•iu-> 



DEVOTED TO AGEICUIiTURE, HORTICTJLTTJKE, AWD KHSTDIIED ARTS. 



NEW SERIES. 



Boston, February, 1868. YOL. IL— NO. 2. 



R. P. EATON & CO., PuBLiSHEKS, 

 Office, 34 Merchants' Row. 



MONTHLY. 



SIMON BROWN, ) t7„™„^„ 

 S. FLETCHER, ( J^ditors. 



LIFE IN FEBRUARY. 



"Old customs I Oh I I love the sound, 



However simple they may be : 

 Whate'er with time hath sanction found, 



Is welcome, and is dear to me." 



DUNG America is a stout, pro- 

 gressive, and generally well- 

 behaved fellow ; thinks well of 

 himself and his possessions, and cares 

 little for what has been done by the 

 old 'uns who have preceded him. 

 Nevertheless, it is curious, interest- 

 ing, and perhaps instructive to read 

 and dwell a little upon some of the singular 

 customs of bygone days, or ages, as well as 

 on some that exist at present in various parts 

 of the world. 



When a man is married in Abyssinia, and 

 immediately after the matrimonial ceremony is 

 concluded, it is a custom for his friends to 

 assemble, and with whips made from hippo- 

 potomus hides, give him a most unmerciful 

 flagellation, in order to test his courage for 

 endurance ! Whether this is to test his cour- 

 age in war or hunting, or under the discipline 

 and torments of his new wife's tongue, does not 

 appear. Sometimes these scourgings are ex- 

 tremely severe, but the poor spouse bears it 

 all with the heroism of a martyr, while his de- 

 lighted bride smiles approvingly at every crack 

 of the cruel thong ! 



Some tribes of Esquimaux live In huts under 

 ground, where the frost penetrates the earth 

 forty or fifty feet deep ; and they have a cus- 



tom of building a hut, and when parents or 

 other relatives are aged, infirm and past ser- 

 vice, of placing them in the hut alone, with a 

 small amount of food, and leaving them there 

 to live and enjoy themselves as long as they 

 can ! A more humane custom, but hardly less 

 singular, Is, to abandon the hut entirely where 

 a person dies ! No matter how valuable It may 

 be, whether one just erected, upon which all 

 their skill and means have been expended, or 

 whether one tumbling to pieces with use and 

 age, the deceased is left there, and access to 

 the hut Is closed forever. 



In good old enlightened England, they had 

 a thousand curious customs, and it Is quite 

 singular that more of them have not descended 

 to us. A number of these customs were ob- 

 served in the month of February. One was 

 to eat pancakes and fritters on Shrove Tues- 

 day. Shrive or Shrove, we suppose, means 

 confession of sins. Taylor, the water-poet,, 

 in his works, 1630, has a curious account. 

 "Shrove Tuesday, at whose entrance In the 

 morning all the whole Kingdom is in quiet ; but' 

 by that time the clock strikes eleven, which, 

 (by the help of a knavish sexton,) is comT 

 monly before nine, then there Is a bell rung, 

 called the pancake bell, the sound whereof 

 makes thousands of people distracted, and for- 

 getful either of manners or humanitie ; then 

 there Is a thing called wheaten floure, which 

 the cookes do mingle with water, egges, spice, 

 and other tragical, magicall Inchantments ; 



