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was the town poet. He undoubtedly had a few verses in his pocket for the present occasion. He was nearly as old as Johann Buddenbrook, and dressed in much the same style except that his coat was green instead of mouse-coloured. But he was thinner and more active than his old friend, with bright little greenish eyes and a long pointed nose.

“Many thanks,” he said, shaking hands with the gentlemen and bowing before the ladies—especially the Frau Consul, for whom he entertained a deep regard. Such hows as his it was not given to the younger generation to perform; and he accompanied them with his pleasant quiet smile. “Many thanks for your kind invitation, my dear good people. We met these two young ones, the Doctor and I”—he pointed to Tom and Christian, in their blue tunics and leather belts—“in King Street, coming home from school. Fine lads, eh, Frau Consul? Tom is a very solid chap. He’ll have to go into the business, no doubt of that. But Christian is a devil of a fellow—a young incroyable, hey? I will not conceal my engouement. He must study, I think—he is witty and brilliant.”

Old Buddenbrook used his gold snuff-box. “He’s a young monkey, that’s what he is. Why not say at once that he is to be a poet, Hoffstede?”

Mamsell Jungmann drew the curtains, and soon the room was bathed in mellow flickering light from the candles in the crystal chandelier and the sconces on the writing-desk. It lighted up golden gleams in the Frau Consul’s hair.

“Well, Christian,” she said, “what did you learn to-day?” It appeared that Christian had had writing, arithmetic, and

RV 10 (10)


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 An early stage of that degeneration would be represented by total incapacity to help ourselves;—then we should begin to lose the use of our higher sense-organs;—later on, the brain would shrink to a vanishing pin-point of matter;—still later we should dwindle into mere amorphous sacs, mere blind stomachs. Such would be the physical consequence of that kind of divine love which we so lazily wish for. The longing for perpetual bliss in perpetual peace might well seem a malevolent inspiration from the Lords of Death and Darkness. All life that feels and thinks has been, and can continue to be, only as the product of struggle and pain,—only as the outcome of endless battle with the Powers of the Universe. And cosmic law is uncompromising. Whatever organ ceases to know pain,—whatever faculty ceases to be used under the stimulus of pain,—must also cease to exist. Let pain and its effort be suspended, and life must shrink back, first into protoplasmic shapelessness, thereafter into dust.

Buddhism—which, in its own grand way, is a doctrine of evolution—rationally proclaims its heaven but a higher stage of development through

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 "I see," said Poirot. "In that case, as you said before, he would not be likely to attempt to hold any communication with Madame Kettering."

The little man fell silent for some time. Van Aldin did not interrupt his meditation.


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 pain, and teaches that even in paradise the cessation of effort produces degradation. With equal reasonableness it declares that the capacity for pain in the superhuman world increases always in proportion to the capacity for pleasure. (There is little fault to be found with this teaching from a scientific standpoint,—since we know that higher evolution must involve an increase of sensitivity to pain.) In the Heavens of Desire, says the Shōbō-nen-jō-kyō, the pain of death is so great that all the agonies of all the hells united could equal but one-sixteenth part of such pain.

The foregoing comparison is unnecessarily strong; but the Buddhist teaching about heaven is in substance eminently logical. The suppression of pain—mental or physical,—in any conceivable state of sentient existence, would necessarily involve the suppression also of pleasure;—and certainly all progress, whether moral or material,


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RV 11 (BUDDENBROOKS) singing lessons. He was a boy of seven, who already resembled his father to an almost comic extent. He had the same rather small round deep-set eyes and the same prominent aquiline nose; the lines of his face below the cheek-bones showed that it would not always retain its present child-like fulness.

“We’ve been laughing dreadfully,” he began to prattle, his eyes darting from one to another of the circle. “What do you think Herr Stengel said to Siegmund Kostermann?” He bent his back, shook his head, and declaimed impressively: “ ‘Outwardly, outwardly, my dear child, you are sleek and smooth; but inwardly, my dear child, you are black and foul.’. . .” He mimicked with indescribably funny effect not only the master’s odd pronunciation but the look of disgust on his face at the “outward sleekness” he described. The whole company burst out laughing.

“Young monkey!” repeated old Buddenbrook. But Herr Hoffstede was in ecstasies. “Charmant!” he cried. “If you know Marcellus Stengel—that’s he, to the life. Oh, that’s too good!”

Thomas, to whom the gift of mimicry had been denied, stood near his younger brother and laughed heartily, without a trace of envy. His teeth were not very good, being small and yellowish. His nose was finely chiselled, and he strikingly resembled his grandfather in the eyes and the shape of the face.

The company had for the most part seated themselves on the chairs and the sofa. They talked with the children or discussed the unseasonable cold and the new house. Herr Hoffstede admired a beautiful Sèvres inkstand, in the shape of a black and white hunting dog, that stood on the secretary. Doctor Grabow, a man of about the Consul’s age, with a long mild face between thin whiskers, was looking at the table, set out with cakes and currant bread and salt-cellars in different shapes. This was the “bread and salt” that had been sent by friends for the house warming; but the

RV 11 (11)


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 was seized with a panic; some escaped through a door into the Place du Carrousel; those who remained were cut to pieces by the mob, who stripped the bodies naked and adorned themselves with fragments of the uniforms and helmets torn from the dead soldiers. This dreadful scene, combined with the subsequent loss of his fortune and position, affected Gordon's mind, and he seems never to have recovered from its effects. In his distress he "conceived the idea of turning this new flute to account in order to re-establish himself by performing on it in the principal towns of Europe; then he intended to patent his invention, and to establish manufactories and introduce this beautiful instrument to the musical world." Accordingly in 1831 he visited London, where flutes were made for him by Rudall & Rose, and also by Cornelius Ward. The latter, though a partisan of Gordon's claims, says that he "was considered to be of unsound mind He was generally treated with consideration on that account, but very little attention was paid to his flute-mania, such being the light in which his views respecting the flute were regarded." Böhm happened to be in London at the same time, also at work on improving the flute; Gordon made his acquaintance, and they showed each other their respective attempts. Böhm tells us that he considered Gordon's flute very different in its construction from other flutes, that it had a ring and crescent key, and that the keys and levers were ingeniously conceived, but too complicated ever to be of much advantage; moreover, it was made in defiance of the principles


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 depends upon the power to meet and to master pain. In a silkworm-paradise such as our mundane instincts lead us to desire, the seraph freed from the necessity of toil, and able to satisfy his every want at will, would lose his wings at last, and sink back to the condition of a grub

I told the substance of my revery to Niimi. He used to be a great reader of Buddhist books.

“Well,” he said, “I was reminded of a queer Buddhist story by the proverb that you asked me to explain,—The silkworm-moth eyebrow of a woman is the axe that cuts down the wisdom of man. According to our doctrine, the saying would be as true of life in heaven as of life upon earth This is the story:—

“When Shaka dwelt in this world, one of his disciples, called Nanda, was bewitched by the beauty of a woman; and Shaka desired to save him from the results of this illusion. So he took


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 Nanda to a wild place in the mountains where there were apes, and showed him a very ugly female ape, and asked him:—‘Which is the more beautiful, Nanda,—the woman that you love, or this female ape?’ ‘Oh, Master!’ exclaimed Nanda,—‘how can a lovely woman be compared with an ugly ape?’ ‘Perhaps you will presently find reason to make the comparison yourself,’ answered the Buddha;—and instantly by supernatural power he ascended with Nanda to the San-jūsan-Ten, which is the Second of the Six Heavens of Desire. There, within a palace of jewels, Nanda saw a multitude of heavenly maidens celebrating some festival with music and dance; and the beauty of the least among them incomparably exceeded that of the fairest woman of earth. ‘O Master,’ cried Nanda, ‘what wonderful festival is this?’ ‘Ask some of those people,’ responded Shaka. So Nanda questioned one of the celestial maidens; and she said to him:—‘This festival is to celebrate the good tidings that have been brought to us. There is now in the human world, among the disciples of Shaka, a most excellent youth called Nanda, who is soon to be reborn into this heaven, and to become our bridegroom, because of his holy life. We wait for him with


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RV 12 (BUDDENBROOKS) “bread” consisted of rich, heavy pastries, and the salt came in dishes of massive gold, that the senders might not seem to be mean in their gifts.

“There will be work for me here,” said the Doctor, pointing to the sweetmeats and threatening the children with his glance. Shaking his head, he picked up a heavy salt and pepper stand from the table.

“From Lebrecht Kröger,” said old Buddenbrook, with a grimace. “Our dear kinsman is always open-handed. I did not spend as much on him when he built his summer house outside the Castle Gate. But he has always been like that—very lordly, very free with his money, a real cavalier à-la-mode. . . .”

The bell had rung several times. Pastor Wunderlich was announced; a stout old gentleman in a long black coat and powdered hair. He had twinkling grey eyes set in a face that was jovial if rather pale. He had been a widower for many years, and considered himself a bachelor of the old school, like Herr Gratjens, the broker, who entered with him. Herr Gratjens was a tall man who went around with one of his thin hands up to his eye like a telescope, as if he were examining a painting. He was a well-known art connoisseur.

Among the other guests were Senator Doctor Langhals and his wife, both friends of many years’ standing; and Köppen the wine-merchant, with his great crimson face between enormous padded sleeves. His wife, who came with him, was nearly as stout as he.

It was after half past four when the Krögers put in an appearance—the elders together with their children; the Consul Krögers with their sons Jacob and Jürgen, who were about the age of Tom and Christian. On their heels came the parents of Frau Consul Kröger, the lumber-dealer Överdieck and his wife, a fond old pair who still addressed each other in public with nicknames from the days of their early love.

“Fine people come late,” said Consul Buddenbrook, and kissed his mother-in-law’s hand. RV 12 (12)


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 rejoicing.’ This reply filled the heart of Nanda with delight. Then the Buddha asked him:—‘Is there any one among these maidens, Nanda, equal in beauty to the woman with whom you have been in love?’ ‘Nay, Master!’ answered Nanda;—‘even as that woman surpassed in beauty the female ape that we saw on the mountain, so is she herself surpassed by even the least among these.’

