To heaven for lightnings on thy rebel head.

* * * * *



THE COSMOPOLITE.


SUPERSTITIONS, FABLES, &c. RELATIVE TO ANIMALS.

(_For the Mirror_.)

A superstition prevails both in England and Scotland (Qu. Are Wales and
Ireland excepted?) that _Goats_ are never to be seen for twenty-four hours
together, owing to their paying Satan a visit once during that period, to
have their beards combed; indeed, since the classical representations of
Pan and the satyrs, from whose semi-brutal figures we derive our own
superstitious idea of the form of the evil one, goats, rams, and pongos
have shared with serpents and cats the obloquy of being in a manner his
animal symbols. The offensive smell of this animal is thus accounted for
by the natives of South Guinea:--

Having requested a female deity to allow them to use an aromatic ointment
which she used, the enraged goddess rubbed them with one of a very
different description, and the smell of this has been ever since retained
by the descendants of the presumptuous offenders.

We may here remark, that of late years some doubts have arisen, and not
without foundation, respecting the wholesomeness of goats' milk, hitherto