way-a short burly little bush stepped forward and declared that he was the most useful member in the vegetable world. His name was Gossypium, and he came from Asia, Africa, and America, where he was called "The Cotton Tree." He had a summerhouse 9,000 feet above the level of the sea. His mother's name was Kutn. She was born in Arabia, and his family had lived in India for three or four thousand years; but see how they served him, he sighed. The soft white counterpanes with which he wrapped up his babies was ruthlessly taken away to make garments for men, women, and children; and after giving up cotton and seed, they cut his arms off to make his head and shoulders bigger, which he knew to be a very painful operation, and, he thought, a very absurd one. "Tell him I supply him with the purest water in the hot desert, where there are no springs," said the Traveller's tree from Madagascar, "and that he repays my kindness by stripping off my leaves to thatch his houses; hammers my skin into floor-cloth to walk over; and makes spoons, cups, and saucers of my branches." “Add to it,” said the Jack tree from the island of Ceylon, "that I supply him with ready-made bread -my 'penny loaves' weighing ten pounds each, and my 'quarterns' sixty pounds, and that in return he cuts up my crust into chairs and tables, and makes door-mats of my crumb." "Say I supply him with fresh butter, "said the African Bassia tree, "which, besides keeping good the whole year round without salt, has no horrid mixture of tallow to make it cheap, or flint to make it heavy, as his abominable stuff has." "And I," said the dwarf Palm, "I make him knives to cut the bread and spread the butter." "And I with cream," added the Barbadoes Cow tree. "And I with bowls to drink from,' declared the Calabash tree from South America. "Don't forget," said the Tallow tree from China, "that my little ones are crushed to death that he may have light in his dwelling, and that he admits that I yield with meekness and submission, saying that they 'burn without smoke, and quite free from a disagreeable smell!'” "Ah!" groaned Ficus elastica, the India-rubber tree from Calcutta, "let him think of the wounds he has so often inflicted with his sharp instruments upon me, often suffering me to bleed' to death, while he stands cruelly by, catching the milk of my body, and turning it into all sorts of things, so that, as he says, I have become one of the necessaries of life." "You remind me of my misery," added an English Vine from Hampton Court. "I yield his royal family upwards of 2,500 bunches of fine grapes every year, and I stretch out my arms a hundred and ten feet asking for pity, but all in vain : not only are my dead limbs removed, which wouldn't matter, but my living ones are cut off at the last joint." There was a movement in the lower part of the assembly, and an enormous trunk, covered with disgusting scales, giving it the appear ance of a huge serpent, stood up and declared he had it all his own way. He came, he said, from the island of Java, and as often as he had the chance he stole into the bodies of the common enemy man in particular, and crawled round his heart and destroyed him. His very breath poisoned the birds who had the audacity to settle on his branches, or the beasts of the forest who sought shelter under his leaves; and the only objects which could be seen near the spot where he lived, as he believed, were bones of men and animals, the whitened skeletons of his victims." "Our friend the Upas tree," said the Banyan," has doubtless suffered less than the rest of our verdant family. He has revenged the slaughter which the enemy has occasioned, but in my opinion we shall be more like to succeed if we show the lesson we teach by our lives, in addition to the produce of our bodies, which we are ready to give up in a reasonable manner.' He would call upon Pitcher-plant, How-d'ye-do Plant, Screw Pine, Wellingtonia, and the Yew, and other distinguished and useful members; and he would humbly suggest the beautiful picture of his own happy family at home, as teaching the great lesson of mutual help, and the duty of the young to respect and support the old, from the fact that, as he grew old, his children, depriving themselves of unnecessary clothing, descended and secured themselves in the soil, supporting the parents, extending over 360 feet, and that they thus grew to the size of huge pillars, covering themselves with silvery coats, and bearing up the old tree, when laden with a large number of figs, with the utmost firmness. OUR MOTTO. Onward through the strife and battle In this little world below; Through the toil, the pain, the anguish, Onward, ever onward, go. Upward to the holy city, Where our trials ever cease, Till we reach the land of glory,— Reach the land of perfect peace. Homeward, from the place of