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that is yet known of these singular communities shows them to be living in a completely constituted state of society, eminently adapted to the peculiar part of the globe which they inhabit, governed by the strong traditions of a primitive people, and fulfilling, with energy and intelligence, the strange vocation of their life."

"Almost all the Sahara tribes," says M. Carette, a French captain of engineers, who has contributed much to clear up our notions of this portion of Africa, "are accustomed to a system of annual peregrination, which must have existed from time immemorial, inasmuch as it is based upon the nature of the climate and the produce, and the primary wants of their existence. This general movement is commonly performed in the following manner:-During the winter and spring the tribes are collected in the waste tracts of the Sahara, which, at this season of the year, supply water and fresh vegetation, but they never remain more than three or four days on any one spot; and when the pasture is exhausted, they strike their tents, and go to establish themselves elsewhere. Towards the end of the spring they pass through the towns of the Sahara, where their merchandise is deposited. They load their camels with dates and woollen stuffs, and then turn their steps towards the north, taking with them their whole wandering city-women, dogs, herds, and tents--for it is at this season that the springs begin to dry and the plants to wither on the Sahara, at the same time that the corn is ripe in the Tell. There they arrive at the moment of the harvest, when corn is abundant and cheap, and thus they take a double advantage of the season, by abandoning the waste as it becomes arid, and seeking their fresh stock of provisions in the north, when the markets are overstocked with grain. The summer they pass in this country, in commercial activity, exchanging their dates and woollen manufactured goods for corn, raw wool, sheep, and butter; whilst their herds are allowed to browse freely upon the lands, which lie fallow after the gathering in of the harvest. The signal for the return homewards is given at the end of the summer; the camels are reloaded, the tents again struck, and the wandering city once more marches forth, as it came, in short day's journeys towards the south. The Sahara is regained about the middle of October, the period when the dates are ripe. A month is passed in gathering and storing this fruit; another is devoted to the exchange of the wheat, and barley, and raw wool for the year's dates and the woollen stuffs-the produce of the yearly labour of the women. When all this business is concluded, and the merchandise stored away, the tribes quit the towns, and lead their flocks and herds from pasture-land to pasture-land among the waste tracts of the Sahara, until the following summer calls for a renewal of the same journey, the same system of trade.

"The Sahara," continues M. Carette, "is that part of Algeria

which is most civilised and most capable of receiving civilisation. It is there that habits of precision are most generally diffused, and there that we find the greatest amount of intelligence, activity, and social disposition." The only portion of the Sahara which answers to our ideas of an uninterrupted waste of sand, seems to be the most southern belt of it, which adjoins Nigritia, and which is infested by a roving race called the Tuaricks, who conduct a commercial intercourse, especially in slaves, between the negro countries and the oases of the more northern parts of the Sahara. "These Tuaricks," says M. Carette, "pretend to be of Turkish descent, and affect to treat the Arabs with disdain. They are tall, strong, of slender make, and of fair complexion, with the exception of a few of mixed blood. They wear a headdress, one of the ends of which covers the whole face except the eyes; and almost all, whether rich or poor, have their feet bare, because, according to their own account, they never go on foot." The southern Tuaricks keep the towns of the Soudan in a constant state of blockade, hunting down the negroes in their neighbourhood, and carrying them off for sale.

CONCLUSION.

From the general survey which we have taken of Africa, and of the progress of African discovery, it appears that, while there is scarcely a point in its vast circuit where Europeans have not attempted to settle, scarcely any of the settlements have flourished. For the purposes of trade, such establishments will no doubt be maintained at a vast sacrifice of life—the consequence of the pestilential effects of the climate on European constitutions; but it is not likely that any settlements of a permanent description will be effected except at the southern and northern extremities of the continent. Cape Colony, as yet, is the most prosperous, indeed the only settlement worthy of the name in Africa: whether the French will be able to make anything of Algeria, remains yet to be seen. As for the centre of the continent, it seems quite hopeless to suppose that Europeans can ever operate there directly. The most that can be anticipated is, that they shall be able to tell upon the continent through native agents. By establishing a commerce with Central Africa, they may stimulate whatever tendencies to civilisation exist among the negroes themselves; they may create an activity through the continent resembling that caused by the slave traffic, but everyway nobler and more beneficial. Whatever seeds of improvement there are among the natives, whether negroes, Foulahs, or Arabs, may be developed by this means, and made to fructify. And in this respect, nothing could be more gratifying than to know that the opinion explained in a former part of this tract with regard to Central Africa is well-founded, and that an actual movement is in progress among the natives themselves towards a more advanced stage of humanity.

