This prayer […] is drawn up in the metaphorical, but expressive, language of Scripture; has been long employed in the conclusion of Litanic, and other forms of prayer, by the churches of the west; and retains strong marks of primitive devotion.

First of all, he says a lot of the promotions from the ranks are promotions of the sons of officers who have gone wrong , or got plucked, or what not, and who are brought up again along another road for commissioned rank.

Their unfree status meant not only unfavourable tenurial conditions for the betaghs but also incapacity to plead on their own behalf in the king's courts where they were represented instead by their lord.

The Salempenta or El Mateo, measuring from the tail to the nose three feet, is exceedingly ugly; colour chiefly a brownish green, with yellow spots; and marked in the most extraordinary hieroglyphical manner; … The Salempenta has (like the Chameleon, and several others of the same species) in some measure the faculty of changing its colour when in any way excited, either through fright or anger; …