seventeen days of the year-it is there that the dealers in toys, the jugglers, the acrobats, the buffoons, the showmen, and the merry-andrews are to be found. On that spot the peep-show, shown in the engraving, becomes almost an institution. It is not known, so great is the antiquity of this species of amusement, whether the Europeans borrowed the peepshow from the Chinese, or the Chinese had it from the Europeans; but wherever it is exhibited, either in the West or in the East, it is managed much in the same way. The objects which the spectator looks at are invariably a succession of transparent pictures, and they are made to appear and disappear rapidly by means of cords, to which they are attached. The Chinese populace delight in the marvelous, and wanting neither supersti tion nor credulity, they are easily impressed and imposed upon. The showman finds it to his interest to cater for this unsophisticated appetite for the wonderful and unaccountable; and hence, among the fa vorite subjects of his peep-show, we find that portentous prodigy, the huge fouanghoang, the king of birds, who, whenever he flies abroad, is accompanied by all the feathered tribes of the earth. Then there is the ki-lin, the king of quadrupeds, whose beneficent apparition is the herald of national changes and national prosperity. Next comes the grand dragon, who is lord of every living thing that wears scales. He is escorted by Mahoulou, the red dragon, and also by a formidable dragon in green. Then comes the spectacle of Hang-ty commencing his flight above the clouds, in the presence of a vast multitude of people. All which spectacles, and many more of a similarly well-authenticated kind, are accompanied by a pompous relation of the wonderful exploits of the early ages of the empire. Then the showman is sure to be magniloquent on the subject of the great wall, flanked with towers, which, according to him, were so lofty as to hide their tops in the clouds. He describes it as the world's masterpiece of industry and patience, and exhibits the broad road on its top, wide enough for six horsemen to ride abreast, and paved with massive flags of stone. He tells how the third part of the inhabitants of the empire worked at it for five years; that the stones were obliged to be so well fitted together, that the architect would have lost his head had it been possible to drive a nail between the joints. He boasts that this mighty bulwark of the empire was guarded by a million of soldiers, under the dynasty of the Chinese; and tells how Hoang-ti, after having caused the whole to be erected, burned all the accounts, records, and writings, in order that his name alone should be remembered in connection with it. On the other hand, a rival showman will flatter the pride of the Tartar population, by exhibiting pictures of the conquest of China by the Tartars, and the victories of the great Tayt-sou, chief of the new race, and will recount how the traitor, List-Ching, came to besiege Pekin; how the emperor of China killed himself in his palace, having first compelled all his wives, and the empress herself, to do the same. Then he will wind up with a representation of the triumphs of the emperor Cang-hi, whose reign was long and glorious; or of the festivals of the sage and pious Kienlong, which he instituted in honor of the birth-day of his mother. Another popular amusement. is that of the marionettes, or dancing dolls, shown in the above engraving. These are sometimes constructed and managed with much ingenuity, the dolls performing various automatic motions, by means of machinery and springs concealed within them. It is ascertained that this species of exhibition is really of Chinese invention, and that it was borrowed from them by the Portuguese and Italians, which last-named people improved upon the original invention, and qualified their automata for performances really wonderful and striking. Short and simple dramas are daily enacted in the Chinese streets by these little figures, to the mirth and wonder of the gaping people. The motions of the figures are controlled by strings, in the hands of the exhibitor. In the European performances, both the strings and the exhibitor are concealed from the view of the spectator; but in those of the Chinese there is no attempt at illusion, the machinery and its manager being patent to all lookers-on. An Englishman, above the age of boyhood, would hardly care to waste many minutes upon such a spectacle as is here shown; but in China this amusement is not only welcomed by adults, and particularly by the Chinese ladies, who find in it an agreeable relaxation, but it is also among the number of those recreations reserved for the entertainment of the monarch and his Indeed it would appear that the monarch takes a pride in it; for, according to Mr. Barrow, these automatons figured conspicuously among the spectacles got up in the park of the imperial ZheHol, at the time of the reception of the English embassy. court. In gymnastics and feats of activity, the Chinese appear to surpass the western races. An American traveler, who lately witnessed some of their feats of this kind, speaks of a pyramid of gymnasts, the base formed by a number of them joining hands in a circle; upon the shoulders of the lower circle stood a second tier, and upon the shoulders of these stood a third. There is nothing very wonderful so far, and so much is often seen in the streets of London; but with the Chinese gymnasts this is but a commencement of the sport. At a given signal, the lower circle begins dancing, accelerating their motions every moment, until the whole are seen whirling round like a top, with incredible and fearful velocity—the circles above dancing and whirling in like manner, and exhibiting all sorts of antics into the bargain, without losing their footing. The Chinese jugglers or conjurers, though by no means equal to the same tribe in India, yet perform astonishing feats. Among them, as among all Eastern nations, there