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BEAUTY OF INSECTS.

OBSERVE the insect race, ordained to keep
The lazy Sabbath of a half-year's sleep.
Entombed beneath the filmy web they lie,
And wait the influence of a kinder sky.
When vernal sunbeams pierce their dark retreat,
The heaving tomb distends with vital heat;
The full-formed brood, impatient of their cell,
Start from their trance, and burst their silken shell.
Trembling awhile they stand, and scarcely dare
To launch at once upon the untried air.

At length assured, they catch the favouring gale,
And leave their sordid spoils and high in ether sail.

Lo! the bright train their radiant wings unfold,
With silver fringed, and freckled o'er with gold.
On the gay bosom of some fragrant flower,
They, idly fluttering, live their little hour;
Their life all pleasure, and their task all play,
All spring their age, and sunshine all their day.
Not so the child of sorrow, wretched man:
His course with toil concludes, with pain began,
That his high destiny he might discern,
And in misfortune's school this lesson learn-
Pleasure's the portion of the inferior kind;
But glory, virtue, Heaven for man designed.

No. 143.

1

What atom forms of insect life appear!
And who can follow nature's pencil here?
Their wings with azure, green, and purple glossed,
Studded with coloured eyes, with gems embossed,
Inlaid with pearl, and marked with various stains
Of lively crimson, through their dusky veins.
Some shoot like living stars athwart the night,
And scatter from their wings a vivid light,
To guide the Indian to his tawny loves,

As through the woods with cautious step he moves.
See the proud giant of the beetle race,

With shining arms his polished limbs enchase!
Like some stern warrior formidably bright,
His steely sides reflect a gleaming light;
On his large forehead spreading horns he wears,
And high in air the branching antlers bears;
O'er many an inch extends his wide domain,"
And his rich treasury swells with hoarded grain.
-MRS BARBAuld.

THE DAY-FLY.

POOR insect! what a little day
Of sunny bliss is thine!

And yet thou spread'st thy light wings gay,
And bidd'st them, spreading, shine.

Thou humm'st thy short and busy tune,
Unmindful of the blast;

And careless, while 'tis burning noon,
How quick that noon be past.

A shower would lay thy beauty low;
A dew of twilight be

The torrent of thy overthrow-
Thy storm of destiny!

Then spread thy little shining wing,
Hum on thy busy lay;

For man, like thee, has but his spring-
Like thine it fades away.

-MRS ROBINSON.

SONG OF THE BEES.

WE watch for the light of the morning to break,
And colour the gray eastern sky
With its blended hues of saffron and lake,
Then say to each other," Awake, awake!
For our winter's honey is all to make,
And our bread for a long supply."

Then off we hie to the hill and the dell,

To the field, the wild wood, and bower;
In the columbine's horn we love to dwell,
To dip in the lily with snow-white bell,
To search the balm in its odorous cell,

The thyme, and the rosemary flower.
We seek for the bloom of the eglantine,
The lime, pointed thistle, and brier;
And follow the course of the wandering vine,
Whether it trail on the earth supine,
Or round the aspiring tree-top twine,
And reach for a stage still higher.

As each for the good of the whole is bent,
And stores up his treasure for all,

We hope for an evening with heart's content
For the winter of life, without lament

That summer is gone, with its hours misspent,
And the harvest is past recall!

-DR AIKIN.

THE ANT. INDUSTRY.

THESE emmets, how little they are in our eyes!
We tread them to dust, and a troop of them dies,
Without our regard or concern:

Yet as wise as we are, if sent to their school,
There's many a sluggard and many a fool
Some lessons of wisdom might learn.

They don't wear their time out in sleeping or play,
But gather up corn in a sunshiny day,

And for winter they lay up their stores;
They manage their work in such regular forms,

One would think they foresaw all the frosts and the storms,
And so brought their food within doors.

But I have less sense than a poor creeping ant,
If I take not due care for the things I shall want,
Nor provide against dangers in time;

When death and old age shall stare in my face,
What a wretch shall I be in the end of my days,
If I trifle away all their prime!

Now, now while my strength and my youth are in bloom, Let me think what shall save me when sickness shall come, sins be forgiven.

And pray

that my

Let me read in good books, and believe, and obey,
That when death turns me out of this cottage of clay,
I may dwell in a palace in heaven.

-DR WATT.

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