and strong aversion-namely, to the camel, who, on his side, detests the horse. Even in caravans composed of both kinds of beasts, long accustomed to each other's presence, this antipathy endures. Horses and camels, if left in any degree to their own free will, go separately to pasture. Long habit of being together restrains them from hostile outbreaks, but I never witnessed, during the whole period of my Oriental travels, an example of even a tolerably good understanding between them."

On the 20th of June-so cold a morning, that, in spite of cloak and mackintosh, Dr Wagner was halffrozen- the caravan reached the Kourd village of Yendek, and encamped in a narrow valley, the mountains around which had been reckoned, a few years previously, amongst the most unsafe in Kourdistan, a caravan seldom passing unassailed. Towards evening a Kourd chief came into camp. "He wore no beard, but thick and long moustaches as formerly the Janissaries a huge turban, a short burka, very wide trousers. He had his horse shod by one of our Armenians, took a fancy to Karapet-Bedochil's pocketknife, and asked him for it as a keepsake. He did not pay for the shoeing, and rode off, with small thanks, amidst the courteous greetings of all the Armenians even of our haughty Karivan-Baschi. I afterwards laughingly asked the Kadertshi why he had not demanded payment from the Kourd for the shoes and his work. 'Laugh away!' was his reply; 'if ever you meet that fellow alone, you won't be quite so merry.' The Kourd, who was armed with pistols, gun, and sabre, certainly looked the very model of a captain of banditti."

Before reaching Persian territory, where the risk from robbers diminishes, some pack-horses were cleverly stolen by the Kourds; and two men, who were sent, well mounted, to overtake the thieves and negotiate for the restoration of the property, returned to camp despoiled of clothes and steeds. Ultimately, the Pasha of Erzroum extorted the bales from the Kourds, who are too prudent to drive things to extremities. But, for the time, Kara Gos had to pursue his

journey minus his merchandise, and greatly cast down at the loss, which he merited for his griping effrontery, and for the poltroonery with which, a few days before, he had deviated from his direct road on the rude demand of some Kourds, who sought to pick a quarrel with him-a sort of wolf-andlamb business-for riding through their pastures. He forgot his loss, however, when reckoning at Tabriz the full sack of sounding gold tomauns received for carriage of goods; and in the joy of his heart he even condescended to speak to Dr Wagner, and to extend to him his forgiveness for having refused to be imposed upon, so that they parted in amity at last.

Tabriz, in size the second, in population the first city of the Persian empire, was the limit of Dr Wagner's travels in an easterly direction. Thence he made excursions; and finally, turning his steps southwards, made the circuit of that extremity of Lake Urumia, and so got back to Bayasid in Turkish Armenia; so that he visited, in fact, but a nook of Persiaincluding, however, one of its most important cities and some rarelyexplored districts. His first visit at Tabriz was to Mr Bonham, the English consul-general, with whom he found a Maltese physician, Dr Cas solani-then the only European medical man resident in the place-who offered him, in the kindest manner, an apartment in his house. Here Dr Wagner interpolates a gentle stricture on British hospitality in Asia. Mr Bonham, he says, was certainly also very obliging, but seemed less hospitable; and although he had a very roomy house and a very small family, he, like his colleague, Mr Brant at Erzroum, was not fond of putting himself out of his way. I confess that I have not formed the most favourable opinion of English hospitality in the East. My letters from Lord Aberdeen and Sir Stratford Canning had not the effect which might have been reasonably expected from the high position of those statesmen. In Russian Asia, less exalted recommendations generally procured me a friendly and truly hospitable reception. On better acquaintance, and after repeated inter

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views, the dry, thoroughly English reserve and formal manner gave way, in Mr Bonham, to a certain degree of amiability. He took a particularly warm interest in my communications from the Caucasus, and gave me in return valuable information concerning Persian matters. Mr Bonham was married to a niece of Sir Robert Peel's, a beautiful, amiable, and accomplished lady."

