304 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[SEPT. 



Nought brobe that lovely stillness, save 

 The distant plashing of the wave, 

 When the light bark, with dripping oar, 

 Darted to reach the distant shore ; 

 Or music's thrilling notes, that fell 

 On the cool breeze, and woke a spell, 

 So heavenly, that the listening ear 

 Had thought some wandering spirit near. 



Perchance the sweet Sitara's chords 



Were struck by one who felt the pain, 

 That never could be told by words, 



But floated sweetly in that strain. 

 None ever viewed a scene so fail- 

 As those who haply lingered there, 

 And marked the horizon's vivid glow, 

 The mountain's summit clad in snow ; 

 And where the broad-leaved plantain shone 

 Near the slight palm-tree's fan-like crown, 

 The banian's hospitable shade, 

 By reproductive branches made, 

 Lending its kindly shelter still, 

 From noontide heat, or midnight chill ; 

 Groves where the feathery cocoa grew, 

 Glittering with eve's wan lucid dew. 

 A thousand birds, on sportive wing, 



Made vocal every bending spray ; 

 With varied notes they seemed to sing 



Soft vespers to the parting day. 

 The pale moon there her crescent hung, 

 And o'er the waves a splendour flung 

 More mild and lovely than the beam 

 The mid-day sun flings on the stream, 



'Twas on the eve the Hindoos lave, 

 Like sea-born Rhemba, in the wave 

 Their solemn rites, and spells prepare, 

 Invoking Beauty's goddess there, 

 In many a wild and deep-toned dirge, 

 Resounding o'er the sacred surge. 

 There troops of girls, with tresses flowing, 

 In youth's first pride of beauty glowing, 

 Plunged in the tide, in youthful play, 

 Dashing around the river's spray ; 

 Their slender polished limbs they lave, 

 Like naiads, in the liquid wave. 



One, lower down the stream retired, 

 In richer, costlier garb attired, 

 Her lone devotions there to pay, 

 Lit by the moon's auspicious ray. 

 Her flowing veil was thrown aside, 



Unbound her dark and shining hair, 

 And, ere she touched the silvery tide, 



She cast her votive offerings there. 

 Those who had seen her well might deem 

 She was the goddess of the stream, 

 When first she, from the foamy sea, 

 Rose Beauty's own bright deity. 

 One sole attendant, near the shore, 



A dark-eyed youthful Hindoo slave, 

 Wrapped in her arms an infant bore, 



To bathe in Ganga's holy wave ; 

 For, in the health-bestowing stream, 



Beauty's first gem was said to glow ; 

 For this, bejieath the moon's pale beam, 



She offered up her lonely vow. 



A n Essay on the War Gallics of tlic 

 Ancienfs, by John Hwcll ; 1827. The 

 very intelligent and ingenious author of 

 this essay is we believe an engineer in 



Scotland, who, under the auspices of the 

 Ivlinburgh Academy, embodied his con- 

 ceptions of the ancient Dallies in a model, 

 now in the possession of the directors. 



The ancients had vessels, which they 

 disiinguisbed by the terms monocrota and 

 polycrota, by which, etymologically, ap- 

 pear to have been meant vessels with one 

 set, and with many sets of oars. These 

 polycrota were specifically spoken of as 

 birernes, triremes, quadriremeSj quinque- 

 remes, &c., according as they had two, 

 three, four, five, &c. sets of oars up to 

 10 to 16, and in one memorable instance 

 to 40 a vessel of immense bulk, built by 

 Hiero of Syracuse, and sent as a present 

 to Ptolemy Philopator. The question un- 

 der discussion and which has occupied 

 the attention of scholars, and sometimes 

 of mechanics, ever since the revival of 

 literature is how were these different 

 sets, rows, banks, tiers call them what 

 you will placed in the vessels? No ves- 

 sel has survived the wreck of time; and 

 the representations still extant either on 

 the columns of Rome, or on the walls of 

 Herculaneutu, are all in too obscure, or too 

 dilapidated a state to assist in solving the 

 difficulty. 



The first notion that presents itself to 

 almost every reader, is, that they were 

 placed one above another ; and so long as 

 only vessels of two or three banks of oars 

 are spoken of, no difficulty startles him; 

 but when the number mounts to five and 

 six and still more, to ten and twenty 

 these higher numbers were rarely used 

 common sense is astounded. Supposing 

 them for a moment to be so placed and 

 that the lowest tier be three feet from the 

 water, and the length of the oars from 

 the side of the vessel to the water six feet, 

 and the space between each tier five feet 

 this arrangement will place the upper 

 tier of a quiuquereme twenty-three feet 

 above the water, and make the length of 

 the oar forty-six feet a length apparently 

 unmanageable, and at all events one of 

 double or triple that length must be so. 

 The length could not be reduced, unless 

 the upper tiers were placed farther apart. 

 But these vessels were called Ionga3 naves; 

 and the more oars, the longer were the 

 ships, manifestly not the hit/her. 



The second solution is that the different 

 banks of oars were ranged not one above 

 another, but in one line along the side of 

 the galley the first in her bows, the 

 second in her waist, and the third in her 

 stern supposing the case of a trireme ; 

 and if of greater rank, the different banks 

 were still added ou the same line from 

 prow to poop at intervals. Though sup- 

 ported by Stewechius and Castilionius, 

 this scheme is so obviously at variance 

 with almost every passage that could be 

 quoted, that it scarcely deserves attention. 



