Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 129.djvu/774

ing their weary spirits and helping their memory." Abyssinian sentinels on night-duty keep drowsiness at a distance by chewing the leaves of the Catha edulis; Magnenus records that a soldier at the siege of Valencia, in 1636, underwent the greatest fatigue and lived without food for a week, thanks to a few quids of tobacco; and we ourselves knew a man who, when compelled to work through the night, kept himself awake and up to the mark by merely chewing tea. Tea being within everybody's reach, perhaps it would be as well if, before setting about importing coca-leaves, the medical gentlemen who have displayed such enthusiasm in behalf of coca, were to try the effect of tea and lime, and let the world know the result of the experiment.

It is surely a pity that three such important products as coca, the cocoa of the breakfast-table, and the cocoa-nut, though completely distinct both botanically and in their properties and uses, should have names so provokingly similar that most people, we believe, are puzzled to say which is which. The Erythroxylon coca of which we have been speaking has no connection with the cocoa-tree (Theobroma cacao), which yields the well-known beverage cocoa or chocolate. Equally distinct from both is the cocoa-nut palm (Cocos nucifera), the fruit of which supplies the inhabitants of many tropical coasts and islands with a great part of their food, and also furnishes the cocoa-nut oil of commerce. It is the more solid ingredient of this oil, known as cocoa-nut butter, that is so much used as an unguent when mixed with a little olive-oil to give it softness. Among the many changes of nomenclature constantly going on, could nothing be done to remedy the perplexity caused by so many diverse articles being known by names so closely resembling each other?

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REVOLUTIONARY BALLADS.

GENERAL WOLFE.

Come, all ye brave young men,
Let nothing fright you;
If they objection make,
Let that delight you.
Love, here's a ring of gold,
Long time I've kept it;
Love, here's a ring of gold,
Will you accept it?
When you the posy read,
Think on the giver;
Oh! do remember me,
Or I'm undone forever.
Now this brave hero, he
Took to the ocean,
To fight for liberty
And his promotion.
He landed at Quebec
All in a line so pretty,
On the Plains of Abraham,
Just before the city.
He landed at Quebec
With all his party,
The enemy to attack,
Being both brave and hearty.

.   .   .   .   .   .   .   .

"The victory we've won,
With all the treasure."
"Oh then," replied brave Wolfe,
"I'll die with pleasure.

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MONTGOMERY.

1.

Ye powers of melody,
Aid me while I try
To sing the great Montgomery;
For I mean to tell
How the hero fell,
Contending for his country's liberty.

2.

When Britain's tyrant first,
By an ill counsel curst,
Resolved our country to enslave,
That great, that gallant chief
Flew to our relief,
Determined to oppose the haughty knave.

3.

Through winter's snow and frost,
Abraham's Plains he crost,
Took Fort St. John, Montreal, Chambly,
Then hastened to Quebec,
Which he did attack,
There fell the great, the brave Montgomery.

4.

"See, brave Americans,
There the city stands,
To storm it I have laid the plan;
Let ladders then be placed,
To yon walls in haste,
Your general, my boys, will lead the van."

5.

Then o'er the walls he flew,
Quebec to subdue,
Regardless of his destiny;
But ah! unhappy fate,
Painful to relate,
There fell the brave, the great Montgomery.

6.

The generous Carleton then,
Called unto his men,
"My boys! my boys! Forbear! forbear!
The great Montgomery,
See where he does lie!"
Then o'er his corse he dropt a silent tear.