speech that is known. Its principal peculiarity consists in a sound made by the tongue, resembling the clucking of a hen in uttering the words. The Hottentots are often reduced to subsist upon gums, roots, and a kind of bread made of the pith of palm tree; but their delight is to indulge in animal food. 8. They are remarkably patient of hunger, and at the same time exceedingly voracious when supplied with their favourite diet. Their manner of eating marks their voracity. Having killed an animal, they cut the meat into long narrow slices, or strings, two or three yards in length, 9. These they coil round and lay upon the hot ashes; and when the meat is warmed through, they grasp it in both hands, and applying one end to the mouth, soon reach the other. The ashes adhering to the meat serve as a substitute for salt. They are passionately fond of ardent spirits and tobacco. 10. The Hottentot families, who are in the service of the colonists, live in small straw huts round the farm house. In a more independent state they horde together in villages, where the houses are commonly ranged in a circle, with the doors opening towards the centre, and thus forming a kind of court, into which their cattle are collected at night, to preserve them from the beasts of prey. 11. The huts are generally circular in their form, resembling a bee-hive, covering a space of about 20 feet in diameter, but commonly so low in the roof, that even in the centre it is rarely possible for a man of middle size to stand upright. 12. The fire place is situated in the middle of the apartment, around which the family sit or sleep in a circle; and the door, which is seldom higher than three feet, is the only aperture for admitting the light, or letting out the smoke. The frame of these arched habitations is composed of slender rods, capable of being bent into the desired form, some parallel with each other, some crossing the rest, and others bound round the whole in a circular direction. 13. Over this lattice work are spread large mats, made of reeds or rushes. These materials are easily taken down, and removed, when there is occasion to change the place of residence. The Bosjesman Hottentots inhabit the mountainous parts to the north of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope. They are among the ugliest of the human species, exhibiting in excess the deformities of the other Hottentots. 14. They are called Bosjesmans, or men of the thicket, from their lurking among the bushes, in order to shoot travellers with their poisoned arrows. In their habits and dispositions they differ greatly from the other Hottentots. Their activity is incredibly great. The antelope can scarcely excel them in leaping from rock to rock, and horsemen cannot overtake them on rough ground. 15. They are lively and cheerful, and always employed in some active occupation or amusement. Their mode of living is extremely comfortless. They wear little or no clothing. They raise neither corn nor cattle; so that, except a few spontaneous roots, they have nothing except what they procure by hunting, or plunder. 16. Their huts are formed of a small grass mat bent into a semi-circle, about three feet high, and four wide, with a hollow dug out in the middle, which serves as their bed, in which they lie coiled round in the manner of some quadrupeds. Note. The country of the Hottentots extends from the Cape of Good Hope, in 34° south latitude, to the tropic of Capricorn, in 220 south latitude. THE OSTRICH. 1. THE Ostrich is accounted the largest of birds. It sometimes weighs from 80 to 100 pounds, and is from seven to nine feet in height from the top of its head to the ground, and eight feet long from the beak to the tail. 2. When walking, it seems as tall as a man on horseback. It is incapable of flying, but runs with great celerity. It is found chiefly in Africa, seldom more than 35 degrees from the equator. It is valued for its beautiful plumage, and its feathers form a considerable article of trade. 3. It is tamed and bred on account of its feathers, and also for its flesh and eggs, which are used for food. One of the eggs is said to be equal to 30 of those of a hen. The ostrich is of amazing strength, and will carry a man n its back with ease, though it is so stupid, and actable, that it cannot be directed at the will of its The voracity of the ostrich exceeds that of any aniIt will devour whatever it meets with, stones, wood, r leather, as readily as grain or fruit. Adanson thus of two ostriches which he saw at a village near the al. 66 They were so tame that two little blacks mounted her on the back of the largest : no sooner did he feel r weight than he began to run as fast as he could, till carried them several times round the village. To try eir strength, I made a full-grown negro mount the smallst, and two others the largest. 6. “This burden did not seem to me at all disproportioned to their strength. At first they went at a pretty high trot, and when they were heated a little, they expanded their wings, as if it were to catch the wind, and they moved with such fleetness that they seemed to be off the ground. The ostrich moves like a partridge, and I am satisfied that those I am speaking of would have distanced the swiftest race horses that were ever in England." NAZARETH. 1. NAZARETH is situated about 50 miles north of Jerusalem, and contains about two thousand inhabitants. It is remarkable for having been the residence of our Saviour and his family during the first thirty years of his life. Here are many places, regarded as holy, to which pilgrims are conducted. 2. The church, to which à convent is attached, is handsome, and is erected over the cave, which is reputed to have been the residence of the Virgin Mary. When the plague rages here, the sick come eagerly to rub themselves against the church hangings and pillar, believing thus to obtain a certain cure. 3. The monks show also the workshop of Joseph, the precipice where Christ saved himself from the fury of the multitude, and the table of Christ, a much venerated object, being a stone on which it is pretended that he ate before and after his resurrection. THE LAST MAN. ALL worldly shapes shall melt in gloom, Before this mortal shall assume I saw the last of human mould The sun's eye had a sickly glare, The skeletons of nations were Some had expir'd in fight-the brands Yet prophet-like, that lone one stood, Saying, we are twins in death, proud Sun, 'Tis mercy bids thee go. For thou ten thousand thousand years What though beneath thee, man put forth His pomp, his pride, his skill; And arts that made fire, flood, and earth, Yet mourn I not thy parted sway, For all those trophied arts, And triumphs that beneath thee sprang, Heal'd not a passion, or a pang, Entail'd on human hearts. Go, let oblivion's curtain fall Ev'n I am weary in yon skies 'Test of all sumless agonies, My lips, that speak thy dirge of death, This spirit shall return to Him That gave its heavenly spark; And took the sting from Death! Go, Sun, while Mercy holds me up Of grief that man shall taste- |