set grew up, in place of one of the cheek teeth, a tooth of gold.

Hortius, professor of medicine in the University of Helmstadt, became so convinced of the truth of the story, that he wrote a history of this tooth; in which he affirms, that it was partly natural and in part miraculous, and· that it had been sent by heaven to that child-to console the poor Christians oppressed by the Turks.

Hortius, however, was but one historian of the tooth; for, in the same year that this work appeared, Rollandus penned another history of it. Two years after, Inegostirus, another learned man, wrote in opposition to Rollandus, respecting the golden tooth, who failed not to make a very elaborate and scientific reply. Another great man, Libarius, collected all that had been said on the tooth, and added his own peculiar doctrine :- "Nothing was wanting to the so many fine works, but the proof, that the tooth was really of gold." A goldsmith at length was called upon to examine it; who discovered that it was only a bit of leaf gold, applied to the tooth with considerable address. Their books were first composed, and then the goldsmith was consulted.-Fontenelle.

MEXICAN SUPERSTITIONS.

Captain Lyon, in his Journal, states that, at San Luis Potosi, a physician was called to the assistance of a poor labourer with a ruptured blood-vessel. Ice was

the only remedy known to stop the flow of blood, and none could be obtained until a priest should be sent for to confess the sufferer before he died. What then was to be done?-it was but too certain that the man would soon expire, unless means were found to arrest the effusion. The physician therefore had no resource but

to sew up the poor wretch's mouth and nostrils; but

even before the host could be sent for, the miserable creature was, very naturally, suffocated.

In the Church of San Francisco, in the same enlightened place on the walls were hung a series of pictures descriptive of the life and actions of San Francisco. The saint is hungry, and our Saviour is seen sitting at table with and helping him to the viands, while an angel brings him water to quench his thirst. He is represented, after his death, as sitting on the left hand of the Almighty, who is pictured as an aged man, having on his right the Redeemer and the Virgin Mary. Some of the supposed miracles and conferences with the Divinity are beyond all description blasphemous; and the friars informed me at the same time triumphantly pointing to a painting of the event-that the saint had procured from God's own mouth the entire pardon of the sins of the world, as fully as was granted to Christ himself; but that the Pope of the age in which San Francisco lived, would not confirm the grant, and that mankind in consequence had been left in their blindness and sin!

Here Captain L. lost his faithful servant Marriot. "In closing the eyes of poor Marriot," says he, "I lost an invaluable servant and friend. In this land of bigotry the

G

poor fellow would have been denied a grave, had I not, when he was dead, sent for a priest, who, however, on arriving, turned unfeelingly to me, exclaiming, 'Umph! he has died without confession-his soul is lost, and it will be needless for me to see him.' Yet my having called in a priest was sufficient declaration that the deceased was a Catholic; and I found no difficulty in having him interred in the Campo Santo, with the ceremonies of the Catholic church."

THE PURIFYING WELL.

The Irish common people have the following very convenient mode of cleansing themselves from their sins:" Thence he conducted us to the Holy Well, a short distance beyond the demesne of his mistress. This well is a spring of fine clear water, surrounded with bushes of thorn and bramble. Here the Catholics come to do penance for their sins. The commencement of the ceremony is, the act of throwing a stone into the well; and in proportion to the quantity of bubble arising from the concussion, they consider themselves in favour with their Saint. Secondly, they go three times round its stony margin upon their bare knees; and afterwards tearing a rag from their abundantly ragged garments, they hang it upon an adjoining bush, as a testimony of the sincerity of their repentance. Innumerable rags were fastened upon these bushes; and I perceived, that to one was attached a lock of hair torn from the roots.

the friar's bed

Finally, they extend themselves for half an hour upon —a cairn of stones in the vicinity of the well; and then (enviable beings!) they go away, happy in the conviction that they are purified from their sins." Notes of a Journey in the North of Ireland, in the Summer of 1827. 8vo.

EFFIGY BEATING.

Judas is a particular object of execration on Good Friday, in the Spanish and Portuguese navy. An eyewitness relates the annexed occurrence at Monte Video.

"The three last days had been kept as days of sorrow; all the ships in the harbour expressed it by having their colours hoisted only half-mast high, as a token of mourning, and the yards crossed as much as possible, to make them resemble a crucifix; while apparent solemnity prevailed both on shore and in harbour: but immediately on a signal, when the minute arrived, all being in waiting, the yards were squared, the colours hoisted wholly up, and the guns fired from all the ships in the harbour, while the bells on shore were set ringing promiscuously, as fast as possible. And at the bowsprit or yard-arm of the ships was suspended an effigy of Judas, which they began to dip in the river, acting with the greatest possible enthusiasm and ridiculous madness; beating it on the shoulders, dipping it, and then renewing their former ridiculous conduct.”Gregory's Journal of a captured Missionary.

THE VIRGIN, WHO SAW WITH MARBLE EYES.

This, till then unheard of prodigy, occurred at Florence in 1796, and was attested by more than eighty thousand ocular witnesses, and by legal inquiries. A true account of it was published at the printer Sartori's, on the 6th of July, by order of his Eminence the Cardinal Bishop Ranuzzi, of happy memory. Besides this, the actual deputy, the Canon Betti, made it a holy duty to transmit this fact to posterity, by means of an inscription engraven upon stone, and which, for the purpose of preserving the recollection of it for ever, was placed in the cathedral.

On the 25th of November, 1796, was finished the procès verbal which had been drawn up of the proofs of this miracle, under the strictest regulations.

The Pope, by his brief of the 22nd of November, had just instituted a pious brotherhood in honour of this image, under the name of the Sons and Daughters of Maria. In fact, after this miracle it was found impossible to close the church for twelve successive nights so great was the concourse of people attracted by the prodigy.

If still more specific proofs be required, they are here:-On the 6th of July, three painters, and the Vicar Pacifici, the notary M. François Vallaca, and the attorney Bonavia, accompanied by several witnesses taken from the class of the canons, by many noblemen and some foreigners, went to examine the manner in