with his sister, his secretary, and the kirk minister. Well aware that the Laird might be expected, the party within were arranged with more decorum than the bridegroom's escort without. The three-legged stool, broad old kist or meal chest, and troops of poul try, which usually occupy the little space of a Scotch cot-house, were on this day displaced to make room for two benches borrowed from Johnny M Cune's "public:" the wisps of wheat-straw, and bun. dles of dry furze, which had been deposited as usual on the lath top of the cupboard bed whereon winter fuel is hoarded, were swept away into a darker place, and only a few bunches of fresh heath blossoms peeped out as a kind of cornice. The old hat inserted into the fourth square of the only window was also removed, and its place very well supplied by half-a-dozen curious faces striving to obtain a glance at the interior. On the two borrowed benches were arranged half-a-dozen damsels, whose earnings at a neighbouring cotton-mill enabled them to appear on this occasion in white muslin or fine flowered calico, with hose and slippers which had been carefully put on under the nearest hedge; in addition to the usual finery of Scotch maidens, a blue ribbon passed not ungracefully through their hair above the forehead. At the head of this bride bench, in the place of honour established by most ancient cus tom, sat the bride herself, distinguished by a cap, while two of her eldest acquaintance broke a large cake over the heads of those who eutered; and the minister having forced his way through the croud, obtained a vacant space about two feet square in the centre of the cot-house. To his brief question whether any impediment could be alleged, and equally brief injunction respecting their duties, the parties replied by two silent nods, and uniting their hands without the gift of a ring, received the final benediction. Having thus performed the simple ceremonial dictated by his memory or extempore inspiration, the minister of the kirk of Scotland made a signal to the rosy piper, whose face shone through the broken casement, and led the first dance with the bride, followed by the lady of Dent, who sprang from the threelegged stool brought for her accommodation, and by leading the bridegroom down the dance, atoned to him for usurping his allotted post of ho

nour between the bride-bench and the wall. She gave his spouse a piece of silver coin as a substitute for the lucky stone, or "elfin arrow," now scarce in Scotland; but there was little doubt of the wedding's prosperity, as a spaewife both deaf and dumb had marked out their figures in chalk, and the winding-sheet for the husband had beea duly spun. Untempted by the "teadinner," or substantial late breakfast designed for the bridal feast, the travellers returned to their own tenement to discuss the many ceremonies by which popular superstition still decorates an event sanctified by the Kirk only with austere simplicity.

These superstitions," said the good old Minister," are part of the poetical instinct of human nature. We, in this age of reason, have been perhaps too busily employed in tearing them from a class of beings to whom mere reason is not much use. Their harmless appeals to fairy ministers, and reliance on unseen agents, spring not merely from idle curiosity, but from that unsatisfied ambition in our minds which inclines us to seek a communion with higher beings, and is part of our finest principle. Since men will create an imaginary importance for themselves, I love to see them connect_the_interference of their unknown friends with the social affections and simple incidents of domestic life. Let them give these affections and these incidents all the sanctity they can by the help of superuatural agents. I wish the days could return when men were persuaded that a witness sat in every tree, and the spirit of human feeling in every bird."

"It would not be very advantageous to quote Dr. Johnson in Scotland," said the fair Widow," else I could remind you that even he has said nothing would be so tiresome as to live by mere reason. When I was as young in matrimony as pretty Elspy in the cot-house below, the Provost's brother tried to make me find a reason for every thing, but he soon found I had too many. Yet after all, how very little that we do, think, or wish to have, would bear reasoning!-What can we call the every-day ceremonies of our gilt-cards, our visits of etiquette, and formal parade, but superstitions of a kind not quite so cheap and diverting as those of Hallowe'en and St. John's Eve."

Proud of this encouragement from

his aunt, the young clerk ventured to add, "The superstitions of vanity have no end to their varieties, but the superstition of affectionate hearts seems to have been alike in all ages, and the ceremonies it has created differ very little. The Indian Cupid's bow of sugar-cane and his five arrows are the same as his Greek cousin's. The chief of the South Sea isles carrying his sick child to the houses of his idols, and praying all night by their consecrated stones, shews the same progress in humanity and reason as the Hindoos strewing fresh flowers and pouring oil on the stone of their benevolent Maha Deva, and covering it with new-shorn wool. Do not both remind us of the sacrifices offered to the genius or guardian angel of a Roman with wine and fragrant odours?—and even of the Hebrew altar of incense aud libations?"

