the supper but I could see the cares of fifty | as you might fancy Laplanders women y years of mullagatawny written on her brow. during one of their severe winters. I need Half a century of obstinate appos, bad cooks, and impertinent ayahs, to say nothing of two generations of hooping-cough, small-pox, and measels, is surely trial enough for any ordinary woman. It had had its effects upon Mrs. Kugper. not relate my sufferings during that time of trial. Suffice it to say, that when I staggered out into the cool shrubbery, I found myself in a condition which could scarcely have been worse if I had spent a morning with the Fireking, in one of his favourite ovens. The young men grouped themselves about as we see soldiers on parade-ground: some were forming into squares, a few into single line: others, again, were leading off in columns. A few of the knowing shots were thrown out in advance as sharp-shooters, and made attacks on the female forces, entrenched on the sofas and ottomans; but without any visible effect. I felt no inclination for more dancing, or The monotony of this curious scene was at to partake of the enormous supper which I length broken by the entrance of a swarm of perceived to be in course of preparation, and, fierce-looking domestics, swarthed and tur- accordingly, left unperceived, flung myself baned in rich profusion, bearing before them little square stands-a sort of card-tables in reduced circumstances-which they placed with all due solemnity before the dumb ladies on the sofas. Dancing was followed by some very indifferent native theatricals, performed on the lawn behind the house; of which dancing girls, snakes, and a concert of tom-toms, formed a portion, much to the enjoyment of the guests, who seemed not difficult to please. And what a good thing that is! into my palanquin carriage, and bade the driver go home. The night was then magnificent. A bright and lovely moon flung many a new charm among the gorgeous foliage that waved and lightly danced in the cool seabreeze. The vast Indian Ocean broke peacefully in phosphorescent curling waves along a pebbly shore. The air was soft and still, broken only by fitful echoes from some merry-making party in the distance. Other gay-looking servants followed, with What would the reader imagine? Nectar or sherbet? No; with huge tureens of reeking hot soup! The gentlemen proceeded to pour out libations of mullagatawny into divers soup-plates on the little card-tables. It was My drive took me by the sea-shore, and, as curious to see how animated the ladies became, I lay gazing out upon the far ocean, I noticed and how very kindly they took to the smoking a little black shadow on the horizon, like a beverage; evidently as hot as capsicums and a ship, or like the shadow of some monstrous good fire could make it. I could but wonder winged thing. I was tired of looking, and of what material their throats were con- sleepy withal; so, I lay back and dozed. I structed; and, when I perceived that the looked out again, and started to find how soup was followed by hecatombs of cake and dark it had become. The horse-keeper, too, goblets of hot-spiced wine, I felt as if on fire. was urging the animal to its utmost speed. The thermometer in the large open verandah, The little black speck on the horizon had outside, stood at somewhere about ninety de- swollen to a mighty, hideous mass of thundergrees; yet these scalding potations were swal- cloud. Already half the heavens were lowed as though freezing from an ice-house. shrouded in pitchy darkness. I opened my carThe honest, warm-hearted burghers, feeling, riage windows and looked out. The storm was no doubt, the soothing influence of the feast, coming up with giant strides; some distance prepared to add to their enjoyments by a out at sea, a wall of smoking, hissing, bubdance. bling rain joined the clouds and waters, and shut out all beyond. I could hear that mighty cataract of tempest fall with a roaring sound, nearer and nearer. Before me, all was dark and stormy: behind, the many groves of waving palms still slept in moonlit beauty. The distant hills were clear and bold, and seemed so near as though my voice could reach them. The squeaking notes of an old violin, accompanied by a brace of tom-toms, diffused activity into the hitherto dull assembly. The dance was led off by-I perspire freely as I think of it—the hostess and myself. It was none of your sleepy, walking affairs, such as may be met with in English society, but a regular hard-working quadrille, such a one It was in vain my horse was urged onward: the storm was swifter than any living thing. The great black smoking wall came hissing on; and, from its darkened crest, loud peals of thunder burst. I have been in many a storm in my day, but this was the most magnificent I ever saw. To go onward became absolutely impossible; so fierce was the tempest. The driver, therefore, turned the horse's head away from the sea, and patiently sat it out. Peal after peal of thunder rent the air. It seemed as though all the powder-magazines in the world were being blown up. First, there was a cracking and splitting, as of gigantic sheets of metal torn asunder; then, a heavy rumbling, like ten thousand loaded wagons being galloped across an iron bridge. The air was no longer darkened; every foot of atmosphere seemed alive with lightninglife. By the glare, I could see some of the noble palms-at least seventy feet highbending to the gale like willow wands, and literally sweeping the ground with their feathery leaves. More than one upon that terrible night, was shivered into splinters by the lightning; and many a stubborn one that would not bend lay crushed and helpless on its sandy grave. The howling of the wind, the thunderpeals, the heavy pattering of the huge raindrops, had well-nigh stunned me. In nature, however, as with man, the fiercest outbreaks are the soonest quelled. In half-an-hour the moon shone out again in undimmed beauty. The air was calm and hushed; and the parched earth and herbs, grateful for such a copious draught, sent many a fragrant blessing on the breeze, to tell their thanks. [Household Words. CAUSES FOR MARRYING.