigge . Our main objection to his book is , that , in one portion of the afcory at least , the morality is not only doubtful , but decidedly bad . The great exeellen . ee of Afraja lies in its freshness of subject . Scenes in the wildest parts of Norway , and manners and customs among the Northmen a hundred years ago , are new material indeed for the historical novelist to work with . Our author ' s descriptions of scenery axe vivid and interesting in a very remarkable degree . Ho evidently has a hearty admiration ! br ° tho grander and sublimor beauties of nature , and possesses the rare gift of beinoareallv able to communicate what lie feels to his readers . So , attain , there is

      unmistakable vigour in his pictures of life among the savage tribes in the remotest fastnesses of the North ; and whenever he introduces us to the moro -civilised , but far less interesting , fishermen and traders farther south , we = are always impressed in the most agreeable way by his thorough knowledge of his subject , and hia graphic power of turning it to the best literary ad-¦ v untaga . The defects of the novel are of the usual Gorman kind—want of directness of purpose and constructive power in tho story , and indistinctness of outline in the drawing of moat of tho characters . Tho most skilfully-• devoloped of tho personages in this wild northern drama are a hard-hearted Avaricious old Norway trader ; his daughter Ilda—a discreet , cool-blooded sententious damsel—and Gula , tho Lapland maiden , whom the trader ' s

      daughter has christianised and domiciled in . her father ' s house . Gula is in our opinion , by fai- the most successful diameter in the book . Sho interested us from tho first ; and it is in connexion with her that wo take leave * o object to our author ' s morality . Gnla falls in lovo with a youn « - Danish noble man , who ia forced to seek hia fortune among tho Norwegian and who is represented as possessing all tho high and honourable principles whioh are becoming to him ub tho hero of the book . He makes every appearance of returning tho poor girl ' s affection—kisses her warmly—puts hia . arm round h « r waist—talks " soft nonsense " to her—and , only when his ? 'intentions" become a matter of inquiry , ftnda out that ho con never bo

      more than a brother to her , because her relations arc savagos and unbeliever . This sort of behaviour—depraved as our national fiction may bo in B . T . MorrVa opinion—is , in tho estimation of Englishmen , the behaviour a scoundrel . But tho Gorman author docs not soom to havo tho remotest

      suspicion that his hero ought to suffer in anybody ' s estimation for bis treacherous love-making to Gula . The Danish baron is actually rewarded at the end of the book , as if he was one of the most virtuous characters left alive on the author ' s hands ! This may be German morality and American morality ; but we absolutely deny that it will pass muster under any honest critical inspection in England . We will now endeavour to substantiate the good opinion that we have expressed of the descriptions of scenery and pictures of life in Aj " raja by giving a specimen or two of the author ' s matter and manner . Here is a bright , bold bit of landscape-painting in words : — And , as he spoke , the illuminating orb triumphantly broke through the thick veil of cloud , and , as with a magic spell , lit up a countless array of islands , rocks , and gulfs . The Westfiord opened before the astonished vision of the Dane , and exhibited

      and and sea in all their glory and splendour . Upon one side lay the coast of Norway , with its snowy summits . Salten loomed up behind , with its needle like peaks , stretching with their inaccessible ice-covered declivities into the heavens , and its i ravines and abysses half concealed in gloom . Upon the other side , six miles to the seaward of the Westfiord , extended a chain , of dark islands far into the bosom of the ocean—a granite wall against which the ocean , in its most savage fury , for thousands of yeaTS had dashed its billows . Innumerable perpendicular pinnacles rose from this insular labyrinth—black , weather-beaten , and torn to their base by the tempests . Their bold summits were veiled by long lines of clouds , and from the gleaming beds of snerw , the - wondering blue eyes of Jtikuln turned to the swelling floods of the fiord , which , with their thousand white teeth , bit the bow of the yacht , shook it like a reed , and drew it into the abyss .

      " Look there , now , how beautiful it is ! " cried BjiirnaTne , with a shout . " There are the Loffoden Islands . For twenty miles the view extends over land and sea , and all is grand arid glorious . See the grey head of Vaagoen , how it beams in gold . Look how the old woman of Salten nods to him in her ruddy black mantle . Once they were two giants , children of night , a loving pair , who have here been transformed into rock , and must eternally remain such . Observe how the breakers leap against the rocks , in silvery columns ; and see the vast circle of cliffs , whose extent no one has measured , upon which no human foot has ever trod , and -where only the eagle , the cormorant , the falcon , and the gull have mounted . See the red-crested slcarfe there on the crags , and the sea-geese , how they plunge into the green waves , followed by screaming flocks of gulls and falcons . " At a page or two further on , we find this striking description of Norway cod-fishing : — -

