in clouds, with a noise like that of a high wind in a forest, on our approach, and circle screaming in the air, and then settle down again on some new spot, literally hiding the ground from sight. The bridges across the water runways are curious constructions of turf, each layer projecting over that beneath until the upper ones touch and brace against each other, forming a rude kind of arch. Curious, but not calculated to inspire any strong sense of security. The absence of wood and timber has led the people of the Sierra to adopt a great many novel and striking devices to remedy the deficiency, in architecture and navigation as well as in roadmaking.

to the thatched roof of a pulperia, whence the
flames had spread around two sides of the
square, leaving only a series of low, black
walls, within which still steamed up a chok-
ing smoke and a sickening odor of smoul-
dering damp hay and burning feathers. The
"conflagration" had not checked the humors
of the fiesta, and drumming and piping and
dancing were going on with an energy only
equaled by that displayed at Tiahuanaco. We
had some difficulty in getting through the bois-
terous and rather sinister-looking crowd, and
still more in finding any body sober enough to
show us the house of the commandante.
was out, attending a grand dinner of the author-

He

the district-judge from Juli; but he no sooner heard of our arrival than he left his friends and hastened to welcome us, and then insisted on our returning with him and joining the festive party. It was in vain we protested that we were unpresentable in polite society, and begged to be allowed to change our coarse and travelstained clothing.

At the distance of a league the ground be-ities of the place, reinforced by the presence of comes higher and firm, sloping gently to the south, and dotted over with houses and flocks. Nowhere in the interior of Peru does the traveler find more evidences of industry and thrift than here. The wealth of the people consists almost entirely in herds and flocks. They supply La Paz and Arequipa with cattle, and produce a valuable annual crop of wool. Owing to some advantage in exposure, better soil, or fortunate reaction of the lake on the temperature, they raise the best potatoes of the region, and in some favorable seasons their barley will

mature.

We were literally captured by our new and ardent friend, and followed him submissively to the banquet. The gathering was chiefly of men dressed in black, which is severe au règle on grand occasions in Peru. But the styles In all directions over the undulating slope were various, extending through those of many are numberless mounds of stone heaped togeth-years. er with great regularity-the result, probably, of ages of labor in clearing the stony ground. We observed also, lying near our path, many large blocks of basalt and trachyte, some completely and others only partially hewn, and corresponding exactly in material and workmanship with those at Tiahuanaco. They were evidently obtained from the quarries visible at the foot of the rocky eminences on our left, and abandoned midway to the lake. I have no doubt that most if not all the stones at Tiahuanaco were procured here, and from the sandstone cliffs south of El Desaguadero, and were transported on floats, or balsas, to the southern extremity of the bay of Guaqui.

All day we enjoyed a magnificent panorama of the great bulk of Illampu and its snow-crowned dependencies, which appeared to rise from the very edge of the bright blue lake, itself dotted with bold, brown islands. At five o'clock we reached Yunguyo, situated on the narrow isthmus that connects the peninsula of Copacabana with the main land. It is a considerable town, with two large churches and a great plaza, which we found full of drunken, noisy revelers, who, the night before, had succeeded in setting fire

And the stove - pipe hats-well, I couldn't help thinking that they had been borrowed from some Hebraic receptacle of that tasteful covering for the head. The ladies were dressed in a garb less foreign and less pretentious, but much more tasteful and appropriate. Chupe, in a variety of shapes, and different degrees of consistency and nauseousness, formed the staple of the dinner, while the "flowing bowl" was filled with sweet Malaga wine with a distinct flavor of treacle and sienna. Abundant wild-fowl, geese and ducks of many varieties, were disporting within gunshot of our windows, and fish were eager to be caught within a hundred paces, yet we had neither fish nor game, only chupe and lean mutton of the color

and nearly of the consistence of blocks of mahogany.

was familiar with Roman Law and the Code
Napoleon, but rather weak in geography, and
somewhat confused as to the relative positions
of London and New York.
On his earnest
solicitation I promised to stop with him when
I reached Juli-whereof more in another
place.

