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suls, and principal Magistrates of the Republic; but this practice was gradually extended to those of people of inferior rank; so that at length, several private persons ordered exhibitions of this kind in their latter wills, and we have in stances of gladiators fighting even at the funerals of women. When it was observed by the number of spectators, that the people took great pleasure in such entertainments, the gladiators were regularly taught to fight; they were carefully trained and exercised, and the profession of instructing them became an astonishing art, of which there had never before been any example. Different kinds of arms, and different methods) of combating were invented for them. Some were made to fight in chariots, some on horseback, and others in troops; some had no offensive arms, others were clad in complete armour, and some had only a buckler to protect their bodies; some had a sword, a poignard, a cutlass, others fought with two poignards, or two cutlasses; some combated only in the morning, others in the afternoon; in short, they were distinguished by various names, according to their names and destination. First, the Secutores, whose were arms, and a kind of club, headed with lead. Secondly, the Thracians, who had a cutlass or scimitar, like the people of Thrace, from whom they had their name. Thirdly, the Myrmillones, who were armed with a buckler and scythe, and wore the figure of a fish on their helmet. The Romans gave them the nick-name of Gauls. Fourthly, the Retiarii, who borc a trident in one hand, and a net in the other they combated in a tunic, or jacket, and pursued a Myrmillo, crying out, "It is not thee, O Gaul, that I seek, but thy fish." Non peto te Galle, sed piscem peto. Fifthly, the Hoplomachi, who were completely armed as their name indicates, which is derived from the Greek. Sixthly, the Provocatores, the adversaries of the Hoplomachi; these were armed in the same manner as the former. Seventhly, the Dimachari, who fought with a poignard in each hand. Eighthly, the Essedarii, who always fought in chariots. Besides these, there were the Anabatæ, who fought on horseback, having their eyes blindfolded either with a bandage, or with the armour of the head, which covered the whole visage.

(To be Continued.)

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The Amusing Chronicle is published at No. 6, Gilbert's Passage, Portugál Street, and served at the houses of the subscribers, in the same manner as newspapers and magazines.

G. Stobbs, Printer, Catherine Street, Strand.

AMUSING CHRONICLE, a Weekly Repository for

MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE.

No. XVII.]

JANUARY 11, 1817. [VOL. II.

Price only Four Pence,

HEBREW DESCENT OF THE ABYSSINIANS.

In reading the xxxvth chapter of Jeremiah, and meeting with the name Habaziniah as the chief of the house of the Rechabites, and reflecting on the commands given by Jonadab their father to his sons (which they had faithfully observed), and comparing them with the name, language, and customs of the Abyssinians, as mentioned by Ludolf, Bruce, and others; and more particularly from observing the evident analogy between the name of this son of Jonadab, and that of the country of Abyssinia; I was strongly impressed with the idea, that the Abyssinians might be originally of this family, and that the house of Jonadab, the son of Rechab who was never to want a man to stand before the Lord, might probably be found in Abyssinia at this day, I now trouble you with a few thoughts on this subject, and shall feel obliged by the opinion of any of your learned correspondents, and further information concerning it.

In the xxxvth ch. of Jeremiah, or in the days of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, King of Judah, and of Jeremiah the Prophet, we read of his house as then existing; and mention is made of the heads of three generations from him, namely of Jaazaniah, the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habaziniah; and of the sons of the third, viz. of Jaaziniah, making the fourth generation, ver. 1, 2: and of these three chiefs of the house of their fathers, Habaziniah seems the first in descent from Jonadab, and to be the person to whom the commandments were given. He was therefore the head of the house of Jonadab, and having obeyed the commands of his father, he transmitted them to his posterity to be kept in like manner: and as these commands (which were accompanied with a proposed advantage from the observance of them) were first given by Jonadab to his son Habaziniah, the latter became the beginning or head of all following generations, who should

MACPHERSON, PRINTER, RUSSELL COURT, COVENT GARDEN

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continue to obey their father Jonadab. Is it not probable that his name might be retained by his posterity as the patronymic name of the house of Rechab? Can they be found, at this day, under this name, in any nation, tribe, or people? Is not the country of Abyssinia named from this house?

In the 35th chapter of Jeremiah it is reported, that in the days of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, King of Judah, Jeremiah was commissioned to go to the house of the Rechabites, and to bring them into a chamber of the house of the Lord, and to give them wine to drink. The Prophet having offered them pots full of wine, they answered, "We will drink no wine, for Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us saying, 'Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever; neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents, that ye may live many days in the land, where ye be strangers.' Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he hath charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters; nor to build houses for us to dwell in; neither have we field, nor vineyard, nor seed; but we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. But it came to pass when Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, came up into the land, that we said, 'Come, let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians; so we dwell at Jerusalem."

