When this ceremony is finished, he claps | mammas discussed that theme of endless his hands three times, a servant appears interest-the fashions. with coffee, deubchatz and rose water. Immediately after they separate, often without a word being spoken by either party. You smile, incredulously, perhaps! But it is a fact and no mistake," as you Yankees say. At eight o'clock five slaves entered bearing massive silver vases, which contained rose-water and a delicate extract of vanilla, designed for the ablution of the hands. These were followed by five others, who presented each of the guests with a napkin Public and private entertainments are of the finest linen of the Crimea, elaborately conducted on a scale of great magnificence. embroidered in silk and gold. A moment I attended a soiree given by a lady of the after the doors were thrown open, revealcity, that rivaled royalty itself in splendor. ing the dining-hall illuminated with three The guests were introduced into a vast hundred wax candles, the light of which saloon, which was filled like a conservatory was dazzlingly reflected by the crystals with the rarest exotic flowers; and flower- and silver that covered the tables. Fiftying-shrubs, and even trees were waving two guests were seated at this sumptuous in the breath of an invisible ventilation. repast, which was served quite in the Intoxicating perfumes floated on the air, French style, save that the order of dishes while fluttering among the thick clusters was reversed, commencing with salad and of myrtle, cactus, honey-suckle, and jas- closing with soup. Several of the national mine, were innumerable tamed birds, of dishes were furnished on the occasionbrilliant plumage, warbling their sweetest the meilsch-spisen, a pastry of the utmost melodies amid this fairy scene. Two delicacy cooked with fruit something like Albanian servants in the richest costume fritters; sarmates, balls of meat roasted opened and closed the door at each arrival. and enveloped in young vine leaves, fresh The lordly boyards (noblemen) reposed on eggs served with wine, and mutton coverthe divans with the indispensable chiboque; ed with deulchatz. Native and foreign the young people sauntered about talking wines were abundant. The four quarters French, while the magnificently dressed of the globe contributed to furnish the dessert with every imaginable luxury. During the entire repast, numerous servants busily plied large feather fans, that the guests might remain undisturbed by gnats and flies, which infest these climates. Such is high life in Bucharest! one. I must not close these rambling remarks without attempting some description of one of my first adventures in Bucharest, with a sense of gratitude that I am alive to tell the tale. One morning I awoke after a night of profound sleep, and rubbing my eyes, bethought myself that a bath would not be amiss. I went forth to inquire for The Turkish and Wallachian baths are both patronized here, and as I had heard the latter highly extolled, I determined to test them. They are situated in a disagreeable quarter of the city called Leipsikani; the building which incloses them resembles an immense bee-hive, and I walked three times around it without finding the entrance. A kind of trapdoor was then discovered by the friend who accompanied me, somewhat similar to those by which cellars are protected in country towns. Having raised it, we descended eight steps, and found ourselves in the center of a round hall, perhaps a hundred feet in circumference. Its walls were of rose-colored marble, spotted with blue; its pure white pavement was also of marble; and the whole area was surrounded with a kind of divan, comfortably cushioned. The light, dimmed by the thick vapor through which it passes, is only admitted by a circular window, about a foot in diameter, of concave and convex glass, inserted in the freestone dome. This is supported by eight granite pillars, each of them containing tubes through which the water of as many different degrees of heat falls into the same number of marble vases. I also discovered more than seven sleepers" stretched around apparently in as profound a slumber as is generally ascribed to those mythical per 66 sonages. Utter silence reigned over the luxurious scene, and I was inquiring of myself if we had not wandered into the kingdom of the gnomes, when my companion clapped his hands, and immediately there appeared before us, as if he had sprung out of the earth at our feet, a little figure, crooked as Æsop, bearded like a fawn, and covered with the most curious habiliments. Again I appealed to myself, with VOL. V.-38 as little prospect of a satisfactory reply, if this was not one of the genii of the Thousand and One Nights. "Silam alekoum," said the strange figure, (which being interpreted is, I salute you,) bowing his odd little form to the ground very good humoredly. He now clapped his misshapen hands, accompanying the motion with a chuckling sound. Two servants answered this summons; their skins were yellow and dry as parchment, their eyes were dull and deep set, they were dressed like pugilists, and appeared large, strong, and young enough to sustain the character. Our presence was a sufficient explanation of our wishes, and without a word, one hand was laid upon our neck, and in a twinkling we were completely divested of every article of clothing by the other. One of them then placed wooden slippers, about six inches in height, upon our feet, while the other wound three or four yards of gray cloth about our forms; turbans completed our equipment for the bath. We were now conducted to a small arched closet, the temperature of which was a little more than tepid. The water flowed over the warm pavement from every side, and escaped by a channel in