remembered having made inquiry of this man concerning the safety of the road adjoining his father's residence, and felt convinced that no other individual in the Carlist camp was acquainted with his intention of proceeding thither at all."

Nothing further of importance transpired that day. Towards the close of the next, it happened to be Murito's turn again to mount guard at the top of the cliff. As the hour which would terminate his guard approached, Lieutenant Silva and his colonel appeared sauntering along the platform, and shortly after the relief arrived. The customary form having been gone through, the fresh sentry took his post, and Murito was about to advance, as usual, to have a shot at his friends below. To his surprise the non-commissioned officer of the guard seized his musket, and at the same moment he found himself in the iron grasp of the men. The charge of his musket was drawn upon the spot, when it was discovered that, instead of the blank end of the cartridge, the ball had been bitten off in loading; whilst, rammed down over the wadding, was found a slip of paper, containing the words, in the handwriting of Murito Zumalacarregui is dead: the siege must soon be raised if the garrison hold out.' This discovery fully vindicated the justice of the suspicions which Silva had formed concerning the mysterious allusions of the Christino officer to his intelligence received 'from on high,' and the information communicated to him 'from the clouds.' Silva inquired whether he should order the man to the guardhouse to undergo his trial by court-martial; but the sergeant bluntly suggested to his commander the propriety of ordering out a firing party on the spot, and bringing the matter to a summary conclusion.

Your suggestion is the better of the two, sergeant,' replied the colonel, smiling grimly. 'I shall adopt neither, however, but make the fellow the bearer of his own correspondence. Death by the bullet is the fate of brave men and true soldiers, and ammunition is not so plenty that I can afford to waste a cartridge on a traitor. Pin the paper to the scoundrel's breast,' he shouted, and pitch him over to convey it to his friends below.'

The blood of Silva ran cold at this terrible doom, and he attempted a remonstrance on behalf of the miserable culprit; but the colonel was inflexible. The men to whom the order was given were seldom troubled with scruples; and if they had been, the treachery of a comrade would have effectually silenced them. The paper was actually pinned to the breast of the terror-palsied wretch; he was lifted from the ground, and carried to the edge of the cliff by half-a-dozen pairs of sinewy arms. The Christino sentry at the foot of the precipice was startled by a piercing shriek, as of one in mortal agony, in the upper air-then followed a swift rushing sound, and then a mass of lifeless humanity lay at his feet.

Years elapsed ere the restoration of tranquillity permitted the young Carlist officer again to visit his parental home. In the interval, all that medical skill | could effect had been resorted to for the restoration of Donna Silva to her proper mind; but the occurrences of one fearful night appeared to have driven reason from its throne for ever. On the arrival of her son, however, it was resolved by the medical advisers, with Don Ricardo's consent, to try the effect of his abrupt appearance in her presence, all other resources having failed. On his introduction to the room in which she sat, her countenance was bent towards the ground, and she seemed utterly regardless of the presence of a stranger. He addressed her: she started to her feet at the first accents of the voice which she had deemed choked for ever amid the rushing waters of the Fiend's Fishpond. She gazed upon him-the pallid cheek glowed again the vacant, lack-lustre eye flashed with the light of intellect-with a wild scream of delight she bounded toward him, clasped him in her arms, and sunk upon his bosom. Her embrace was long. The medical

attendant at length raised her head. She has fainted,' whispered her son. She is dead!' solemnly replied her husband. And so it was. The struggle had been too great; and her gentle spirit had passed away to the place where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.'

FLOWER-WORSHIP.

A SUPERSTITIOUS veneration for particular flowersin other words, flower-worship is an ancient, and, in some respects, a poetical variety of the depraved systems of religious homage into which certain of the human family have fallen. It is to be traced ages back in the religious observances of the Hindoos, and among the more enlightened Chinese: it formed an important part of the mysteries of Egyptian idolatry; and it is remarkable that the past and present monuments of the Mexicans exhibit, and with great prominence, the same feature; while at an earlier period than the present, certain flowers were regarded even by some Europeans with a degree of veneration only too closely approximating the more declared feeling of flower-worship. There is a love for these beautiful creations innate in the constitution of the human being, and participated in equally by civilised and savage men. Their exquisite attributes of painting and perfume address themselves directly to our more refined feelings, while they have a tendency to direct upwards to the God that made them: the grievous error lay in not stopping short before these feelings became idolatry. It will be easily conjectured that no temperate region was the parent of the superstition. It arose in those warmer latitudes where the vegetable world has been endowed with a vigour of growth, and gorgeousness of apparel, of which austerer climates are ignorant. Its aspect indeed is most imposing, and, to be fully realised, must be beheld. In the few exiles which pass an artificial existence in our stoves, we are supplied with some faint and feeble types of the vegetable glories of the tropics; and even these will produce an impression not soon effaced from any cultivated mind. But there, where the Indian, penetrating the hot, damp jungles of his forests, suddenly comes upon a great, glowing, wonderfully-formed and tinged orchid, squatting like some animated being upon a shaggy trunk, or where the Hindoo paddles across a blue lake, literally paved with lotus-flowers, it is not a violent supposition that the spectacle will impress him with feelings akin to awe. The next step is not difficult to be foreseen. As flower-worship took its origin, so, alas! it retains its existence, only among the most ignorant of the human family. Perhaps the singularity of the subject, coupled with the brevity of our notice of it, may be an apology, if one is requisite, for its introduction in these pages.

