1 keep both accounts correctly, with this stipu- "It is agreed. I will pay quarterly, into requisition. Tobacco-pouches are filled. Two additional mangals of charcoal-fire and some additional coffee-pots are prepared. Decanters are filled with arraki, wine, liqueurs, orange-flower and rose water; and the cut-glass saucers are replenished with candied preserves; whilst two tended by the mistress of the house, are busy maid-servants and a boy, assisted and superingrinding coffee and decocting huge bowls of deliciously-iced lemonade. And how did the bargain turn out? Our In addition to all this, a side-table is groaning readers have, no doubt, guessed it already. under the weight of plates of sliced oranges and Jane continued, during the year, to supply picked pomegranates, with numerous other fruits, her husband with cigars, and, at the end, and a great variety of pastry. By the time all rendered in her account; by which it ap-in; the whole yard is illuminated; the members these arrangements are completed, the night sets peared, that Mr. Morris had smoked away of the househoid and the servants are busily twenty-two pounds, while his wife had spent engaged donning their best attire, and the comonly eight pounds on gloves, handkerchiefs, and shoes-the two pounds she had saved having just enabled her to keep her husband's cigar box full, without calling on him for the deficiency till the year was up. Mr. Morris paid the balance, with a long face, but without a word of comment. He has ever since given, of his own accord, the ten-pound allowance to his wife. Husbands who think their wives waste money on gloves, SHOULD BE CAREFUL TO WASTE NONE ON CIGARS." We repeat it-there is a good moral in this sketch from life; and we hope each one of our fair readers will make ample use of it for her own particular benefit. Men are little better than semi-savages, and must be well looked after. LIFE AND BEAUTY IN DAMASCUS. AN AMUSING BOOK has just been issued, A SYRIAN FEAST. Let us, says the author, introduce those who may be strangers to their customs, into the house where the farah (feast) is to be held. Women are busily occupied washing out and sweeping the court-yard; the flowers and other plants are fresh watered; the marble fountain is decorated with colored lanterns and festoons of flowers; carpets are spread, and divan cushions ranged against the walls; the mistaba is tastefully lighted, and a highly inflammable torch, composed of the fat wood of fir, resin, and other ingredients, is planted in each of the four corners. pany ing up is the signal for the nearest invited neighbors to make their appearance. They arrive; the men clad in long, loose silken robes, the women enveloped in their white izars. But these latter are speedily thrown aside at the invitation of the lady of the house, who assists in helping the guests to disrobe, and then confides their izars to the trusty care of the handmaiden. Now these veils are all of the same make, and they have no initials or other distinguishing mark. Notwithstanding this, no confusion ensues on the breaking up, of a party as to identification; every lady is quick to recognise her own peculiar izar from the mass of white sheets that are folded and piled, one above another, upon the divan in the upstairs dressing-room. of hired musicians arrive. The music strik Soon the whole party have arrived; and the amusements of the evening commence with vocal and instrumental music. After this, some of the gentlemen stand up and go through the graceful attitudes of the Syrian dance. Then, some others volunteer the sword dance, or the Bedouin dance; some of the married ladies then take courage; but it requires coaxing and threats to induce the timid damsel to display her skill. Persuasion being out of the question, some old gentleman gets up and pretends that he is going to dance instead of her, and he goes through a few steps till he comes close up to some girl that he has singled out from the circle. Seizing her arm with no very gentle force, he whirls her into the centre of the yard; and meanwhile, some one who has watched the manœuvre acts the same part by some other blushing maiden. These are confronted face to face, and there is now no escape; so they commence, at first timidly and bashfully, but, getting gradually excited by the music, they lose all this pretended bashfulness, and do their best to outshine each other; and truly there is rarely a more graceful sight than two beautiful Damascene girls, elegantly dressed and bespangled with jewels, displaying their graceful figures to the best advantage, to the slow but becoming measures of the dance. This is an important ceremony, at which In the smoking apartment of the mistaba, pre-different from our English ceremonies, that we should dearly love to assist. It is so very parations are making on a grand scale. Large bags of ready-washed and prepared timbac are it would possess a delicious freshness,-an hung upon nails in the wall, to filter and to be fit indescribable charm. Such a contest, and for immediate use when the narghilies are called between two such lovely performers, must be more than commonly interesting. But knotted and interwoven with various sized golden let us proceed :— - All the other young ladies now follow their example; and as each couple retires at the termination of their efforts to