AN ACCOUNT OF THE CAMEL.

BY A TRAVELLER.

ON another occasion, we passed some camels, grazing at such a distance from the Nile, that I asked the Arab, attending, where they went to drink ? He said he marches them all down together to the Nile, and they drink every eleventh day. It is now the cool season, and the heat is tempered by fresh northerly breezes. The Arab, of course, brings water skins for his own supply. All these camels were breeding stock. They live on thorns and the top shoots of the gum-arabic tree, although it is armed with the most frightful spikes. But very little comes amiss to the camel, he will eat dry wood to keep up digestion, if in want of a substitute. Instinct or experience has taught him to avoid the only tempting looking plants that grow in the Desert-the green cusha bush, which is full of milk coloured juice; and a creeper that grows in the sand, where nothing else will grow ; and which has a bitter fruit like a melon. I was surprised to learn that the leopard does not dare to attack the camel, whose tall and narrow flanks would seem to be fatally exposed to such a supple enemy. Nature, however, has given him a means of defence in his iron jaw and long powerful neck, which are a full equivalent for his want of agility. He can also strike heavily with his feet, and his roar would intimidate many foes. I never felt tired of admiring this noble creature, and through the monotony of the Desert, would watch for hours his ceaseless tread and unerring path. Carrying his head low forward, and surveying every thing with his black brilliant eye, he marches resolutely forward, and quickens his pace at the slightest cheer of the rider.-Peel's Ride through Nubia.

THE answer of a Circassian Chieftain to the Russian Commander, is a magnificent specimen of heroic courage and poetic sublimity. "Surrender!" was the summons of General Resen to Hamsad Bey. "Surrender! resistance is in vain, the hosts which I bring against you are numberless as the sands on the sea shore!" "But my hosts," was the answer, are like the waves

of the sea, which wash away the sands !”

A JUDGE and a joking lawyer were conversing about the doctrine of the transmigration of the souls of men into animals. "Now," said the judge, suppose you and I were turned into a horse and an ass, which would you prefer to be ?"

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be sure," replied the lawyer."

"The ass to

Why ?" rejoined the judge. "Because I have heard of an ass being a judge, but of a horsenever."

DIOGENES asked money from the statues. Some one having heard him, asked him-"Why he did that ?" and he replied "That I may not be sensible when men refuse me."

EFFECTS OF THE LICHEN.

IN contemplating the venerable beauty of some old castle crumbling into ruins beneath the weight of centuries, the attention of the reader may have frequently been attracted by spots and markings of various, often vivid, colours upon the old time worn stones, and which frequently give the latter a grey appearance, and indicate a more advanced age than might otherwise be assigned to the structure. These rude paintings of nature upon the dilapidated wall, once so rich in sculptural ornament, are none other than an array of vegetable forms, complete, and perfect in their kind, silently, slowly, but surely, bringing to the level of surrounding dust the proud structures raised by the powerful hand of man; teaching him a lesson, to which he often inclines, asp-like, to close his ear, that the things of this life are transitory indeed, and unstable; that the most enduring and indestructable structures which human genius can devise and human labour accomplish, crumble into dust when grasped by the tiny fangs of the simplest vegetable form.

THE DEFINITION.

Dame Fortune, in one of her vagaries wild
Adopted young Chump, as her favorite child,
But avarice, while heaping her coffers with gold,
His mind left as rude as the heath-cover'd wold.
Says Chump, "Now my income will leisure afford,
I'll have my large bookcase with knowledgment stor❜d."
But intricate terms, as in spite, would impede,

And perplex Master Chump, in his efforts to read.
""Tis a barbarous custom," he peevishly cried,

"When men's names are marked like a sheep on one side,
With letters of import no readers can guess,

Pray after this name, what can mean F. R. S?”
"F.R. S.," replied one of his quizzical friends,
"Is a sort of a title that something portends,
And whose signification, if rightly made out,
Means a Fellow remarkably stupid no doubt.”

MEN keep better the secrets of others than their own. Women keep better theirs than those of others.

A WOLF resembles a dog as a flatterer resembles a friend. TYRANTS can subdue the body, but they cannot subdue the soul. THE passions are inexhaustible, they consume men, they weaken and often destroy estates.

It is a shame to be vanquished by love.

THE wise like better to hear the truth which offends, than the falsity which flatters.

THE wicked are punished or fear always to be punished.
A BENEFIT is never lost.

TAKING A SHOWER BATH.

DOCTOR "Well, how did your wife manage her shower bath, Deacon ?" Deacon-" She has had real good luck. Madame Moody told her how she managed. She said she had a large oiled silk cap, with a cape to it, like a fireman's, that came all over her shoulders, and -." Doctor-"What? used an umbrilly! what the mischief good did the shower bath do her?" Deacon"She said she felt better. Her clothes weren't wet a mite. She sot under limbrilly for half an hour, till all the water trickled off, and said 'twas cool and delightful, and just like a little shower in summer. Then she took off her things, and rubbed herself for half an hour arter."

SINK AND THE DEUCE.

A SEAL engraver, hearing that the Thames so poisoned the atmosphere, that it was dangerous to live near it, called out" A firstrate sink for die!"

POPULARITY!

A COUNSEL, in advocating a cause, remarked upon the fleeting nature of "Popularity !"-" Pompey, admired to-day, was killed on the morrow;" and the same voice which called "Hosannah to the Highest! one day, to-morrow called out " "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!"

OVER THE DOOR OF AN APOTHECARY.

ALL sorts of drugs and dying stuffs sold here.

EPIGRAM.

Treason does never prosper-what's the reason?
Why when it prospers, none dare call it treason.