exile To the "Father's house" above, Where our "Elder Brother" reigneth, Where are gathered those we love. Heavenward, heavenward, to the country, To the haven of the blest; Tossed no more on life's rough billows, You shall enter into rest. Higher, forward; grow not weary; With the victories you have Stay not on the dangerous pathway He your Saviour, Guard, and You can never fail to conquer, Feeding on your Saviour's love; Looking to Him, climbing higher, Till you reach the world above. V. Cox, B 2 A Christmas Party in Madagascar, ERTAINLY everybody "annual meeting" is, and I assure knows enough about Christmas parties, when the "feast of fat things" comes round, Paterfamilias being encircled amid a blaze of gas or wax lights, with perhaps his venerable sire at his elbow, "little Dot" near, filling an important place, teasing everybody. Kind mamma occupying the principal place, recommending dish after dish, until from their number one may almost say their name is "legion," and when everybody is satisfied begging them to take "a little more." I am to tell of a party in Madagascar something different from the one alluded to, where every one has politely to use the several thoughtto-be-indispensable auxiliaries — knives, forks, spoons, finger-glasses, table napkins, and how many more I will not say; but wait until my little tale is told, and perhaps you will think the preposition may be removed, and we may write against these implements, dispensable. I do not say it will be so, but the Malagasy say so, as you shall presently be told. I have then to tell you of a dinnerparty, by the light of such a glorious sun as perhaps you never saw, beneath the shades of trees that would not grow naturally in England, but which, though they are not large, afford an agreeable shade from the burning heat, and which yield a fruit called "Bibas," of which some of us are very fond: it is, too, an "annual gathering;" every one knows how rejoicing the sound of you one thinks of his fatherland and, its many endearing associations when these words are used. But my tale is of the annual feast of the Christians who worship Sabbath after Sabbath on the summit of that rock from whence many of their fellows were thrown a few years since, because they trusted in that same Saviour which these Christians now worship without fear or trembling. The party was held in the garden of Rainihetianomanger (I hope you have got through the name safely, it really is long enough to turn round the corner); it means "the Father of the Great Blue House." All Malagasy names have a meaning. But here, again, I must upset your ideas of a garden, with lawn, shrubbery, greenhouse, &c., for the gardens here more nearly resemble orchards; this one had about four rows of trees along the side by which we entered, and at right angles to them two more rows of trees; no verbenas, tulips, nemophila, geraniums, heliotropes, or any other flowers could be seen in it, but a large square stone tomb, whose side measures perhaps twenty feet, stands near its centre. This tomb is built in worked stone courses with a moulded plinth, and the same kind of moulding reversed as a cornice; some three feet smaller than this base rises another square block of stonework, so to speak, a step higher, but a very high step, only fit for such a giant as even Amalek of old could not produce. This block is also surmounted by the A Christmas Party in Madagascar. same kind of cornice as the base from which it rises. On the north there is a kind of projecting terrace from the centre of that side of the tomb, some six feet wide, and connected with the tomb by a semicircular arch, beneath the springing of which, as if thrown there by accident, or carelessly leaning against the tomb's side, are two three-quarter columns with moulded capitals and bases; the workmanship on these deserves a better position. In this tomb lies the body of a Christian noble, who is supposed to have been first crucified and then beheaded. Beneath the trees first named some two or three hundred men, all dressed in their snow-white lambas, were squatting; under the last named about the same number of women were in the same position. A quiet chat, though a rapid one, was kept up at intervals; the gentlemen and ladies do not sit together at worship in Madagascar, nor yet at these social festivals. At the southeast angle, where the rows of trees meet, a table was spread with knives, forks, spoons, napkins, &c., for the missionary, his lady, the visitors, the owner of the garden, and another Malagasy friend. Be it remembered that the whole of the arrangements were made entirely by the people themselves, and that some of them have so far acquired the knowledge as to be able thus to lay out a table, -a trifling incident in itself, but one which shows their readiness to copy from Europeans, notwithstanding