they seem to find much satisfaction in them themselves.

The women here are mere slaves; of that chivalrous homage paid by the Spanish Moors to their women no traces are left save in the songs and poems of the Arabs.

The children are educated by women up to their seventh year.

ARAB COFFEE-HOUSES.

All Arabs of any education or wealth assemble at the coffee-house. To them it supplies the place of theatres and concerts, balls and tea-parties. There they spend the whole day, sometimes staying till past midnight. The coffee-house, like almost all other houses in the south, is built round a square court paved with white marble, in the middle of which plays a fountain. Round the court are two rows of pillars supporting the women's apartments; the rooms all look into the court: on the outside nothing is to be seen but high dismal walls, for the Arab does not choose that inquisitive eyes I should peer into his holy of holies.

The vine or ivy is generally trained up the house so as to shade the whole court, and keep out the oppressive rays of the sun. Under this natural arcade the sons of Ishmael sit on soft carpets, lazily splashing with their naked feet in the water which flows from the fountain over the marble floor.

Here they imbibe coffee, sherbet, songs, and tales: in short, it is a foretaste of Paradise. The coffee is not bad, only that they drink it black, and have the bad taste to reckon the grounds the best part of the coffee. Before the slave hands one the cup, he stirs it with a reed for fear the dregs should sink to the bot

tom.

The Arab is a passionate lover of music and poetry: the coffee-houses are, therefore, never without their poets and story-tellers. Their songs are monotonous, and they accompany them with the mandoline, as in Andalusia.Coleah possesses the best story-teller and singer in all Africa: so celebrated for the melody

of his voice as to be called the second Hafiz.

more fascinating it became. First he sang the conquest of Spain, the battle of Xeres, and the death of Don Rodrigo. He then struck the cords of the mandoline more loudly, and sang the victories of Abd-el-Rahman, and the pomp and glory of Cordova, till the eyes of his hearers glistened. By slow degrees the notes became softer, and his voice trembled as he sang the death of the Abencerrages, and the shameful flight of Boabdil, the last king of Granada. The sounds of his mandoline died away, the Arabs hung their heads upon their breasts, and the pipes fell from their hands.

me to the heart. I told my friend Ben Jussuf, The unfeigned grief of the Moors touched who sat next to me, that I had visited the scenes of their former greatness, the palace of their kings-the Alhambra, and the mosque of Cordova, the Kaaba of the west.

Scarcely had he told this to the others, when they crowded round me, begging me to tell all I had seen, and I thus became an involuntary story-teller, with Ben Jussuf for my interpreter. gave them an account of the grandeur and hundred columns, and the tombs of their kings. beauty of the mosque of Cordova, its thirteen I described to them the Alhambra, the marble lions who keep watch at the palace gates, the splendid hall where the Abencerrages held their feasts, and where they were barbarously murdered. I told them that I myself had seen the traces of their noble blood which time itself had been unable to efface from the polished marble floor.

Overcome by the remembrance of the tragical fate of their most heroic race, the Arabs covered their faces with their bernouses."Young man," said the Hakim, kissing my forehead, "thank the Prophet that he hath vouchsafed to thee the sight of these marvels."

know you not some pleasant story which may After a pause the Hakim said, "Friend Sofi, dissipate the melancholy of our comrades, who still sit with drooping heads; and Sofi, without further entreaty, began the following tale.

Mina, there once lived an Emir on whom Al"Far beyond Milianah, on the banks of the lah had bestowed every blessing. His life was pure and blameless. He gave the fourth hour of prayer was more welcome to him than part of all he possessed to the poor, and the the hour of feasting," &c. &c.

He afterwards got to the city of Algiers, with its strangely mixed population and singular architecture. We can give but one feature of this picture :

I must confess that fame has not said too much in his favor. His name is Sofi; at the age of thirteen he had the misfortune to lose a leg in an encounter with the Hadjutes, and since that time he has devoted himself entirely to singing and poetry. I never saw an Arab whose countenance wore so noble an expression, or whose features so clearly reflected the feelings of his soul. He does not usually come to the coffee-house till after sunset: as soon as he is seated the Arabs place themselves in a The habits of the Jews differ but little from half-circle round him, with their eyes attentive- those of the Arabs, and one may still perceive ly fixed upon him. After striking a few notes that they are children of the same forefather. on the mandoline, he began one day to recite But the sons of Ishmael now seem disposed to a ballad of the great deeds and of the down- consider themselves as the lawful descendant fall of the Moorish kings. It was always the of Abraham, and to treat the Jews as bastards. same measure, the same tune, sung now in a The Jews are distinguishable from the Arabs louder, now in a lower tone, and one would by their gayer clothes, and the unveiled faces have expected its monotony to weary the hear-of their women. The Jewesses are far more ers; but not so, the longer one listened the beautiful than the Arab women, because they