It is a fashion, not confined to Yunguyo, to select delicate morsels from your own plate and pass them on your fork to any lady to whom you may feel disposed to be attentive. The lady can with propriety respond; and it is the height of condescension, and a special compli- The boundary between Peru and Bolivia-a ment, if she reciprocates the attention by plac-most arbitrary and inconvenient one-crosses ing the morsel in your mouth with her own fingers. It is a little startling at first, and, on the whole, not a fashion likely to spread very far beyond the limits of Peru.

the isthmus leading to the Peninsula of Copacabana, a league beyond Yunguyo. Among the guests at our dinner was the Bolivian commandante of the Peninsula; and we arranged to leave our baggage-mules behind to recuper

The lion of the day was the legal luminary and judicial functionary of Juli. He was mis-ate, and to accompany him next morning to placed in the Sierra, and only required to have had cheeks a little more puffy, a voice a trifle more grum, and a horse-hair wig to have made him an ornament to the English bench.

the seat of his jurisdiction, where the famous Virgin of Copacabana has her rich and imposing shrine. Thence we proposed to visit the He Sacred Islands of Titicaca.

THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS.

A TENDERER azure fills the sky,
Where milky-white the pale clouds shine,
And sweetly blue the low hills lie
Along the far horizon's line.

Beneath a violet-tinted veil

The river curves to left and right; And through the slender mist each sail Is whiter in the April light.

The maple's silver tapering stems

Are tipped with buds now Spring is here; And decked with tiny coral gems

The tall elms at the gate appear.

The beechen branches, flecked with shade,
Reach timid buds toward the light,
Where, looking out across the glade,
The snowy dog-wood blossoms white.

The pale arbutus gently trails

Its buds where southern slopes are seen; On steel-blue wings the swallow sails

O'er sun-lit fields of gleaming green.

They come the winds blow soft and bland,
As northward speeds each restless wing;
An emerald vesture robes the land

To greet the heralds of the Spring.

Hark! what a song; how blithely float
The joyous carols as they pass,
Poured from the bluebird's swelling throat
In yonder flowering sassafras.

An answer comes, full, sweet, and clear,
As one by one the bird-notes drop;
It is the linnet's voice I hear

From out the elm-tree's feathery top.

Perched on the last year's naked stalk,
With every wind the sparrow sways;
Before me, down the garden-walk,
In unconcern the cat-bird strays.
Amid the orchard's checkered rows
The robin builds his summer nest,
And like a flaming sunset glows
The perfect crimson of his breast.
On breezy knolls, with cedar crowned,
I hear at times through all the day,
His flute-tones half in distance drowned,
The varied music of the jay.

Oh birds, that fill the sweet south wind

With songs that make the woodlands ring, From lands your flight has left behind

What welcome tidings do you bring?

"Southward the earth is clothed in green,
The blossoms fall from off the tree;
The rice-fields reaching wide are seen
Along the borders of the sea.
"Bathed in the splendor of the sun,

The broad plantations meet the sight;
Past level shores the rivers run
Where cotton-blooms shall glisten whitc
"A song ascends from off the earth,

Its strains the tall pine-forests hear,
Sung in the flush of hope's new birth,
A song of gladness and of cheer."
Oh, sweet new year, that smiles at last,
Rich gifts with larger harvests blend,
And knit in friendship strong and fast
Our noble land from end to end!

CRADLE LANDS.*

all of travel those treating of

avidity with which the Greeks listened to the readings of Herodotus.

But familiarity at length dissipates the in

The antiquities of Greece and Rome are interesting only to the scholar. Rome, indeed, has become in modern times a world-centre, a goal of human pilgrimage; but this is Papal not Imperial Rome, and the place which it has held in the hearts of men for more than a thousand years has been due to religious associations. The world has had five grand religious centres -Philæ, Jerusalem, Delphi, Mecca, and Rome. Over Phila-the burial-place of Osiris, the Egyptian Saviour-there now hovers but a dim shadow of its ancient sanctity. Jerusalem is the divided possession of Papists and Mussulmen-the Jews themselves having no share in their ancient shrine. The oracles at Delphi have been dumb for centuries. Rome and Mecca still remain, but must yield at length to their inevitable fate, for the coming era will acknowledge no material centre of faith. That they still hold their own is due to that strength of religious sentiment, combined with local superstition, which has always characterized vast systems of religion. It was this sentiment which last year thrust back Garibaldi and his compatriots from the walls of the Holy City. It seems, indeed, as difficult for revolutionists to penetrate to the Vatican as it was for the ancient assassin to reach the heart of a Cæsar. But still the time will come when the centre of both Mohammedan and Papal faith will be what Phila and Delphi are now-the weak echoes of a mighty time gone by.