“Then the Buddha immediately descended with Nanda to the depths of the hells, and took him into a torture-chamber where myriads of men and women were being boiled alive in great caldrons, and otherwise horribly tormented by devils. Then Nanda found himself standing before a huge vessel which was filled with molten metal;—and he feared and wondered because this vessel had as yet no occupant. An idle devil sat beside it, yawning. ‘Master,’ Nanda inquired of the Buddha, ‘for whom has this vessel been prepared?’ ‘Ask the devil,’ answered Shaka. Nanda did so; and the devil said to him:—‘There is a man called Nanda,—now one of Shaka’s disciples,—about to be reborn into one of the heavens, on account of his former good actions. But after having there indulged himself, he is to be reborn


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RV 13 (BUDDENBROOKS) “But look at them when they do come!” and Johann Buddenbrook included the whole Kröger connection with a sweeping gesture, and shook the elder Kröger by the hand. Lebrecht Kröger, the cavalier à-la-mode, was a tall, distinguished figure. He wore his hair slightly powdered, but dressed in the height of fashion, with a double row of jewelled buttons on his velvet waistcoat. His son Justus, with his turned-up mustache and small beard, was very like the father in figure and manner, even to the graceful easy motions of the hands.

The guests did not sit down, but stood about awaiting the principal event of the evening and passing the time in casual talk. At length, Johann Buddenbrook the older offered his arm to Madame Köppen and said in an elevated voice, “Well, mesdames et messieurs, if you are hungry. . .”

Mamsell Jungmann and the servant had opened the folding-doors into the dining-room; and the company made its way with studied ease to table. One could be sure of a good square meal at the Buddenbrooks’.

RV 13 (13)


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 of acoustics, and was out of tune. Böhm's new flute appeared in 1832. Early in 1833 Gordon went to Munich specially to obtain the assistance of one of Böhm's most skilful workmen, whose services, as well as a private workshop, were generously placed at his disposal by Böhm, who himself was in London at the time. In July 1833 Gordon wrote to Mercier in Paris, sending him copies of a prospectus of a new flute which he had made in Munich, after destroying several previous attempts by continual alterations (Page 51, Figs, 1 and 2). This prospectus was also circulated in Germany and in London. Gordon in his scale for this flute, published in 1834, himself states that it contained two of Böhm's keys (F♯ and D shake) by Böhm's express permission. Gordon again visited London, but his new flute failed to attract public attention; and, as his widow says, being very shy, without introductions or knowledge of the world, his pecuniary resources were exhausted, and he returned ill and disheartened to


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the party began to move toward the dining-room, Consul Buddenbrook’s hand went to his left breast-pocket and fingered a paper that was inside. The polite smile had left his face, giving place to a strained and care-worn look, and the muscles stood out on his temples as he clenched his teeth. For appearance’s sake he made a few steps toward the dining-room, but stopped and sought his mother’s eye as she was leaving the room on Pastor Wunderlich’s arm, among the last of her guests.

“Pardon me, dear Herr Pastor. . . just a word with you, Mamma.” The Pastor nodded gaily, and the Consul drew his Mother over to the window of the landscape-room.

“Here is a letter from Gotthold,” he said in low, rapid tones. He took out the sealed and folded paper and looked into her dark eyes. “That is his writing. It is the third one, and Papa answered only the first. What shall I do? It came at two o’clock, and I ought to have given it to him already, but I do not like to upset him to-day. What do you think? I could call him out here. . . ”

“No, you are right, Jean; it is better to wait,” said Madame Buddenbrook. She grasped her son’s arm with a quick, habitual movement. “What do you suppose is in it?” she added uneasily. “The boy won’t give in. He’s taken it into his head he must be compensated for his share in the house. . . . No, no, Jean. Not now. To-night, perhaps, before we go to bed.”

“What am I to do?” repeated the Consul, shaking his bent head. “I have often wanted to ask Papa to give in. I don’t like it to look as if I had schemed against Gotthold and worked myself into a snug place. I don’t want Father to look at it

RV 14 (14)


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 in this hell; and his place will be in that pot. I am waiting for him.’ ”


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 his family at Lausanne, probably at the end of 1835. He there continued his endeavours to improve his flute. In the course of one of these attempts the tube over which he had spent so many hours cracked, and in a fit of despair he threw it into the Lake of Geneva. Though much cast down, he set to work on another, but before it was finished he had to abandon it, owing to his intellect giving way. In 1836 he became absolutely insane, and had to be put into an asylum, where (with the exception of a brief interval in 1839) he remained till his death, the exact date of which is unknown. He is said by some authorities to have committed suicide, but of this there is no authentic evidence. Truly a sad end to an honourable man and an enthusiastic musician!

Let us now glance rapidly at the career of his rival. Theobald Böhm was born at Munich on April 9th, 1794, the son of a working jeweller and goldsmith. From an early age he displayed a penchant for the flute, and in 1810 he made himself a four-keyed flute. As he was originally intended to follow his father's occupation, he had already acquired considerable mechanical skill, which he subsequently largely developed. He took lessons on the flute from Johann Nepomuk Capeller, who was first flute in the King of Bavaria's Court orchestra and who had made some improvements on the flute. Bohm appears to have made rapid progress in the world; he soon became second flute in the Court orchestra, and was first flute in the Isargate Theatre in Munich from 1812-17, acting


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RV 15 (BUDDENBROOKS) like that, either. But, to be honest. . . I am a partner, after all. And Betsy and I pay a fair rent for the second storey. It is all arranged with my sister in Frankfort: her husband gets compensation already, in Papa’s life-time—a quarter of the purchase price of the house. That is good business: Papa arranged it very cleverly, and it is very satisfactory from the point of view of the firm. And if Papa acts so unfriendly to Gotthold—”

“Nonsense, Jean. Your position in the matter is quite clear. But it is painful for me to have Gotthold think that his step-mother looks out after her own children and deliberately makes bad blood between him and his father!”

“But it is his own fault,” the Consul almost shouted, and then, with a glance at the dining-room door, lowered his voice. “It is his fault, the whole wretched thing. You can judge for yourself. Why couldn’t he be reasonable? Why did he have to go and marry that Stüwing girl and…the shop. . . .” The Consul gave an angry, embarrassed laugh at the last word. “It’s a weakness of Father’s, that prejudice against the shop; but Gotthold ought to have respected it. . . .”

“Oh, Jean, it would be best if Papa would give in.”

“But ought I to advise him to?” whispered the Consul excitedly, clapping his hand to his forehead. “I am an interested party, so I ought to say, Pay it. But I am also a partner. And if Papa thinks he is under no obligation to a disobedient and rebellious son to draw the money out of the working capital of the firm. . . It is a matter of eleven thousand thaler, a good bit of money. No, no, I cannot advise him either for or against. I’d rather wash my hands of the whole affair. But the scene with Papa is so désagréable—”

“Late this evening, Jean. Come now; they are waiting.”

The Consul put the paper back into his breast-pocket, offered his arm to his mother, and led her over the threshold into the brightly lighted dining-room, where the company had already taken their places at the long table. RV 15 (15)


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RV 16 (BUDDENBROOKS) The tapestries in this room had a sky-blue background, against which, between slender columns, white figures of gods and goddesses stood out with plastic effect. The heavy red damask window-curtains were drawn; stiff, massive sofas in red damask stood ranged against the walls; and in each corner stood a tall gilt candelabrum with eight flaming candles, besides those in silver sconces on the table. Above the heavy sideboard, on the wall opposite the landscape room, hung a large painting of an Italian bay, the misty blue atmosphere of which was most effective in the candle-light.

Every trace of care or disquiet had vanished from Madame Buddenbrook’s face. She sat down between Pastor Wunderlich and the elder Kröger, who presided on the window side.

“Bon appétit!” she said, with her short, quick, hearty nod, flashing a glance down the whole length of the table till it reached the children at the bottom.

RV 16 (16)


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 at the same time as an inspector of mines. Continuing his experiments on the flute, he in 1812 applied to it a new kind of spring for the keys, linings to the sockets, cork coverings to the joints, a moveable embouchure of gold, and other things; most, if not all, of which had been used before his time. In 1818 he was appointed to the King's Chapel band, and henceforth devoted himself entirely to music, studying under Joseph Graz. Having toured through Europe as a flautist along with Molique for several years, Böhm in October 1828 set up a flute factory in Munich, where he manufactured eight-keyed flutes with pillars to support the keysa contrivance already used in France before 1756 (Page 51, Fig. 3). In 1831 he visited Paris and London, performing on one of these flutes, of which only a drawing now exists. He played his own Grand Polonaise in D (op. 16) at the London Philharmonic concert of May 9th, 1831, and performed solos at Moscheles' concert there in the same month, and at Hummel's concert in June. In London he had a flute made for him, with several new features, by Gerock & Wolf, of 79 Cornhill (Page 51, Fig. 4). It was during this visit that he made Gordon's acquaintance. Whilst there he heard the famous Charles Nicholson, and was greatly struck by his powerful tone, which Böhm attributed to the large size of the holes on Nicholson's flute. In one of his letters Böhm says that but for Nicholson he would never have attempted any radical change of system: he despaired of rivalling him except by means of an improved instrument. In order


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 to accomplish this he determined to construct a totally new flute, "which should combine accuracy of intonation with power and equality of tone, and on which all music written within its compass could be executed by a new kind of key-mechanism." He decided to abandon the old fingering and to adopt a system of ring-keys, by means of which two or more notes could be closed by one movement of a single finger. That Böhm's views underwent a considerable change after he had seen Gordon's flute, and that this was also one of his reasons for abandoning attempts with the old fingering, is undeniable; but to what extent he was influenced by Gordon's rather clumsy efforts it is impossible to say with any precision.