Humboldt and Bonpland, in their splendid work on Equinoctial Plants, give an account of a very curious tree called by the Mexicans by the dreadful title of the Macpalxochiquaukitl! which signifies hand, flower, tree. Its botanical title is almost as long, but is a trifle more euphonious-the Cheirostemon platanoides. There existed only one specimen of this sacred tree in all Mexico, at least to the knowledge of the Mexicans; and this circumstance, added to the really remarkable aspect of the flowers, appears to have won for it the veneration of the Indian population. From the centre of the flower there springs a columnar tube, which may be supposed to represent an arm and wrist; and this then breaks into five stamens, coloured blood-red, and disposed after a manner not very dissimilar to the arrangement of the fingers and thumb of the human hand. The very points of these vegetable fingers are curved, and somewhat resemble the formidable ungulated talons with which painters delight to ornament the hands of witches and demons. These parts of the flower are of a considerable size, and project in a menacing manner some distance above the petals. It may easily, therefore, be conceived that a

high and noble-looking tree-for such it is-laden with flowers of such marvellous configuration, brandishing aloft, in fact, a thousand gory hands, was an object likely to excite in no ordinary degree the superstitions, and even the terrors, of the ignorant. The tree was worshipped by thousands; it was believed to be the only specimen in the world of its kind; and the opinion was common that any attempt to propagate it would prove abortive. A great number of seeds was procured by our travellers, planted, and watched over with the most sedulous care, but not one of them succeeded. So great, say they, was the veneration paid to it by the Indians, and so eagerly were the precious flowers thereof sought after, that they were frequently plucked long before their expansion; and the tree was consequently never suffered to ripen its fruit. In spite, however, of the firmest convictions of the indivisibility of this tree-the Manitas, as it is commonly called-it has been propagated by cuttings, some of which are at this moment thriving in some of the larger stoves of our modern collectors. The Messrs Loddiges were, and for aught we know to the contrary, are still possessed of a remarkably fine and healthy specimen. In Lyon's 'Journal of a Residence in Mexico,' he mentions having seen this famous tree, and confirms all that has been above written concerning it, adding, that as if to make the resemblance to a hand complete, the points of the fingers are terminated by processes resembling claws! Whilst the resemblance to the human hand was recognised in this instance, it would have been most strange had the remarkable race of mimicsthe orchids-escaped observation or veneration. These plants, which have no parallel in nature for singularity, beauty, and fragrance, and which, in some of their species, imitate the most wonderful diversity of objects, are held in high veneration by the Mexicans. The Queen of the Orchids especially is inestimably prized; and others receive a subordinate measure of respect. Those who have access to Mr Bateman's splendid work on the Orchidacea of Mexico and Guatemala, will find there several interesting particulars relating to this subject. In other countries, orchids have been objects

of veneration.

The famed lotus-flower has a world-wide reputation for sanctity. It is not clear whether it belonged to the water-lily tribe, or to the Nelumbiaceæ, or whether the lotus of one nation may not have belonged to one, and that of another to the other, of these tribes. The Nelumbium is a splendid water - flower, and is found floating in the pools and ditches of Asia, and in the Nile: it yields a nut which is supposed to be analogous with the sacred bean of the ancients. The flowers of both tribes are glorious objects-some are blue, white, yellow, rose-coloured; and they appear lovely in the extreme when resting on the bosom of the wave. The flower was worshipped alike in Egypt, taking a place in the mysteries of Isis and Osiris, as in India in those of Brahma. The sculptural remains of ancient Egypt abound with the sacred plant in every stage of its development, the flowers and fruit being represented with the utmost accuracy. Among the Hindoos it was considered an emblem of the world, and the flower was looked upon as the cradle of Brahma. It was used to decorate the temples of their idols, and laid as a most acceptable votive offering upon their altars. Sir George Staunton writes-The Chinese always held this plant in such high value, that at length they regarded it as sacred. That character, however, has not limited it to useless or ornamental purposes. Their ponds, to the extent of many acres, are covered with it, and exhibit a very beautiful appearance when in flower.'* When Sir William Jones was on one occasion at dinner on the borders of the Ganges, desiring to examine the sacred flower, he despatched some of his people to procure him a specimen; it was brought to him, and immediately all his

*Embassy to China.

