wind, as they are to go towards the tree before the wind; so that the effluvia from the tree is always blown from them. They go to the house of the old ecclesiastick who prepares them by prayers and admonitions for their future fate; he puts them on a long leathern cap with two glasses before their eyes, which comes down as far as their breast; and also provides them with a pair of leather gloves. They are conducted by the priest, and their friends, and relations, about two miles on their journey. The old Ecclesiastick assured me that in upwards of thirty years, he had dismissed above seven hundred criminals in the manner described, and that scarcely two out of twenty have returned. All the Malayans consider this tree as an holy instrument of the great prophet to punish the sins of mankind, and, therefore, to die of the poison of the Upas is generally considered among them as an honourable death. This, however, is certain, that from fifteen to eighteen miles round this tree, not only no human creature can exist, but no animal of _any kind_ has ever been discovered, there are no fish in the waters, and when any birds fly so near this tree that the effluvia reaches them, they drop down dead. DEATH CAUSED BY SUPERSTITION. In Hamburg, in 1784, a singular accident occasioned the death of a young couple. The lady going to the church of the Augustin Friars, knelt down near a Mausoleum, ornamented with divers figures in marble, among which was that of Death, armed with a scythe, a small piece of the scythe being loose, fell on the hood of the lady's mantelet. On her return home, she mentioned the circumstance as a matter of indifference to her husband, who, being a credulous and superstitious man, cried out in a terrible panic, that it was a presage of the death of his dear wife. The same day he was seized with a violent fever, took to his bed, and died. The disconsolate lady was so affected at the loss, that she was taken ill, and soon followed him. They were both interred in the same grave; and their inheritance, which was very considerable, fell to some very distant relations. ST. PAUL AND THE VIPER.--THE CHURCH AT MALTA. Not far from the old city of Valetta, in the island of Malta, there is a small church dedicated to St. Paul, and just by the church, a miraculous statue of the Saint with a viper on his hand; supposed to be placed on the very spot on which he was received after his shipwreck on this island, and where he shook the viper off his hand into the fire, without being hurt by it. At which time the Maltese assure us, the Saint cursed all the venomous animals of the island, and banished them for ever; just as St. Patrick treated those of his favourite isle. Whether this be the cause of it or not, we shall leave to divines to determine, though if it had, St. Luke would probably have mentioned it in the Acts of the Apostles; but the fact is certain, that there are no venomous animals in Malta. THE FIRST HERMITS--WHY SO-CALLED.