Egypt and the East are the most success-terest which is based upon novelty, the disful. Other countries interest us just in pro- closure of secrets does away with their enchantportion to their novelty, and the stories of trav-ment. The fascination which is connected with elers concerning them prosper because they these terræ incognitæ is sometime exhausted. bring to light people, customs, and things hith- Far different is it with Egypt and those Eastern erto resting under a veil of obscurity. This is countries which Lady Herbert happily names the case with the frozen regions of North Amer- the "Cradle Lands." Here we meet not the ica and Siberia, and with the partially-explored New but the Old; and our interest is based not territory of Central Africa. Secrets which defy upon what is novel and puzzling, but upon myspenetration, whether guarded by Arctic frosts teries associated with our origin and our faith, or equatorial heat, are always fascinating to and which are infinite and inexhaustible. adventurous travelers, and to an equal degree they attract the attention of general readers. If there is an Alpine height which human feet have never yet touched, be sure that, after how many or however disastrous failures, some traveler will in time gain that mysterious summit; and be sure also, that the fatal mis-step of any traveler, whether in the perilous ascent, or, after having reached his goal, in the still more perilous retrogression of his footsteps, will be heralded to all the world, and commemorated as a tragic incident of historic importance. Sir John Franklin's Arctic Expedition will never be forgotten. Although little more than a score of years has lapsed since the last dispatches from the Erebus and Terror (July 12, 1845), scarcely one of these years has passed in which some expedition has not been sent into the Arctic Sea in search of the lost ships and their crews; in 1850 there went forth six such expeditions, and the pursuit will only cease when those frozen regions shall have given up either their dead, or else their well-kept secret. Nay, this Arctic search will continue until that still more unfathomable secret, of which Franklin was in search, has been mastered, and the Northern Sea has answered that pertinacious question of mortals, Whether there is a Northwest Passage. The recently reported death of Dr. Livingstone by violence in the interior of Africa agitated the whole civilized world, and only the contradiction of this rumor has prevented a series of African expeditions similar to those in search of Sir John Franklin. The mystery of the Nile disturbed the repose of the world for certainly three thousand years-for how many more there is no record to tell us. That day (February 23, 1863) was one ever to be remembered, as setting at rest the inquiry of centuries, when Captains Speke and Grant first announced the discovery of the source of the great river in Lake Nyanza Victoria. Somewhat of the same interest has always been attached to Central Asia, because it was a region forbidden to strangers; and when Vambéry, disguised as a dervish, had leaped these barriers and discovered the secrets of this hitherto terra incognita, the published recital of his experiences was read with an interest only to be compared to the

But even echoes are not without significance. If Rome should to-morrow be stripped of her glory as the religious centre of the world-and taking away the temporal sovereignty of the Pope would accomplish just that- still she would not cease to be sought by pilgrims; her shrines might become desolate, but they would not be deserted. Even if Christendom were overrun by a new race, professing another faith, the sanctity of the old religion-though a sanctity belonging not to what is living but to that which lingers only in ruins and tombs-would still abide with the new. Thus the old abides with us. If with Lady Herbert's party we visit the sacred island of Egyptian Philæ, as we see its temples standing out against the sky in wondrous beauty, it is not the sound at sunset of the "Angelus" bell of the Roman Catholic con

*Cradle Lands. By LADY HERBERT. Published by vent which impresses us most profoundly, not

RICHARD BENTLEY, London.

