528. 
houses! Grange’s and Owen’s, in 
Piccadilly and Bond Street, have a 
finer display than any I have met with 
at Paris.—At breakfast they affect 
this hobby-horse:—It is common to 
have a cup of coffee, without cither 
milk or sugar, before they get up. 
Coffee always after dinner.—Religion 
almost confined to the ancienne noblesse. 
—Every woman of rank or fashion in 
France has her right to receive com- 
pany. The party naturally divides 
into two: the old ones play cards ; the 
young ones dance and romp under the 
inspection of each married woman. 
BELLS. 
The Venetians pretend that they 
introduced bells at Constantinople, in 
the ninth century ; but the oldest men- 
tion we can find in the Byzantine wri- 
ters, is of the year 1040. 
Queve.—When was the surrender of 
Jerusalem? for it appears that the 
conquerors imposed it as an article on 
the Christians, “ that they should not 
ring, but only ¢oll their bells.”—See 
Mod. Univ. Hist.i, 429. 
DUELLING. 
There is scarcely any subject on 
which more discordant opinions are 
entertained than on that of duelling ; 
and, whilst one party condemn it asa 
flagrant violation of all the laws both 
of God and man, others are contented 
to represent it as a necessary evil. 
Without, however, discussing at pre- 
sent the expediency of the practice, it 
appears that if an appeal must, in any 
case, be made to arms, the great ob- 
ject should be to place the champions 
on an equal footing, and prevent, as 
far as possible, the better cause from 
yielding to the more skilful combatant. 
Tn one single solitary instance has this 
been attained.. On the borders of 
Austria and Turkey, where a private 
pique, or private quarrel of a single 
. Individual, might occasion the massacre 
of a family or village, the desolation of 
a province, and perhaps eyen the more 
extended horrors of a national. war, 
whensoeyer. any serious dispute arises 
between two subjects of the different 
empires, recourse is had. to terminate 
it to what is called “the eustom.of the 
frontier.” A spacious plain or field is 
selected, whither, cn an appointed 
day, judges of the respective nations 
repair, accompanied by all those whom 
curiositygor interest. may assemble. 
The combatants are not restricted 
in the choice or number of their arms, 
or in their method of fighting, but each 
Stephensiana, No. 1X. 
is at liberty to employ whatsoever he 
conceives is most advantageous to him- 
self, and avail himself of every artifice 
to ensure his own safety, and destroy 
the life of his antagonist. One of the 
last times that this method of deciding 
a quarrel on the frontiers was resorted 
to, the circumstances were sufficiently 
curious, and the recital of them may 
serve to illustrate what is mentioned 
above. 
The phiegmatic German, armed with 
the most desperate weapon in the 
world—a rifled pistel_ mounted on a 
carbine stock, placed himself in. the 
middle of the field; and, conscious 
that he would infallibly destroy his 
enemy, if he could once get him within 
shot, began coolly to smoke his pipe. 
The Turk, on the contrary, with a 
pistol on one side and a pistol on the 
other, and two more in his bolsters, 
and two more in his breast, and a 
carbine at his back, and a sabre by 
his side, and a dagger in his belt, ad- 
vanced like a moying magazine, and, 
galloping round his. adversary,..kept 
incessantly firing at him. The. Ger- 
man, conscious that little or no danger 
was to be apprehended from such a 
marksman with such weapons, delibe- 
rately continued to smoke, his. pipe. 
The Turk, at length perceiving aysort 
of little explosion, as if his antagonist’s 
pistol had. missed fire, advaneed like 
lightning to cut him down, and almost 
immediately was shot dead. Thewily 
German had put some gunpowder into 
his pipe, the light of which his.enemy 
mistook, as the other had foreseen 
would be the case, for a flash in, the 
pan; and, no longer fearing the superior 
skill and supcrior arms of his adversary, 
fell a victim to them both, when se- 
conded by artifice. ; 
THE AMAZONS. 
The attention of the learned, has 
been for a long. time fixed upon the 
existence, of the Amazons; and the 
following, result,. deduced from | the 
profound researches and extended in- 
vestigations to which the subject has 
given rise, appears interesting and 
probable, and accords with the gene- 
ral tenor of history, An army of 
Sauromates having traversed Caucasus 
and Colchis, penetrated into the lesser 
Asia, and established’ themselves on 
the banks of the river Thermodon; 
content with finding a plain which re- 
called to their minds. the recollection 
of their country, and. feeling, as the 
Greeks under Xenophon antes + 
elt 