Böhm returned from London to Munich some time in 1831, and set to work, choosing ("je me fixai au") the system of ring-keys—a system which he says he had already thought of. It is to be observed that ring-keys of a primitive kind were used in the earlier flutes of both Gordon and Böhm, and were certainly known, though little used, before either adopted them. Nolan used a ring-key in 1808 (as we have seen; p. 45, ante), and Lefevre, of Paris, used one on clarinets before 1826. Neither Gordon nor Böhm ever claimed to have invented the ring-keys. But Böhm developed them and thus rendered the production of an entirely open-keyed flute possible. About the middle of 1832 he produced his new model (Page 51, Fig. 5), selected from three with different fingerings. He performed on it at a concert in Munich


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 on November 1st, 1832, and again on April 25th, 1833. The instrument was described in an article in Der Bazar of the last-named date, which was reprinted in The Harmonicon of August 1833. In May 1833 Böhm visited Paris and London, and again came to London in July 1834, where he remained for nearly a year, and appeared in public on several occasions, playing "on his newly-constructed flute." At first it does not appear to have been largely taken up in England (chiefly, no doubt, owing to the disinclination of established players to learn the new fingering), but in 1839 Ward began to manufacture it, and Cartewho claimed to have been the first prominent English professor to play it in publicCard, Signor Folz, and Clinton adopted it. It was noticed in the Leipsic Gazette Musicale in 1834, and was taken up by several German and French players of note. In 1838 the French Academy of Fine Arts investigated its merits (as improved by Coche and Buffet), and it was introduced into the Paris Conservatoire.

After 1832 Böhm, who himself says he never placed a high value on his inventions, for a time abandoned his efforts to improve the flute, and turned his attention to other subjects. He evidently possessed an inventive genius, and amongst other things he invented the overstringing of pianofortes, an improved method of smelting iron, and also of communicating rotary motion.

Having studied acoustics under Schafhäutl, Professor of Mathematics in the Bavarian University, he in 1847 set to work to improve the bore of the flute, and after three hundred experiments (chiefly with metal tubes)


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best respects to you, Buddenbrook—I repeat, our best respects!” Herr Köppen’s powerful voice drowned the general conversation as the maid-servant, in her heavy striped petticoat, her fat arms bare and a little white cap on the back of her head, passed the cabbage soup and toast, assisted by Mamsell Jungmann and the Frau Consul’s maid from upstairs. The guests began to use their soup-spoons.

“Such plenty, such elegance! I must say, you know how to do things!—I must say—” Herr Köppen had never visited the house in its former owner’s time. He did not come of a patrician family, and had only lately become a man of means. He could never quite get rid of certain vulgar tricks of speech—like the repetition of “I must say”; and he said “respecks” for “respects.”

“It didn’t cost anything, either,” remarked Herr Gratjens drily—he certainly ought to have known—and studied the wall-painting through the hollow of his hand.

As far as possible, ladies and gentlemen had been paired off, and members of the family placed between friends of the house. But the arrangement could not be carried out in every case; the two Överdiecks were sitting, as usual, nearly on each other’s laps, nodding affectionately at one another. The elder Kröger was bolt upright, enthroned between Madame Antoinette and Frau Senator Langhals, dividing his pet jokes and his flourishes between the two ladies.

“When was the house built?” asked Herr Hoffstede diagonally across the table of old Buddenbrook, who was talking in a gay chaffing tone with Madame Köppen.

“Anno. . . let me see. . . about 1680, if I am not mistaken. My son is better at dates than I am.” RV 17 (17)


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RV 18 (BUDDENBROOKS) “Eighty-two,” said the Consul, leaning forward. He was sitting at the foot of the table, without a partner, next to Senator Langhals. “It was finished in the winter of 1682. Ratenkamp and Company were just getting to the top of their form. . . . Sad, how the firm broke down in the last twenty years!”

A general pause in the conversation ensued, lasting for half a minute, while the company looked down at their plates and pondered on the fortunes of the brilliant family who had built and lived in the house and then, broken and impoverished, had left it.

“Yes,” said Broker Gratjens, “it’s sad, when you think of the madness that led to their ruin. If Dietrich Ratenkamp had not taken that fellow Geelmaack for a partner! I flung up my hands, I know, when he came into the management. I have it on the best authority, gentlemen, that he speculated disgracefully behind Ratenkamp’s back, and gave notes and acceptances right and left in the firm’s name. . . . Finally the game was up. The banks got suspicious, the firm couldn’t give security. . . . You haven’t the least idea…who looked after the warehouse, even? Geelmaack, perhaps? It was a perfect rats’ nest there, year in, year out. But Ratenkamp never troubled himself about it.”

“He was like a man paralysed,” the Consul said. A gloomy, taciturn look came on his face. He leaned over and stirred his soup, now and then giving a quick glance, with his little round deep-set eyes, at the upper end of the table.

“He went about like a man with a load on his mind; I think one can understand his burden. What made him take Geelmaack into the business—a man who brought painfully little capital, and had not the best of reputations? He must have felt the need of sharing his heavy responsibility with some one, not much matter who, because he realized that the end was inevitable. The firm was ruined, the old family passée. Geelmaack only gave it the last push over the edge.” RV 18 (18)


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 on the proper positions of the holes, their size, the shape and position of the mouth-hole, the material of the instrument, etc., he produced his cylinder flute with parabolic head-joint. He thus restored the old cylinder bore for the body of the instrument, but fitted it with a head-joint, the inside of which curved slightly at the closed enda plan which he had already tried unsuccessfully thirty years before. To enter into the details of this very decided improvement would be out of place; suffice it to say that it greatly improved the tone and carrying power of the flute (especially of the lower notes), whilst making it easier to sound, and rendering the high notes better in tune. In this flute Böhm adopted certain improvements in the mechanism which had been already used by Coche; and as the holes were too large for the fingers to cover them, he fitted them all with keys. Bohm's newest system was at first violently opposed by Clinton (who went so far as to say that if the cylinder be right. Nature herself must be wrong) and others, but it is now, with certain modifications, universally adopted for all good modern flutes.

The new flutes were at first made of metal, but in 1848 MM. Godfroy and Lot, of Paris, began to manufacture them of cocoa wood at the suggestion of Dorus. Godfroy subsequently re-introduced keys perforated in the centre, such as Nolan and Pottgiesser had employed, by which some allege that the delicacy of intonation is increased. Messrs. Rudall & Rose obtained the patent


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RV 19 (BUDDENBROOKS) Pastor Wunderlich filled his own and his neighbour’s wine-glass. “So you think my dear Consul,” he said with a discreet smile, “that even without Geelmaack, things would have turned out just as they did?”

“Oh, probably not,” the Consul said thoughtfully, not addressing anybody in particular. “But I do think that Dietrich Ratenkamp was driven by fate when he took Geelmaack into partnership. That was the way his destiny was to be fulfilled. . . . He acted under the pressure of inexorable necessity. I think he knew more or less what his partner was doing, and what the state of affairs was at the warehouse. But he was paralyzed.”

“Assez, Jean,” interposed old Buddenbrook, laying down his spoon. “That’s one of your idées.. . .”

The Consul rather absently lifted his glass to his father. Lebrecht Kröger broke in: “Let’s stick by the jolly present!”

He took up a bottle of white wine that had a little silver stag on the stopper; and with one of his fastidious, elegant motions he held if on its side and examined the label. “C. F. Köppen,” he read, and nodded to the wine-merchant. “Ah, yes, where should we be without you?”

Madame Antoinette kept a sharp eye on the servants while they changed the gilt-edged Meissen plates; Mamsell Jungmann called orders through the speaking-tube into the kitchen, and the fish was brought in. Pastor Wunderlich remarked, as he helped himself:

“This ‘jolly present’ isn’t such a matter of course as it seems, either. The young folk here can hardly realize, I suppose, that things could ever have been different from what they are now. But I think I may fairly claim to have had a personal share, more than once, in the fortunes of the Buddenbrook family. Whenever I see one of these, for instance—” he picked up one of the heavy silver spoons and turned to Madame Antoinette—“I can’t help wondering whether they belong to the set that our friend the philosopher Lenoir, Sergeant under his Majesty the Emperor Napoleon,

RV 19 (19)


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 for England in 1847. Böhm published an extremely technical geometrical schema, or diagram, "with explanation, by which makers of tubular instruments can with the greatest accuracy construct their instruments according to any of the recognised pitches," which so puzzled the musical jury at the Paris Exhibition of 1867 that they refused to decide on its merits. Böhm's system is also applicable to oboes, clarinets, and bassoons, and it has to a certain extent been adopted by certain makers of the two first-named instruments, more especially for French military clarinets, but not nearly to the same extent as on the flute.

The model of 1847 (Page 68, Fig. 2) was awarded the gold medal at the London Exhibition of 1851, the report of Sir Henry Bishop stating that "M. Böhm has acquired not only a perfection in tone and tuning never before attained, but also a facility in playing in those keys which were hitherto difficult and defective in sonorousness or intonation"; and another juror remarks, "One person brings forward a flute with a fine note E, another with some other fine note, but what we want is a flute with all the notes equally fine, and this we find only in the flutes on Böhm's principles." It also gained the gold medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1855. Though largely taken up in most European countries and in America, Germany, strange to relate, was one of the last countries to adopt it. In 1866 they still played the old eight-keyed flute in Berlin and Vienna. In fact, even to-day some German conductors object to a Böhm flute in their orchestras.


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RV 20 (BUDDENBROOKS) had in his hands in the year 1806—and I think of our meeting in Alf Street, Madame.”

Madame Buddenbrook looked down at her plate with a smile half of memory, half of embarrassment. Tom and Tony, at the bottom of the table, cried out almost with one voice, “Oh, yes, tell about it, Grandmama!” They did not want the fish, and they had been listening attentively to the conversation of their elders. But the Pastor knew that she would not care to speak herself of an incident that had been rather painful to her. He came to her rescue and launched out once more upon the old story. It was new, perhaps, to one or two of the present company. As for the children, they could have listened to it a hundred times.

“Well, imagine a November afternoon, cold and rainy, a wretched day; and me coming back down Alf Street from some parochial duty. I was thinking of the hard times we were having. Prince Blücher had gone, and the French were in the town. There was little outward sign of the excitement that reigned everywhere: the streets were quiet, and people stopped close in their houses. Prahl the master-butcher had been shot through the head, just for standing at the door of his shop with his hands in his pockets and making a menacing remark about its being hard to stand. Well, thought I to myself, I’ll just have a look in at the Buddenbrooks’. Herr Buddenbrook is down with erysipelas, and Madame has a great deal to do, on account of the billeting.

