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the Chase, much valuable information respecting the breed, training and qualities of the Horse and Dog.

The above are a portion of the sources from whence this journal will draw its matter that they are pure and abundant no one will, we think deny; and we conclude the present essay with a hope, that our readers will find that the difficult task of selecting from so large a number of works has been performed with judgment; and with the promise (for this we may be allowed to make without the imputation of vanity) that the pages of the St-Petersburg English Review will never contain a word which can raise a blush upon the cheek of matron or of maid, nor cause our readers to regret the Exalted Patronage with which its establishment has been honoured.

HO-FI OF THE YELLOW GIRDLE.

Ho-Fi had a strong constitution to support him against poisoned tea, and three Chinese physicians. He slowly recovered from their effects.

He was restored once more to his fond wife; but fond as she had always shown herself, So-Sli could not prevent the intrusion into her mind of an unpleasant suspicion that her affectionate husband had offered her poisoned tea, from a too great solicitude to put her quite out of reach of those ugly customers, care and sorrow. Long before her marriage, surmises had been whispered, which had even reached her ears, that at least a few of his former six wives had not been fairly dealt with; but no one, wife or otherwise, volunteered any evidence against him; and the Chinese had not arrived at those refinements in chemical science which enable our Western luminaries, by distilling a bone, or making a fricassee of a muscle, to detect the millionth part of the shadow of nothing at all, in one who is supposed to have died by poison.

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It could hardly have been hinted, that a man was such a bluebeard, without strong reason assigned for so supposing. Perhaps, to some minds, the mere fact of his having been mar

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ried six times, and having in every instance become a widower within two months, may suffice to justify a suspicion : but if a motive should be sought that could render such heinous villany probable, it might be mentioned that on the marriage of a Yellow Girdle he is allowed by his cousin, the Emperor, a sum of one hundred taels (in addition to his usual stipend,) to assist in furnishing his house; and on the death of his wife, one hundred and twenty more, to assist in furnishing her sepulchre. And Ho-Fi was by no means the first of whom it had been reported, that he sought by a succession of such profitable marriages and deaths, to raise his very inconsiderable income into a handsome competency.

So-Sli could not avoid a suspicion; but, as she had really loved Ho-Fi, she tried to repress it, and not to entertain such evil thoughts as must, if confirmed, have given a death-blow to her affection. Still she was haunted by a fear that he might endeavour by other devices to lay her on the shelf with his former wives, whose coffins, like the volumes of a work, were ranged side by side, and duly numbered; each also was inscribed with the words, « Wife of Ho-Fi, and had besides its table of contents; which, indeed, consisted merely of the lady's name.

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I am sorry to say, that had So-Sli been more suspicious than she was, she would therein have done her husband no wrong. There was nothing he so earnestly wished as to have his new volume firmly put up in a camphor-wood binding, and neatly lettered to match the others.

Ho-Fi remembered an incident in a famous Chinese tragedy, an ingenious device for disposing of an obnoxious person, which he thought he might turn to account. He procured a savage dog, and having purchased a lady's dress of peculiar colours, and another of similar appearance, but inferior quality, he filled the latter with straw, bones, and offal, and on this encouraged his dog to make an awful attack. The dog was well pleased with the prize he discovered within, and Ho-Fi repeated this experiment on several successive days. When he considered the animal to be sufficiently familiarized with the figure, he tied him up, and kept him some time with

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out food. He then made a present to his lady of the other dress, and expressed a desire that she might immediately indue it. This, not however until she had examined it with an apprehensive eye, she did and he affected to be much delighted at beholding her in her new garment. He, however, pretended to have business which would call him from home for an hour, and begged that she would wait his return in a grotto in the garden; he particularly requested that she would allow no one to open a chest which he had had placed in a court of the house, and of which he said the fastening had been accidentally broken: he would not at that time tell her what it contained, but promised to do so by and by.

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When So-Sli was left alone, she communed with herself. « Who knows," she said, what man-trap or spring-gun my beloved husband may have prepared for me in the grotto? It will not, I fear, be wise to venture thither. And what does this chest contain which he has brought hither, and which he wishes. to keep secret from me? Now I would wager six pots of pickled earth-worms that he has concealed in that, the grave-clothes which he intends for his affectionate So-Sli. If I detect him in such a purpose I will positively request my father to reason with him on the very great impropriety of all such modes of proceeding.»

Forming this vigorous determination, So-Sli likewise resolved to examine the chest forthwith. But first she went to a cage, in which was her husband's bird of good luck, a white-necked crow. Ho-Fi valued this bird beyond all his earthly possessions ; he had made it tame, and had attached it to him, and he considered that whilst he possessed it, no material ill-fortune could befal him. So-Sli frequently fed it, and it had become fond of her also, from which it was to be believed that its kindly influence would extend to her. She took it now from its cage, and placed it on her wrist, and having tendered it a kiss, which was affectionately received and reciprocated, she went into the yard to discover the contents of the mysterious chest. She unhesitatingly raised the lid; but let it fall again with great precipitation as with a loud growl a savage dog attempted to spring from within.

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So-Sli ran, and the cover of the chest having fallen on the back of Bou-wou,-such was the dog's name,-she was able to gain a few paces before he had struggled from it. He would, however, soon have made rags of her new garment in his customary search, had she not, with great presence of mind, seized Ho-Fi's bird of good luck by the neck, and whisking it rapidly three times round, thrown it to her hungry pursuer. He jumped aside to snap at it, and So-Sli, reaching the door, closed it against him, and secured it with several bolts.

When Ho-Fi returned, So-Sli told him that a savage dog had got loose in the court, and that his bird of luck had vanished.

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As I looked in the cage," she said, «suddenly I beheld him wax paler and paler, till, having become thinner than mist, he passed between the bars, and what became of him after I cannot at all tell.»

Naughty little So-Sli told a story in this.

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Ho-Fi was inconsolable for the loss of his bird. Better, said he, to lose nine wives than to lose a bird of good luck. And inwardly he feared lest the bird of good luck, having thus vanished in the presence of So-Sli, might indicate the calamity he most dreaded, that he should lose no more wives.

In a few days, however, his wits were again at work. Finding that So-Sli's suspicions were awakened, he judged it best to send his dog back to the place in which he had been trained; and he would not try a fresh experiment with him.

Another week had passed; it was evening, and the shadows of the western hills were gradually extending eastward over the richly cultivated fields. This last fact I mention, not as necessary to the elucidation of my story, but merely because an erroneous opinion seems to have possessed the minds of many, that shadows are unknown in China. The artists of the celestial empire exhibit their hopeful character by omit-ting the dark side of every picture. They would make you believe that Peter Schlemil's friend had walked through the land, and bought shadow and shade, every inch of the commodity. Foreigners, however, have not discovered that na

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