the consecration-crosses nor the Christian al

66

tars, which have displaced the symbols of an older faith. The mysteries of this older cultus thrill like music even across the blank of years that are measured by thousands and touch our hearts and conquer us. We remember that this is the burial-place of Osiris who, in the sublime faith of the Egyptians, was Son of God and Saviour, who was made flesh and dwelt among this ancient race. They swore "By Him who sleeps in Phila!" In death their only hope was that they became identified with Him, or, as they expressed it in inscriptions on their tombs, they fell asleep in Osiris." The face of Isis still whispers to us of divine rest-of "the peace which passeth understanding:" she was the Egyptian Madonna-the oldest among the Mothers of Sorrows. By priestly consecration her image is allowed to pass for that of the Virgin; but she remains the same old Isis after all. And, in connection with this conquest of the Old over our hearts, it is a significant and memorable fact that the statue of St. Peter at Rome, whose feet are literally devoured by the kisses of the saints, is none other than the ancient statue of Jupiter, or as Sydney Smith, who was nothing if not witty, says: "It is well enough. Only Ju-piter becomes the Jew-Peter."

Every system of human faith has had its origin in the East. Thus the Orient, being at once the cradle of the race, and also of its religions, is invested with an interest which is sacred and universal. And the associations of profane not less than those of sacred history, turn our thoughts into this eastward current. The star of empire westward moves, and westward the pushing intelligence and enterprise of humanity. But, after all, that which is highest in us, as connected with our spiritual nature, with our romance, our hope, and our faith, looks toward the Orient; and this instinct is beautifully exemplified in the universal custom of all nations, according to which the faces of the dead are turned toward the rising sun. The impulse which marshaled and moved the Medieval Crusaders was born of this same instinct. And here also do we find an explanation of the interest with which all books relating to the East are regarded.

over every ruined wall, and exquisite in color as in form, delight an eye accustomed to such things carefully tended in hot-houses only."

Mohammedanism holds the vantage-ground in Egypt. To this is due much of the picturesque beauty of Cairo. Here "the exquisite earving of the mosques and gateways; the Oriental character of the narrow streets, and bazars, and courts; the beauty of the costumes and of the fretted lattice casements overhanging the streets; the gorgeous interior fitting of the mosques, one of which is entirely lined with Oriental alabaster; the magnificent fountains in the outer courts of each; the graceful minarets-all seen in the clearness and beauty of this cloudless day, leave a picture in one's mind which no subsequent travel can efface." The mosques are approached through a large court, supported by pillars and paved with marble, in the centre of which is a well for the faithful to wash before prayers. The

mosque of Mehemet Ali is built entirely of Oriental alabaster, and the well in the court, also of alabaster, is beautifully carved. From the terrace we look out from these Mohammedan surroundings upon the Pyramids, of which we have a fine view in the distance. In the neighborhood of Cairo is Joseph's Well, from which we pass through the Horse Market on to the mosque of Sultan Hassan, one of the most ancient in. Cairo, and full of porphyry, serpentine, and other rare marbles. Then back to the Capitol, passing by wretched mud walls, with raised traps in the flat roofs, to let in air and light, dignified by the name of "Barracks," and into which the poor soldiers can only enter on hands and knees.

To the traveler the Eastern countries offer a curious and often ludicrous mixture of the ancient and the modern, to say nothing of the incongruity which there is among the modern elements themselves. At Alexandria we pass from Pompey's Pillar to the Pacha's Palace. The town is a motley collection of half-European and half-Arabian houses. This is observable throughout Egypt. But in this everchanging medley of humanity nature remains the same. "The one thing," says Lady Her"Ladies of whom nothing is bert, "which the most hackneyed Nile traveler visible but the eyes, the rest of their bodies can not fail to admire, is the vegetation. Enor- being enveloped in gorgeous-colored silks, and mous groves of date-palms and bananas, with over all a cloak of black silk, called a 'habaan underwood of poinsettias, their scarlet leaves rah;' dervishes, with their long, black robes looking like red flamingos amidst the dark-green and green turbans; picturesque water-carriers leaves and ipomaeas of every shade-lilac, yel- with their water-skins, and others with long low, and, above all, torquoise-blue-climbing sticks of sugar-cane, the chewing of which is a