“At that very moment, whom should I see coming towards me but our honored Madame Buddenbrook herself? What a state she was in! hurrying through the rain hatless, stumbling rather than walking, with a shawl flung over her shoulders, and her hair falling down—yes, Madame, it is quite true, it was falling down!

“ ‘This is a pleasant surprise,’ I said. She never saw me, and I made bold to lay my hand on her sleeve, for my mind misgave me about the state of things. ‘Where are you off to in such a hurry, my dear?’ She realized who I was, looked at

RV 20 (20)


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RV 21 (BUDDENBROOKS) me, and burst out: ‘Farewell, farewell! All is over—I’m going into the river!’

“ ‘God forbid,’ cried I—I could feel that I went white. ‘That is no place for you, my dear.’ And I held her as tightly as decorum permitted. ‘What has happened?’ ‘What has happened!’ she cried, all trembling. ‘They’ve got at the silver, Wunderlich! That’s what has happened! And Jean lies there with erysipelas and can’t do anything—he couldn’t even if he were up. They are stealing my spoons, Wunderlich, and I am going into the river!’

“Well, I kept holding her, and I said what one would in such cases: ‘Courage, dear lady. It will be all right. Control yourself, I beg of you. We will go and speak with them. Let us go.’ And I got her to go back up the street to her house. The soldiery were up in the dining-room, where Madame had left them, some twenty of them, at the great silver-chest.

“ ‘Gentlemen,’ I say politely, ‘with which one of you may I have the pleasure of a little conversation?’ ‘They begin to laugh, and they say: ‘With all of us, Papa.’ But one of them steps out and presents himself, a fellow as tall as a tree, with a black waxed moustache and big red hands sticking out of his braided cuffs. ‘Lenoir,’ he said, and saluted with his left hand, for he had five or six spoons in his right. ‘Sergeant Lenoir. What can I do for you?’

“ ‘Herr Officer,’ I say, appealing to his sense of honour, ‘after your magnificent charge, how can you stoop to this sort of thing? The town has not closed its gates to the Emperor.’

“ ‘What do you expect?’ he answered. ‘War is war. The people need these things. . . .’

“ ‘But you ought to be careful,’ I interrupted him, for an idea had come into my head. ‘This lady,’ I said—one will say anything at a time like that—‘the lady of the house, she isn’t a German. She is almost a compatriot of yours—she is a Frenchwoman. . . .’ ‘Oh, a Frenchwoman,’ he repeated. And then what do you suppose he said, this big swashbuckler?

RV 21 (21)


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 This was practically Böhm's last experiment in connection with the instrument, but he continued to manufacture flutes along with Mendler. Böhm published several pamphlets on the instrument. One, entitled Ueher den Flötenhau, appeared in 1847; an abbreviated edition in English was published in 1882 under the title "An Essay on the Construction of Flutes." Another, on Die Flöte und das Flötenspiel, written in 1868, has recently been translated and published in English. These works show how deeply he had studied the scientific as well as the mechanical side of the subject.

As a player Böhm attained great celebrity in Germany, where he was considered the best flautist of his time, and Fetis speaks of his brilliant execution of difficult passages and of his fine performance of slow movements. The London press spoke highly of his tone and style: "he strives to touch the heart rather than to astonish," said The Harmonicon. His compositions (the first, a concerto, dates from 1822) consist chiefly of airs varicées; those on The Swiss Boy (op. 20) and ''Du! Du! liegst mir am Herzen'' (op. 22) are still occasionally heard at concerts. The latter piece is said to have been composed by Böhm as an answer to critics, who asserted that his flute could only play in the key of C. Several were written specially to exhibit the merits of his improved system, and are well-nigh impossible on the old eight-keyed flute. He also wrote some original pieces of merit—such as his Andante in B major (op. 33) and Caprices (op. 26)—


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RV 22 (BUDDENBROOKS) ‘Oh, an emigrée? Then she is an enemy of philosophy!’

“I was quite taken aback, but I managed not to laugh. ‘You are a man of intellect, I see,’ said I. ‘I repeat that I consider your conduct unworthy.’ He was silent for a moment. Then he got red, tossed his half-dozen spoons back into the chest, and exclaimed, ‘Who told you I was going to do anything with these things but look at them? It’s fine silver. If one or two of my men take a piece as a souvenir. . .’

“Well, in the end, they took plenty of souvenirs, of course. No use appealing to justice, either human or divine. I suppose they knew no other god than that terrible little Corsican. . . .”

RV 22 (22)


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 and some fine Studies. Böhm continued to play after he was seventy-eight years of age and had a set of false teeth; and though his sight was bad, he was erect in figure, and walked with a firm step up to the very end of his long and extremely temperate life (November 25th, 1881). He was a fine billiard and chess-player, even when he could hardly see the balls or the men.

On April 9th, 1894, all the members of the family then living near Munich assembled in the house in which Böhm was born, in order to celebrate the centenary of his birth, and countless letters and telegrams were sent from all over the worlda fitting tribute to an inventive genius of no mean order.

During their mutual acquaintance no controversy ever arose between Böhm and Gordon as to the priority of their inventions; they were always on friendly terms, and Böhm always spoke and, wrote of his rival in words or praise, as "a gentleman in every respect." He appears to have tried to assist Gordon's efforts in every way. After all, there was not very much originality or invention in the key-mechanism of either of their flutes; both freely adopted the somewhat crude ideas and devices of previous workers in the same field, but it was Böhm who rendered them of practical value. The controversy was concerned chiefly with the keys, and was entirely confined to Bohm's model of 1832: it had nothing to do


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you ever see him, Herr Pastor?”

The plates were being changed again. An enormous brick-red boiled ham appeared, strewn with crumbs and served with a sour brown onion sauce, and so many vegetables that the company could have satisfied their appetites from that one vegetable-dish. Lebrecht Kröger undertook the carving, and skilfully cut the succulent slices, with his elbows slightly elevated and his two long forefingers laid out along the back of the knife and fork. With the ham went the Frau Consul’s celebrated “Russian jam,” a pungent fruit conserve flavoured with spirits.

No, Pastor Wunderlich regretted to say that he had never set eyes on Bonaparte. Old Buddenbrook and Jean Jacques Hoffstede had both seen him face to face, one in Paris just before the Russian campaign, reviewing the troops at the Tuileries; the other in Dantzig.

“I must say, he wasn’t a very cheerful person to look at,” said the poet, raising his brows, as he disposed of a forkful of ham, potato, and sprouts. “But they say he was in a lively mood, at Dantzig. There was a story they used to tell, about how he would gamble all day with the Germans, and make them pay up too, and then spend the evening playing with his generals. Once he swept a handful of gold off the table, and said: ‘Les Allemands aiment beaucoup ces petits Napoléons, nest-ce pas, Rapp?’ ‘Oui, Sire, plus que le Grand!’ Rapp answered.”

There was general laughter—Hoffstede had told the story very prettily, even mimicking the Emperor’s manner. Old Buddenbrook said: “Well, joking aside, one can’t help having

RV 23 (23)


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 with the cylinder bore and parabolic head-joint. Now, it is not on his key-mechanism that Böhm's fame chiefly rests: "It is much easier" (as he himself says) "to construct keys than to improve notes." His real claim to the gratitude of all flute-players consists, as Mr. Broadwood remarks, "in his successful substitution of acoustic theory for mere empirical experiment" and in his ascertainment, by careful scientific investigation, of the correct position of the holes on the flute. Gordon no doubt also attempted this: but owing to his lack of acquaintance with acoustics, he failed; whilst Böhm, with his scientific and mechanical knowledge, succeeded.

No question was raised till 1838, when Gordon had already been for some time in a lunatic asylum. On May 25th Coche, then Coadjutor-Professor of the Flute at the Paris Conservatoire, wrote thus to Böhm:—"It is said in professional society that the flute that bears your name was discovered and invented, with all its present improvements, by a person of the name of Gordon; that this Gordon, after devoting several years to experiments and labours, has given up, on account of illness, occupying himself with his flute; and that your discovery, in a word, is no other than his." Hinc illœ lacrymœ! Coche supported this very definite and malicious statement by a letter from Gordon's wife, who naturally espoused the claim made on behalt of her unfortunate husband. It is to be noted that Coche's rival, Camus, was a friend of Böhm and had acted as his agent in Paris, playing and teaching the Böhm flute.


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RV 24 (BUDDENBROOKS) respect for his personal greatness. . . . What a nature!”

The Consul shook his head gravely.

“No, no—we of the younger generation do not see why we should revere the man who murdered the Duc d’Engien, and butchered eight hundred prisoners in Egypt. . . .”

“All that is probably exaggerated and overdrawn,” said Pastor Wunderlich. “The Duke was very likely a feather-brained and seditious person, and as for the prisoners, their execution was probably the deliberate and necessary policy of a council of war." And he went on to speak of a book at which he had been looking, by one of the Emperor’s secretaries, which had appeared some years before and was well worth reading.

“All the same,” persisted the Consul, snuffing a flickering candle in the sconce in front of him, “I cannot understand it—I cannot understand the admiration people have for this monster. As a Christian, as a religious man, I can find no room in my heart for such a feeling.”

He had, as he spoke, the slightly inclined head and the rapt look of a man in a vision. His father and Pastor Wunderlich could be seen to exchange the smallest of smiles.

“Well, anyhow,” grinned the old man, “the little napoleons aren’t so bad, eh? My son has more enthusiasm for Louis Philippe,” he said to the company in general.

“Enthusiasm?” repeated Jean Jacques Hoffstede, rather sarcastically. “. . . That is a curious juxtaposition, Philippe Égalité and enthusiasm. . . .”

“God knows, I feel we have much to learn from the July Monarchy,” the Consul said, with serious zeal. “The friendly and helpful attitude of French constitutionalism toward the new, practical ideals and interests of our time…is something we should be deeply thankful for. . . .”

