pany, and would sometimes send for and converse with him. The only places of amusement in Cairo are the coffee-houses, which are generally full; but however numerous the company, as soon as one of the storytellers begins his tale, there is instant silence. Many of the Arabs display great powers of imagination and memory in these tales, which are admirably suited to amuse an indolent and credulous people.

A Turk with his long pipe in his hand, will listen for hours to a tale of wonder and enchantment, with deep interest, with exclamations of Allah, and without once interrupting the speaker. This custom, so universally prevalent throughout the East, is useful as well as amusing, for the stories have often an excellent moral; but a tale told in Europe would be a very different thing from hearing it in these countries. The wild and rich imagery of the East would hardly suit our colder climes, any more than the often impassioned and graceful action of the narrator, or his genii, afrit and goule. Many of these men travel over the country, and get an uncertain living by reciting in the villages and towns; but the most esteemed are to be found in the cities. Their tales are either invented by themselves, or taken from the Arabian Nights and other Oriental writings. A new and good story here, like a new book in Europe, confers fame on the inventor, and becoming popular, passes from one city to another, is quickly learned by the Arabs, and retailed in all the coffee-houses of the land. On the halt of a caravan at evening, when the groups are seated at their tent-doors round the fire, a tale from one of the company is a favourite and never-failing source of amusement. You will observe on these occasions men of various nations suspend their converse, and listen intensely to every word that falls from the speaker's lips. The women are debarred this amusement, but there are at Cairo a superior sort of Almeh girls, who are sent for by the ladies, and amuse them with dancing, singing, and music : it was probably a dance of this voluptuous kind that Herodias performed to please Herod and his officers, and which is a favourite throughout the East. I passed an evening most agreeably with M. Bokty and his family; he is the Swedish chargé d'affaires, and is a very clever and well-informed man. It was his beautiful daughter who was shot in the street some years ago, by a drunken Turkish soldier, as she was riding out between her mother and sister; a green veil which she wore, was supposed to have been the cause of this outrage. The sacred colour of the Prophet is prohibited to the Christians in every way; even a green umbrella would be dangerous to sport here. The passage of the caravans through Cairo, from the interior of Africa to Mecca, is a very interesting sight, being composed of so many different nations with their various flags and banners. In this city, where it is vain to long for books to beguile the sultry hours, I had the exquisite pleasure of meeting with a copy of "The Pleasures of Hope." How it came there it is not easy to tell, but it was a most welcome and delightful stranger on the banks of the Nile: it accompanied me afterwards through Palestine and Syria, and in the wilderness, and in weary and solitary hours, what better and more inspiring consolation could a wanderer wish for? That little volume has been no small traveller; on leaving Syria I gave it to the daughter of the English consul-general at Beirout, at the foot of Mount Lebanon, where, from the value placed on its contents, it is likely to be inviolably preserved.

A singular amusement is to be seen sometimes in the streets; two men, thinly clothed, and fat as butter, with broad, laughing countenances, circle continually round each other, and every time they meet hit one another severe and dexterous blows on the face, singing all the time some humorous song, accompanied by droll gestures and grimaces: this is much enjoyed by the populace. One day we rode to the palace of the Pacha at Shoubra, it is pleasantly situated on the banks of the Nile, and one or two of its apartments exhibit all the splendid appendages of Orientalism. The saloon had a very tempting appearance; its rich ottomans and cushions, its fountain and cool recesses, all invited to luxurious repose and enjoyment. The garden was pretty, and laid out in the European manner: in the middle was a charming kiosque shaded by the trees. This prince is a great voluptuary, temperate in eating and drinking: like most Turks of rank, he avails himself, unlimitedly, of the Prophet's permission of a plurality of wives. We saw the ladies of his harem one day riding out; they were eight in number, but so closely veiled and mantled, it was impossible to form any opinion of their countenance or figure. A traveller in the East, who chances to be a physician, is privileged above all men; he obtains admission into the serais, beholds the features of the favourite beauties, and holds long conversations with them; and it is singular how very anxious and curious the eastern ladies are, to see the Hakim or Frank physician. He comes with a solemn countenance, the very eunuchs look complacent on him, and each lady holds out her beautiful hand, assumes a languishing air, and allows him to examine the colour of her eyes, and talks without reserve. Even a trifling knowledge of medicine is of the greatest service: to this we afterwards owed our deliverance from captivity by the Arabs. Even when walking through some parts of Cairo, with Osmin, the renegade Scotsman, who professed to be a bit of a doctor, he was assailed by several women on the subject of their own, or their families', complaints. The environs of Cairo, since the subsidence of the inundation, are wonderfully improved in beauty, but the only pleasant situation for a residence is at Old Cairo, on the banks of the Nile. It is rather a ruinous place; but there are some merchants' houses at the water's edge, amidst a mass of foliage, which look on the isle of Rhoda, and the village of Gizeh on the opposite shore. In riding to this place, you often see in the shade of the large trees near the path, groups of women of a certain description, loosely apparelled, who, having lighted a fire and prepared coffee, allure with their voice and enticing gestures the passenger to join them; but their appearance has