please, they are hailed with shouts of applause, and liberally besprinkled with rose and orange-flower water. The old ladies evince their approbation by a peculiar vibrating scream, produced by the voice passing through the nearly-closed lips, whilst the under lip is kept in a continual tremulous state by the rapid application of the back of the fore-finger to that feature. When dancing is over for the evening, games of forfeit are introduced, and promote much mirth; especially one game called "Tuthun, Tuthun, min Tuthun," -a game of Turkish origin, as its name denotes, and which is played thus: every one in the circle takes the name of a bird, a tree, or a flower, whilst the king of the game goes round and collects in a handkerchief some small article from each one present. These he afterwards shuffles together, and then drawing out one, which he carefully conceals in his hand, he fixes upon some one in the circle, to whom he puts the question-" Tuthun, Tuthun, min Tuthun?" or "Tobacco, tobacco, whose is it?" The party fixed upon is obliged to guess, and he names some bird or flower which he has heard some one call himself. If the guess is wrong, he has to hold out his hand and receive three stripes from a closelyknotted handkerchief; and then, the party referred to is next obliged to guess to whom the "Tuthun" belongs, and so on all round the circle till the right name has been discovered. Then the king resigns his post and handkerchief, and is relieved in his office by him or her that made the right guess. After these games, some one tells a story or recites a poem. coins. Her features (excepting the eyes) are all small, but compact. The nose is Grecian, the lips cherry, and slightly pouting, the chin dimpled, the form of the face oval, and the complexion clear, with a rosy tint. The bust and figure are unexceptionable, the arms comely, the wrists and ankles well turned, and the feet and hands perfect models for a sculptor. Yet this is one out of the many nondescript beings that we encountered, with izar and veil in the street. Her face and figure are well set off by the headdress and Oriental costume. On the top of her head she wears a small red cap, which is encircled by a handsomely-flowered handkerchief; and over the latter, strings of pearls and pieces of small gold money are tastefully arranged in festoons. In the centre of her red cap is a diamond crescent, from which hangs a long golden cord with a blue silk tassel, usually ornamented with pearls. Her vest fits tight, and admirably displays the unlaced figure. In summer, this vest is of blue or pink satin, bordered and fringed with gold lace. In winter, cloth, edged with fur, is substituted for the satin; and over the vest is worn a short grey jacket, chastely embroidered with black silk braid. The vest is confined to the waist by a zunnar, in summer, of a silk Tripoli scarf, in winter by a costly cashmere shawl; and from under this a long robe reaches to her ankles, and is divided into two long lappels lined with satin and fringed with costly trimmings. This latter robe partially conceals the shirwal, or full trousers, which hang loosely over, and are fastened round the ankles; the tasty mixture of colors, and the graceful arrangement, render the costume a perfect study. Latterly European shoes have been much used by the Damascene ladies; especially those gailyReally, these little games must be delight-flowered kid shoes, imported into Syria from Marful. We should like right well to be one of the invited guests. We would tell them many a good story; recite to them many a pleasing poem. But now let us introduce our second extract, the subject an enchanting one. It is a full-length picture of a lady of Damascus, called by Mr. St. John "a very fair specimen of her sex." Can our English women catch any idea worth adopting, from the subjoined graphic sketch? We think they can, if they be so disposed. What they are so deficient in, are ease, repose, elegance, and effect. When "dressed," they tell us, unmistakeably, they live but to be looked at. The mind altogether retires. They are "all outside.' Sad, but true! Mr. St. John has evidently made good use of his eyes,-even though he may not have lost his heart. Beginning (of course) with her eyes, he thus writes of ONE OF THE BEAUTIES OF DAMASCUS. HER EYES are beautifully dark; her eyelashes, eyebrows, and hair, of a glossy jet black. The latter, tinged with henna, hangs down her back and reaches nearly to the ground in a succession of plaits; each terminating with black silk braid, and her walk and action are as graceful as her seilles. This completes the young lady's toilet, figure and face are prepossessing; but beyond the naam (yes) and la (no) of conversation, you can seldom get a word from her unless you are a very intimate friend of the family; and then, these young ladies are as fond of a little romping or quizzing as their more accomplished and more elegant sisters of the North. - all so It would be prudish, were it otherwise; and WHO could help romping with, and quizzing such charming young ladies, becomingly habited! It must indeed be delightful to be "a very intimate friend of the family." We conclude Mr. St. John had that honor. Happy traveller! It is a mistake, adds the author, to imagine that excluded from any friendly intercourse with the the natives of the Turkish