Mountain Travelling in South America. * * * * * * 401 the Andes; yet, it is truly amusing to watch the nose and mouth of a mule when his eyes are blinded, and his ears pressed down upon his neck in the poncho. Every movement which is made about him, either to arrange his saddle or his load, is resented by a curl of his nose and upper-lip, which, in ten thousand wrinkles, is expressive beyond description, of every thing that is vicious and spiteful: he appears to be planning all sorts of petty schemes of revenge, and as soon as the poncho is taken off, generally begins to put some of them into execution, either by running, with his load, against some other mule, or by kicking him. However, as soon as he finds that his burden is not to be got rid of, he dismisses or perhaps conceals his resentment, and in stantly assumes a look of patience and resignation. * * * * "As I was looking up at the region of snow, and as my mule was scrambling along the steep side of the rock, the captain overtook me, and asked me if I chose to come on, as he was going to look at a very dangerous part of the road, which we were approaching, to see if it was passable, before the mules came to it. In half an hour we arrived at the spot. It is the worst Pass in the whole road over the Cordillera Mountains. The mountain above appears almost perpendicular, and in one continued slope down to a rapid torrent that is raging underneath. The surface is covered with loose earth and stones, which have been brought down by the waters. The path goes across this slope, and is very bad for about seventy yards, being only a few inches broad; but the point of danger is a spot, where the water, which comes down from the top of the mountain, either washes the path away, or covers it over with loose stones. In some places, the rock almost touches one's shoulder, while the precipice is immediately under the opposite foot, and high above head, are a number of loose stones, which appear as if the slightest touch would send them rolling into the torrent beneath, which is foaming and running with great violence. As soon as we had crossed the Pass, which is only seventy yards long, the captain told me it was a very bad place for baggage mules; that four hundred had been lost there; and that we should probably also lose one. He said, that he could get down to the water at a place about a hundred yards off, and wait there with his lasso, to catch any mule that might fall into the torrent; and he requested me to lead on his mule. However, I resolved to see the tumble, if there was to be one, so the captain took away my mule and his own, and while I stood on a projecting rock, at the end of the Pass, he scrambled down on foot, till he got to the level of the water. "The drove of mules now came in sight, one following another: a few were carrying no burdens, but the rest were either mounted or heavily laden. As soon as the leading mule came to the commencement of the Pass, he stopped, evidently unwilling to proceed, and of course all the rest stopped also. "He was the finest mule we had, and on that account, had twice as much to carry as any of the others. With his nose to the ground, literally smelling his way, he walked gently on, often changing the position of his feet, if he found the ground would not bear, until he came to the bad part of the Pass, when he stopped; but the peons threw stones at him, and he continued his path in safety, and several others followed. "At length, a young mule, carrying a portmanteau, with two large sacks of provisions, and many other things, in passing the bad point, struck his load against the rock, which knocked his two hind-legs over the precipice, and the loose stones immediately began to roll away from under them: however, his fore-legs were still upon the narrow path: he had no room to put his head there, but he placed his nose on the path to his left, and appeared to hold on by his mouth: his perilous fate was soon decided by a loose mule, who, in walking along after him, knocked his comrade's nose off the path, destroyed his balance, and head over heels the poor creature instantly commenced a fall, which was really quite terrific. With all his baggage firmly lashed to him, he rolled down the steep slope, until he came to the part which was perpendicular, and then he seemed to bound off, and turning round in the air, fell into the deep torrent, on his back, and upon his baggage, and instantly disappeared." To any other animal but a mule, this fall must have been fatal; he was carried down by the stream in spite of all his efforts, and, turning the corner of a rock, was given up for lost. "At length," the author continues, "I saw at a distance a solitary mule walking towards us! We instantly perceived that he was the Phaeton whose fall we had just witnessed, and in a few moments he came up to us to join his comrades. He was, of course, dripping wet, his eye looked dull, and his whole countenance was dejected, but none of his bones were broken: he was very little cut, and the bulletin of his health was altogether incredible." HAPPINESS. It is a happy world after all. The air, the earth, the water, teem with delighted existence. In a spring noon, or a summer evening, on whichever side I turn my eyes, myriads of happy beings crowd upon my view. "The insect youth are on the wing." Swarms of new-born flies are trying their pinions in the air. Their sportive motions, their wanton mazes, their gratuitous activity, their continual change of place without use or purpose, testify their joy, and the exultation which they feel in their lately-discovered faculties. A bee amongst the flowers in spring, is one of the most cheerful objects that can be looked upon. Its life appears to be all enjoyment; so busy, and so pleased; yet it is only a specimen of insect life, with which, by reason of the animal being half domesticated, we happen to be better acquainted than we are with that of others. Other species are running about, with an alacrity in their motions, which carries with it every mark of pleasure. Large patches of ground are sometimes half co vered with these brisk and sprightly natures. If we look to what the waters produce, shoals of the fry of fish frequent the margins of rivers, of lakes, and of the sea itself. These are so happy, that they know not what to do with themselves. Their attitudes, their vivacity, their leaps out of the water, their frolics in it (which I have noticed a thousand times with equal attention and amusement,) all conduce to show their excess of spirits, and are simply the effects of that excess. Walking by the sea-side, in a calm evening, upon a sandy shore, and with an ebbing tide I have frequently remarked the appearance of a dark cloud, or rather, very thick mist, hanging over the edge of the water, to the height, perhaps, of half a yard, and of the breadth of two or three yards, stretching along the coast as far as the eye could reach, and always returning with the water. When this cloud came to be examined, it proved to be nothing else than so much space, filled with young shrimps, in the act of bounding into the air from the shallow margin of the water, or from the wet sand. If any motion of a mute animal could express delight it was this: if they had meant to make signs of their happiness they could not have done it more intelligibly. Suppose then, what I have no doubt of, each individual of this number to be in a state of positive enjoyment; what a sum, collectively, of gratification and pleasure have we here before our view. SUPERSTITIONS. THERE would appear to exist naturally in the human mind, a disposition to attach notions of good or of evil to those objects which have been observed to precede, or to accompany pleasurable or painful occurrences; hence the origin of many superstitious opinions. From such association of ideas many animals were anciently worshipped, either as gods or evil spirits; and even at a later period, when their worship was rejected as profane or useless, they were still considered es indicators of evil or of good. Many of these superstitions origi nated in the observance of facts, ascribable to atmosphe- Among all the birds of evil report among the ancients, the owl stands foremost, as being the one most generally regarded as the harbinger of mischief and of death. Pliny the natural historian, represents the large eared or horned owl, strix bubo, as a funeral bird, the monitor of the night,the abomination of human kind. And Virgil describes its death howl from the temple by night; a circumstance introduced by the poet as a precursor of the death of Dido. Ovid constantly speaks of the presence of this 1 |