few attractions.

One sees at Cairo a good many hadgis or pilgrims from Mecca. These men richly deserve the privileges they acquire, for it is a journey of immense hardship and difficulty. The pilgrimage of the Christians to Jerusalem is mere amusement compared to many of the Moslems' journey, often from the very heart of Africa: he must cross vast deserts, endure the extremities of thirst and heat, and nothing but an ardent, though misplaced enthusiasm of piety, could possibly sustain his strength of body or mind.

The merchants, who undertake this journey chiefly from the prospects of gain, go prepared with their servants, camels, and a variety of luxuries; but the hosts of poor devoted beings who march on foot, resolved

to behold the birth-place of their Prophet, must expect to suffer dreadfully. Many of them, venerable with age, who leave their homes and families to traverse a succession of burning sands, can have little hope of returning again, and the appearance of a caravan on its return is sometimes like that of an army after battle.

There are various warm baths at Cairo, and the Orientals, both men and women, are passionately fond of the use of them: this bath is at first a fearful ordeal for a European to go through. Having stripped, you first enter the vapour bath, where you remain till the perspiration streams out of the pores. You then enter the warm bath, and afterwards are laid at length on a long seat, a few feet high, and scrubbed without mercy, all over, by a Turkish operator, who next cracks every joint in your limbs, the sound of which may be heard through the apartment. You then put on a light dress, and proceed to the outerroom, where you recline on carpets and cushions, and have pipes, coffee, and sherbet brought you. A soft and luxurious feeling then spreads itself over your body. Every limb and joint is light and free as air, and after all this pommelling and perspiring, you feel more enjoyment than you ever felt before.

Having resolved to visit Mount Sinai, we engaged camels for the journey. The party consisted of Mr. C. an Englishman, Mr. W. a German, who was a missionary sent from Cambridge to labour for the conversion of the Jews, his servant, a poor stupid German, and Michel, who proved invaluable to us, and six Arabs to attend on the eight camels, and serve as guides. It promised to be a journey of great interest, and we waited impatiently for the moment of departure.

PROJECTS AND COMPANIES.

"Some were condensing air into a dry tangible substance by extracting the nitre, and letting the aqueous or fluid particles percolate; others softening marble for pillows and pincushions; others petrifying the hoofs of a living horse to preserve them from foundering." Gulliver's Travels.

A NATION'S wealth that overflows
Will sometimes in its course disclose
Fantastical contortions:

"Tis like the rising of the Nile,

Which fats the soil, but breeds the while
Strange monsters and abortions.

Better our superflux to waste

In peaceful schemes, howe'er misplaced,
Than war and its abuses;

But better still if we could guide,
And limit the Pactolian tide
To salutary uses.

Our sires, poor unambitious folks!
Had but an individual hoax,
A single South-sea bubble;
Each province our delusion shares,
From Poyais down to Buenos-Ayres,—
To count them is a trouble.