How good and how pleasant is this account of filial veneration, affection, and obedience! The children of Jonadab, even to the fourth generation, are found walking in the commandments of their father.

God, wishing to instruct the Jews, having contrasted the obedience of the sons of Jonadab with their disobedience, is pleased to bestow a gracious promise upon the house of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, as the reward of their obedience; while punishment is denounced against Judah and Jerusalem, for their contempt of the divine commands. The promise ran thus "Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according to all that he hath commanded you; therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab, the son of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before me for ever :" 18th and 19th verses.

Are we not warranted, in faith of this promise, to look for the family of Jonadab at this day? Do they not now live in Abyssinia Is not this worthy of inquiry?

An Account of a Man's standing the Shot of a Cannon at a small distance; with the Method of doing it with safety.

I WAS a few days since in company with a person who affirm ed he had the secret of doing a thing I have often heard of, but hitherto always imagined was impossible :-that is, standing the shot of a cannon charged with a proper ball, and full quantity of powder, at the distance of only ten yards. A set of us who were together, on his positively asserting this, against all our objections to the possibility of it, offered, in short, to procure a cannon, and powder and ball, if he dared put it in execution; to which he readily consented; and the next day we got an iron gun, a nine pounder, a bullet of that weight, and the quantity of powder for a charge.

All that he required, was to have the charge of the gun himself, which when he had done, he placed himself at ten yards distance, strait before the muzzle, and desired one of us to fire it. We were a good deal surprised at his confidence, but unwilling to be accessary to his losing his life by his rashness, desired him to stand from before the cannon, and only place his hand to receive the bullet; this he did, and I fired it myself: the loudness of the report gave us no room to doubt but that he had put in the full charge of powder we gave him, but to our amazement and sur- prise, we saw him stop the ball with his hand; the ball fell directly down, in short, and he received no hurt. Some of the company judged he had done this by putting in a false ball made of hollow pasteboard, but on examining it, we found it the very bullet we had given him, so that it was plain that there was no cheat.

On the whole, after a thousand random guesses about the way in which this was done, the man offered, for a certain sum of money to tell us the secret, which we joined to purchase, and found it to be this.

When you have the proper quantity of powder for a charge, put a very little of it into the cannon, then put in the ball, and over it put in the best of the powder, then put in the wadding, and ram it down hard as usual; this is the whole mystery; and a cannon thus charged will not carry the bullet twenty yards. The report of the cannon this way is as loud as any other, for all the powder is fired, the bullet not filling the barrel so exactly as to hinder its catching, and the effect of the ball is almost nothing, because the ball is only thrown forward by the small quantity of

powder that is below it, that which is above rather driving it back than forward.

When we had purchased the secret, we tried it several times, firing against thin deal boards, without hurting them, and, for the fear of accidents, that, I think, is much the best way of making the experiment: and, as I thought it no little curiosity, I judged it might not be unwelcome to your Readers.

FATAL EFFECTS OF DESPAIR..

LOUISA DE BAUMELLE, a young lady in one of the richest provinces in France, well born, and well educated, had a sufficient number of personal charms, and mental accomplishments to secure a train of admirers-of professional lovers; among whom there were not a few who figured to great advantage in her eyes, but the Chevalier de Molu, a brave officer in the service of his sovercign, and a finished gentleman in every respect, was the only man who made an impression upon her heart. The Chevalier was, indeed, very happily formed to make himself thoroughly agreeable to the fair sex, and he was, of course, distinguished in the most flattering manner, by several females, in the first line of Cytherean attraction; but Louisa alone was mistress of his affections. Louisa was not a beauty, in a rigorous sense of the word, but she had so many ways of pleasing, peculiar to herself, that she always saw a crowd of smart fellowa round her, whenever she appeared in a fashonable circle of the

two seexs.

As the Chevalier was a man of the nicest honour, in love as well as in war, the addresses which he made to Louisa, as soon as he found that she was absolutely necessary to his domestic happiness, were listened to with the most pointed attention, and accepted in a manner which increased the felicity of the moment; as he had all the reason in the world to believe, that the fair one to whom he was particularly partial, felt the strongest prepos session in his favour.

When matters between two lovers are in this pleasant situation, they are soon productive of matrimonial preparations; and such prepartions were soon made for the union of Chevalier de Molu and Louisa de Baumelle: but, in the midst of them, they met with a dissappointment which gave a severe check to their spirited operations, and threw a sudden gloom over the scene before them, which the Chevalier, with all his vivacity, was not able to dissipate, and which affected Louisa so deeply that she was almost driven into a state of despondence.

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