FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY.

Facts, Hints, Gems, and Poetry.

A father's blessing cannot be A white garment appears worse drowned in water, nor consumed by with slight soiling than do coloured garments when much soiled; so a little fault in a good man attracts

POETIC SELECTIONS.-THE CHILDREN'S CORNER.

Poetic Selections.

UNCERTAINTY.

O FATHER, hear!

The way is dark, and I would fain discern
What steps to take, into which path to turn;
Oh! make it clear.

My faith is weak;

I long to hear Thee say, "This is the way;
Walk in it, fainting soul; I'll be thy stay;"
Speak, Lord, oh, speak!

Let Thy strong arm

Reach through the gloom for me to lean
upon,

And with a willing heart I'll journey on,
And fear no harm.

I wait for Thee

As those who, watching, wait the coming dawn;

Pant, as for water pants the thirsty fawn;

Oh! come to me.

It is Thy child

Who sits in dim uncertainty and doubt,
Waiting and longing till the light shine out
Upon the wild.

My Father! see,

I trust the faithfulness displayed of old,
I trust the love that never can grow cold-
I trust in Thee.

And Thou wilt guide;

For Thou hast promised never to forsake
The soul that Thee its confidence doth make;
I've none beside.

Thou knowest me;

Thou knowest how I now in darkness grope;
And oh! Thou knowest that my only hope
Is found in Thee.

ᎪᏢᎪᎡᎢ.

THE crimson lights the wooded heights,
Fresh breezes bend the corn,
And vocal, to her humblest bird,
My meadow greets the morn.

Long seas away, this rising day

Has cheered him with its sun,
And he with work has hallowed it,
Devoutly, bravely done.

I cannot tell how calmly fell

The twilight round him there,
What guerdon for his toil it brought,
What gratitude of prayer.

I may not guess the weariness
Of rugged paths he trod,
Unsinewing that arm of faith
Which fights its way to God.

I can but prize, with fervent eyes,
These glories that uproll-
This day he sends from other skies
A gift from soul to soul.

On radiant wings his welcomings
To where I wait are borne.
O tender seems, with love's dear dreams,
The message of the morn!

The Children's Corner.

BAD MEMORY.

Father.-Mary, my love, do you remember the text of this morning? Mary.-No, pa, I never can remember the text. I've such a bad

memory.

Mother. By the way, did you notice Susie Brown?

Mary.-Oh, yes; what a fright! She had on her last year's bonnet, done up, a pea-green silk, a black lace mantilla, brown boots, an imitation collar, a lava bracelet, her old ear-rings, and a fan!

Mother.—Well, my dear, your memory is certainly bad.

LOOSING THE SHOE.

THE following account of a somewhat peculiar ceremony still maintained among the Jews in Africa, is furnished by Amos Perry, Esq., who served several years as United States Consul at Tunis. He was himself an eye-witness of the novel ceremony which he here describes with so much care and fulness:

The ceremony of loosing the shoe is one of the most ancient prescribed in the Jewish law, and can be witnessed only in countries where the Jews are, as in Tunisia, permitted the free exercise of many of their civil and religious rites. The law touching this curious ceremony is found in Deut. xxv. 5, and the following verses. It must not be confounded with the case that arose between Boaz and the kinsman of Elimelech in the matter of Ruth, the Moabitess, from which it differs in some important particulars. That was a question respecting the redemption of an inheritance, and a kinsman's managing the widow of a deceased kinsman; while this is a question of a brother's managing the widow of a deceased brother. The kinsman "plucked off" his own shoe, and the action of spitting is not mentioned. Here the shoe is loosed by the woman, who is expressly commanded to spit in her brother's face, or, as it should be, before him.

On the occasion to which I particularly refer, the chief actors were individuals of the poorer class. The woman, or plantiff, was of middle age, with a care-worn countenance, having recently returned from Jerusalem, where her husband had died of the cholera the year before. The defendant was a decrepit old man whose very appearance sufficiently justified him in declining to undertake the duty of a kinsman to build up his brother's house.

