EXQUISITE CARVINGS. 
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some mysterious corner of his shop a figure more 
elaborately carved or more humorous than usual, 
which he placed in my hand with a confident air, 
as if to say ‘‘ Is it not a choice one 1 ” 
I eifher purchased from himself, or became 
through his intervention the fortunate possessor 
of many specimens of these charming gems of 
art, which are not always procurable for “boos.” 
Some of them are mythical monsters, with obese 
forms, and loose rolling balls in their capacious 
mouths ; or contorted writhing dragons, with scaly 
trunks and heads, which could have been suggested 
only by the remembrance of some hideous dream. 
Natural objects, however, are very carefully copied. 
I have a group of toadstools with the stem and 
gills exactly as in nature, and a melon with the 
netted roughness peculiar to the rind of that fruit 
most skilfully imitated. A snake which, with head 
erect, eyes glistening, and tongue protruding, has 
eaten his way through the melon, is carved with 
minute accuracy, even to the rendering of the small 
curved teeth. I have a very neat figure of a 