empire are wholly women of those countries,-a tale which has gained credence and been perseveringly maintained by travellers, few of whom have ever had an opportunity of testing the truth of the report by personal experience. Amongst the higher classes of the Greek persuasion in particular, every freedom exists in doors; young ladies not only show themselves, but, after serving the guest with coffee and sweetmeats, they will seat themselves on the edge of the divan, and soon manage to join in the conversation. This state of freedom exists, to a greater or less degree, till the young girl is betrothed. Then it is not considered decorous that she should be present whenever her intended bridegroom visits the house; neither should she hear his name mentioned. Even amongst Turks, and more especially in the villages and smaller towns of Syria, the young Mahomedan sees and converses with the future object of his love until she attains her eleventh or twelfth year. She is then excluded from the society of men; but womanhood has already begun to develop itself in the person of the girl of ten or eleven years old in these climates, where they are oftentimes wives and mothers at thirteen. Hence, love exists between the young couple before the destined bridegroom urges his mother to make the requisite proposals of marriage. He loses sight of his lady-love as soon as she enters upon womanhood; though he may, by means of a third party, catch an occasional glimpse of her features as she passes to and fro, strictly guarded by matrons and old duennas. Yet, not a single word or one bewitching kiss can the despairing lover hope for, until she is brought home to his house, his lawful consort and partner for life! Then, and not till then, commences the great seclusion of the ladies of the Turkish harem. However, in country places and villages, though the newly-married bride may be strictly guarded for a year or two, this feeling eventually wears off, and the women mix in the every-day occupations of the field or in the garden, unveiled and undistinguishable from their Christian neighbors. These "occasional glimpses" are barbarities. The author does not tell us whether any of the matrons and old duennas are poisoned, or otherwise disposed of. We imagine, however, that they must mysteriously disappear in very large numbers; nor ought the inquiry pursued to be too particularly rigid," under the circumstances." So much for the beauty and the festivities of Damascus. HEADS MAY DIFFER-HEARTS AGREE. Tho' in matters of faith we can't always agree, Let us glean what is noble and good from each creed, Nor with conscience and honesty trifle. How much better and wiser the world might become, Would partisans cease their contention, DARK SPOTS ON THE FAIR SUN,- Parents, brothers, sisters! All ye who take Of objects to your bosom near and dear, W. PEACE. IF EVER MORTAL had reason to rejoice, WE have. A few honest remarks from our pen, introduced from time to time in connection with the internal machinery of convents, have, it would appear, worked wonders. They have led to inquiry, and this inquiry has ended in satisfactory proof that we asserted nothing rashly. It would ill become us, as a Public Journalist, to shrink from a task of positive though painful duty. What we have said has been forced from us. We only wish that every other Journal had been as fearlessly independent in the utterance of its sentiments. The souls and bodies of our fellow-creatures are not objects to be trifled with,—their temporal and eternal happiness are not matters to be so lightly esteemed. To immolate one's own child, too! Forbid it, Heaven! How often has our heart groaned with anguish, to read (blazoned forth in our public newspapers,) an announcement of some distinguished young lady of fortune being about to "pass through the fire to Moloch!"—or, to speak in the refined language of modern times, to "take the veil!" Tickets, too, to see this great insult to the Almighty, have been advertised for disposal! Nobody, surely, will ask us to recall the remark we have so often uttered as to the world being mad. Men and women, with hearts and souls, to gaze on a sinful offering like this-and with such complacency too! Is it not monstrous? Fathers!-blush. Mothers!-weep tears of blood. What puzzles us so very much is, that people of good education and general common sense, should form such a contemptible, such an insulting idea of the Supreme Being, whose love for His creatures is so infinite. They profess to adopt the "Sacred Volume" as their book of faith; and yet act in open defiance of every holy, innocent principle it enjoins. Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, friends! be timely warned, and let no more such hideous sacrifices call down the vengeance of Heaven. Cherish your own flesh Would the censor but pause, and the bigot be and blood. Do not destroy them here and dumb, Nor strengthen the weeds of dissension; Be true to the faith of their sires, and again hereafter. This earth was made for our use and happiness, and for the Creator's glory. Everything is lawful, lawfully used; and all that is required from us in return is a tribute of gratitude, adoration, and praise. On this OR, point all our honest and best men are agreed. FLOWERS, AND A LOVE FOR NATURE ; Depend upon this, he excels most who is most useful in his day and generation. Cloistered virtues smell rank. Ere we terminate these few remarks, let us mention the pleasing fact of the withdrawal of one of our former subscribers, a Roman Catholic. His letter, dated from Buckland, near Faringdon, expresses wrathful indignation at us for our having dared to expose the abuses of convents.