In Dr Cassolani's house Dr Wagner made the acquaintance of a great number of Persians, who besieged the learned hekim for advice, and he thus had excellent opportunities of noting the peculiarities of Persian character, manners, and morals. But the most favourable place for the pursuit of such studies, on a large scale, he found to be the Tabriz bazaar, which is composed of a number of bazaars, or spacious halls full of shops. Thither daily repaired Dr Wagner, escorted by one of Dr Cassolani's Persian servants, a fellow of herculean proportions, whose duty it was to open a passage through the curious crowd which at first thronged round the European. Here were displayed prodigious masses of merchandise, chiefly English, only the coarser kinds of goods coming from Germany and Russia, glass from Austria, amber from Constantinople. Here were children's watches from Nuremberg, with a locomotive on the dial, and the inscription, "Railway from Nuremberg to Furth;" lithographed likenesses of the Shah of Persia, taken and printed in Germany; snuff-boxes from Astrakan, with the Emperor Nicholas's portrait; and portraits of Benkendorf, Paskewitch, Neidhard, and other Russian generals distinguished in recent wars. There were shawls and carpets from Hindostan, and sabreblades, of wonderful temper and finish, from Shiraz. Of these latter Dr Wagner saw some, adorned with beautiful arabesque designs in gold, and inscribed with passages from the Koran, whose price was two hundred tomauns, or Persian ducats. Made of strips of metal, hammered together cold, these excellent blades are the result of prodigious labour, much time, and great skill. The chief value of such weapons is usually in the steel, for the hilt and mounting

must be unusually rich to exceed the cost of the blade itself. Hitherto the armourers of Tabriz, Teheran, and Ispahan have vainly endeavoured to rival those of Shiraz.

Dr Wagner soon found himself at home in the European circle at Tabriz, which consists chiefly of the members of the Russian and English consulates, and of the managers of four Greek commercial houses, branches of Constantinople establishments. The English consul-general, as already hinted, lived rather retired, gave a dinner or two each half-year to the Europeans, and took but small share in the pleasures and amusements after which most of them eagerly ran. An old Greek gentleman, named Morfopulo, was the great Lucullus and Amphitryon of the place. Introduced to him by his Maltese friend, Dr Wagner was at once cordially invited to a dinner, which gave him the first idea of the sumptuous manner of living of Europeans in Tabriz. Nothing was spared; Oriental delicacies were embalmed and ennobled by the refinements of Western art. There were fish from the Caspian, game from the forests of Ghilan, grapes and mulberries from Azerbijan, the most exquisite pasties, and the cream of the vineyards of Champagne cooling in abundant ice. The guests were as motley, the talk as various, as the viands. From East to West, from Ispahan to Paris, the conversation rolled. The Russian Consulgeneral sketched the Persian court at Teheran; Dr Cassolani gave verbal extracts from his life and experience at Erzroum and Tabriz; an Italian quack, who had just arrived, and who had long led a roving existence in Asiatic Turkey-professing alternately to discover gold mines, and to heal all maladies by an infallible elixirrelated his adventures amongst the Kourds; whilst a young Greek diplomatist, named Mavrocordato—a relation of the statesman of that name— just transferred, to his no small regret, from Paris to Tabriz, was eloquent concerning the balls, beauties, and delights of the French capital.

The domestic arrangements of the European residents in Tabriz are peculiar, and may possibly account for the limited nature of the inter

course maintained with them by the gentleman who filled the post of British consul - general at the time of Dr Wagner's visit. Some of the managers of the Greek housesfew of whom remain more than halfa-dozen years, which time, owing to the profitable nature of the trade, and especially of the smuggling traffic with the trans- Caucasian provinces of Russia, usually suffices to make their fortunes-were married, but had left their wives in Constantinople. Most of them, as well as the members of the Russian consulate-general, were bachelors. All, however, whether married or single, had conformed to the custom of the place, by contracting limited matrimony with Nestorian women. This Christian sect, numerous in Azerbijan, entertains a strong partiality for Europeans, and has no scruple, either moral or religious, in marrying its daughters to them for a fixed term of years, and in consideration of a stipulated sum. There is great_competition for a new-comer from Europe, especially if he be rich. The queer contract is known in Tabriz as matrimonio alla carta. Very often the whole of the lady's family take up their abode in the house of the temporary husband, and live at his charges; and this is indeed often a condition of the bargain. The usage is of such long standing amongst Europeans in Persia, and especially in that particular province, that it there scandalises no one. Every European has a part of his house set aside for the women, and calls it his harem: the ladies preserve their Persian garb and manner of life, cover their faces before strangers and in the streets, frequent the bath, and pass their time in dressing themselves, just like the Mahomedan Persians. Handsome, but totally uneducated and unintellectual, they make faithful wives and tender mothers, but poor companions. When the term stipulated in the contract expires, and if it be not renewed, they find no difficulty in contracting permanent marriages with their own countrymen; the less so, that, in such cases, they take a dowry with them, whereas, in general, the Nestorian has to purchase his wife

