Menage gives
the following account of the origin of this ridiculous conceit. Dulot, (a
poet of the 17th century,) was one day complaining in a large company,
that 300 sonnets had been stolen from him. One of the company expressing
his astonishment at the number, "Oh," said he, "they are blank sonnets, or
rhymes (_bouts rimes_) of all the sonnets I may have occasion to write."
This ludicrous story produced such an effect, that it became a fashionable
amusement to compose blank sonnets, and in 1648, a quarto volume of _bouts
rimes_ was published.
* * * * *
_Poisoned Arrows_ used in Guiana are not shot from a bow, but blown
through a tube. They are made of the hard substance of the cokarito tree,
and are about a foot long, and the size of a knitting-needle. One end is
sharply pointed, and dipped in the poison of worraia, the other is
adjusted to the cavity of the reed, from which it is to be blown by a roll
of cotton. The reed is several feet in length. A single breath carries the
arrow 30 or 40 yards.
* * * * *
_Sterling Applause_.
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