-Goëthe said he married to obtain respectability. John Wilkes declared he wedded to please his friends. Wycherly, in his old age, took his servant girl to wife to spite his relations. The Russians have a story of a widow who was so inconsolable for the loss of her husband, that she took another to keep from fretting herself to death. A young and rather "fast" gentleman of our acquaintance married a lady nearly old enough to be his grandmother, because he owed a bill of fifty dollars for board. The bargain he afterwards feelingly described as a hard one. If you would not have your child grow up hard-hearted and cruel, never suffer him to misuse an animal or even an insect. LIFE'S SEASONS. BY RICHARD COE. THERE is a Springtime of the heart- Its life is but begun, And pearly tear-drops flee the eyes There is a Summer of the heart- There is an Autumn of the heart- When shadows thick and dark come o'er There is a Winter of the heart- Whene'er the Autumn of the heart If we but act our parts aright On Time's uncertain shore, Our souls may know, in purer climes, A Summer evermore! [Godey's L. B. A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other words, that he is wiser to-day than he was yesterday. He who has no respect for religion can have no true respect for himself. sinketh it into the earth. Covetousness debaseth a man's spirit, and Every heart has its secret sorrows, which the world knows not; and oftentimes we call a man cold when he is only sad. A cheerful temper, joined with innocence, will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful, and wit good-natured. It will lighten sickness, poverty, and affliction; convert ignorance into an amiable simplicity, and render deformity itself agreeable. LIFE IN THE WILDERNESS. rains and winds, from extreme youth to extreme age, never forgets to be in good humor to strangers, and polite to everybody. Strange beings! hunger and toil, either of which renders most men morose and mutinous, do not des. turb the equanimity of the voyageur. Nor far in rear of our bivouae is a small lodge, apparently of Chippewas, from the North shore. The Madeline or Apostle Islands are in front, rising out of the clear depths of Lake Superior on the right, far to the southeast, He sings as loud on short allowance as on and beyond the Bay of Chegorinegan, rise a full stomach. The livelong day he packs the mountains that overlook the mouth of the his load of 95 pounds across the Portage from Montreal river. Near the lodge is a small posé to posé; rain or sunshine, it is all the fire, and a kettle is suspended over it from a same to him. At break of day he springs stake stuck in the ground obliquely across, from his bed of boughs, throws aside his blankthe fire. There is no longer the light of day et, full of vigor and life, mimicry, spirits and but only lingering twilight, which in high la- music. But why did the stunted Bouchette titudes, and under clear skies, illuminates the take to wife the Amazon who sits beside him? western horizon for hours after darkness has You shall hear. The winds rose too freely become general in every other direction. What over the sea on the morrow for either party can be more repulsive than the coarse features to proceed. We had won the confidence of of that tall squaw, sitting upon her haunches, the trader in the evening, and ventured to inwatching the kettle and the white fish which quire why he should mate with such a woman. it contains. Now you get a profile. The few A "trader in the Northwest is an agent or sticks she has just added to the fire flash up-clerk of a low grade, who is sent out from the throwing a bolder light and a blucker shade upon the outlines of her face. Now she rises and takes the kettle and its contents into the lodge, where the voices of children are heard. She is heavy and awkward, but she is firm and athletic. She moves like a person conscious of strength; and what though labor and many tedious marches have distorted her limbs, there is still vigor in that frame. Her face, broad and haggard as it appears, is not altogether savage. Her tangled hair, hanging wildly about her shoulders, parting occasionally, discloses a head, round, full and large: not square, angular and distorted, as with many; in truth, with most of her race and sex. -we stations or posts to collect furs among the Indian villages: in the gradation of service, he is next to the last or lowest. The Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company is a great man, residing in London. He is next in consequence to the Governor-General of India. He traverses the British North American dominions once in two years; and making the circuit of the world, returns to London. Thence are next