Thy hand the sacred grass * is bearing— Thy head the bridal veil is wearing; And every wreath upon thy vest, The Gooroot and the wild Fakeer, + Haste, then, with glittering fingers dress The Cusha grass is esteemed sacred: the hands of the bride and bridegroom are bound together with it when they are married; and the widow generally carries some of it in her hand when she walks to the funeral pile. + A spiritual teacher. A religious mendicant. ? The Parsees are descendants of the Persian fire-worshippers. The sacred thread, composed of twisted cotton, worn by the Brahmins over the left shoulder. And scatter, with a tearless eye, M. J. J. A PERSIAN PRECEPT. BY HERBERT KNOWLES. FORGIVE thy foes;-nor that alone, So does the fragrant Sandal bow In meek forgiveness to its doom; And o'er the axe, at every blow, Sheds in abundance rich perfume. LINES BY THE LATE ISMAEL FITZADAM, (The Sailor Poet.) Written a short time previous to his death. LADY, look not thus mildly soft on me- Yet might one wild devotion-sole but strong- Yes, let thy love's pure light still smile for me, LEIXLIP CASTLE. An Irish Family Legend. BY THE REV. C. R. MATURIN. THE incidents of the following tale are not merely founded on fact, they are facts themselves, which occurred at no very distant period in my own family. The marriage of the parties, their sudden and mys.. terious separation, and their total alienation from each other until the last period of their mortal existence, are all facts. I cannot vouch for the truth of the supernatural solution given to all these mysteries; but I must still consider the story as a fine specimen of Gothic horrors, and can never forget the impression it made on me when I heard it related for the first time among many other thrilling traditions of the same description. The tranquillity of the Catholics of Ireland during the disturbed periods of 1715 and 1745, was most commendable, and somewhat extraordinary; to enter into an analysis of their probable motives, is not at all the object of the writer of this tale, as it is pleasanter to state the fact to their honour, than at this distance of time to assign dubious and unsatisfactory reasons for it. Many of them, however, showed a kind of secret disgust at the existing state of affairs, by quitting their family residences, and wandering about like persons who were uncertain of their homes, or possibly expecting better from some near and fortunate contingency. Among the rest was a Jacobite Baronet, who, sick of his uncongenial situation in a Whig neighbourhood, in the north-where he heard of nothing but the heroic defence of Londonderry; the barbarities of the French generals; and the resistless exhortations of the godly Mr. Walker, a Presbyterian clergyman, to whom the citizens gave the title of "Evangelist;"quitted his paternal residence, and about the year 1720 hired the Castle of Leixlip for three years, (it was then the property of the Conollys, who let it to triennial tenants); and removed thither with his family, which consisted of three daughters-their mother having long been dead. The Castle of Leixlip, at that period, possessed a character of romantic beauty and feudal grandeur, such as few buildings in Ireland can claim, and which is now, alas, totally effaced by the destruction of its noble woods; on the destroyers of which the writer |