1851:
OR,
THE ADVENTURES
OF
MR. AND MRS. CURSTY SANDBOYS.
CHAPTER I.
"Come, Nichol, and gi'e us thy cracks,
I seed te gang down to the smiddy,
I've fodder'd the naigs and the nowt,
And wanted to see thee—'at did e.
Ay, Andrew, lad! draw in a stuil,
And gie us a shek o' thy daddle;
I got aw the news far and nar,
Sae set off as fast's e could waddle."
Nichol the Newsmonger.—Robert Anderson.
The Great Exhibition was about to attract sight-seers
of all the world—the sight-seers, who make up nine-tenths of
the human family. The African had mounted his ostrich. The Crisp
of the Desert had announced an excursion caravan from Zoolu to
Fez. The Yakutskian Shillibeer had already started the first reindeer
omnibus to Novogorod. Penny cargoes were steaming down Old
Nile, in Egyptian "Daylights;" and "Moonlights," while floating
from the Punjaub, and congregating down the Indus, Scindian
"Bridesmaids" and "Bachelors" came racing up the Red Sea, with
Burmese "Watermen, Nos. 9 and 12," calling at the piers of Muscat
and Aden, to pick up passengers for the Isthmus—at two-pence
a-head.
The Esquimaux had just purchased his new "registered paletot" of seal-skin from the great "sweater" of the Arctic Regions. The Hottentot Venus had already added to the graceful ebullitions of nature, the charms of a Parisian crinoline. The Yemassee was busy blueing his cheeks with the rouge of the backwoods. The Truefit of New Zealand had dressed the full buzz wig, and cut and curled the horn of the chief of the Papuas. The Botocudo had ordered a new pair of wooden ear-rings. The Maripoosan had japanned his teeth with the best Brunswick Black Odonto. The Cingalese was hard at work with a Kalydor of Cocoa-Nut-Oil, polishing himself up like a boot; and the King of Dahomey—an ebony Adam—in nankeen gaiters