Giving them gold that's ready made,
We wisely look to be repaid

By help of Watt and Boulton;
Who from their mines, by patent pumps,
Will raise up ore, and lumps, and dumps,
Whence sovereigns may be molten!
Others, the dupes of Ferdinand,
By royal roguery trepann'd,

Find all their treasure vanish;
Leaving a warning to the rash,
That the best way to keep their cash
Is not to touch the Spanish.

Some, urged by Christian zeal, will play
The Jew with Greeks, if proper pay
And interest they propose us;
Or, an old debtor to befriend,
Will to insolvent Francis lend
The money that he owes us.

Gilded by Eldorado dreams,
No wonder if our foreign schemes
Assume a tinge romantic;

But e'en at home, beneath our eyes,
What ignes fatui arise,

Extravagant and antic!

Bridges of iron, stone, and wood,
Not only, Thames, bestride thy flood,
As if thou wert a runnel,
But terraces must clog thy shore,
While underneath thy bed we bore
A subterranean tunnel.

Nay, that our citizens may not,
As heretofore, in seasons hot,
To bathing places run down,
Presto! behold a Company
Which undertakes to bring the sea
Full gallop up to London.

Theirs the true English thought—a tank
For peers, with those of meaner rank
Disclaiming all connexion;
Knights of the Bath! together lave,
"Tis the best way, perchance, to save
Plebeians from infection.

One sapient speculator, big
With crazy projects, bids us dig

New streets beneath the present,

That we may saunter undismay'd
By fireman's pickaxe, gasman's spade,
Or pipes and plugs unpleasant.

With each new moon new bubbles rise,
Each as it flits before our eyes

Its predecessor quashing;

All at their rivals freely throw

Their dirt, to which we doubtless owe

The Company for washing.

Male laundresses! how grand to see
Your treasurer, chairman, deputy,
And Moabite directors,

All in the suds, and some in doubts
What charge to make for children's clouts
And nether-end protectors.

This, bending o'er the tub, directs
The wash, the starch and blue inspects,
The waste of soap denounces;
That, ferrets unextracted dirt,
Or shows what irons to insert
In ladies' pucker'd flounces.
Away with the insidious plan,
Which urges all-engrossing man
To rob his female neighbour!
Already are the means too few,
By which our virtuous poor pursue
The path of honest labour.

These are but weeds; the rich manure

Of overflowing wealth is sure

To generate the thistle :

They who would learn its nobler use,

May Pope's majestic lines peruse,

That close his Fourth Epistle.

H.

SPECIMENS OF A PATENT POCKET DICTIONARY,

For the use of those who wish to understand the meaning of things as well as words.

NO. 1.

A noble standard for language! to depend upon the caprice of every coxcomb, who, because words are the clothing of our thoughts, cuts them out and shapes them as he pleases, and changes them oftener than his dress.-The Tatler.

Abridgment.-Any thing contracted into a small compass; such, for instance, as the Abridgment of the Statutes, in fifty volumes folio.

Absentees.-Certain Irish land-owners, who stand a chance of being knocked on the head if they stay at home, and are sure of getting no rents if they go abroad; thus illustrating the fate of the hippopotamus, which, according to the authority of the showman at Exeter 'Change, "is a hamphibious hanimal that cannot live upon land and dies in the water." Absurdity. Any thing advanced by our opponents, contrary to our own practice, or above our comprehension.

Academician Royal.--One who daubs pictures by privilege, has often the authority of Art for libelling Nature, and if he could paint nothing else, is still entitled to limm the letters R. A. after his name.

Accomplishments.-In women, all that can be supplied by the dancingmaster, music-master, mantua-maker, and milliner. In men, tying a cravat, talking nonsense, playing at billiards, dressing like a groom, and driving like a coachman.

Achievement or Hatchment.-Is generally stuck up to commemorate the decease of some of the illustrious obscure, who never achieved any thing worth notice until they died, and would be instantly forgotten