the wall. We remained here but about two minutes, and were then taken to an apartment, a little larger than the first, arched in the same manner, and furnished with three large scallop-shells, each supplied with water still warmer than the other from tubes continually overflowing the receptacles, and filling the space with so condensed and penetrating an odor, that I nearly fainted. At the end of ten minutes, which appeared like so many ages, one of the servants opened the door of a third apartment, larger than either of the two preceding ones, in the midst of which I was thrust, without the slightest explanation from our silent attendants; my companion also submitted with martyr-like-composure to the same fate. I immediately came to the conclusion that this was a furnace where people were burned alive. I made an effort to remonstrate, but in vain; my voice was lost in my throat, my knees trembled, my head swam, and I sank down in utter helplessness. In a few seconds my chest dilated and natural respiration was resumed. I opened my eyes to ascertain my true position. In the midst of the apartment, which was a vast amphitheater with vaulted arches so skillfully cemented that they seemed cut from the solid granite, was a large circular basin which represented a wheel; the water, spouting from the center and divisions, formed a fountain of distinct compartments, furnished by eight brass tubes with mouths of girasol-a gem resembling the opal. Four of these compartments were occupied by bathers, whose purpled visages were expressive of the most blissful beatitude. Wishing to share their enjoyment, I looked round, and finding that the attendants had disappeared, like a child in the absence of his master, I darted with one bound into the deceitful fountain. Fatal imprudence! I paid dearly for my impatient curiosity. These compartments are heated by subterranean conduits, the temperature of the water varying in each. In my precipitation, ignorant that it was necessary to pass from one to the other of the graduated baths, I had plunged my limbs into the hottest basin, the temperature of which was sixty-four degrees Reaumer, only six less than the spring of Neidubrum, in which the villagers boil eggs. It is useless to add that I sprang out quite as soon as I had sprang in, with an exclamation that excited the hilarity of my fellow-bathers, whose mirth was only increased by the sight of my legs, which were as red as well-boiled lobsters. Quite infuriated, I called my attendant; no sound answered my voice save a sad and hoarse echo. I attempted to escape, notwithstanding my ridiculous figure; but the door was firmly clasped. My strength had returned after a few moments of faintness; but it was now again deserting me, and though I was not frightened, these transitions were certainly far from agreeable. Firmly persuaded that twenty-four hours of this discipline would reduce a man to his original elements, I attentively examined my companions, and they seemed to me gradually shriveling up in the misty atmosphere which enveloped them. Yet I could not but admit that their silence appeared to proceed from their ecstatic enjoyment. I came to the conclusion that the ineffable delights of this voluptuous bath could only be enjoyed after long experience. My meditations were, however, interrupted by the opening of the door and the reappearance of the bayaches, or servants. One of them bore a bowl of clay, in which he dissolved some rose perfumed soap; the other unfolded a package of coarse cloth. The latter made a sign expressive of his desire for me to extend myself upon a marble table, and I obeyed with the utmost docility, for I assure you I had been thoroughly subdued; he then dipped his cloth in the soapy water, and with it rubbed my face and the entire surface of my body. The second bayache now seized me firmly by the neck and legs in order to prevent me from kicking, while the other rubbed my back and breast with hair gloves; then lifting me up, as if I had been a feather, he laid me at full length in the first compartment of the fountain. After being thoroughly rinsed in this from the soap with which I was pasted from head to foot, I passed successively through the seven others, until I reached the one where I had been so cruelly scalded. It was now quite as endurable as the others, though its temperature remained the same. I was then again stretched on the table, for the purpose, as it seemed to me, of having all the bones of my body dislocated. To crown the tortures to which I was doomed, one of my executioners turning my face down upon the table, now leaped upon me, and applied his feet with vigorous kicks to my back and loins. I presume many of these details will seem incredible to you; but you may be assured that I am a faithful chronicler, except that my description must fall short of the reality. For about three minutes I was perfectly convinced that every vertebra in my spine was broken; my terror nearly bereft me of my senses, but upon returning to full consciousness I found the other bayache vigorously rubbing the soles of my feet with pumice stone. This was the last act in the tragedy; my fate began to brighten, the woolen slippers were replaced upon my feet, the cloth was again wound about my form, and my head was recrowned with the turban. I returned through the small apartments to the common hall, and was given into the hands of the bayache who has special charge of that department. After enveloping me in a warm covering, he rolled me on the divan, precisely as a baker kneads his bread, perfumed me with rose water of the sweetest odor, and contemplated his work in silent complacency. Our nimble little sop now reappeared, bearing a dish of deulchatz, a most excellent preserve, which he offered me with