their tenacious adhesion to ancestral practices. Had you been there at this moment you would have heard sounds of sweet music wafted by the refreshing breeze from a short 11 distance, and looking up the slope of the hill, nearly to the spot where the four nobles were burned to death, and where the Children's Memorial Church will soon be erected, you would have seen the singers approaching, the men taking the lead, the women following; they looked quite pretty in their lambas, descending the rather rapid incline, and making the sacred spot of martyrdom and the places adjacent reverberate with the songs of Zion. Some large banana leaves having been placed in the centre of each group, a blessing is asked, and all is ready for the feast. Some gentlemen volunteers undertake to serve, and wrapping their lambas around their loins prepare for action. Several of them trust to their own understandings; others have politely covered their lower members with shoes which are too quiet to announce the importance of the personage who wears them. In large three-legged iron pots the repast has been prepared, and from these there rise speedily small mountains of rice on the banana leaves, their crests being formed of stewed beef, curried fowl, &c.; no sooner are the decorations completed than earnest feeders are seen to abound. Some contrived, by a particular fold of a portion of a banana leaf, to produce a kind of right-angled spoon or scoop, but the natural generally was preferred to the artificial. There is another thing to be noticed, "nature's pure virgin" drink had to be supplied, and this was done in tin cups of native manufacture, which have a long handle penetrating one side, crossing the interior, and secured to the opposite side of the vessel. No, thank you, seemed effectually checked; whether in a few months they will go on again and get through the thatch remains to be seen. The grounds in front are laid out for planting fruittrees, and there is near the centre a fishpond, formed (this seems a sine quâ non in a Malagasy garden) for gold and silver fish and water-lilies. These fish abound here, and are sold by bushels in the markets at a cheap rate. Such, then, is the influence our building operations are producing, such the parties which the congregations get up by themselves, realizing a suggestion made some two or three years since by the missionaries. Who does not desire to lift a people, in many respects so interesting, in the social scale? Who does not long and you must not drink out of these cups, they must be properly elevated over the head, then the receiver must be opened so as nearly to form a circle, and when at a proper elevation the water will descend perpendicularly, and all is proper. As for ourselves, we did justice to roast and curried fowl, beef dressed in two or three different styles, one quite new from the Betsileo country, the joint resembling a ham split down the middle. Then followed Malagasy pastry, which was quite hypocritical, for it excited expectations only to disappoint them. A spongecake, which I heard the French had taught them how to make, came up to the mark. Grapes and peaches were the dessert. A servant who was put to shield the lady who presided from the effects of the strong breezes which were blow-pray that the shackles of heathenism, ing, amused us by the manner in which he forgot the proper object of his solicitude, and took care of his own dear self. The sons and daughters of harmony wasted none of their time; for "songs of praises" were heard at intervals during the repast, and at its close many of the company went with us to inspect a new house which the owner of the garden had nearly finished. This house is built in the shape of the letter H, and of sun-burnt bricks; and it is evidently copied from the residence of one of the missionaries. It will be plastered; it has a verandah all round, and it is covered with the native rushes, well thatched. The most noticeable objects were four young chimneys having fireplaces; these chimneys had grown to the height of the ceiling, but here their growth of sorcery, of ancestral custom, may speedily be snapped asunder? Who does not long to see them with their own printing establishment, their own mechanical appliances, their own arts and sciences? Infinitely more than all, who does not long to see them shake themselves from the dust of idolatry, with all its concomitants, and rising to the full stature of Christian manhood, clothed in the beautiful garments of salvation, and manifesting as a nation the refining, elevating influence of that religion which has the promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come? May we never cease to pray God for them, that in the exhibition of true and vital godliness, our God may make of them a great nation. Antananarivo. W. POOL |