“You might trace such similitudes much farther," rejoined the Clergyman :-"What can more resemble our relics of popular superstition than the barley-cake and gifts distributed at an ancient Roman's wedding, and the lamentations or outcries made to awaken him if possible during the first seven days after his death? Our cottagers still preserve the custom of receiving the last breath of a dying reJative from his lips, and the nearest of his kindred commit his head to the earth, as we find among the politest nations of the continent was once their custom. The halfpenny put into the dead man's mouth, the funeral feast given to the poor, and the wailing of hired mourners, have been recorded, in all annals of our northern aucestors and neighbours-from Norway even to the Appennines. From the Esquimaux of Baffin's Bay to the point of Cape Horn, from the Calmuc Tartars to the Tonga Islanders, we cannot find either colony or nation that has not devised some poetical circumstance or some mysterious mode of divination to dignify their choice in love or marriage. The business of fortune-telling is as old as the world, and the mischievous serpent himself seems to have begun his operations in Eden by telling our grandmother Eve her fortune."

"When I sailed to Aleppo," said the Captain, now perceiving an ave. nue for himself into the conversation, "I bought of an Armenian Jew, in

exchange for some of my merchandise, a most strange book, which had been compiled from the works of the Rabbis about 200 years, and I brought it with me here, Doctor, as an addition to your library. But with respect to your opinion of superstition, I should rather call it the pleasure of human nature in what relates to the merry occasions of life, such as we have seen to-day. And one must own there is something plausible enough in the devices men have found to give consequence to trifles. When I was at Japan, the people shewed me several hot springs, which, as they assured me, were purgatories for certain classes of men. Deceitful brewers were supposed to lodge at the bottom of the muddiest; bad cooks under those that frothed highest; and quarrelsome wives in one that made an incessant noise.* They offered me a slice of a green serpent with a flat head and sharp teeth, which they professed would infallibly make me witty and brave but I chose rather to digest the affront than the talisman. In one of their temples I found a piece of mirror, which they thought an emblem of the deity, and endeavoured to propitiate by striking a bell three times. I also saw gilt paper lighted every evening before the sea-god, and comedies acted in the street for his diversion; but the witches' stool was the most fantastical torture ever devised; and I added it to the long list of provisions I bave found for such creatures in every land my anchor has touched."

"Who," rejoined the Calvinist, "has not heard of the ill-luck betiding Friday, the doleful omen brought by a raven or a solitary dove alighting on a house to the left side of the spectator? This Rabbinical book, which you have brought me, gives farther testimony on this subject. We shall find,' says the author, seven kinds of Diviners forbidden among the Hebrews, not because there were no other, but because they were the most usual. 1. An observer of times--2. An inchanter-3. A witch-4. A charmer5. A consulter with familiar spirits6. A wizard-7. A necromancer. Το these we may add an eighth, Consulting with the staff: and a ninth out of Ezek. C. 21. A consulter with entrails. -The first is a star-gazer; and his

Vide Kempfer's History of Japan.

name, saith Aben Ezra, is derived from Gnanan, a cloud. When he observes the stars or clouds, he stands with his face eastward, his back westward, his right hand towards the south, and his left hand towards the north: else I find no reason why the Hebrews should term the eastern the fore part of the world, and the western the back; the south part Iiamin or the right hand, and the north part Shemol or the left. He is Menachesch, or a soothsayer, say the Rabbiues, who, because a morsel of bread falleth out of his mouth, or his staff out of his hand, or a crow hath cawed unto him, or a goat passed him, or a serpent was on his right hand or a fox on his left, will say, Do not this or that to-day." A witch or juggler is called Mecascheph, a complexionmaker, a compounder of medicine, an artisan who makes men and women's faces with paint. The fourth is Chober, a charmer. The Hebrew word signifieth league and association, either from the fellowship such persons have with Satan, or, as Bodinus thinketh, because such kind have frequent meetings wherein they dance and make merry together. Onkelos translates such a charmer Raten, a mutterer, and Maimon. cap. 11. de. scribes him thus-Hee is a charmer who speaketh words of a strange language and without sense; and thinketh that if one say so or so to a scorpion, it cannot hurt a man; and he that saith so or so to a man, he cannot be hurt. Likewise he that whispereth over a wound, or readeth a verse out of the Bible over a sleeping infant that he may not be frighted, is a charmer, because he makes the words of the scripture medicine for the body, whereas they are medicine for the soul. Of such sort was that whereof Bodinus speaketh That a child by reciting a certain verse hindered a woman that she could not make her butter: but by reciting the same verse back ward, he made her butter come presently. The fifth is Schoel Ob,* a consulter with Oh, or familiar spirits. Ob properly signifies a Bottle, and is applied in divers places to magicians, because they speak with a soft and hollow voice as out of a bottle. The sixth, Liddegnoni, is translated by the Greeks a cunning man; and the Rabbis say, that when such men pro phecied they held between their teeth

