CELEBRATED CLOCKS. 641 



haste. Venturing to return, one of the courtiers asked the negro, in 

 Spanish, what time it was. There was no reply ; but, when the ques- 

 tion was repeated in French, an answer was given. This frightened 

 the courtier, who rejoined his companions, and all of them voted that 

 the clock was the work of the evil-one. 



Upon the belfry of the Kauthaus, in Coblentz, there is the head of 

 a giant — bearded, and helmeted with brass. The giant's head is known 

 as " the man in the custom-house " ; and whenever a countryman meets 

 a citizen of Coblentz away from that place, instead of saying, " How 

 are all our friends in Coblentz ? " he asks, " How is the man in the 

 custom-house ? " At every stroke of the bell which sounds the hours 

 upon the clock, the mouth of the giant opens and shuts with great 

 force, as if it were trying to say, in the words of Longfellow, " Time 

 was — Time is — Time is past." 



The "old clock of Prague" stands near the old Hussite church — 

 the machinery forming a part of the original tower, and the egg 

 shaped dial being shown on the street. It was the work of Hanusch, 

 who died in 1499. So jealous of the other cities were the citizens of 

 Prague, and so afraid were they that the other cities might bribe 

 Hanusch to build as good a clock somewhere else, that they declared 

 he was insane, and put out his eyes. The dial, which is between six 

 and eight feet across, has a number of hands which mark not only 

 minutes and hours, but also days, months, years, and centuries. What 

 else it will do has been told in this way by a poet : 



" At the left of the dial a skeleton stands, 



And aloft hangs a musical bell in the tower, 

 Which he rings, by a rope that he holds in his hands, 

 In his punctual function of striking the hour. 



" And the skeleton nods, as he tugs at the rope, 

 At an odd little figure that eyes him aghast, 

 As a hint that the bell rinps the knell of his hope, 

 And the hour that is solemnly tolled is his last. 



" And the effigy turns its queer features away 

 (Much as if for a snickering fit or a sneeze), 

 "With a shrug and a shudder that struggle to say, 



' Pray excuse me, but — just an hour more, if you please? ' 



"But the funniest sight, of the numerous sights, 



Which the clock has to show to the people below, 

 Is the Holy Apostles in tunics and tights, 



Who revolve in a ring, or proceed in a row." 



On the dial-plate of a clock in St. Mark's Cathedral, in Venice, 

 the twenty-four hours of the day are represented by the signs of the 

 zodiac and the phases of the moon. The Madonna is seated on a plat- 

 form over the dial. Whenever a religious festival occurs, an angel 

 comes out from a door at one side of the platform, blows a trumpet, 



VOL. XXX. — 41 