SUICIDE.

When all the blandishments of life are gone

The coward sneaks to death, the brave lives on.

THE Normans never forget their interest; they seek it even when they treat with their parents and their friends.

"Well,"

IT was said to Zeno, that all his wealth was lost. answered he, "Nature wills that I may become a philosopher."

A MAN, who ill-treats beasts, can also ill-treat men," said a little girl, seeing that a young man had ill-treated a cat.

THE wise man quits life, as the traveller quits his inn.

RICHES are accompanied by fear, and poverty is followed by hope.

DIRT is a thing always in the wrong place.

MERCANTILE INDIGESTION.

WITH THE PRESCRIPTION OF PROFESSOR GREGORY OF EDINBURGH.

Enter MR.

SCENE.-Doctor Gregory's Study.

a dunce-looking Glasgow Merchant.

Patient. Good morning, Doctor Gregory; I'm just come to Edinburgh about some law business, and I thought when I was there, at any rate I might just as weel tak your anvice, sir, anent my trouble.

Doctor. And pray what may your trouble be, my good sir?

Pa. 'Deed, Doctor, I'm no very sure; but I'm thinking a kind of weakness that makes me dizzy at times, and a kind of pinkling about my stomach. I'm just no right.

Dr. You're from the West country, I should suppose, sir?
Pa. Yes, sir, from Glasgow.

Dr. Aye, sir, pray are you a gourmand, a glutton?

Pa. God forbid, sir. I'm one of the plainest men living in all the West country.

Dr. Then perhaps you're a drunkard ?

Pa. No, thank God, no one can accuse me of that; I'm an elder, so ye may suppose I'm nae drunkard.

Dr. [Aside. I'll suppose no such thing till you tell me your mode of life.] I'm so much puzzled with your symptoms, sir, that I should wish to hear, in detail, what do you eat and drink, when do you breakfast, and what do you take to it?

Pa. I breakfast at nine o'clock. I take a cup of coffee, and one or two cups of tea, a couple of eggs, and a bit of ham, or kipper salmon, or may be both, if they're good, and two or three rolls and butter.

Dr. Do you eat no honey, or jelly, or jam, to breakfast?
Pa. Oh! yes, sir, but I don't count that as anything.
Dr. Come, is this a very moderate breakfast?

dinner do you make?

What kind of

Pa. Oh! sir, I eat a very plain dinner, indeed. Some soup, and some fish, and a little plain roast or boiled; for I dinna care for made dishes, I think some way they never satisfy the appetite. Dr. You take a little pudding then, and afterwards some cheese? Pa. Oh! yes, though I don't mind much about them.

Dr. You take a glass of ale or porter with your cheese ?

Pa. Yes, one or the other, but seldom both.

Dr. You West country gentlemen generally take a glass of Highland whiskey after dinner?

Pa. Yes, we do; its good for digestion.

Dr. Do you take any wine during dinner?

Pa. Yes, a glass or two of sherry; but I'm indifferent as to

wine during dinner. I drink a good deal of beer.

Dr. What quantity of port do you drink?

Pa. Oh! very little, not above half a dozen glasses, or so.

Dr. In the West country it is impossible, I hear, to dine without punch?

Pa. Yes sir, indeed, 'tis punch we drink chiefly; but for myself, unless I happen to have a friend with me, I never take more than a couple of tumblers or so, and that's moderate.

Dr. Oh! exceedingly moderate, indeed! You then after this slight repast, take some tea and bread and butter ?

Pa. Yes, before I go to the counting-house to read the evening letters.

Dr. And, on your return, you take supper, I suppose

?

Pa. No, sir, I canna be said to take supper; but just something before going to bed; a rizer'd haddock, or a bit of toasted cheese, or half a hundred oysters, or the like of that, and may be, two thirds of a bottle of ale, but I take no regular supper.

I take a

Dr. But you take a little more punch after that? Pa. No, sir, punch don't agree with me at bedtime. tumbler of warm whisky toddy at night, its lighter to sleep on. Dr. So it must be, no doubt. This, you say, is your every day life; upon great occasions, perhaps, you exceed a little ?

Pa. No, sir, except when a friend or two dine with me, or I dine out, which, as I'm a sober family man, does not often happen Dr. Not above twice a week?

Pa. No, not oftener.

Dr. Of course you sleep well, and have a good appetite?

Pa. Yes, sir, thank God, I have; indeed, any wee harl o' health that I hae is about meal time.

Dr. [Assuming a very severe look, knitting his brows, and lowering his eye brows.] Now, sir, you are a very pretty fellow, indeed; you come here, and tell me you are a moderate man, and I might have believed you, did I not know the nature of the people in your part of the country; but, upon examination, I find, by your own showing, that you are a most voracious glutton; you breakfast, in the morning, in a style that would serve a moderate man for dinner; and, from five o'clock in the afternoon, you undergo one almost uninterrupted loading of your stomach, till you go to bed. This is your moderation! You told me, too, another falsehoodyou said you were a sober man, yet, by your own shewing, you are a beer swiller, a dram drinker, a wine bibber, and a guzzler of Glasgow punch, a liquor, which is associated, in my mind, only with the ideas of low company and beastly intoxication. You tell me, you eat indigestible suppers, and swill toddy to force sleep: I see that you chew tobacco. Now, sir, what human stomach can stand this? Go home, sir, and leave off your present course of riotous living-take some dry toast and tea for your breakfastsome plain meat and soup for your dinner, without adding to it any thing to spar on your flagging appetite; you may take a cup of tea in the evening, but never let me hear of haddocks, and toasted cheese, and oysters, with their accompaniments of ale, and

VOL. I.

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