Indian attendants fell on their faces and paid adoration to it.

The Malays have a more sordid flower-worshipthey adore an imaginary flower of gold. They believe that there grows upon their sacred fig-tree a little flower of the most pure gold. It is a parasite, and opens and blossoms, they say, but once, and has the property of bringing vast wealth to its possessor. Thus much may at least be said of it-the flowers are golden, as far as colour goes. Loureiro, a writer on the Flora of Cochin China, says, that while he was resident in that empire, a large bunch of these priceless flowers was found by some fortunate person growing upon one of those sacred trees. Instantly he betook himself with his spoil to the emperor, at whose feet he deposited the treasure; for which, from being a common soldier, he was at once promoted to the highest ranks, the emperor believing himself now possessed of infallible assurance of boundless wealth and happiness.

Perhaps, to take a final example nearer home, the Passion-flower, as nearly as could be, received homage from the fervent superstitions of the early discoverers of the new world. It was first found in the Brazils, and very soon the marvels which its discoverers pretended to behold in it became famous throughout Christendom. Its name is suggestive of the solemn reality it was romantically supposed to typify. As it became common, it lost its sacredness, and has the bare vestige of it now left in its name. Without multiplying examples, this may suffice to direct the reader's attention to an interesting, but to every right mind a sad and painful, subject of thought.

THE RIVER AMAZON.

THE country of the Amazon,' says Mr Edwards, 'is the garden of the world, possessing every requisite for a vast population and an extended commerce. It is also one of the healthiest of regions; and thousands who annually die of diseases incident to the climates of the north, might here find health and long life.'* This river is the largest in the world. From a distance of about 200 miles from the Pacific, it continues navigable to its mouth in the Atlantic, 3000 miles by the course of the stream; and including its branches, it waters an area of 2,100,000 square miles, comprising one-third part of South America. The aggregate navigable length of this immense ramification of waters is said to be from 40,000 to 50,000 miles. The province of Pará alone, comprehending the most important part of the Amazon, contains an area of nearly a million square miles, with the most productive soil in the world, and an agreeable temperature, though under a vertical sun. This, Mr Edwards tells us, is owing to several causes.

The days are but twelve hours long, and the earth does not become so intensely heated as where they are sixteen. The vast surface of water constantly cools the air by its evaporation, and removes the irksome dryness that in temperate regions renders a less degree of heat insupportable. And finally, the constant winds blowing from the sea refresh and invigorate the system.'

'I know not,' says Sir William Temple, whether there may be anything in the climate of Brazil more propitious to health than in other countries; for, besides what was observed among the natives upon the first European discoveries, I remember Don Francisco de Mello, a Portugal ambassador in England, told me it was frequent in his country for men spent with age or other decays, so as they could not hope for above a year or two of life, to ship themselves away in a Brazil fleet, and upon their arrival there, to go on to a great length, sometimes of twenty or thirty years, or more, by the force of that vigour they received with that remove.

A Voyage up the River Amazon, Including a Residence at Pará. By William H. Edwards. London: Murray.

Whether such an effect might grow from the air or the fruits of that climate, or by approaching nearer the sun, which is the fountain of life and heat, when their natural heat was so far decayed, or whether the piecing out of an old man's life were worth the pains, I cannot say.' This is more true, Mr Edwards says, of the climate of Pará than of that of any other part of Brazil. The riches of this fine country embrace all the most valuable productions of the tropics; and the melancholy prejudices which elsewhere separate so effectually the working-classes (who must in such a climate be blacks) from the others, are here almost unfelt. 'Brazilian slavery, as it is, is little more than slavery in name. Prejudice against colour is scarcely known, and no white thinks less of his wife because her ancestors came from over the water. Half the officers of the government and of the army are of mingled blood; and padres, and lawyers, and doctors, of the intensest hue, are none the less esteemed. The educated blacks are just as talented and just as gentlemanly as the whites, and in repeated instances we received favours from them which we were happy to acknowledge.' What, then, renders Pará a poor and thinly-peopled territory, with land free of cost at the command of the immigrant; ground easily cleared; a fertile soil producing in extraordinary abundance sugar, rice, coffee, anatto, cotton, cocoa, gums, and drugs; and the general price of living marvellously low? The causes may be found in the legal disabilities under which settlers labour-dishonest officials, a debased currency, high import duties, and burdens upon exports which neutralise both the beneficence of nature and the industry of man. There is scarcely a product raised in the two countries in which Brazil could not undersell the United States in every market of the world, were it not for this tax. Its cotton and rice, even during the past year, have been shipped from Pará to New York; its tobacco is preferable to the best Virginian, and can be raised in inexhaustible quantities.' In a word, Pará is a province of the vast Brazilian empire, which is falling to pieces through its own weight.