is no lack of snakecharmers, of whom it may be said, find them where you will, that their principal occupation is that of charming the coin from the pockets of the credulous. The vasee-player is a performer whose talent is less questionable, seeing that he really works wonders, useless though they be. His exploits consist of a series of unaccountable balancings and maneuvers with a monster vase of porcelain. He hurls it aloft in the air, and, at the moment when it is dashing to the ground, and you look for the fragments, he has caught it on the point of his bare toe, precisely on its center of gravity, and there it rests motionless. The next minute it is whirling aloft again, and descends to its quiet restingplace on the point of the performer's elbow, and behind his back. In a word, though the surface of the vase is highly polished all over, he will catch it on any part of his person, and never miss his aim. Nor is that all he will make the vase roll against gravity, coaxing it, so to speak, to climb up his arm, inclined to a considerable angle, and to rest upon his shoulder-a feat, the success of which is due to his skill in suddenly contracting and relaxing the muscles of the limb. An amusement immensely popular with the multitude, is that of flying kites, and it is carried to a perfection never to be observed in other countries. The kites are fashioned of various shapes, resembling birds, beasts, fishes, or monsters; and the object of each player is so to maneuver his kite, by means of the string, as to strike down that of his opponent. Another favorite pastime is that of foot-ball, which is played much as it is among Europeans. One of the most ancient games of the common people is the game called jang. This is played with two wooden toys, in the form of a pair of shoes, one of which is placed on the ground, and its fellow thrown from a distance, the object being to insert one within the other, and he who succeeds in doing so is the winner. After all, the national recreation of China is the national vice of gambling. All men gamble, from the highest mandarin to the lowest artisan or vagabond; they will fight anything, from a quail to a cricket, for money; dice and cards are in almost every man's pocket; and, if they have nothing else to play for, they will stake their liberty, rather than forego the pleasure and excitement of the game. A CELEBRATED divine says: "The world we inhabit must have an origin; that origin must have consisted in a cause ; that cause must have been intelligent; that intelligent must have been efficient; that efficiency must have been ultimate; that ultimate power must have been supreme: and that which always was and is su preme, we know by the name of God!" THE subject of this picture is taken | bracing its giant bole in her slender clasp poem with the same title; a work of delicate fancy and felicitous epithet-of the former even more so than is usual with the poet, remarkable as he is for that quality. A lover approaching a giant oak in the park of his mistress's family, apostrophises it to obtain news of the fair one; whereupon the tree, "tall oak of summer chase," in murmurous tones replies that she had but lately come to the very spot upon which he stands, and playfully emVOL. XIII.-8 which he had carved upon its bark. The period of the poem chosen by the artist is the moment when the lady finds the carven letters of her name, and delightedly recognizes the hand of him she loves. The picture was exhibited at the British Institution in the early part of this year, and has since been purchased by the Glasgow Art Union; a society remarkable for the excellent taste and good judgment evinced in the choice of their engravings. bold fisherman ventures with his canoe into the calm ocean beyond the troubled breakers. But here are no inhabitants; there never were any; nor are there any ruins of former ages among these primitive forests. Few animals are seen, and no birds except our national one, the wild turkey, which, undisturbed, walks through the bushes, and feeds on the berries. The easterly winds, striking the broad side of the Andes, do not glide upward, but the current is sometimes divided, the lower half sweeping down over the forests, with such force as to bend and break the stoutest trees. facturing fireworks for the Romishing from the rocks of the coast. The Churches. The rockets sent up toward the heavens amid the solemn shades of night, was one means used by the early Jesuits to attract the serious attention of the wild man, roving in his native forests. They were a peaceful race, and gunpowder was thus used to light up the imagined way to heaven! The Indians, too, have learned the art of casting church bells from the brass, copper, and zinc of the Titicaca basin, but are unacquainted with the process of melting the ore for cannon. They also gather the gums and sell them to the priests for incense, and supply the traders with copal, balsams, the roots of jalapa, ipecacuanha, and sarsaparilla. Many valuable ornamental and dye woods are now only known to them, but will be to the world when the trade and waters of the beautiful La Plata are open to the common sea. The heights of the Eastern Andes are among the most sublime and terrific portions of our globe. They seem to correspond with the rocky shores of the ocean, where the waves beat heavily against their banks. Trees, vines, creepers, and mosses are heaped up, as sea-weed is seen hang Descending the Andes some distance, the first sign of animal life are swarms of the ring-tailed monkeys. They travel at a rapid rate along the tree-tops, swinging to the limbs by their feet and tails. When frightened, the young one calls for its mother, who promptly attends, and the cunning little animal, jumping on her back, holds on to her hind leg with his tail, and off she gallops to the next tree. They make a deafening noise if fired at with shot and powder, and are not easily killed. The muleteers are very fond of their meat, |