“Practical ideals—well, ye-es—” The elder Buddenbrook gave his jaws a moment’s rest and played with his gold snuff-box. “Practical ideals—well—h’m—they don’t appeal to me in the least.” He dropped into dialect, out of sheer vex-

RV 24 (24)


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Author:James Reynolds

Works

 * The History of the Temple at Jerusalem (1836)
 * The Kitab-i-Vamini (1858)

title: Author:James Reynolds


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 Böhm at once repudiated the charge. Notwithstanding this, Coche issued an Examen Critique de la flute ordinaire comparée à la flute de Böhm (originally written for the judges at the French Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Music Section, and dedicated to the members of the institution), in which he claimed the priority of invention for Gordon. In the following year Coche published his Méthode pour servir à l'enseignement de la Nouvelle Flute, inventée par Gordon, modifiée par Böhm et perfectionée par V. Coche et Buffet, jeune, dedicated to Cherubini, then Director of the Paris Conservatoire. We shall see in the next chapter what these "perfectings" of M. Coche were; meanwhile it will be noticed that he treats Böhm as a mere modifier of Gordon's inventions.

Coche's claim on behalf of Gordon was espoused in England in a pamphlet called The Flute Explained, by Ward (1844), who had made flutes for Gordon when in London, and also by Prowse, a London flute-maker, and the controversy was revived in The Musical World of 1843.


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RV 25 (BUDDENBROOKS) ation. “We have trade schools and technical schools and commercial schools springing up on every corner; the high schools and the classical education suddenly turn out to be all foolishness, and the whole world thinks of nothing but mines and factories and making money. . . . That’s all very fine, of course. But in the long run, pretty stupid, isn’t it? . . . I don’t know why, but it irritates me like the deuce. . . . I don’t mean, Jean, that the July Monarchy is not an admirable regime. . . .”

Senator Langhals, as well as Gratjens and Köppen, stood by the Consul. . . . They felt that high praise was due to the French government, and to similar efforts that were being made in Germany. It was worthy of all respect—Herr Köppen called it “respeck.” He had grown more and more crimson from eating, and puffed audibly as he spoke. Pastor Wunderlich had not changed colour; he looked as pale, refined, and alert as ever, while drinking down glass after glass of wine.

The candles burned down slowly in their sockets. Now and then they flickered in a draught and dispersed a faint smell of wax over the table.

There they all sat, on heavy, high-backed chairs, consuming good heavy food from good heavy silver plate, drinking full-bodied wines and expressing their views freely on all subjects. When they began to talk shop, they slipped unconsciously more and more into dialect, and used the clumsy but comfortable idioms that seemed to embody to them the business efficiency and the easy well-being of their community. Sometimes they even used an over-drawn pronunciation by way of making fun of themselves and each other, and relished their clipped phrases and exaggerated vowels with the same heartiness as they did their food.

The ladies had not long followed the discussion. Madame Kröger gave them the cue by setting forth a tempting method of boiling carp in red wine. “You cut it into nice pieces, my dear, and put it in the saucepan, add some cloves, and

RV 25 (25)


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RV 26 (BUDDENBROOKS) onions, and a few rusks, a little sugar, and a spoonful of butter, and set it on the fire. . . . But don t wash it, on any account. All the blood must remain in it.”

The elder Kröger was telling the most delightful stories; and his son Justus, who sat with Dr. Grabow down at the bottom of the table, near the children, was chaffing Mamsell Jungmann. She screwed up her brown eyes and stood her knife and fork upright on the table and moved them back and forth. Even the Överdiecks were very lively. Old Frau Överdieck had a new pet name for her husband: “You good old bell-wether,” she said, and laughed so hard that her cap bobbed up and down.

But all the various conversations around the table flowed together in one stream when Jean Jacques Hoffstede embarked upon his favourite theme, and began to describe the Italian journey which he had taken fifteen years before with a rich Hamburg relative. He told of Venice, Rome, and Vesuvius, of the Villa Borghese, where Goethe had written part of his Faust; he waxed enthusiastic over the beautiful Renaissance fountains that wafted coolness upon the warm Italian air, and the formal gardens through the avenues of which it was so enchanting to stroll. Some one mentioned the big wilderness of a garden outside the Castle Gate, that belonged to the Buddenbrooks.

“Upon my word,” the old man said, “I still feel angry with myself that I have never put it into some kind of order. I was out there the other day—and it is really a disgrace, a perfect primeval forest. It would be a pretty bit of property, if the grass were cut and the trees trimmed into formal shapes.”

The Consul protested strenuously. “Oh, no, Papa! I love to go out there in the summer and walk in the undergrowth; it would quite spoil the place to trim and prune its free natural beauty.”

“But, deuce take it, the free natural beauty belongs to me—haven’t I the right to put it in order if I like?”

“Ah, Father, when I go out there and lie in the long grass

RV 26 (26)


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RV 27 (BUDDENBROOKS) among the undergrowth, I have a feeling that I belong to nature and not she to me. . . .”

“Krishan, don’t eat too much,” the old man suddenly called out, in dialect. “Never mind about Tilda—it doesn’t hurt her. She can put it away like a dozen harvest hands, that child!”

And truly it was amazing, the prowess of this scraggy child with the long, old-maidish face. Asked if she wanted more soup, she answered in a meek drawling voice: “Ye-es, ple-ase.” She had two large helpings both of fish and ham, with piles of vegetables; and she bent short-sightedly over her plate, completely absorbed in the food, which she chewed ruminantly, in large mouthfuls. “Oh, Un-cle,” she replied, with amiable simplicity, to the old man’s gibe, which did not in the least disconcert her. She ate: whether it tasted good or not, whether they teased her or not, she smiled and kept on, heaping her plate with good things, with the instinctive, insensitive voracity of a poor relation—patient, persevering, hungry, and lean.

RV 27 (27)


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 22 gaining a complete victory, while Mirza Haidar is said to have propitiated Salim Khan, by sending him the heads of the slain Niázi as a peace-offering. Which of these two accounts is the more correct, it is not easy to judge, but it seems that Mirza Haidar had, about this time, some transactions with the Afghan Shah of Hindustan, and may possibly have felt it necessary to propitiate him. At any rate, Firishta relates that he sent ambassadors with presents to Delhi in 1550, and that Salim, in return, deputed an envoy with horses, muslins, etc., to Srinagar. What brought about this exchange of courtesies, or what came of it, the historian does not state.

In the same way, the events of the ensuing year, 1551, relating to Mirza Haidar's death, are to some extent at variance. The only two historians (as far as I am aware) who record them in any detail are Abul Fazl and Firishta; but, as the former seems somewhat uncertain of his facts, the account of the latter may perhaps be more advantageously followed.

General Briggs' version of Firishta records, quite briefly, that Mirza Haidar had appointed one Kirán Bahádur, a commander of Moghul horse, to the government of the district of Bhirbal. The measure gave great offence to the inhabitants, who resisted Kirán's authority, and eventually proceeded to attack him. Mirza Haidar, in order to support his officer, put himself at the head of his Moghuls, and marched towards the scene of the disturbance. On the road, a night attack was made upon his camp, the Moghuls were defeated, and he himself was killed by an arrow in the course of the fight. The exact date of the event in 1551 is nowhere recorded, but it would appear to have taken place on one of the last days of Rámzán, or about the beginning of October. In Mr. Rodgers' version, the circumstances are related in much greater detail, but some of the particulars are not quite intelligible. The substance, however, is the same, and the account makes it appear that the locality where Mirza Haidar fell, must have been somewhere near Báramula on the Jhilam. It points also to his death haying been caused through being accidentally struck by an arrow, discharged by one of his own men, in the darkness.

During the ten years (counting from the battle of 2nd August, 1541) over which Mirza Haidar's regency extended, he is said,


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 On the other hand, Clinton, a leading English flautist and Professor at the Royal Academy of Music, in the first English book of instructions for the Böhm flute—namely, A Theoretical and Practical Essay on the Böhm Flute, as manufactured by Messrs. Rudall & Rose—evidently considered Böhm entitled to the credit of the invention. In his enthusiastic dedication of this work to Böhm, Clinton says:—

He throughout speaks of Böhm as the inventor. His later School for the Böhm Flute (1846) was also dedicated to Böhm. After such decided expressions on the subject, it is somewhat startling to find Clinton, in his Practical Hints to Flute-players upon the subject of Modern Flutes (1855)—a work describing his own


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now came, in two great cut-glass dishes, the “Plettenpudding.” It was made of layers of macaroons, raspberries, lady-fingers, and custard. At the same time, at the other end of the table, appeared the blazing plum-pudding which was the children’s favourite sweet.

“Thomas, my son, come here a minute,” said Johann Buddenbrook, taking his great bunch of keys from his trousers pocket. “In the second cellar to the right, the second bin, behind the red Bordeaux, two bottles—you understand?” Thomas, to whom such orders were familiar, ran off and soon came back with the two bottles, covered with dust and cobwebs; and the little dessert-glasses were filled with sweet, golden-yellow malmsey from these unsightly receptacles. Now the moment came when Pastor Wunderlich rose, glass in hand, to propose a toast; and the company fell silent to listen. He spoke in the pleasant, conversational tone which he liked to use in the pulpit; his head a little on one side, a subtle, humorous smile on his pale face, gesturing easily with his free hand. “Come, my honest friends, let us honour ourselves by drinking a glass of this excellent liquor to the health of our host and hostess in their beautiful new home. Come, then—to the health of the Buddenbrook family, present and absent! May they live long and prosper!”

“Absent?” thought the Consul to himself, bowing as the company lifted their glasses. “Is he referring to the Frankfort Buddenbrooks, or perhaps the Duchamps in Hamburg—or did old Wunderlich really mean something by that?” He stood up and clinked glasses with his father, looking him affectionately in the eye. RV 28 (28)


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 Rh in the Akbar-Náma, to have devoted himself, when not actively engaged with his enemies, to the restoration of the province and the improvement of its resources. He found it in a state of ruin and desolation, and raised it to a land abounding in cultivation and flourishing towns; he extended the frontiers also, and ruled with moderation and justice. Yet the austere Abul Fazl takes him to task for devoting too much of his time and attention to music, and thereby becoming forgetful of the dangers that surrounded him. Still more he blames him for continuing the government of the State in the name of the puppet Prince, Názuk Shah. After his military successes, it was his duty, the historian considers, to read the prayers and strike the coins in the name of "his imperial benefactor then struggling with adversity;" while there was no necessity to cultivate the attachment of the native rulers. Yet he is obliged to admit that when Humayun had returned from exile in Persia, and had repossessed himself of Kabul, Mirza Haidar at once conceded to him the honours due to a sovereign.

