Aug. 7. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



133 



Gilgal was to "renew the kingdom," 1 Sam. xi. 14. 

 The next occasion was after he had " reigned two 

 years over Israel," when the Philistines threatened 

 him, and then he disobeyed the commandment. 

 The last time he was met by Samuel at Gilgal, 

 ■was after the slaughter of the Amalekites, when he 

 " came to Carmel and set him up a place," i. e. 

 pitched his camp preparatory to dividing the spoil ; 

 but his heart misgave him, for it was told Samuel, 

 " he is gone about, and passed on, and gone down 

 to Gilgal. " He must make some excuse for the 

 booty he had bx'ought away, — it was to be for sa- 

 crifice. Samuel then came to him as at other 

 times, but refused to oflfer sacrifice until Saul be- 

 sought him ; and then it is said he " came no more 

 to see Saul until the day of his death," i. e. came no 

 more down to Gilgal to meet him. 



It is clear, then, that the charge which was given 

 to Saul, chap. x. 8., was one of great moment ; that 

 it informed him of the manner in which he was to 

 worship the Lord and learn His will ; and that on 

 his due observance of it the stability of his kingdom 

 was to depend. H. C. K. 



Rectory, Hereford. 



VENICE GLASSES. 



(Vol. vi., p. 76.) 



The popular error, current In the Middle Ages, 

 that driuklng-glasses manufactured at Venice pos- 

 sessed the valuable property of shivering to pieces 

 upon a poisoned liquid being poured into them, 

 may probably have arisen partly from the extreme 

 desirability of some such detective instrument In 

 that •' age of poisons," and partly from an ex- 

 aggerated idea of the excellence of the Venetian 

 manufacture. Sir Thomas Browne discourses 

 upon the fallacy (^Vulgar Errors, b. vil. c. 17.) : 



" Though it be said that poison will break a Venice 

 glass, yet have we not met with any of that nature." 



And says further : 



" Though the best of China dishes, and such as the 

 Emperor doth use, be thought by some of infallible 

 virtue to this effect ; yet will they not, I fear, be able 

 to elude the mischief of such intentions." 

 Lord Byron (The Two Foscari, Act V. Sc. 1.) 

 makes the Doge, in alluding to the ascribed pro- 

 perty, disclaim his own belief in it : 



" Doge, 'Tis said that our Venetian crystal has 

 Such pure antipathy to poisons, as 

 To burst if aught of venom touches it. 

 Lor. Well, Sir? 

 Doge. Then it is false, or you are true ; 



For my own part, I credit neither : — 'tis 

 An idle legend." 



Mrs. Radcliffe, too, has made use of the same 

 fiction in that fine imaginative work The Mysteries 

 of Udolpho; and W. Harrison Ainsworth has done 

 the like in his Crichton. 



Another property was also ascribed to Venetian 

 glass, that of sustaining violent blows or shocks 

 with impunity. This quality is alluded to in the 

 Miscellanies, p. 132., of credulous old Aubrey. A 

 certain Lady Honywood entertained doubts as to 

 her salvation, and her spiritual adviser, Dr. Bolton, 

 was endeavouring to reassure her : 



" ' I shall as certainly be damned,' said she, holding 

 a Venetian glass in her hand, ' as this glass will be 

 broken,' and at that word threw it hard upon the 

 ground, and the glass remained sound, which did give 

 her great comfort. The glass is yet preserved among 

 the cimelia of the family." 



Howell, however {Epistolce Ho-Eliance, p. 310.), 

 entertained a difierent opinion of its tenacity : 



" A good name is like Venice glass, quickly cracked, 

 never to be amended, patched it may be." 



We may note from this that the excellence of 

 Venice glass was such that it had become pro- 

 verbial as an illustration of perfection. 



It may not be considered irrelevant to remind 

 your correspondent that similar virtues have been 

 attributed from the earliest ages to the horn of the 

 rhinoceros. This opinion obtained in India when 

 the English made their first voyage thither in 

 1591, and the horns of this animal were carefully 

 preserved by the native monarchs on account of 

 their reputed efficacy. Calmet, in his Dictionary 

 of the Bible, also alludes to this belief, and says 

 that drinking-cups were made of this horn, and 

 used by Oriental monarchs at table because It was 

 believed that "It sweats at the approach of any 

 kind of poison whatever." 



According to Thunberg, the same belief pre- 

 vailed in Ati-ica. He states in his Journey to Kqf- 

 fraria, that 



" The horns of the rhinoceros were kept by some 

 people both in town and country, not only as rarities, 

 but also as useful in diseases and for the purpose of de- 

 tecting poisons. As to the former of these intentions, 

 the fine shavings were supposed to cure convulsions and 

 spasms in children. With respect to the latter, it was 

 generally believed that goblets made of these horns 

 would discover a poisonous draught that was poured 

 into them, by making the liquor ferment till it ran 

 quite out of the goblet. Of these horns goblets are 

 made which are set in gold and silver and presented to 

 kings, persons of distinction, and particular friends, or 

 else sold at a high price, sometimes at the rate of fifty 

 rix- dollars each," 



Our traveller made the matter a subject of ex- 

 periment : 



" When I tried these horns," says he, " both wrought 

 and unwrought, both old and young, with several sorts 

 of poisons, weak as well as strong, I observed not the 

 least motion or effervescence ; but when a solution of 

 corrosive sublimate or other similar substance was 

 poured into one of these horns, there arose only a few 

 bubbles, produced by the air which had been enclosed 