the governors, the factors of districts, having charge of several posts. They are partners in the Company, men of force of character, property and business qualifications. There are under them factors of posts, then clerks, then traders, then voyageurs. The Indian obtains a credit for his goods in most cases, and the traders are obliged to make severe journeys in the cold of winter, from village to village, clan to clan, a. family to family. As fast as furs are caught they are collected, and taken to the post on dry trains, and the Indian who takes them credit. ed on the books of the Company. Let us take a peep into that lodge. We pull aside the blanket which attaches to the door (such is the Indian etiquette); it causes no surprise. Those childreu evidently have white blood in their veins. Indeed, there sits a short and slender man, beside whom the squaw towers up, like the father, above his little son. "Bon soir-Entrez, messieurs"- Bouchette was engaged in this lonely employentered. A Canadian Frenchman is never at ment in the winter of 183-, in the vicinity of a loss for words. Bouchette, the trader whom Lac la Pluie. He was moving in a company we saw before us, was from Canada, and of the Gens des Bois, a vicious, heartless and French-the lowest voyager, who serves the cruel tribe. As they journeyed on through Fur Company in the capacity of servant, la- the snow, their wild rice became exhausted; borer, and soldier, for $100 to $150 a-year- and yet the journey must be pursued without who endures the fatigues of incessant travel, delay, yes, even without slackening their and the exposures of rigorous seasons, snows, speed. Hard life! How few people of the States realise the pains that are endured woman still exhibited traces of the kindness that reigned in her heart, I cannot with certainty assert; but we thought, arter the recital of Bouchette, that her eye had a more gentle expression, her voice a milder tone, and her general manner more tender bearing, tha others of her tribe and sex. every year in these far-off regions of trade! How few of them are impressed with the idea that the life of the Indian is a continued struggle with famine! He has nothing to live for but food. In most parts of the Northwest, especially before you reach the Buffalo region, it is more than he usually does to procure a regular and sufficient supply-not more than he can do, but more than he actually does. His confidence in the Great Spirit is unbounded-his capacity to resist hunger is astonishing. So it is with the Frenchman bred to the Indian life; but in the trial between French and Indian muscle on an empty stomach the Frenchman lags behind. So it was here; and Bouchette was weary and faint. He could not march with the iron-strung Gens des Bois. Hunger it is said, produces delirium as well as weakness. The Indian sustain him, and carry him forward a long time; but he falls at last, and can travel no longer. They resolve to abandon him. It is many miles to the post, and the snow is deep. He is left, and the clan pass on. be like burlesque to compare that ugly woman's face, with a nose monstrous in size beyond all example, that irregular countenance, shapeless and broken as it is, to an angel's; but the overgrown squaw, with the heart of an angel of life and mercy, turned back to the side of the forsaken traveller. She gave him some kernels of rice; but this did not produce a return of strength. It may There is no faculty but at some moment has a capital use. Here the enormous size and strength of this Indian woman saved the life of a human being. She threw his listless body upon her back, and brought it to the fort alive. Her care did not end here. The usual fever that follows exposure and extreme suffering from frost, attacked Bouchette with rigor. No mother or wife would have shown more watchfulness than did this misshapen northern girl to a man almost a stranger, and no more related by blood or obligations than any other member of the human race. He recovered, and returning with the tribe to La Pointe, his first act was to search out a priest, and make her his wife. Whether it was a mere fancy, excited by the story of her acts; or that, in fact, the rugged and almost deformed physiognomy of this Cannibalism, Is her husband a man-eater? dreadful to civilised persons, is none the less so to the mind of an Indian; and yet it is not uncommon among them. There is a superstition among them, that a man who has once tasted human flesh becomes possessed of a passion for that kind of food. They imagine that he feels a new desire, and looks upon a young child, as a drunkard, on the morning after a debauch, longs for his dram. When Mr. Henry was journeying along the northern shore of the lake, about 1770, a young man came into his camp from the head of Gourlais Bay, nearly opposite White Fish Point. He had a wild eye. His haggard look to the other Indians was an evidence that he was a maneater. Some one heard him say of the papooses "How fat they are!" There was an odor from his person so offensive that no one could remain in the same lodge with him. This, they said, was sufficient evidence that he had swallowed the flesh of his kindred. But he denied it. At length, search was made backward along his trail, and, not many miles from the shore, a hand was found, partly roasted upon a sharp stake near the ashes of an old camp fire. The party found other signs of the dreadful repast, and returning with the hand in their possession, the young man confessed that it had formed part of his meal. He had been in company with two men and one woman. It was winter, and starvation overtook them in the mountains of Canada. The two young men agreed to kill the two others first, and eat them. When this supply was exhausted, they sat down-both minds intent upon the deed which was to follow. All the cunning of the Indian, his capacity for concealing his thoughts, his strategy and duplicity, were now brought into action. The life of one staked against the life of the other!