How far Abul Fazl's estimate of Mirza Haidar's character is a just one, may be open to question. In the first place, it was not entirely to music that he devoted the interval of well-earned repose that he enjoyed in Kashmir. It was during these years that he wrote the Tarikh-i-Rashidi—a work which, strange to say, Abul Fazl makes no mention of. Yet it is evident, from incidental allusions to dates in the body of the book, that this task occupied no little of the Mirza's time. To judge by the number of authors he cites, or speaks of, in the course of his history, he must have collected a good number of books about him, and the study of these may perhaps have occupied more of his leisure than the lute or the zitára. Among them, it may be noted, was a copy of the "Memoirs" of his cousin Baber, which, in all probability, he had obtained while in India at the court either of Humayun or of Kámrán; and, no doubt, it was the first copy ever utilised for historical purposes. Secondly, as regards the imputed infidelity towards the Chaghatai Emperor, it should not be forgotten that the historian of Akbar was writing after events had seemed to justify his view. At the time when Mirza Haidar administered Kashmir in the name of Názuk Shah, Humayun was a refugee in Persia, dependent on the uncertain friendship of Shah Tahmásp, and it must have been quite a matter for speculation whether he would ever return, or if, indeed, any member of the house of Baber


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Rh well as by the example of the most revered of his predecessors, the author of the Mitakshura; and that he has been eminently successful in his attempt at so doing, more particularly by unfettering property, and declaring the principle, that the alienator of an hereditary estate is only morally responsible for his acts, so far as they are unnecessary, and tend to deprive his family of the means of support. That he is borne out in the distinction he has drawn between moral precepts, a disregard to which is sinful, leaving the act valid and legal, and absolute injunctions, the acts in violation of which are null and void. If I have succeeded in this attempt, it follows that any decision founded on a different interpretation of the law, however widely that exposition may have been adopted in other provinces, is not merely retrograding in the social institution of the Hindoo community of Bengal, mischievous in disturbing the validity of existing titles to property, and of contracts founded on the received interpretation of the law, but a violation of the charter of justice, by which the administration of the exsistingexisting [sic] law of the people in such matters was secured to the inhabitants of this country.


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 24 would again occupy the throne of Hindustan. After completely subjugating Kashmir, and defeating the troops that Shir Shah had sent against him, there seems to have been no reason, but loyalty to the Chaghatais, why the Mirza should not have set himself up as king of the State.

His action in recognising the native puppet may fairly be regarded as one of self-denial—a temporary measure, undertaken while waiting to see whether his patron might not return, and claim his own kingdom in India. As events fell out, he did return, though not till January 1555, or nearly four years after our author's death. Step by step, he made-himself master of the principal districts of Afghanistan, regained Kunduz and Badakhshán, and disposed of Kámrán Mirza, together with other enemies of his house. But as early as 1545, when, with the aid of Shah Tahmásp, he had wrested only Kandahar and Kabul from his rebellious brother, and while still far beyond the limits of India, Mirza Haidar transferred to Humayun the nominal sovereignty with which he had invested Názuk Shah. He sent an envoy to Kabul, to inform his patron of these proceedings and to invite him to Kashmir. His letters were full of expressions of loyalty and attachment, and, in pressing his invitation, he pointed out that the country he had subdued would serve as an impregnable position, from which the Emperor might pour down his troops for the conquest of Hindustan—an enterprise which he urged him to attempt without delay. He is recorded, moreover, by Abul Fazl himself, to have read the prayers and to have struck the coins in Humayun's name at about this period; while unanswerable evidence as regards the coinage is to be found, to this day, among the specimens of the money of Kashmir, which have come down to us. In the British Museum there is a silver coin of Kashmir, bearing the name of Humayun and dated 952 or 953 of the Hajra (1545 or 1546). Mr. Rodgers also describes two coins of Humayun which were struck, in Kashmir, in the year 953, and another bearing a date subsequent to 950, but on which the third figure is illegible. This last one, however, contains in the field a letter ha, which Mr. Rodgers believes may stand for the initial letter of the name Haidar. In any case, the dates that are decipherable not


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 new "Equisonant" flute—attributing the invention to Gordon. A much stronger, though less oratorical, supporter of Böhm's claims, Mr. Richard Carte (1845), pointed out that Gordon would hardly have remained on such friendly terms with Böhm if the latter had robbed him of his invention in 1832. Fetis, the French musical historian (c. 1865), rather favoured Gordon.

Nothing further was heard about the matter till after Böhm's death. In several of the foreign obituary notices Gordon was again put forward as entitled to the credit of the invention, and in the London Figraro of December 28th, 1881, Gordon's madness was said to be due to "seeing the results of his own talent attributed to Bohm." To this article Mr. Walter Stewart Broadwood, an enthusiastic flautist and a personal friend of Bohm, replied in the same paper and also in the Musical World of January 1st, 1882; and Schafhäutl wrote a paper—a translation of which appeared in the Musical World of February 18th, 1882—strongly advocating Bohm's claims.

The controversy slept once more till 1890, when Mr. R. S. Rockstro, in his elaborate treatise The Flute, took up the cudgels for Gordon, and treated Böhm as more or less an impostor. An able and conclusive reply to Rockstro was furnished by Mr. C. Welch in his History of the Böhm Flute, 3rd ed., 1896. Böhm's latest champion is Mr. H. Clay Wysham, an enthusiastic American flautist, in his little work The Evolution of the Böhm Flute.


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248 Jugunnath, was universally acknowledged to be the first literary character of his day, and his authority has nearly as much weight as that of Rughoonundun.

38. Granting for a moment that the doctrine of free disposal by a father of his ancestral property is opposed to the authority of Jeemootvahun, but that this doctrine has been prevalent in Bengal for upwards of three centuries, in consequence of the erroneous exposition of Rughoonundun, “the greatest authority of Hindoo law in the province of Bengal,” by Shree Krishnu Turkalunkar, the author of “the most celebrated of the glosses of the text” and by the most learned Jugunnath; yet it would, I presume, be generally considered as a most rash and injurious, as well as ill-advised, innovation, for any administrator of Hindoo Law of the present day to set himself up as the corrector of successive expositions, admitted to have been received and acted upon as authoritative for a period extending to upwards of three centuries back.

39. In the foregingforegoing [sic] pages my endeavour has been to shew that the province of Bengal, having its own peculiar language, manners and ceremonies, has long enjoyed also a distinct system of law. That the author of this system has greatly improved on the expositions followed in other provinces of India, and, therefore, well merits the preference accorded to his exposition by the people of Bengal. That the discrepancies existing amongst the several interpretations of legal texts are not confined alone to the law of disposition of property by a father, but extend to other matters. That in following those expositions which best reconcile law with reason, the author of the Bengal system is warranted by the highest sacred authority, as


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Rh nundun, the author of the Smriti-tutwu, and the greatest authority of Hindoo Law in the province of Bengal.” “The Daya-tutwu, or so much of the Smriti-tutwa as relates to inharitanceinheritance [sic], is the undoubted composition of Rughoonundun; and in deference to the greatness of the author’s name, and the estimation in which his works are held among the learned Hindoos of Bengal, has been throughout diligently consulted and carefully compared with Jeemootvahun’s treatise, on which it is almost exclusively founded.” (p. vii.) “Now Rughoonundun’s date is ascertained at about three hundred years from this time,” &c. (p. xii.) Mr. Colebrooke thus introduces Shree KrishunKrishnu [sic] Turkalunkar: “The commentary of Shree Krishnu Turkalunkar on the Dayubhagu of Jeemootvahun, has been chiefly and preferably used. This is the most celebrated of the glosses on the text. Its authority has been long gaining ground in the schools of law throughout Bengal; and it has almost banished from them the other expositions of the Dayubhagu; being ranked in general estimation, next to the treatises of Jeemootvahun and of Rughoonundun.” (p. vi.) “The commentary of Muheshwur is posterior to those of Chooramuni and Uchyoot, both of which are cited in it; and is probably anterior to Shree Krishnu’s, or at least nearly of the same date.” (p. vii.) In the note at foot he observes, “Great-grandsons of both these writers were living in 1806.” Hence it may be inferred, that Shree Krishnu Turkalunkar lived above a century from this time. Mr. Colebrooke takes brief notice of Jugunnath Turkupunchanun, saying, “A very ample compilation on this subject is included in the Digest of Hindoo Law, prepared by Jugunnath, under directions of Sir William Jones, &c.” (p. ii.) The last mentioned,


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246 “For the insertion of the word ‘whole’ would be unmeaning (if the gift of even a small part were forbidden.)” The author of the Dayubhagu does not stop here; but he lays down the following rule in the succeeding section already quoted, (26.) “But if the family cannot be supported without selling the whole immoveable and other property, even the whole may be sold or otherwise disposed of: as appears from the obvious sense of the passage, and because it is directed, that ‘a man should by all means preserve himself.’” Here Jeemootvahun justifies, in the plainest terms, the sale and other disposal by a father of the whole of the estate inherited from his own father for the maintenance of his family or for self-preservation, without committing even a moral offence: but I regret that this simple position by Jeemootvahun should not have been adverted to by the writer of the article while reviewing the subject.

37, To his declaration, that “Nothing can be more clear than Jeemootvahun’s assertion of this doctrine,” the reviewer adds the followiogfollowing [sic] phrase: “And the doubt cast upon it by its expounders, Rughoonundun, Shree Krishnu Turkalunkar, and Jugunnath, is wholly gratuitous. In fact, the latter is chiefly to blame for the distiction between illegal and invalid acts.” It is, I think, requisite that I should notice here who these three expounders were, whom the writer charges with the invention of this doctrine; at what periods they lived; and how they stood and still stand in the estimation of the people of Bengal. To satisfy any one on these points, I have only to refer to the accounts given of them by Mr. Colebrooke, in his preface to the translation of the Dayubhagu. In speaking of Rughoonundun, he says, “It bears the name of Rughoo-


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 Böhm nowhere states definitely that he obtained no hints from Gordon's flute, but in a letter of May 20th, 1878, he does say, "I never had used anything of M. Gordon, but he had to thank me for what I have done for him." On the other hand, Gordon himself never even hinted that Böhm had copied his flute in any respect; on the contrary he definitely states that he (Gordon) had adopted certain devices of Böhm's flute with Böhm's permission. The truth would appear to be that the same main ideas occurred to both men simultaneously, and that Böhm carried them out successfully, whilst Gordon failed to do so. Böhm's flute was practical and workable; Gordon's was unpractical and much too complicated to be workable.

