be persuaded of their happiness, but you alone can give propagation to new systems. Why will you refuse your aid; why that disdainful look? The distance that separates you both, and which you yourselves seem to think as infinite, appears, perhaps, as nothing in the eyes of millions of beings tbat are above us. It is a distinguishing character of folly to be insensible, or to take the limits of its own horizon for the boundary of creation. Be more timid and diffident then, and instead of despising fools when you see them, admire their happiness; and acknowledge that all that is wanting to their claim of superior talents, is that of not being fools by their proper choice.

In this little volume, the manners of the Dutch and Barbanters are described with uncommon accuracy and spirit. Well known, therefore, as these countries are, we doubt not that we shall gratify some of our readers by the following extracts

SALUTATION by the lips between man and man, is prevalent in France; but were you to see two greasy Dutchmen press their mouths mutually together with a no common ardor, you could have no doubt how universally this most elegant fashion is in use. I have seen a Dutchman at a table d'hote, start from his position with the soup yet fresh upon his lips, to confer this mark of his regard upon an acquaintance, who had just entered the room among the latest arrivals in a diligence. He had hardly time to doff his travelling cap when he received this testimonial.

It was the beginning of the grand summer fair, and those diversions and amusements to which the Dutch seldom dedi. cate any of their time, are then multiplied to excess; and, indeed I may say, that though they sometimes partake in them, they think them more calculated for foreigners; as being subversive of that strict economy on which they necessarily place so great a value, as they owe their very existence to it.

Every street abounds with incredibilities; ropes slung across the widest streets, exhibit dancers endeavouring to out

On the

vie each other, by the most hazardous attempts. front of one booth was placarded, "Opera merveilleuse-passeul par un dindon." A turkey taught to dance! It is worth describing, and shews the French have no rivals in buffoonery and the art of making a pastime of cruelty. A thin sheet of iron formed the stage on which the turkey appeared; this was gradually heated. It obliged the turkey to raise his legs alternately, with a motion the more quick and irregular, as the heat increased. This, accompanied with the variation of sound, impressive of the uneasiness it suffered, and, by an occasional scrape on the violin, was a great source of enter. tainment to the principal part of the spectators, to whom the secret was unknown.

*

We spoke of the Dutch women. On my observing that I thought their manners far from engaging or refined, and that their affections were more the result of calculation than choice; it was admitted that their intimacies and friendships proceeded more from the understanding than the heart; but that it was probably owing to this circumstance, that they were so peaceful and happy; for they always enjoyed a general evenness of temper, not subject to the transports of gaiety, nor subdued by the unequal counterpoise of gloom. Were a Dutchman to give you his ideas of domestic happiness, he would tell you that his wife should be the emblem of exactitude and economy; that his sons and daughters should entertain no ideas of marriage till their fortunes were established; and that after they had been taught how to acquire wealth, they should become acquainted with the more difficult science of preserving it.

Gross in their habits of life, often to an excess, they would be shocked at the least impurity in their house or furniture. Should any one spit on the floor, the master of the house politely reminds him of the box for that purpose. Even in the houses of the higher classes, there is an utensil for this service stuck up on the chimney piece among the ornaments. It is generally of china, but often of a more valuable material. In the little Inns, upon the roads, where the kitchen is often the waiting-room for travellers, if you spit upon the tiled floor, the kitchen-maid will immediately come with a big mop, and hold out her hand to be paid for the trouble you had given her. This is one of her perquisites.

In Amsterdam as well as all the sea-port towns in Holland, there is one class of people of a most brutal and fero

cious character; the low description of mariners. They are armed with clasp knives, with which they often fight in single combat, and gash each other's faces in the most frightful manner. Though in their quarrels they would cut with these treacherous weapons, yet strange as it is, they preserve sufficient cool blood, in their most violent fits of rage, to guard against inflicting any dangerous wound, by which they would become amenable to law. Such deliberate ruffians are seldom to be met with, even in the catalogue of cold-blooded villany. This manner of deciding disputes is not confined to sailors alone. It prevails among the lower classes in several parts of the country. I was once billetted with an innkeeper at Steenbergen on my way to Tholen, who had a seam tirely across his face, of nearly half an inch broad; and on my asking him how it happened, he boasted most exultingly that he took off part of the nose of his antagonist, in the next cut he made at him after he received that gash across his face. They manage it with such dexterity, that they can stick the point in any particular mark at a cast even from some distance. These pointed knives were forbidden to be used by Louis Bonaparte. *

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To return to the narrative of my journey; at Haas, an inconsiderable village where they change horses between. Graave and Bois-le-Duc, there is a curious specimen of the manner in which the Dutch regulate the growth of trees to their own fancy. By winding steps round the trunk of the tree, you are conducted into a summerhouse, constructed on the middle of its branches, with chairs and tables for the accommodation of those who wish to pay as drawing room visitors. This belongs to the proprietor of the cabaret, and I may venture to say, there is not a vegetable in his garden so productive to him.