A visit to such a country cannot fail to be interesting, and the fact is proved by a readable book upon the subject, such as the one before us, having been dashed off by a sportsman author, who does not describe very well, who does not philosophise at all, and whose knowledge of science is confined to the nomenclature of ornithology. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, the book is readable, as we shall proceed to prove, by transferring to our columns some of its morceaux of instruction or entertainment. The author is an American, who left New York for Pará upon an excursion of pleasure and curiosity.

The lower classes throughout the province live chiefly upon farinha, and a dried and salted fish called periecu. The plant producing the farinha is known by us as cassava. The stalk is tall and slender, and is divided into short joints, each one of which, when placed in the ground, takes root, and becomes a separate plant. The leaves are palmated, with six and seven lobes. The tubers are shaped much like sweet potatoes, and are a foot or more in length. They are divested of their thick rind, and grated upon stones, after which the mass is placed in a slender bag of rattan six feet in length; to this a large stone is appended, and the consequent extension producing a contraction of the sides, the juice is expressed. The juice is said to be poisonous, but is highly volatile. The last operation is the drying, which is effected in large iron pans, the preparation being constantly stirred. When finished, it is called farinha, or flour, and is of a white or brown colour, according to the care taken. In appearance it resembles dried crumbs of bread. It is packed in loose baskets lined with palm-leaves, and in the bulk of eighty pounds, or an alquier. Farinha is the substitute for bread and for vegetables. The Indians and blacks eat vast quantities of it, and its swelling in the stomach produces that distension observable in the children.' The fish is thus

noticed. Not long after noon, we stopped at a house where a number of Indians were collected about a periecu, which they had just caught. This was the fish whose dried slabs had been our main diet for the last few weeks, and we embraced the opportunity to take a good look at so useful a species. He was about six feet long, with a large head and wide mouth; and his thick scales, large as dollars, were beautifully shaded with flesh colour. These fish often attain greater size, and at certain seasons are very abundant, especially in the lakes. They are taken with lances, cut into slabs of half an inch thickness, and dried in the sun after being properly salted. It is as great a blessing to the province of Pará as cod or herring to other countries, constituting the main diet of three-fourths of the people.'

The living of another class of society is more varied. At six in the morning coffee was brought into our room, and the day was considered as fairly commenced. We then took our guns, and found amusement in the woods until nearly eleven, which was the hour for breakfast. At this meal we never had coffee or tea, and rarely any vegetable excepting rice; but rich soups, and dishes of turtle, meat, fish, and peixe boi, in several forms of preparation, loaded the table. The Brazilian method of cooking becomes very agreeable when one has conquered his repugnance to a slight flavour of garlic and the turtle-oil used in every dish. The dessert consisted of oranges, pacovas, and preserves. Puddings, unless of tapioca, are seldom seen, and pastry never, out of the city. Water was brought, if we asked for it; but the usual drink was a light Lisbon wine. The first movement upon taking our places at the table, was for each to make a pile of salt and peppers upon his plate, which, mashed and liquefied by a little caldo or gravy, was in a condition to receive the meat. A bowl of caldo in the centre, filled with farinha, whence every one could help himself with his own spoon, was always present. The remainder of the day we spent in preserving our birds, or, if convenient, in again visiting the forest. The dinner-hour was between six and seven, and that meal was substantially the same as breakfast.' The following picture of a country-house, in which much entertainment is to be had by all comers, is interesting. This was the first decidedly Brazilian country-house that we had visited, and a description of it may not be uninteresting. It was of one storey, covering a large area, and distinguished in front by a deep veranda. The frame of the house was of upright beams, crossed by small poles, well fastened together by withes of sepaw. A thick coat of clay entirely covered this both within and without, hardened by exposure into stone. The floors were of the same hard material; and in front of the hammocks were spread broad reedmats, answering well the purpose of carpets. Few and small windows were necessary, as the inmates of the house passed most of the day in the open air, or in the veranda, where hammocks were suspended for lounging, or for the daily siesta. The roof was of palm thatch, beautifully made, like basket-work in neatness, and enduring for years. The dining-table stood in the back veranda, and long benches were placed by its sides as seats. Back of the house, and entirely distinct, was a covered shed used for the kitchen and other purposes. Any number of little negroes, of all ages and sizes, and all naked, were running about, clustering around the table as we ate, watching every motion with eyes expressive of fun and frolic, and as comfortably at home as could well be imagined. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and ducks assumed the same privilege, notwithstanding the zealous efforts of one little negro, who seemed to have them in his especial charge.'

Such settlements, as may be supposed, occur only here and there in the midst of a wild and partially-known country. The whole region north of the Amazon is watered by numberless rivers, very many of which are still unexplored. It is a sort of bugbear country, where cannibal Indians and ferocious animals abound to the destruction of travellers. This portion of Brazil has