from her parents. The children of the European marriage almost always remain in possession of the mother; and Dr Wagner was assured that she testifies even stronger affection for them than for those of her second and more regular marriage; whilst the stepfather rarely neglects his duty towards them. "Still more remarkable is it," continues the Doctor, "that the European fathers, when recalled to their own country, abandon their children, without, as it would seem, the slightest scruple of conscience, to a most uncertain fate, and trouble themselves no further concerning them. But a single instance is known to me, when a wealthy European took one of his children away with him. Even in the case of men otherwise of high character and principle, a prolonged residence in the East seems very apt gradually to stifle the voice of nature, of honour, and of conscience."

Dismissing, with this reflection, the consideration of European society and habits in Persia, Dr Wagner turns his attention to the natives, and to an examination of the curious incidents and vicissitudes of modern Persian history, to which he allots an interesting chapter-based partly on his many conversations with British and Russian diplomatic agents, with French officers who had served in Persia, and with French and American missionaries, partly on the works of various English travellers-and then commences his wanderings and explorations in the mountains of Sahant, and along the shores of Lake Urumiah. In these and other investigations, occupying his second volume, the length to which our notice of his first has insensibly extended forbids our accompanying him, at least for the present. Judging from the great number of books relating to Western Asia that have of late years been published in this country-many of them with marked success-the number of readers who take an interest in that region must be very considerable. By such of them as read German, Dr Wagner's series of six volumes will be prized as a mine of entertainment and information.

VOL. LXXII.-NO. CCCCXLII.

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"LEDDY KILBRACHMONT! Weel, John, my man, she might have done waur-muckle waur; but I seena very weel how she could have bettered hersel. A young, wiselike, gallantlooking lad, and a very decent lairdship-anither thing frae a doited auld man."

"Weel, wife," said John Stewart, ruefully scratching his head-" weel, I say naething against it in itsel; but will ye tell me what I'm to say to the Beelye?"

"Ay, John, that will I," returned the house-mother. "Tell him to take his daughter's bairn out of its cradle, puir wee totum, and ask himsel what he has to do wi' a young wife-a young wife! and a bonnie lass like our Isabell! Man, John, to think, wi' that muckle body o' yours, that you should have sae little heart! Nae wonder ye need muckle coats and plaids about ye, you men! for ne'er a spark o' light is in the hearts of ye, to keep ye warm within."

"Weel, weel, Isabell; the mair cause ye should gie me a guid dram to keep the chill out," said the miller; "and ye'll just mind ye were airt and pairt, and thought mair of the Beelye's bien dwellin' and braw family than ever I did; but its aye your way-ye put a' the blame, when there is blame, on me."

"Haud your peace, guidman," said Mrs Stewart. "Whiles I am drawn away wi' your reasonings against my ain judgment, as happens to folk owre easy in their temper, whether they will or no-I'll no deny that; but nae man can say I ever set my face to onything that would have broken the heart of a bairn of mine. Take your dram, and gang away with your worldly thoughts to your worldly business, John Stewart; if it wasna for you, I'm sure ne'er a thought of pelf would enter my head."

He was put down. With humility he took the dram, and softly setting his glass on the table, went out like a lamb, to the mill.

"Leddy Kilbrachmont! and Janet, the glaikit gilpie, taking up with a common man!" said Mrs Stewart, unconsciously pushing aside the pretty wheel, the offering of the "wright' in Arncreoch. "Weel, but what maun I do? If Isabell gangs hame to her ain house, and Janet-Janet's a guid worker-far mair use about a house like ours than such a genty thing as Bell-Janet married, toowhat's to come o' me? I'll hae to bring hame Katie frae the Castle."

