A tailor of Samarcand, a city of the East, chanced to live near a gate that led to the public burying-place; and, being a fanciful fellow, he hung up by his shopboard a little earthen pot, into which he dropped a small stone, whenever a corpse was carried by. At the end of every moon, he counted the contents of the pot, and so knew the number of the deceased. At length, the tailor died himself, and, some time after, a person unacquainted with his decease, observing his shop to be deserted, inquired what had become of him. “Oh,” said a neighbor, “the tailor has _gone to pot_, as well as the rest!” And this is the origin of the phrase, “to go to pot.” Few words have so remarkable a history as the familiar word “_bankrupt_.” The money-changers of Italy had, it is said, benches or stalls in the burse or exchange, in former times, and at these they conducted their ordinary business. When any of them fell back in the world, and became insolvent, his bench was broken, and the name of broken bench, or _banco rotto_, was given him. When the word was first adopted into the English, it was nearer the Italian than it now is; being _bankerout_, instead of _bankrupt_. Though any man can put his pony to the _canter_, few are able, in general, to explain the word by which they designate the animal’s pace. The term _canter_ is a corruption, or rather an abbreviation, of a Canterbury gallop, which signifies the hand-gallop of an ambling horse. The origin of the phrase is as old as the days of the Canterbury pilgrims, when votaries came at certain seasons to the shrine of Thomas à Becket in that city, from all parts of the nation. Mail-coaches and railroads being then unknown, the pilgrims travelled on horseback, and from their generally using easy, ambling nags, the pace at which they got over the ground came to be called _a Canterbury gallop_, and afterwards _a canter_. The word _dun_ first came in use, it is said, during the reign of Henry the Seventh of England. It owes its birth to an English bailiff, by the name of _Joe Dun_, who was so indefatigable and skilful at his business of collecting debts, that it became a proverb when a person did not pay his debts, “Why don’t you _Dun_ him?” that is, “Why don’t you send _Dun_ after him?” Hence originated the word, which has so long been in universal use. [Illustration: Pelican] The Pelican. There is nothing more interesting than to study into the works of nature, and remark their infinite variety. It is also pleasing to discover in all this variety, that each individual thing is adapted to fill a particular place in the scale of creation, and that it is often adapted to its end with wonderful ingenuity. The pelican affords a striking instance of this. It is made to live the life of a fisherman, and, being endowed with a strong appetite, we shall see how well he is fitted to his vocation, and how curiously he is provided with the means of securing and storing his prey.