* This is well; coming from such a quarter-at once the handsomest compliment that could have been paid us, and strongly corroborative of the power TRUTH possesses when properly handled. OUR JOURNAL never can hope,-neither does it aim, to flourish in such an impure atmosphere. If it should die, let it die with the praise of all honest men upon it;-it were a noble death! It has done much good; it rejoices in the hope of yet adding largely to the sphere of its usefulness. Let us tell this very enlightened Roman Catholic a little secret. We sent his letter, under cover, to a friend of ours, who is a true philanthropist. In the reply he sent us, was enclosed the following:-"The object of the miserable man who wrote that epistle shall be defeated. Tell the Editor of KIDD'S JOURNAL, with my best compliments, that I will be a subscriber, in his stead, from the present time. I forward 20s. on account. May the righteous cause prosper!" We learn from our friend, that we are indebted to a very high-minded, charitable lady for this little service. We record it to her honor.-ED. K. J. WHAT I LOVE. BY J. S. BIGG. I play not with the thunders, In which all times and changes hang like stars, To the sweet talk and fragmentary thought SCIENCE MADE EASY. IT IS FULL LATE IN THE DAY FOR US to comment on the power of kindness in winning young people to the pursuit of useful knowledge. We have said, and we glory in repeating it, that gentleness and goodness will accomplish almost everything. Only get possession of a child's heart, and reason kindly with it, and it is at once in your keeping. These remarks are introductory to a little episode which appears in our excellent contemporary, the "Gardeners' Journal," and which we make no apology for transferring, (in a carefully abridged form,) to our own columns. There is a great fact" interwoven in this little narrative of events, which cannot fail to be recognised by our readers, and we feel sure of their appreciating the motive by which we are actuated in bringing it under their eye. Let us call the sketch we allude to THE VILLAGE FLOWER-SHOW. In a quiet corner of rural England dwells a pastor of the Established Church--an eminent teacher of botany, whose educational views, sprung from a mathematical university, have bent with peculiar grace to the influence of his professional pursuits. For him, the lilies of the field are ministering elements of thought and feeling; serving to rear up the minds of his flock in notions of comeliness and order; and to draw lessons from plants and other natural objects, is with him a treasured step towards the development of an observant and godly intellect. Let us see how far his village flower-show, held a few days since, confirms the spirit of his teaching. The ruling principle of the "H-Laborers' and Mechanics' Horticultural Society," is, that every member should feel his independence as a contributing subscriber. They are of the very poorest class. Few, very few, alas! of the parents are able to read or write. The subscription is sixpence per annum, and out of this small fund two annual shows-one of flowers and one of vegetables-are held with great rejoicing in the grounds of the Rectory. Prizes, varying from 2s. 6d. to a pinch of white snuff, i.e., peppermint lozenges, are offered by the rector, gentry, and farmers, to the most successful culti vators, and the award of the judges is looked forward to, each year, with as much competing excitement as the gold and silver Banksian and Knightian medals of the metropolis. There is, however, one important advantage which this Society has over those of London. It gives prizes for wild-flowers. As the seasons come round, the children of H- go into the fields to gather wild-flowers, and a faithful record is kept and printed, of the parish Flora. Hard names, such as monocotyledonous" and "inflorescence" are as familiar to them as household words. They are engrafted on the memory by their continual practical illustration. The spelling-book gives them names equally hard and important, such as ple-ni-po-ten-ti-a-ry and ag-grand-ize-ment; but as these things are unfamiliar, and have no practical illustration among them, they are forgotten almost as soon as learned. Of wild-flowers, a prize of 18. and four of 6d. are offered for the five best nosegays, not exceeding 18in. by 12in., prepared by children between eight and fourteen years of age, and a prize of 18. and two of 6d. for similar nosegays from children under eight years of age; and three prizes of 28. 