      During the interchange ef these confidential expressions , the vessel had crossed the fiord , and rapidly approached Ostvaagen and the fishing-grounds . The small black points floating on the sea gradually enlarged , iintil finally they came clearly into view as heavy six-oared boats in which an incessant activity prevailed . The figures of the fishermen , as they raised , their nets and rods , the tremble of the sun's rays upon their leather caps and sea-soaked jackets , the yawls moving about in all directions , and the thousand-voiced tumult , rising aT ) ove the roar of the waves , united to forai an animated picture which yet higher excited the feelings of Marstrand . He felt a longing to mingle in this motley throng ; in his enthusiasm he forgot that , in spite of the sunshine , ice-cold gusts , plunging down from the Salten and the Tinden , sweep the sea ; and that here , in the Polar zone , -within a few minutes , the -wildest winter-storm bursts , and with its terrors envelopes land and ocean . At present he

      thought only of the mirthful fishing uproar , -which mocked these horrors , lie saw only the fluttering flags on the vessels , and the houses and huts on the rocks and strand , and it seemed to him as if a festival of spring was being celebrated , as ho heard the trumpeting and fiddling on the peaks of the grey head of the Vaagoen . He shouted for joy , as he saw a genuine Nordlander draw his net , - with a ringed cod in every mesii . He -waved his hat as all did , as the vessel urged her way among tho fishing smacks , and , surrounded by a hundred boats , whose crews shouted a hearty welcome , steered around the rocks , and to the harbour of the bay , where a number of large and small craft lay at anchor . Some time elapsed before a suitable position could be found in the line of vessels ; but at last tlie cable rolled through the hawsexholes , and the " fair Ilda of Oercnacs" was secured by the long cables , and -wearily shook off the drops which hung upon her bows and bulwarks .

      Bj ( 3 rname had his hands full , and it was some time before ho could trouble himself about hia passenger , who , from tlie quarter-dock , -was attentively regarding the taking of fish , which , in all its details , was passing before his eyes . At the entrance of the bay , around an island of bare rock , culled Skraavon , it was pursued with still greater activity . Five or six hundred boats , with three or four thousand fishermen , were thero engaged in fishing . The nets were incessantly cost and drawn with song and shout ; for all were overladen with fish , and groat care was observed in extricating them from the meshes , to prevent the laceration of the threads . At many other spota there were immense cables , to which moro than a thousand angling rods -were fastened ; for the angl « j was more in use then than at present . Tho fishermen next hurried with their full boats into the bay , where , upon the rocks , aoaffolda of poles , nnd tables for the disembowelling of the fish , and huts for shcltor and rest wore erected . Tho fish were brought hither from the boats , seized by blood-red hands , and thrown upon the tables . Sharp knives opened the body , witli a grip of tho iintror tho entrails wero

      extracted , and , with a second cut , the hoad flew off into one tub , nnd tho oily liver into another . Tho other parts wero cast upon a nauseous heap of blood and viscera , and what a moment before was a living creature , hung , severed , and slinking in the wind , upon the drying-stand . Tho men pursued their murderous occupation with iucraliblo dexterity and quickness . Tho lust of slaughter glowed in their eyes . They hold tho bloody knife between their teeth , whilst their hundu woro plunged in the bolly of tho dying creature , and , in their enthusiasm , they bit tho unctuously fat livera , when they appeared unusually white a \ ui dainty . With naked arms , and broad , open bosoms spattered with blood , they looked like cannibals celebrating a horrid last of triumph . They greedily sought for the largest and stoutcut victiniH , exercised upon thorn their oxecutionor ' s oifke with doublo zest ,, and made marry with tho aiiilari ngs and violent struggles of tho unfortunate wretches . Marirtranrt soon felt a disgust for

      thiB monotonous slaughter . Mo turned irway , saying to himself , " It ; is cruel , cowardly torture—I Avill soo no moro of it . For this , twenty thousand men nra attracted to thcBo naked rooks ; for thin , they shout , and yoll like paroonH posaessod , despite tho stormH of tho polar son . What , a rude , conrso people—what an absence of humane sensations I No , " continued ho , " most of them -would remain at homo , wore they not drivon by necessity to thos « latitude . And ( loon not want also drivo me into this land ef ico and mountain Y" said ho , musingly . " But Huh 1 cannot , catch—uccursod bo this filthy , bloody buainosa I A pestilential wmoll in waiftod hithor from , tho fishing-bunks ; and theso houps of entrails , theno tuba of train-oil and livens , tho ^ o bloody IioikIb , those wild , screaming flocks of birds , Hooking their uharo of tho prey , thoao dirty , oil-rooking men thoro ; tho one ia us disgusting anil horrible as tho other-, "

      lijUrnarne clapped him on tho ohouldor and exclaimed in his loud tones , " You must not muditiUo ho much , frioncl John ; you must bo brisk and gay , for hero evory one is iu good humour . Tho whole year through , young and old , rojoico for tho fishing

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 11, 1854, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11111854/page/18/