When it is recollected that to Böhm alone are due the ascertainment of the correct acoustical positions for the holes and of the best bore for the tube; that with thesethe vital part of the improvementGordon had nothing whatever to do, as he was either in a madhouse or more probably dead when they were ascertained; that, moreover, the mechanical key-action, to which alone the controversy relates, had all been foreshadowed by previous inventorswhen these facts are borne in mind, the entire dispute fades into insignificance and becomes "a storm in a teacup." It is to be noticed that Gordon's partisansCoche, Clinton, Ward, Rockstroall produced rival flutes in Böhm's lifetime. Was it jealousy that caused their opposition to his claims?


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 Rh only fall within the period of Mirza Haidar's regency, but they are good evidence that he regarded Humayun as his sovereign, while at the height of his own power in Kashmir, although no coins are known which show that he so regarded him previous to his recovery of Kabul. Neither the coins nor the documentary history of the period, however, are completely worked out, and until the tales that both have to tell are exhausted, it would perhaps be premature to conclude that, even prior to the subjugation of Afghanistan in 1545, Mirza Haidar may not have afforded testimony, in one form or another, that he regarded himself and his puppet king as, alike, dependants of the Chaghatai Emperor.

Thus, whatever faults the Mirza may have had, disloyalty to his chiefs can hardly be accounted one of them. He served his first master, Sultan Said Khan, with devotion till the end of the Khan's reign, and when forced by the barbarities of his successor, Rashid Sultan, to seek safety for his life with the Chaghatais in India, he served them likewise with good faith, as long as he lived.

Besides Abul Fazl's and Firishta's, the notices of Mirza Haidar's life, among the writings of Asiatic authors, appear to be few. Several quote his history, and even copy from it extensively, but only two, as far as I have been able to ascertain from translations, make any mention of his personality. Jauhar, in his Memoirs of Humayun, does no more than briefly allude to his master's faithful lieutenant. The author of the Tarikh-i-Daudi, cited above, calls him "a youth of a magnanimous disposition," but vouchsafes no more. Amin Ahmad Rázi, however, has devoted a few sentences to him in his geographical work, the Haft Iklim, an important extract from which was translated into French by Quatremère, and published in 1843. Ahmad Rázi tells us that Mirza Haidar "was endowed with an excellent character and a rare talent for elegant composition in verse, as well as in prose. To these


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Rh life. This is evident from the explanation given by the author of the Dayubhagu himself, of the above text of Vishnoo, in Sec. 56, (Ch. II,) “The meaning of this passage is, ‘In the case of his own acquired property, whatever he may choose to reserve, whether half or two shares, or three, all that is permitted to him by the law; but not so in the case of property ancestral;” as well as from the exposition by the same author of this very text of Vishnoo, in Sec. 17, (Ch. II,) already fully illustrated as applicable solely to the occasion of partition, (vide para. 22, p. 27.)

35. It would have been equally clear as desirable, because conclusive, if the writer of the article had also quoted the following passage of the Dayubhagu touching the same subject, (Ch. II. Sec. 46.) “By the reasoning thus set forth, if the elder brother have two shares of the father’s estate, how should the highly venerable father being the natural parent of the brothers, and, and being the root of all connection with the grandfather’s estate, be not entitled, in like circumstances, to a double portion of his own father's wealth?”

36. In expounding the following text of Yagnuvulkyu, “The father is master of the gems, pearls, and corals, and of all (other moveable property), but neither the father, nor the grandfather, is so of whole immoveable estate;” the author of the Dayubhagu first observes, (Ch. II. Sec. 23,) “Since the grandfather is here mentioned, the text must relate to his effects.” He then proceeds, saying, “Since here also it is said ‘the whole,’ the prohibition forbids the gift or other alienation of the ‘whole,’” &c.; and thus concludes the section (24:)


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 26 gifts of nature, he added those of extreme valour, and all the qualities that constitute a great general. Having been sent into Kashmir by Sultan Abu Said Khan, he penetrated into this province by the road of Kashghar and Tibet [Ladak] and entirely subdued it. He entered it also a second time from the side of India, and establishing his residence in Kashmir, formed it into an independent principality He was author of the historical work entitled the Tarikh-i-Rashidi, which was named in this way after Rashid Khan, sovereign of Kashghar. This book enjoys universal esteem." Ahmad Razi then appends some verses of the Mirza's, as a specimen of his poetic genius.

Among Europeans, Mr, W. Erskine is perhaps the only original author who has touched on Mirza Haidar's personal characteristics or attainments; even he does so only very briefly, though in several passages he praises his work in the highest terms. He sums him up as "a man of worth, of talent, and of learning." For his own part, he naively tells us that he had many accomplishments, and though most of those he names were of a more or less mechanical order, others, at least, show a taste for authorship, and make us picture him as a man of some imagination. Taking into consideration the life he led—his adventures, sufferings, discomfitures, and escapes—and the age and countries he lived in, he may be accounted also a man of learning. At any rate, he was a patron of the learned whom he came in contact with, and seems to have taken an interest in their teachings, as well as in the books he knew of; though it may be open to question, perhaps (from a European point of view), how far he used them to the best advantage for historical purposes. Yet, withal, he was a bigoted Musulman and a fanatical Sunni, as his remarks about the transactions of Baber with the Persian Shias, after the capture of Samarkand in 1511, clearly indicate. And his bigotry took many curious forms, as, for instance, his approval of the hypocritical proceedings of Sultan Said Khan, his refraining to trace his pedigree beyond the date of Amir Bulaji, because Bulaji's ancestors were not Musulmans, and his pious invocations on the Moghul Khan, whose religious zeal and enlightenment led him to drive horseshoe nails into the heads of his subjects, to induce them to become Musulmans. In short


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 Rh he belonged to his times, and herein lies the chief value of all that he has left on record.

The reader, however, will form his own judgment of the author's character and worth. What may safely be said is that his history carries with it a conviction of honesty; while he himself, though a soldier of fortune, was, as shown by the advice he tendered to Humayun, and by his administration of Kashmir, no mere Dugald Dalgetty of the East.


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 28

story of the conquests of Chingiz Khan, and the partition of nearly the whole of Northern Asia among his descendants, has been so often told, that no useful purpose would be served by recounting it again in this Introduction. Only those phases need be briefly sketched, which form the basis of Mirza Haidar's history, or which help to elucidate the course of events immediately preceding it. Though the Tarikh-i-Rashidi embraces many wide regions and deals with many tribes and nations, its chief scenes are laid within the appanage of Chingiz's second son Chaghatai, and it is, before all things, a history of part of the Chaghatai branch of the Mongol dynasty. This is the branch, moreover, which hitherto has remained the most obscure of all those of the family of Chingiz Khan. The othe divisions of the empire founded by the great conqueror, have all found abundant historians, not only in China and Mongolia, but among the Musulman writers of Western Asia and among Europeans. The great works of Deguignes, D'Ohsson, and Howorth, though designed to tell the story of all the Chingizi branches, have failed, as yet, to complete that of the house of Chaghatai. The two older authors frankly avow the want of materials, as their reason for leaving this section of their field almost untouched, while Sir H. Howorth, though he is understood to have completed his researches in it, has been prevented by other circumstances, from giving to the world his much desired volume on the Chaghatais.

Perhaps the nearest approaches to histories of the Chaghatais are to be found, (1) in an excellent paper entitled The Chaghatai Mughals, by Mr. E. E. Oliver, in the Journal of the Royal


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 Rh Asiatic Society, where the writer has summarised, in a consecutive manner, most of that which can be gathered on the subject, from European sources and from translations of Asiatic authors; and (2) in Erskine's History of India under Baber and Humayun. The learned translator of Baber's Memoirs had read widely among the Musulman authors, and compiled, in his last work, a more complete epitome of Chaghatai history, from original sources, than is to be found in any other European writings—unless possibly in those of Russian Orientalists, whose books, indeed, are sealed to most European readers. The source from which Mr. Erskine chiefly drew his information was the Tarikh-i-Rashidi, which he not only studied, but, as we have seen in the Preface, partially translated in a summarised form. The Tarikh-i-Rashidi, however, does not begin at the beginning of the Chaghatai history, but at an arbitrary point, dating nearly a hundred years after the allotment of his empire by Chingiz Khan, and at the period when the Khans of Moghulistan, having separated themselves from those of Mávará-un-Nahr, a distinct history of their branch became possible. In order, then, to furnish a foundation for Mirza Haidar's chronicle, it is necessary to fill in, however briefly, this gap of a hundred years, and, in doing so, to take a rapid glance at the two allotments which bordered on that of Chaghatai Khan—the one on the west and the other on the east—for the affairs of all three are, to some extent, interwoven at certain periods.

In assigning his dominions to his four sons, Chingiz Khan appears to have followed an ancient Mongol custom. The sons of a chief usually ruled, as their father's deputies, over certain nations or clans, and at his death each received, as an appanage, the section of the population which had been under his care. Thus the distribution was rather tribal than territorial, and the tribes, which were in most cases nomadic, sometimes shifted their abode, or were driven, by enemies, to migrate from one district to another. These movements, as a fact, do not seem to have occurred very frequently, nor to have altered the position of the main body of the people to any great extent. It will be more convenient, therefore, and far more intelligible, to state the distribution of Chingiz's dominions, as far as possible, in territorial terms.

Juji, or Tushi, the eldest son of Chingiz, died some months


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244 the sole guide upon such questions; and pursuant to this maxim, I may be permitted to repeat, that according to the law and usages of Bengal, though a father may be charged with breach of religious duty, by a sale or gift of ancestral property at his own discretion, he should not be subjected to the pain of finding his act nullified; nor the purchaser punished with forfeiture of his acquisition. However, when the author of the Review shall have succeeded in inducing British legislators to adopt his maxim, and declare that the validity of every act shall be determined by its consistence with morality, we may then listen to his suggestion, for applying ihe same rule to the Bengal Law of Inheritance.