* Vide Chrysostom, Tertullian, and Au. gustine,

the bone of a beast which resembled a man. Prophane history mentioneth divinations of the like kind, inasmuch as the magicians ate portions of the ani. mals used in augury, thinking that by a kind of metemsychosis, the souls of such animals would be conveyed into themselves, and enable them to prophecy. To the name of the seventh,

Doresch el hammelhim,' the Greek answers word for word, a necromancer, or enquirer of the dead. Not that we may suppose witches can raise or dis turb the souls or bodies of the dead, though they may bring Satan or their familiar demons in that semblance. Of the eighth, a consulter with his staff, Jerome saith the manner of divination was this-If the doubt were between two or three cities which should be assaulted first, they wrote the names of the cities upon certain staves or arrows, which being shook in a quiver together, the first that was pulled out determined the city. Or the consulter measured his staff by spans, or by the length of his finger, saying as he measured, I will go-I will not go--1 will act-I will not act ;' and according to the words that fell out with the last span, it was determined. The ninth was Roc Baccabed, a diviner by entrails -a practice generally received among the heathens, especially regarding the liver."

The young clerk eagerly interposed to mention the sorceries of liver-eaters, so much feared by the Hindoes, and added-" I doubt not that a very pleasant parallel might be drawn if any one had time and science enough to exbibit on one large sheet of paper, a list of all the popular superstitious known to us in every country yet discovered. The American feast of the dead, the Obi of the West Indies, and the incantations of Lapland, all betray the same origin as the gayer and more elegant sorceries of Persia and Peru. Perhaps in the time-taper, the bowl Boating in a brass dish to measure hours, and the three trees planted as a marriage-bower by the Hindoos, we may see no slight resemblance to the sacred candle burned by our Yorkshire maidens on the eve of St. Agnes, the ring and plum posset of St Mark's vigil, and the dear hawthorns of our ballad singing shepherds.

The Provost, stretching himself at his ease on the wooden settle or sofa of the hearth-place, replied, “Among all your nine diviners, I should have chosen

Ob, for the inspiration of the bottle ncver fails. As for your reasons, you have used them as men usually do, only to justify what you like best; but as we have been all day too merry to be wise, let us excuse our own by telling all the old-fashioned follies we know. I reserve my tale to the last, as I intend it to be the most magnificent, and because, like the Chieftain M'Ivor, I have not got it ready."

"Prepare the best in your stock," said the Lady of Dent, " provided it does not relate to your gold mine at Dunduffle, or the castle of Robert de Romevile, built before Miss MacJupiter's poetical name was translated into English. I mean to narrate all the fibs concerning both." The audience gave a gallant assent, and the Lady's history began, taking due precedence of her five companions....

(To be continued.)

For the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE. A LETTER FROM CORFU.

V.

Oct. 28th, 1818.

E are here in barracks very scantily accommodated with tables and chairs, but with a view as picturesque as a painter could desire, of the sea and Albanian mountains. This island is mountainous, and well covered with olive trees. The villages are chiefly built on the uplands, as the low grounds subject the natives to malignant fevers from the impure air in the neighbourhood of stagnant water and marshes. Their principal trade is in the olive, and flourishes most about March and April, but even this is carried on with little spirit. Now and then a vessel comes from the Mediterranean, and is often obliged to depart with its cargo; yet from the encouragement given by English influence, there is reason to expect more activity in commerce. natives seem a quiet people, with great faith in the justice and amity of our's; strong in their persons, and capable of great exertions if properly managed. Since my arrival we have only had one remarkable event, which occurred on the 29th of last December. About ten o'clock in the morning the troops were drawn up in square on the esplanade, when the High Commissioner, Sir T. Maitland, the members of the senate, and clergy, ascended to the altar which