"Muckle guid ye'll get of Katie, mother," said Janet, who, just then coming in from the garden, with an armful of cold, curly, brilliant greens, had heard her mother's soliloquy. "If ye yokit her to the wheel like a powny, she wadna spin the yarn for Isabell's providing in half-a-dozen years; and no a mortal turn besides could Katie do in a house, if ye gied her a' the land between this and Kellie Law."

"And wha asked your counsel?" said the absolute sovereign of Kellie Mill. "If I'm no sair trysted wi' my family, there never was a woman: first, your faither-and muckle he kens about the rule o' a household; and syne you, ye taupie-as if Isabell's providing was yet to spin! To spin, said she? and it lying safe in the oak press up the stair, since ever Bell was a wee smout of a bairn. And yours too, though ye dinna deserve it;-ay, and little Katie's as weel, as the bonnie grass on the burnside could have tellt ye twal year ago, when it was white wi' yarn a' the simmer through, spun on a purposelike wheel-a thing fit for a woman's wark-no a toy for a bit bairn. Gae way wi' you and your vanities. I would just like to see, wi' a' your

upsetting, ony ane o' ye bring up a family as creditable as your mother!" Janet stole in to the table at the further window, and, without a word, began to prepare her greens, which were immediately to be added to the other contents of the great pot, which, suspended by the crook, bubbled and boiled over the fire; for the moods of the house-mother were pretty well known in her dominions, and no one dared to lift up the voice of rebellion.

After an interval of silence, Mrs Stewart proceeded to her own room, and in a short time reappeared, hooded and plaided, testifying with those echoing steps of hers, to all concerned, that she had again put on her highheeled gala shoes. Isabell was now in the kitchen, quietly going about her share of the household labour, and doing it with a subdued graceful glad ness which touched the mother's heart.

་་

"I'm gaun up to Kellie, Bell, my woman," said Mrs Stewart. wouldna say but we may need Katie at hame; onyway, I'll gang up to the Castle, and see what they say about it. It's time she had a while at hame to learn something purpose-like, or it's my fear she'll be fit for naething but to hang on about Lady Anne; and nae bairn o' mine shall do that wi' my will. Ye'll set Merran to the muckle wheel, Isabell, as soon as she's in frae the field; and get that cuttie Janet to do some creditable work. If I catch her out o' the house when I come hame, it'll be the waur for hersel."

"So ye're aye biding on at the Castle, Bauby," said Mrs Stewart, as, her long walk over, she rested in the housekeeper's room, and greeted, with a mixture of familiarity and condescension, the powerful Bauby, who had so long been the faithful friend and attendant of little Katie Stewart. "Ye're biding on? I thought you were sure to gang with Lady Betty; and vexed I was to think of ye gaun away, that my bairn liket sae weel."

"I'll never lee, Mrs Stewart," said Bauby, confidentially. "If it hadna just been Katie Stewart's sel, and a thought of Lady Anne, puir thing, left her lee lane in the house, I would as soon have gaen out to the May to

The fire burned brightly in the west room, glowing in the dark polished walls, and brightening with its warm flush the clouded daylight which shone through the high window. Again on her high chair, with her shoulders fixed, so that she cannot stoop, Lady Anne sits at her embroidery frame, at some distance from the window, where the slanting light falls full upon her work, patiently and painfully working those dim roses into the canvass which already bears the blossoms of many a laborious hour. Poor Lady Anne! People, all her life, have been doing their duty to her-training her into propriety into noiseless decorum and high-bred manners. She has read the Spectator to improve her mindhas worked embroidery because it was her duty; and sits resignedly in this steel fixture now, because she feels it a duty too-a duty to the world at large that Lady Anne Erskine should have no curve in her shoulders-no stoop in her tall aristocratic figure. But, in spite of all this, though they make her stiff, and pale, and silent, none of these cares have at all tarnished the gentle lustre of Lady Anne's good heart; for, to tell truth, embroidery, and prejudices, and steelcollars, though they cramp both body and mind a little, by no means have a bad effect-or, at least, by no means so bad an effect as people ascribe to them in these days-upon the heart; and there lived many a true lady then-lives many a true lady nowto whom devout thoughts have come in those dim hours, and fair fancies budded and blossomed in the silence. It was very true that Lady Anne sat