numerous and profound bows. I swallowed but a spoonful, as you may well suppose. The bayache spread over me a pechtewal, or silk coverlid, surrounded me with soft pillows, replaced my first turban with another of linen, called a largue, and nursed me as tenderly as if I was suffering from gout. He then withdrew courteously, recommending me to sleep, which was an entirely superfluous advice. "Well," said my friend, after an hour of the most profound slumber, "how do you feel?" "Indeed," 1 replied, panting, "these baths are by no means as bad as might be imagined; my spine is still sound." Our dwarf again appeared, this time with two long lighted chiboques. We smoked and prepared to depart. I can give you no idea of the agreeable sensations which diffused themselves through my entire frame-the elasticity of my limbs-the vigor of my nerves. I was full of courage, and ready to fight with Hercules. And what do you suppose was the whole expense of all the boiling, roasting, beating, kicking, sleeping, smoking, &c., through which we had passed?— just one zwantzig, less than a "York shilling!" Thus have I introduced you, in my desultory way, to the life of the Bucharian Mahalas, the festivities of the upper class, and the beatitudes of the bath. Enough for the present. Au revoir. LOVE AND CHANGE. THE CLOUD. LOVE stood before me in my youth's fresh prime. "Life's hill is steep," he said; "the way is long; Be Love thy guide! Love's heart is bold and strong, Love's truth triumphant over Death and Time." And dark, behind him, lower'd the shadow, That sterner voice was Truth's, for now I know Change followeth Love wherever he doth go. I could not lift that pall-my heart was full, Mine eyes o'erflow'd-Life's glory seem'd to grow A shadowy semblance and a mocking show; Thou hast undone me with thy witcheries. With that "forever" which the seraphs sing. RESIGNATION. The river flow'd in music to the sea, The summer wind its wild, sweet tune began; bee. A calm sank on my soul. This misery A GREAT MAN is, in fact, the instrument of Divine providence. Hence all great men have been, more or less, fatalists. The error is in the form, not in the substance of the thought. They are conscious of immense power, and, not being able to attribute its possession to any merit of their own, they attribute it to a superior power, whose instruments they are, and which makes use of them for its own ends.-V. Cousin. PLYMOUTH, THE PILGRIMS AND PURITANS. BY ALICE CAREY. A GOOD name is no mean inheritancefor, strive as we will, we are not able to separate ourselves from the glory or shame of our ancestors; but while not insensible to "the boast of heraldry, the pomp of power," prized so highly by our transatlantic cotemporaries, we, Americans, are well content to forego the tracing of lineage at that great landmark of liberty, Plymouth Rock.* AVERY The Pilgrim Fathers! What bravehearted and great-hearted pioneers those words conjure up! Hardly a pulse is there among their millions of descendants, now speaking one language, and carrying a liberal literature to the farthest parts of the world, that does not thrill at the mention of those words. Thoroughly grounded in the right, as they understood it, they were reliable as the rock on which they first planted their feet, and, like it, unyielding. Pious, even to austerity, they fetched out of their own souls, which were, in fact, set on edge with zeal for God, the intolerance which ended in persecution. Not by the larger light which has come into the world since their day must we judge them, but rather by their own standards; and thus judging, we trace their hardest dealings to personal sanctity, and are ready to say "Even their failings lean'd to virtue's side." Pilgrims we may well call those heroic refugees, who, leaving not only native homes, but what seemed to them all the world, planted themselves in the wilderness, believing that in its awful and solemn shadows God could hear them and Gabriel could find them. In the legends of romance, or the chronicles of history, no event, perhaps, takes precedence of their curious emigration for singularity of origin or pregnancy of result. It is estimated that only about one-third of our present European population is of Puritan origin. It is believed that a condensation of the history of this handfull of sectaries who, in the frail little May-Flower, landed on our shores in 1620, and of the Puritans, shortly following, will not be found uninteresting to a majority of readers; for it is only with a few great facts of their history that most of us are familiar. We are all ready at once to throw over them a mantle of pride and veneration, long enough and broad enough to cover whipping-posts, ducking-stools, witch trials, hanging ropes and all, without stopping to inquire into details. Unlike our Puritan ancestors, we have become a race of dreamers and reliers upon hearsay-they knew things, and never doubted that they knew; having once fixed a standard there was no question about its perfection, and wo to the dissenter who was too long or too short for its measurement-there was no way but that he must be stretched out, or cramped down to fit it. The name Puritan was bestowed in derision, by adherents of the Church of England, on a little band of dissenters, on account of their profession of superior piety-of following the pure word of God in opposition to all traditions and human institutions. The Puritans, on the accession of Elizabeth, resolved to extirpate the last vestige of popery from the English Church, and introduce the practices of the continental reformers. And here began a struggle between those entrenched in the high places of the Church, and maintaining the royal supremacy, and the lesser and more reformatory party. Both were alike con |