The

had been previously erected in the church; after which the President and four deputies went towards the palace escorted by a guard of honour, and returned with the new Constitution of the seven Islands carried on a crimson cushion, to deposit it on the altar amidst military music and lowered colours. Te Deum and a feu de joie followed; and the singular feeling which attended this proclamation of English power on the land of ancient fame, was increased by the picturesque effect of the scene. Conceive a multitude of our own brilliant scarlet soldiers mingled with groupes of the islanders in their small red capotes, wide trowsers of cotton cloth made after the fashion of old Dutch sailors, and a few of higher order in whimsical French coats left by their former visitors. Among these were scattered about four hundred Albanians in the island-service, chiefly refugees from Ali Pacha's army, in their still more picturesque costume, richly embroidered, and shaped a little in Rob Roy's highland fashion, but with tight girdles and pistols of more costly workmanship. To increase the wild romance of this spectacle, a creature as withered and squalid in her attire as a Meg Merrilies, performed the part of a Bacchante with a monstrous antique vase of coarse clay, which she poised on the edge of a broken statue with one hand, and sometimes on her lips with the other, while she prophecied and danced by turns, among the fumes of several sheep and oxen roasted whole for the honest Greeks. The Carnival passed here with very little of the festive and gallant spirit which accompanies it in Italy. Some persons stalked about in masks without any pretension to character, except to that which disgraces females. I could not help regretting the showers of comfits which used to be thrown so adroitly into every open mouth during the carnival of Maita, and the charming eyes that sometimes peeped through the large black cloaks worn by Maltese beauties. I must confess the delightful gardens found in some corners of that island-rock, its spacious streets and superb churches, had some share in my regret. After all that may be said of Italian beauty, I have yet seen nothing among the peas santry of the two Sicilies, nor even of these islands so near the birth

place of Helen, to compare with the damsels of Berne coming to market in their airy white skirts, red-edged aprons, and corsetts of black velvet glittering with silver tinsel, which agreed so admirably with the sparkle of their light blue eyes under the canopy of a prodigious straw hat garlanded with flowers. There are no figures of this picturesque kind here to enliven the procession, which is permitted during the Carnival, to visit the tutelary saint, pay him homage, and receive the benediction invoked by his priests. The bigotry of the Greek church exceeds the Latin-especially in the rigorous hostility expressed against the Jews; and during certain religious feasts, these unfortunate people require even military protection. I doubt the blue demon of an English November will come upon us here, unless some itinerant Prince or a cargo of newspapers should arrive to vary our thoughts, and give some change to the busy nothingness of our lives. If Sir Isaac Newton had lived here, he would have found the vacuum he sought so long. Now we may truly say the history of one day is that of our lives, but we may hope such lives will be brief. Parade and breakfast -parade and dinner; then a groupe of loungers at the door of a Greek with his long pipe in his mouth, half an hour in idle chat, and a long solitary walk on the shore, watching for the edge of a the edge of a topsail from the west. gun and ended more days than I choose to calculate. The winter season is remarkably cold; and if the Corfuotes are not fond of stoves, it is not because they can keep up their animal beat without fire; however stoves are becoming much more common. October and a part of spring, including the intermediate winter-months, are the only periods for exercise. The rains, after this earth has been scorched by the excessive beat of a southern summer, diffuse a delicious freshness over its face, clothing the whole with the finest green imaginable. When the air is cool and the sun moderate, our favourite excursion is as far as the lake of Castrados and the mouth of the old harbour, where the fabled boat of Ulysses remains. This lake is pleasantly situated, and forms part of the old harbour; but seems to be filling up very fast. At noon the heat is insupportably relaxing, and

the drowsiness it produces renders the custom of a siesta very refreshing. The Italian opera has commenced; and though not first-rate, will afford tolerable pastime for our evenings. Whatever Monsieur Chateaubriand may be pleased to say of this island as a fit abode for heroes, it needs all the electric fluid of his countrymen to resist the leaden pressure of its solitude. I could envy his acquaintance the Pacha, who gave audience in the upper tenement of a granary to travellers of our nation among the goats of his own. Let no man wish to exchange the quiet neatness, the untranslateable comfort of an English fireside, for a villa in this classic wilderness, though its portico may be of the purest marble, and the awning on its roof spread over the richest flowers. In the vallies and fields of our dear native land there is still that freshness and simplicity so beautiful both in animal and human nature, because it seems the infancy of increasing vigour; but Greece, as Buonaparte's favourite General once said of Africa, is not the cradle of Nature, but its tomb. B.

site HE following day we ascended the Forum Vetus, where an infinite number of antiques have been discovered; among which are two tablets of bronze, on which is engraved a con siderable part of the harar que delivered by the Emperor Claudius when censor of Rome, with a view to induce the Romans to raise Lyons, his native place, into a Roman colony.

On the summit is the chapel of Notre Dame, remarkable neither for its architectural beauty, nor for the perfection of its interior decorations. Those which struck my attention for their singular ity, were several pictures cen.meinora. tive of providential escapes; and a collection of dolls' legs and arms, which were suspended from nails, and which I was informed had been consecrated by the priests.

After we had examined this place, we gratified ourselves with viewing the de lightful and extensive scenery which