are not treated as mere domestic aniamls, and that of Lieutenant Eyre and Lady Sale. therefore have an air of greater refinement. Here the principal personage, the central Their dress is simple, but pleasing, usually a figure, is ever Abd-el-Kader, occupying the blue or brown garment confined under the breast with a girdle; their long black hair is ground of Mahommed Akbar Khan in the held together by a circlet of gold or silver, or perilous adventures of our captive countryBut the comparison by a ribbon; their arms and feet are bare.-men in Affghanistan. Their deep jet-black eyes are wonderfully of the Arab with the fierce Affghan is greatly beautiful; and though their intense brilliancy to the advantage of the former. When is somewhat softened by the long silken eye-snatched away a prisoner, by the dash of an lashes, yet wo to him who looks too deeply into Arab party, the Frenchman appears to have been in awful trepidation. He was carried to Abd-el-Kader's camp, and, for a part of the way, somewhat in the fashion of Mazeppa's ride, and, as "a dog of a Christian,' suffered many indignities. The camp was then close to the town of Kaala.

them.

After satisfying my curiosity here, I went into the lower town, and on turning down a fresh street, I was met by the sound of a mandoline and of singing, accompanied by peals of laughter, which issued from the second story of one of the houses; the songs were Arab, the laughter might be Arab, French, or German, I knew not which, but at all events, it I was led into the sultan's presence. His was most hearty. Of course I walked in, as-tent is the most magnificent in the camp: it cended the stairs, and found myself in the midst is thirty feet long and eleven feet high; the of a mixed company of Arabs, Jews, French- inside is lined with hangings of various colors, men, and Italians, all seated together on cush-covered with arabesques and crescents, in red, ions against the walls of a spacious room. blue, green, and yellow.

On a sort of platform near the window sat I will now endeavor to describe a man of two Arabs singing, with two Arab girls beside whom at present very little is known. From them accompanying their songs on the man-all that I had heard, I expected to find a blooddoline. They were at that moment singing a thirsty barbarian, always ready to cut off heads; love song, the constant burden of which was, my expectations were false indeed. "Nanina;" the whole company was in the Abd-el-Kader is twenty-eight years of age, most joyous mood. Every man had one or and very small; his face is long and deadly more bottles of wine before him, and it seemed pale, his large black eyes are soft and lanas if they had all drunk repeated bumpers. Iguishing, his mouth small and delicate, and was astonished at this wonderful advance in civilization and good fellowship. On either side of me, I saw Arabs filled with wine, and Arab women with unveiled faces, returning the wanton glances of Christians with still more wanton eyes. Truly this change does

honor to the French.

his nose rather aquiline; his beard is thin, but jet black, and he wears a small mustachio, which gives a martial character to his soft and delicate face, and becomes him vastly. His hands are small and exquisitely formed, and his feet equally beautiful; the care he takes of them is quite coquettish; he is constantly washing them, and paring and filing his nails with a small knife with a beautifullycarved mother-of-pearl handle, which he holds all the while he sits crouching on his cushions with his toes clasped between his fingers.

I sat down by an Arab soldier of the French allied cavalry, whose burning cheek betrayed that he had transgressed the commandment of the Prophet. He immediately drank to me in the most familiar manner, saying, with a laugh, "Scherap bueno, jaule." (The wine is good, His dress is distinguished by the most comrade.) "Bueno," answered I, for it was studied simplicity; there is not a vestige of generous Spanish wine, such as is chiefly drunk gold or embroidery on any part of it. He here. He then asked me in broken French, wears a shirt of very fine linen, the seams of whether the women of Europe were equal to which are covered with a silk braid termiits wine? As in duty bound, I answered in nating in a small silk tassel. Over the shirt the affirmative; and described to him the is a haick, and over the haick two white bercharms and the excellence of my country wo-nouses; the upper-most garment is a black men, until my Arab friend seemed well inclin-bernouse. A few silk tassels are the only ed to visit Europe. But when I told him that ornaments about his dress; he wears no arms Allah bestowed but one wife on us Europeans, in his girdle, his head is shaved, and covered he shook his head, saying, "Macasch." (Nay, by three or four skull-caps one within the nay.) other, over which he draws the hood of his bernouse.

M. A. De France, with the narrative of his captivity, occupies much more of the volume than the Oldenburg Lieutenant; nor have we read any narrative of the kind that either gives more information, or has more power over the reader's feelings, since

Abd-el-Kader's father, who died about two years ago, was a marabout called Mahadin, who, by means of his fortune, his intelligence, and his character for sanctity, had acquired very great fame and influence among the Arabs.

It is said that there is a sort of palm-tree in Ceylon that

WHEN the sheep were in the fauld, and the kye never bears fruit till the last year of its life.