6d., 28., and 1s. 6d., are offered, respectively, to the children of the parish school, who shall answer best some questions about the local wild-flowers. The day arrives, and the village botanists are sauntering up the long walk with the produce of their rambles. Presently they are buzzing under a group of horse-chestnut trees, making up their nosegays-eighteen inches by twelve-and anon they show them in the exhibition-booth, in the quaintest possible stands-from a ginger-beer bottle to a cocked-hat-Damon of the time of Watteau, with his arms a-kimbo, looking as proud of his load as a Linnæan herbalist. Opposite to them are arranged the fuchsias, geraniums, roses, pinks, stocks, pansies, annuals and perennials, nosegays, and device nosegays; and at the end the rustics are peeping with astonishment into a polyorama and a stereoscope. The giving of each prize is accompanied with praises and criticism, according as either is needed. The fuchsias are pronounced to be excellent; the pinks not so good. "You must improve their cultivation," said the Professor, "by the next show. In having such jagged edges they look too much like cloves. They look as if they had been jumping through the brambles and had torn their petticoats." The failing characteristic was understood in a moment. The wild-flower gatherers now stand round to receive their prizes, and to be asked questions. It was announced that one little girl had added twelve new species to the flora of during the past year; twelve, not brought hap-hazard, with a heap of others, but detected separately in the field, as not being in the printed catalogue, and not hitherto known to the University Professor of Botany as being inhabitants of his parish. Plants from the west of England, not before seen by the little botanists, were then shown to them, and the class, family, and genus were told without hesitation; and when asked to what plant known to them they were related, the allied local species was named, though differing in general aspect. The plant was determined alone by its scientific character. H The prizes were awarded; and it did one's heart good to see the little bob-curtsey and intelligent simper that accompanied it. A present of botanical boxes was promised to be given on the morrow. The banquet of tea and cake for three hundred horticulturists who had taken penny tickets, and a hymn of loyalty and grateful interchange of huzzas between master and servants, concluded the proceedings. The parting adieu is still tinkling gently in our ears. But a yet more interesting sight awaited us. On the morrow we visited the parish dame-school. The forms were crowded with children, the girls neat and intelligent, and the boys somewhat quaintly clad, and drowsy. As the Professor appeared at the door (looking a little quaint in his straw hat, with a rough hoe for a walkingstick), the pinafored botanists, who seemed to congregate by instinct, stood up to receive him. At one end of the room was a cupboard, containing the parish herbarium. It consisted of dried specimens of the flora of H―, neatly arranged and named, and outside on a board hung the printed catalogue of reference. Opposite to it was a large A,B,C table, and some views of the Crystal Palace. At the other end of the room was the vivarium, or collection of living specimens. Each plant was contained in a separate phial of water, and two or three hundred or more, all fully labelled, were arranged along the wall in wooden shelves drilled for their reception. The prizes awarded to the most successful field botanists were now brought out for distribution. They were of three classes-botanical boxes, pocket lenses, and cases of forceps. The little villagers received their philosophical instruments with a shrewd appreciation of the use of them, and brought them to bear on a dissection of the products of the day with the dexterity of a Hooker or a Lindley. The forceps was lifted to separate the sepals and petals; the lens to examine the number of pistils and stamens; and class, order, and genus were determined by the competing botanists in a moment. "They beat my Cambridge boys," said the Professor; we don't trouble ourselves here about the Artificial system of botany: we jump smack to the Natural." One little girl had detected a species of reed grass new to her. It was new, as occurring in this locality, to the Professor. It was new even to his own private herbarium, and rare in all England. The girls were now examined as to the general characters of plants. A specimen was held up and systematically pulled to pieces, and the questions put were promptly answered in the course of the dissection. All we can ourselves remember is a lifting of the forceps, a quizzing through lenses, a general consultation and whispering, and the simultaneous echo now and then of such words as 'tetradynamous,' 'hypogynous,' polypetalous,' syngenesious,' and the like; learned out of a printed formula, which had proved much easier to them than the multiplication table. remarked the Professor, with a smile. "They beat my Cambridge boys hollow," again In conclusion, all kneeled down on the clean brick floor, to repeat a short prayer to the gracious Giver of plants, that open out spring lessons for impressed with the importance of nature-teaching, intelligent minds; and we went out thoroughly even in this sequestered pastoral spot. We would have given the world at that moment for some claim to a share in the blessing that followed the reverend Professor home to the Rectory. This is philosophy worth talking about. It is, indeed, living for a good purpose. If the same principle of action were carried out in a multitude of other matters, how much happier should we be as a nation! The feelings of that Reverend Professor we can readily enter into. Oh, that we could number many more such "professors" in this giddy world of ours! |