-such were their secret and horrible thoughts. They go in turn to the hills in search of game, yet nothing is taken. I have said that cannibalism is repulsive everywhere, even where it is practised. The inhabitants of the Australian islands do not seem to indulge in it from pleasure or habit, Our good Frenchman, Bouchette, confirmed the details given by Henry seventy-five years ago. He had himself seen these creatures, the "man-eaters,” upon whom the tribes look with suspicion, and even horror. A member of our party had noticed at La Pointe, among the Indians who came to the payment, a large, ferocious, and strange-looking Indian, with red and fiery eyes, who was shunned by his fellows-he but as a method of glutting a savage revenge, behind the murderer, and sank the hatchet deep upon their enemies, or of gratifying some god into his head. who requires such rites. It is thus with the northern Indians. The mass of them regard it with horror. But when, after long exposure to cold and hunger; rabid, weary, and hopeless-when, after enduring for days, as he knows how to do, and no sign of relief appears, it is allowable for a party thus situated to decide upon whom the lot shall fall. The overruling principle of self-preservation, as in the case of an overladen boat at sea, by gene-was said to be a man-eater. He was apparently ral consent determines that there must be a victim. In the North American forests, as on the ocean, the weakest of the party, some woman, or old man, is first taken. When Mr. Henry was engaged in one of his remote expeditions, he says he had great difficulty in protecting a young woman from the knife of her companions. The party to whom our young man of Gourlais Bay belonged, acted therefore in conformity to ancient and savage custom, when they came to the determination that one of their number should be made a sacrifice. The same doctrine, put into further practice, applied to the weaker victims. The two survivors were now about carrying the principle to the last extremity, and the great question was, which of them should be the executioner, and who the sufferer. At last the cunning of the youngest prevailed, and, coming in from the woods unperceived, he shot his companion in the head. It was the hand of this man which was found at the old camp. Such is the Indian code; but the man-eater is nevertheless an object of dread. The terrible appetite, of which he is supposed to be possessed, makes every one about him uneasy, especially the young and well-favored. His eye, they say, gloats upon a fat girl, like that of a caged and hungry tiger upon raw meat. He appears to be ready to spring upon the defenceless, to gratify the craving of a stomach vitiated by hunger and unnatural food. He is, in fact, dangerous, because, in many instances, delirium succeeds after so much violence done to the digestive organs. But, on the other hand, he has a charmed life. No bullet will hit him. Often, say they, has the man-eater been shot at, and the ball produces no effect. In this case, Henry relates that one of the company, to make the deed effectual, passed slily insane, or partially so, and had the look of a demon more than of a man. Bouchette had been still better acquainted with such characters. In the winter of 183-, he was ordered to spend the season in the vicinity of the "Lake of the Woods," and, erecting a small hut, passed many months in that solitary cabin. One stormy night, when sitting alone by the fire, the door softly opened, and a figure stood at the entrance. It was a man, bareheaded and barefooted, who stood motionless and ghostly, but evidently desirous to come in. His figure had been reduced to a mere skeleton. His coarse hair stood out from the head, stiff with snow and ice. His eyes glared as though he intended to make a bound, seize the trader by the throat, and suck his flowing blood. The mouth, horrible sight, had no lips! Broad and unsightly as it always was, it now grinned a hideous row of tusks, white, and never covered from the sight. Instead of a mouth, there existed a circular border of raw flesh, which the delirious wretch had gnawed away with his own teeth! Hunger, exposure and frost had done the rest, until the mere vestiges of humanity remained. He had tasted human flesh, and his tribe not only avoided him, but sought his life. Goaded by the internal gnawings of gradual starvation, he wandered about in the snow, a maniac; true to only one instinct, the desire of food, and, if possible, of human food. In such a state of mind, the system is said to be amazingly powerful to resist the effects of cold. But the demands of the stomach rise also, requiring, in proportion to the temperature and excitement, an increased supply of that aliment, which Liebig says, like fuel, sustains the warmth of the system; without it, the inner coatings of the organs of digestion, |