THE MESSENGER BIRD.

Some of the native Brazilians pay great veneration to a certain bird

that sings mournfully in the night-time. They say it is a messenger

which their deceased friends and relations have sent, and that it brings them news from the other world.

See Picart's Ceremonies and Religious Customs,

Thou art come from the spirit's land, thou bird !

Thou art come from the spirit's land !
Through the dark pine-grove let thy voice be heard,

And tell of the shadowy band !

We know that the bowers are green and fair

In the light of the summer shore;
And we know that the friends we have lost are there,

They are there—and they weep no more !

And we know they have quenched their fever's thirst

From the fountain of youth ere now;
For there must the stream in its freshness burst

Which none may find below!

And we know that they will not be lured to earth

From the land of deathless flowers,
By the feast, or the dance, or the song of mirth,

Though their hearts were once with ours ;

Though they sat with us by the night-fire's blaze,

And bent with us the bow ;
And heard the tales of our father's days,

Which are told to others now !

But tell us, thou bird of the solemn strain,

Can those who have loved forget ? We call—and they answer not again

-Do they love-do they love us yet ?

Doth the warrior think of his brother there,

And the father of his child ?
And the chief of those that were wont to share

His wanderings through the wild ?

We call them far through the silent night,

And they speak not from cave or hill,
We know, thou bird ! that their land is bright,
But
say, do they love there still ?

Mrs Hemans. THE CLOUD.

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,

From the seas and the streams ;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid

In their noon-day dreams.
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken

The sweet birds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,

As she dances about the sun.
I wield the flail of lashing hail,

And whiten the green plains under,
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And laugh as I

pass

in thunder. I sift the snow on the mountains below,

And their great pines groan aghast ; And all the night 'tis my pillow white,

While I sleep in the arms of the blast. Sublime on the towers of my skiey bowers,

Lightning my pilot sits ;
In a cavern under, is fettered the thunder,

It struggles and howls at fits ;

Over earth and ocean, with gentle motion,

This pilot is guiding me,
Lured by the love of the genii that move

In the depths of the purple sea :
Over the rills, and the crags, and the hills,

Over the lakes and the plains,
Wherever he dream, under mountain or stream,

The spirit he loves remains ;
And I all the while bask in heaven's blue smile,

Whilst he is dissolving in rains.

The sanguine sunrise, with his meteor eyes,

And his burning plumes outspread, Leaps on the back of my sailing rack,

When the morning star shines dead. As on the jag of a mountain crag,

Which an earthquake rocks and swings, An eagle alit one moment may

sit In the light of its golden wings. And when sunset may breathe, from the lit sea beneath,

Its ardours of rest and of love, And the crimson pall of eve may

fall From the depth of heaven above, With wings folded I rest, on mine airy nest,

As still as a brooding dove.

That orbed maiden with white fire laden,

Whom mortals call the moon, Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor,

By the midnight breezes strewn; And wherever the beat of her unseen feet,

Which only the angels hear, May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof, The stars peep

behind her and peer ; And I laugh to see them whirl and flee,

Like a swarm of golden bees,
When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent,

Till the calm rivers, lakes, and seas,
Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high,

Are each paved with the moon and these.

I bind the sun's throne with a burning zone,

And the moon's with a girdle of pearl ; The volcanos are dim, and the stars reel and swim,

When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl. From cape to cape, with a bridge-like shape,

Over a torrent sea,
Sunbeam proof, I hang like a roof,

The mountains its columns be.
The triumphal arch through which I march

With hurricane, fire, and snow,