Street-Sweeper.-God send your honour thousands of them. Street-Sweeper.-Och, the shillings. Divil a bit the bad jokes. I can make them myself, and a shilling 's no joke any how. A.-What! really silent! and in spite of the dog's equivocal Irish face! Come, B., I now see you can give up a jest, and are really in love; and your mistress, I will undertake to say, will not be sorry to be convinced of both. Women like to begin with merriment well enough; but they are mightily fond of coming to a grave conclusion. RECORDS OF WOMAN.-NO. IV. The Indian City.* ROYAL in splendour went down the day And its deep groves pierced by the rays that made As a tree midst the Genii-gardens old, And the cypress pointed a blazing spire, And the stems of the cocoas were shafts of fire. Many a white pagoda's gleam Slept lovely round upon lake and stream, As they caught the glow of the sun's last hours Like rosy wine in their cups, and shed Many a graceful Hindoo maid With the water-vase from the palmy shade, There wander'd a noble Moslem boy Through the scene of beauty in breathless joy; Like a pageant of clouds in its red repose, He turn'd where birds through the gorgeous gloom He track'd the brink of the shining lake, And there lay the water as if enshrined In a rocky urn from the sun and wind, * See Forbes's Oriental Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 337, in which this story is related of Dhuboy, a city in Guzerat. Bearing the hues of the grove on high, Like a falcon's glance on the wide blue sky, His mother look'd from her tent the while Had stay'd the course of her pilgrim train, In the Brahmin City's glorious bowers; For the pomp of the forest-the wave's bright fall, 2. The moon rose clear in the splendour given To the deep blue night of an Indian heaven, The boy from the high-arch'd woods came back- The serpent's glance, through the long reeds bright? With his graceful hair all soil'd and torn, He look'd for the face to his young heart sweet, And found it, and sank at his mother's feet. "Speak to me !-whence doth the swift blood run? What hath befallen thee, my child, my son? The mist of death on his brow lay pale, And wounds from the children of Brahma borne : A change came o'er his wandering look— That which our love to the earth would chain, That which fades from us, while yet we hold, * This pilgrimage was undertaken from the interior parts of Hindostan. Was fleeting before her, afar and fast- -Ask of the thousands its depths that know! He had kiss'd from her cheek the widow's tears, He had smiled o'er her path like a bright spring-day In a world where we fear not to love so well! She bow'd down mutely o'er her dead- On the silent lip she press'd no kiss, Too stern was the grasp of her pangs for this; And what deep change, what work of power, A brow in its regal passion high, It shall visit those temple-gates once more." And away in the train of the dead she turn'd— 3. Hark! a wild sound of the Desert's born Through the woods round the Indian City borne, The Brahmin look'd from the leaguer'd towers- And the lake that flash'd through the plantain shade, As the light of the lances along it play'd; And the canes that shook as if winds were high, When the fiery steed of the waste swept by ; And the camp as it lay, like a billowy sea, Wide round the sheltering banian tree. There stood one tent, from the rest apart- Maimuna from realm to realm had pass'd, Back with the dust of her son she came, And the faintest tone from her lip was caught, Vain, bitter glory!-the gift of Grief, Sickening she turn'd from her sad renown, The bright sun set in his pomp and pride, Had glow'd on her breast in its slumber meek, But something which breathed from that mournful strain, Sent a fitful gust o'er her soul again, And starting as if from a dream, she cried, "Give him proud burial at my side! There by yon lake, where the palm-boughs wave, Where the temples are fallen, make there our grave." And the temples fell, though the spirit pass'd, Through the gates of the conquer'd the Tartar steed Palace and tower on that plain were left, F. H. GUATEMALA.† AMERICA, just raised to independence, and which, as a discovery, laid open by the calculations of genius, fixed the attention of the sixteenth century, deserves no less to occupy the undivided consideration of the nineteenth. Some of the new republics have already employed the pen of the politician; and several of them have lately been visited and described by travellers. One of them, however, The Federal Republic of Central America, in consequence perhaps of its having been the last to emancipate itself, has not yet attracted the notice of writers. Isolated in the midst of the New World, and without commercial relations, in consequence of its harbours being closed, the bare existence of the kingdom of Guatemala was all that was known respecting it. But two years have elapsed since that vast region elevated itself to the rank of an independent republic, and assumed the title, not yet generally disseminated, of "The Republic of Central America." This beautiful country, as an elegant writer of Guatemala‡ expresses himself, was till then a rose shut up in its bud!§ At present, not only by reason of its new political aspect, but also on account of its valuable and multifarious productions, to say nothing of its extent, it demands a distinct place in the geography of modern America, and claims forcibly the attention of the commercial world. The geographical position of Guatemala is most favourable, and conducive to the extension of its riches and power. It is situated in the centre between North and South America, having on one * Their tombs are still remaining, according to Forbes, in a grove near the city. ↑ These details respecting the Federal Republic of Central America, are given upon the authority of the journal which Dr. Lavagnino, who travelled during the last summer in that part of America, had the kindness to communicate to us; upon secondly, the writings and statistical observations of Senor del Valle, one of the most learned and eminent citizens of that republic; upon the verbal information which Senor Herrera, Ex-Deputy of the Constituent Assembly of Guatemala, has had the politeness to communicate to us; and lastly, upon the acts of the government, and other official documents in our possession. Senor del Valle. § "Una rosa encerrada en su capello.” |