After the three judges and two witnesses (also Rabbis), as prescribed by the Jewish law, had met in due form in the great synagogue, they headed a procession and ascended the stairs of an adjoining yeshiva or college, where the case was to be heard. This was done that the woman might be said "to go up" to the gate unto the elders. No sooner had both taken their positions before the five elders, the woman with her face veiled, than the proceedings were opened by the judge asking who they were, and for what purpose they were before him. Witnesses were called to identify them both, which, after removing the woman's veil, they did, and also testified to the death of the woman's husband. She then, having been previously instructed, said in Hebrew: "My

LOOSING THE SHOE.

husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother." Upon this the judge turned to the defendant, and asked if such were the case, to which he answered in the affirmative, repeating the prescribed words, "I like not to take her," in a tone of voice which gave the impression of a "scene" having transpired between them, and caused merriment amongst the spectators.

As the defendant had on a modern shoe without strings, I was for a moment at a loss to know how the loosing would be effected. But a recourse to that system of mental evasion which characterizes Talmudism and exerts so deleterious an influence upon the minds of the simple and unlearned, soon removing the difficulty. The man was led aside a few steps, his right foot washed and wrapped in a white cloth by an attendant; he was then conducted back to his former position, when the presiding judge, after another interrogation and warning, drew from the folds of his garment an oddly shaped piece of leather, with a latchet or long strap at the heel, intended to represent the ancient sandal worn by their forefathers, but certainly not to be recognized as such by the uninitiated. Then, explaining to the man, that, up to that moment, this so-called shoe belonged to himself, "yet" said he, "when I have let it fall to the ground, you must take it up and consider it as your own." This piece of advice was given a second time to remove, if possible, from the old man's mind every notion that the shoe did not in very deed belong to himself.

The senior judge, after he had retaken the shoe, stooped down and bound it on the man's right foot, twisting, in a complicated but clumsy manner, the strap around the calf of his leg. This part of the ceremony lasted several minutes, great care being taken that it should be a legal binding. The woman was then called upon to perform her task, a less easy one then might be supposed; and, lest any one should volunteer to help her, all those standing near were told to leave her unaided, or their interference would render the ceremony nugatory and void. Finally the business of loosing was finished, and she was told to cast the shoe away, which she did rather contemptuously, repeating the words," So shall it be done unto that man who will not build up his brother's house." Here I thought the ceremony was concluded, not believing that the last action, that of spitting in his face, or before him, would be insisted upon. An attendant, however, soon appeared with a small piece of brick in his hand, upon which she was commanded

LAST DAYS OF CHARLES IX.

to spit copiously. This she did to the letter, and the brick was handed around and carefully examined by the five elders, who nodded approbation.

Whether or not their vision was sufficiently keen to discover in the woman's spittle the spirit of her deceased husband, as the Jews believe, did not transpire. After this, the presiding judge declared the name of the man to be "the house of him that hath his shoe loosed," whereupon all present, taking up the last words, vociferously exclaimed,-"Shoe-loosed!" The kinsman had then to declare that the odd piece of leather made use of had ceased to be his, and it was replaced by the Rabbi in the folds of his bernoose. From that moment the widow was at liberty to marry whomsoever she pleased; afterwards receiving from the judges a certificate according to the following form as given in the Talmud:

"In such or such a session, such an one, the daughter of such an one, plucked of the shoe of such an one, the son of such an one, before us; she brought him before us, and she loosed the shoe of his right foot, and spit before him spittle, which was seen by us upon the ground, and said, 'So shall it be done to the man that would not build up his brother's house.'

LAST DAYS OF CHARLES IX.

MISERABLY perished nearly every leading conspirator who had a hand in St. Bartholomew. Some went justly to the scaffold. Guise and Anjou fell by the assassin's dagger. Terror of conscience seemed to have pursued Charles IX. and speedily drove him into the grave. A divine judgment appeared to be resting upon him. "About a week after the massacre,' says D'Aubigne, who had heard the story from Henry of Navarre, "a flock of crows flew croaking about and settled on the Louvre. Their noise drew everybody out to see them, and the superstitious women imparted to the king their own timidity. That very night Charles had not been in bed two hours when he sprang up and called to the King of Navarre to listen to a horrible tumult in the air, and shrieks, yells, groans, threats, oaths such as were heard on the night of the

massacre."

These imaginations were repeated; they seemed to become visions, and the wild stare of the king proclaimed his terror of mind, if not of conscience. He could not make so light of it as did Catherine, who falsely said: "There are only six of them on