350 OF THE HORN OF PLENTY. 



character, or at weddings, and even at funerals. 

 In fact, the number and size of the jars of ale 

 provided for the company indicates the importance 

 of the feast, or the wealth of the entertainer, whilst 

 no one to whom the cornucopccia of ancient 

 mythology is familiar, but detects at once, the 

 origin of that poetical appendage to divinity, as he 

 contemplates the parties engaged in celebrating 

 these jovial meetings. Every one bearing in his 

 hand, a deep drinking-horn, varying in length, 

 from a long span to more than half a cubit, which, 

 as he drains its contents, is handed to the servants in 

 charge of the jars of tallah, who quickly replenish 

 it, and return it to the thirsty soul. Each reveller 

 keeps to his own rude flagon, and nothing could 

 more strikingly typify agricultural wealth and 

 rustic happiness, than the representation of one of 

 these drinking horns ; and which, ornamented and 

 embellished by Grecian and Latin poets, still I 

 believe to have been the original of the famous 

 horn of plenty ; probably derived from some 

 Egyptian hieroglyphic, which well expressed the con- 

 dition of man it appears so naturally to characterize. 