*

I made an excursion to see the mud baths of St. Amand about 7 leagues from Cambrai, through Bouchain. The process is but one remove from mortality, and the patient undergoes a sort of temporary interment, so that I am led from one to the other by the most natural association

Over the

mineral clay, which is of a dark, slimy, and foetid substance, is constructed a spacious chamber, divided into compartments for the reception of the patients. Each is clad in a shirt of baize, and plunged into this mass of fluid earth, at different depths, according as they are affected, and remain there for stated periods, as the physician may direct. I drew aside the curtain, and without being prepared for it, you may

judge my feelings of surprise, to see one buried up to the middle, another still deeper, and a third with his head just peeping above the surface. I rubbed my eyes lest it might be an illusion; confused images passed across my mind, and some seconds had elapsed before I was conscious that the scene before me was real. As the pains are relieved during immersion, a deep silence prevails; which, added to the sombre light which passed through the screens, gave it a most gloomy aspect.

PEARL FISHERY IN INDIA.

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THE fishing for Pearls in India is farmed for three or four years; after which the banks are left to recruit. The oyster pearls arrive at their size in seven years; but in the hurry of their business, the divers bring up a great many too young, which they are obliged to throw again into the sea. occupation does not require so many precautions as are imagined. It is not true, as is believed in Europe, that the divers rub their bodies with oil, and that they carefully stop up their nostrils and ears. They are even unacquainted with the use of bells, bladders, and double flexible pipes. The diving stone is the only expedient which they use; it is a piece of granite, of a pyramidal form, and of about thirty pounds weight. Having descended rapidly to the depth of fifty feet and more, the fisher detaches all the oysters which are within his reach, and fills with them the net fastened to his neck. The greater number of divers work under water only for two minutes; but the divers from Malabar have been seen to remain there during six or seven minutes: On coming out of the sea, they discharge by the mouth and nose a great quantity of salt water, and sometimes even blood. A good diver makes fifty descents in a day.

The most skilful and experienced have not less fear of the sharks than the new beginners. Nothing can make them. consent to descend, until the Pillal-Kadtar or conjuror of sharks has performed the accustomed ceremonies. This prejudice is so firmly rooted in their mind, that the government is obliged to maintain in its pay, two Pillal-Kadtars, without reckoning those who are attracted thither by the love of gain. These conjurors remain on the shore, incessantly muttering magical words, from the rising of the sun until the return of the barks; but as soon as a diver perceives a shark,

he has no longer any confidence but in a sudden flight: he gives a signal, and every one saves himself.

The proprietors of the barks sometimes sell the oysters before they are opened. They are thrown into holes of a foot in depth, where they are left to die, under the idea that they then open more easily. The pearl merchants or Choulias all belong to one Moorish cast, called the Aybe, who have the exclusive privilege of this commerce. They walk on the shore carrying small copper dishes bored with unequal holes and very delicate scales, in order to estimate immediately the size and the weight of the pearls. Others bore them as quickly with surprising skill, and with the assistance of a simple gimlet. The men who open the oysters shew themselves no less industrious to escape the rigorous watchfulness of which they are the object. The following is a trick which has succeeded with them more than once; when a workman perceives a pearl of a very great value, he makes to his comrades a signal which is agreed upon; immediately one of them causes himself to be surprised, by apparently endeavour. ing to conceal a pearl of a middling value; the inspectors run; the crowd follow them; and, in the midst of the tumult, the real thief places his booty in safety. It is then sold for the benefit of all his comrades.

SINGULAR ADVENTURE AND ESCAPE.

From "Narrative of a Journey in Egypt," by Thomas Legh, Esq. M. P. lately published.

We were bent on going [to a pit where the mummies of crocodiles were said to have been deposited in ancient times,] and the Arabs at last undertook to be our guide for a reward of 25 piastres. After an hours march in the desert, we arrived at the spot, which we found to be a pit or circular hole of 10 feet in diameter, and about 18 feet deep. We descend. ed without difficulty, and the Arabs began to strip, and pro posed to us to do the same; we partly followed their example, but kept on our trowsers and shirts. I had by me a brace of pocket pistols, which I concealed in my trowsers, to be prepared against any treacherous attempt of our guides. It was now decided that three of the four Arabs should go with us, while the other remained on the outside of the cavern. The Abyssinian merchant declined going any farther. The sailors remained also on the outside to take care of our clothes.