34. The writer of this Review quotes (in p. 221) a passage from the Dayubhagu, (Ch. II. Sec. 76,) “Since the circumstance of the father being lord of all the wealth, is stated as a reason, and that cannot be in regard to the grandfather’s eatateestate [sic], an unequal distribution, made by the father, is lawful only in the instance of his own acquired wealth.” He then comments, saying, “Nothing can be more clear than Jeemootvahun’s assertion of this doctrine.” But it would have been still more clear, if the writer had cited the latter part of the sentence obviously connected with the former; which is that, “Accordingly Vishnoo says, ‘When a father separates his sons from himself, his own will regulates the division of his own acquired wealth. But in the estate inherited from the grandfather, the ownership of father and son is equal.’” That is, a father is not absolute lord of his ancestral property, (as he is of his own acquired wealth,) when occupied in separating his sons from himself during his


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Rh moral example: Are such unions to be therefore declared invalid, and the offspring of them rendered illegitimate?

To permit the sale of intoxicating drugs and spirits, so injurious to health, and even sometimes destructive of life, on the payment of duties publicly levied, is an act highly irreligious and immoral: Is the taxation to be, therefore, rendered invalid and payments stopped?

To divide spoils gained in a war commenced in ambition and carried on with cruelty, is an act immoral and irreligious: Is the partition therefore to be considered invalid, and the property to be replaced?

To give a daughter in marriage to an unworthy man, on account of his rank or fortune, or other such consideration, is a deed of mean and immoral example: Is the union to be therefore considered invalid, and their children illegitimate?

To destroy the life of a fellow being in a duel, is not only immoral, but is reckoned by many as murder: Is not the practice tacitly admitted to be legal, by the manner in which it is overlooked in courts of justice?

33. There are of course acts lying on the border of immorality, or both immoral and irreligious; and these are consequently to be considered invalid: such as the contracting of debts by way of gambling, and the execution of a deed on the Sabbath day. The question then arises, how shall we draw a line of distinction between those immoral acts that should not be considered invalid, and those that should be regarded as null in the eye of the law? In answer to this, we must refer to the common law and the established usages of every country, as furnishing the distinctions admitted between the one class and the other. The reference suggested is, I think,


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RV 29 (BUDDENBROOKS) Broker Gratjens got up next, and his speech was rather long-winded; he ended by proposing in his high-pitched voice a health to the firm of Johann Buddenbrook, that it might continue to grow and prosper and do honour to the town.

Johann Buddenbrook thanked them all for their kindness, first as head of the family and then as senior partner of the firm—and sent Thomas for another bottle of Malmsey. It had been a mistake to suppose that two would be enough.

Lebrecht Kröger spoke too. He took the liberty of remaining seated, because it looked less formal, and gestured with his head and hands most charmingly as he proposed a toast to the two ladies of the family, Madame Antoinette and the Frau Consul. As he finished, the Plettenpudding was nearly consumed, and the Malmsey nearing its end; and then, to a universal, long-drawn “Ah-h!” Jean Jacques Hoffstede rose up slowly, clearing his throat. The children clapped their hands with delight.

“Excusez! I really couldn’t help it,” he began. He put his finger to his long sharp nose and drew a paper from his coat pocket. . . . A profound silence reigned throughout the room.

His paper was gaily parti-coloured. On the outside of it was written, in an oval border surrounded by red flowers and a profusion of gilt flourishes:

He read this aloud first; then turning the paper over, he began, in a voice that was already somewhat tremulous:

Honoured friends, my modest lay

Hastes to greet you in these walls:

May kind Heaven grant to-day

Blessing on their spacious halls.

RV 29 (29)


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RV 30 (BUDDENBROOKS) Thee, my friend with silver hair.

And thy faithful, loving spouse,

And your children young and fair—

I salute you, and your house.

Industry and beauty chaste

See we linked in marriage band:

Venus Anadyomene

And cunning Vulcan’s busy hand.

May no future storms dismay

With unkind blast the joyful hour;

May each new returning day

Blessings on your pathway shower.

Ceaselessly shall I rejoice

O’er the fortune that is yours:

As to-day I lift my voice,

May I still, while life endures.

In your splendid walls live well.

And cherish with affection true

Him who in his humble cell

Penned to-day these lines for you.

He bowed to a unanimous outburst of applause.

“Charming, Hoffstede,” cried old Buddenbrook. “It was too charming for words. I drink your health.”

But when the Frau Consul touched glasses with the poet, a delicate blush mantled her cheek; for she had seen the courtly bow he made in her direction when he came to the part about the Venus Anadyomene.

RV 30 (30)


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general merriment had now reached its height. Herr Köppen felt a great need to unfasten a few buttons of his waistcoat; but it obviously wouldn’t do, for not even the elderly gentlemen were permitting themselves the liberty. Lebrecht Kröger sat up as straight as he did at the beginning; Pastor Wunderlich’s face was as pale as ever, his manner as correct. The elder Buddenbrook had indeed sat back a little in his chair, but he maintained perfect decorum. There was only Justus Kröger—he was plainly a little overtaken.

But where was Dr. Grabow? The butter, cheese and fruit had just been handed round; and the Frau Consul rose from her chair and unobtrusively followed the waitress from the room; for the Doctor, Mamsell Jungmann, and Christian were no longer in their places, and a smothered wail was proceeding from the hall. There in the dim light, little Christian was half lying, half crouching on the round settee that encircled the central pillar. He was uttering heart-breaking groans. Ida and the Doctor stood beside him.

“Oh dear, oh dear,” said she, “the poor child is very bad!”

“I’m ill, Mamma, damned ill,” whimpered Christian, his little deep-set eyes darting back and forth, and his big nose looking bigger than ever. The “damned” came out in a tone of utter despair; but the Frau Consul said: “If we use such words, God will punish us by making us suffer still more!”

Doctor Grabow felt the lad’s pulse. His kindly face grew longer and gentler.

“It’s nothing much, Frau Consul,” he reassured her. “A touch of indigestion.” He prescribed in his best bed-side manner: “Better put him to bed and give him a Dover powder—

RV 31 (31)


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RV 32 (BUDDENBROOKS) perhaps a cup of camomile tea, to bring out the perspiration. . . . And a rigorous diet, you know, Frau Consul. A little pigeon, a little French bread. . .”

“I don’t want any pigeon,” bellowed Christian angrily. “I don’t want to eat anything, ever any more. I’m ill, I tell you, damned ill!” The fervour with which he uttered the bad word seemed to bring him relief.

Doctor Grabow smiled to himself—a thoughtful, almost a melancholy smile. He would soon eat again, this young man. He would do as the rest of the world did—his father, and all their relatives and friends: he would lead a sedentary life and eat four good, rich, satisfying meals a day. Well, God bless us all! He, Friedrich Grabow, was not the man to upset the habits of these prosperous, comfortable tradesmen and their families. He would come when he was sent for, prescribe a few days’ diet—a little pigeon, a slice of French bread—yes, yes, and assure the family that it was nothing serious this time. Young as he was, he had held the head of many an honest burgher who had eaten his last joint of smoked meat, his last stuffed turkey, and, whether overtaken unaware in his counting-house or after a brief illness in his solid old four-poster, had commended his soul to God. Then it was called paralysis, a “stroke,” a sudden death. And he, Friedrich Grabow, could have predicted it, on all of these occasions when it was “nothing serious this time”—or perhaps at the times when he had not even been summoned, when there had only been a slight giddiness after luncheon. Well, God bless us all! He, Friedrich Grabow, was not the man to despise a roast turkey himself. That ham with onion sauce had been delicious, hang it! And the Plettenpudding, when they were already stuffed full—macaroons, raspberries, custard. . . “A rigorous diet, Frau Consul, as I say. A little pigeon, a little French bread. . .”

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Rh I fear, wasn't having a very good time. As the dust blew in his eyes, and his collar wilted, I think his enthusiasm for aviation, such as it was, waned. He was slightly non-plussed, therefore, when I said:

"Dad, you know, I think I'd like to fly."

Heretofore we had been milling about behind the ropes which lined the field. At my suggestion we invited ourselves into the arena and looked about. I saw a man tagged "official" and asked my father to talk with him about instruction. I felt suddenly shy about making inquiries myself, lest the idea of a woman's being interested in trying to fly be too hilarious a thought for the official.

My father was game; he even went so far as to make an appointment for me to have a trial hop at what was then Rogers Airport. I am sure he thought one ride would be enough for me, and he might as well act to cure me promptly.

Next day was characteristically fair and we

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242 immoveables, declaring, “Though immoveables and bipeds have been acquired by a man himself,” &c. &c. In what a strange situation is the father placed, if such be really the law! How thoroughly all power over his own possessions is taken away, and his credit reduced!

30. The author quotes also two passages from Narudu, as confirming the course of reasoning, which he has pursued, with regard to the independence claimable by each of all the coheirs in a joint property. The passages above alluded to are thus read: “When there are many persons sprung from one man, who have duties apart and transactions apart, and are separate in business and character, if they be not accordant in affairs, should they give or sell their own shares, they do all that as they please; for they are masters of their own wealth” (Ch. II. Sec. 31).

31. After I had sent my manuscript to the Press, my attention was directed to an article in the “Calcutta Quarterly Magazine, No. VI. April—June, 1825,” being a Review of Sir F. W. McNaghten’s Considerations on HiudooHindoo [sic] Law. In this essay I find an opinion offered by the writer, tending to recommend that any disposal by a father of his ancestral immoveables should be nullified, on the principle that we ought “to make that invalid which was considered immoral” (p. 225). I am surprised that this unqualified maxim should drop from the pen of the presumed reviewer, who, as a scholar, stands very high in my estimation, and from whose extensive knowledge more correct judgment might be expected. Let us, however, apply this principle to practice, to see how far, as a general rule, it may be safely adopted.

32. To marry an abandoned female, is an act of evil