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port duty of ten per cent., and an import duty | the jaws of a monstrous snake, which had already here of the same amount. The native Persian swallowed half her person, and was only preventmerchant has only to pay this import duty, and ed from completing its repast by her outstretched is consequently able to sell his goods considera- arms. "Cut the snake open with your sabre," bly under those of the Erivan merchant. Pover- cried she to the man, "or slit its jaws on each ty is daily on the increase, and the poor classes, side!" But the man was petrified with fear.in order to pay their taxes, are often compelled "At least," she entreated, "hand me the sabre to sell all their furniture, and even their very and let me rescue myself." Her cries were in beds; whilst persons in good circumstances, see- vain, for he had lost all power of exertion. "Ah!" ing ruin staring them in the face, emigrate, for she then exclaimed in despair, "I see you are a the most part to Persia, where they find every fa- coward, I will live no longer;" and closing her cility for settling. arms above her head, she instantly sank into the monster's belly. Then the man saw the snake Local information of a more scholarly kind coil itself round a pillar of basalt, to crush the than lay within the reach of Peter Neu, was bones of its victim, and he heard the smothered obtained by Baron von Haxthausen from an- shrieks of the woman within it. Half insane from other friend, whose attachment he contrived terror and remorse, he rushed from the cave, and to earn at Tiflis, an Armenian named Abo-ever after wandered about, the wretched being whom I saw." vian.

Abovian is descended from the family of an hereditary village chief. In Georgia and Immiretia the Russian Government has recognized these families as of princely rank,-in Armenia not even as noble! Early abuses on the one side have led to injustice on the other. Abovian wished to be a monk, and passed his novitiate in the celebrated convent of Echmiadzin, at the time when the traveller Parrot was preparing to ascend Mount Ararat. Parrot want ed to engage a native, suitable for his expedition, and proposed to the young monk to accompany

him. He soon discovered in Abovian evidence

of remarkable talent, and encouraged him to enter on a course of study at a German university; Abovian went to Dorpat, and in four years had attained a complete German university education, at the same time speaking and writing German so correctly that no one would have imagined him to be a foreigner: he married a German, and has established a complete German

household.

The active use of his own eyes and ears in travel, and the help of two such ready commentators as Abovian and Peter Neu, have made Baron Haxthausen's account of Transcaucasia by far the pleasantest that is accessible to English readers. Abovian also, we should say, deals in good stories.

one:

Here is

We will add two brief legends. The first is attached to an old castle at Suram, in the South of Georgia.

a

It was formerly in the possession of a Thaval, feudal prince, who gave the early kings much trouble. On the south-west side of this castle is and so strong that it appears to form a part of seen a wall, standing boldly over a deep abyss, the rock on which it is built. A certain Thaval sidering it necessary for the defence of the casonce made great efforts to erect this wall, connight all that he had built up in the daytime was tle. But his labor was in vain, for during the thrown down, and the people imagined that the work was under a curse or magical spell. A Persian priest being consulted on the matter, declared that the wall would never be completed, until the only son of a widow should be buried alive under the foundation. The boy was found and the wall was completed; but the wall has never dried, its surface remains covered with moisture-the tears of the unhappy mother.

The second relates to the mountains of Ulmish Altotem, in Armenia. have three hundred and sixty-six valleys. They are said to

There once dwelt in a cavern in this country a vampyre, called Dakhanavar, who could not endure any one to penetrate into these mountains or count their valleys. Every one who attempted "Once, in my youth," said he, "I went to Bay- this had in the night his blood sucked by the azid, in Asia Minor. While sauntering about monster, from the soles of his feet, until he died. the bazaar, my attention was arrested by a man The vampyre was however at last outwitted by of a wretched and melancholy appearance, rest- two cunning fellows they began to count the lessly wandering about and trembling incessant- valleys, and when night came on they lay down ly. On inquiring the cause of his miserable con- to sleep, taking care to place themselves with the dition, the following story was told me. He had feet of the one under the head of the other. In once been a linen-weaver, and resided at a vil- the night the monster came, felt as usual, and lage at the foot of Mount Ararat. Falling in found a head: then he felt at the other end, and love with his master's wife, he induced her to fly found a head there also. "Well," cried he, "I with him they betook themselves to the moun- have gone through the whole 366 valleys of these tains, and in the evening reached a cave, where mountains, and have sucked the blood of people the woman staid to rest, while he went to seek pro- without end, but never yet did I find any one visions. After a short absence he returned; but with two heads and no feet!" So saying he ran great was his horror at beholding the woman in | away, and was never more seen in that country;

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but ever after the people have known that the the altar, in accepting her husband, is the last mountain has 366 valleys.

We must add one more Armenian legend that refers to Tamerlane, and is connected with a certain monastery and a certain lake, and accounts also for the quarrelsome nature of the Lesghis.

that is for a long time heard from her lips. From that moment she never appears, even in her own house, unveiled. She is never seen abroad in the public streets, except when she goes to church, veiled. If a stranger enters the house or garden which is only twice in the year, and then closely she instantly conceals herself. With no person, not even her father or brother, is she allowed to exchange a single word; and she speaks to her husband only when they are alone. With the rest of the household she can only communicate by gestures, and by talking on her fingers. This scribes, the young wife maintains until she has borne her first child, from which period she becomes gradually emancipated from her constraint: she speaks to her new-born infant; then her mother-in-law is the first person she may address; after awhile she is allowed to converse with her own mother, then with her sisters-in-law, and afterwards her own sisters. Now she begins to talk with the young girls in the house, but always in Tamerlane spared the monastery, and soon af- a gentle whisper, that none of the male part of terwards came to Lake Goktschai, on the shore the family may hear what is said. The wife of which stood a small monastery, where he saw however is not fully emancipated, her education a monk cast his cloak upon the water, place him is not completed, until after the lapse of six self upon it, and sail along the lake. On behold-years; and even then she can never speak with ing this miracle, Tamerlane called the monk to any strangers of the other sex, nor appear before him and said, "Pronounce a blessing on my ar- them unveiled. If we examine closely into these my, and demand any favor, it shall be granted social customs, in connection with the other phathee." Then the monk asked him to set free as ses of national life in Armenia, we cannot but many prisoners as the church of the monastery recognize in them a great knowledge of human would hold. Lang Tamar assented, and all the nature and of the heart. host which his army had taken prisoners went one after another into the little church, and thus obtained their liberty. But the monk, instead of a blessing, gave Tamerlane a curse in writing: "Henceforth no ten men of thine army shall obey one and the same leader!" From that hour the army of Tamerlane was scattered abroad, and never collected again. From a part of this army the Lesghis are descended, and never to this day have ten of them continued to obey the same leader.

One time he set out, intending to destroy the celebrated monastery of Kiegantavang; and when he came to the river which ran through the valley, he saw encamped on the other side an in-silent reserve, which custom imperatively prenumerable army of horsemen, arrayed in red and blue. "There is surely no king, no great nation in this country," he exclaimed," whence then such a host?" But Tamerlane alone saw the army; his followers saw nothing; then he perceived that a miracle had been wrought, and he cried out, "Gjor-getsch!" (Behold and depart ;) and ever since, this monastery has borne the Tatar name of Gjorgetsch.

I have before observed that these usages are not of an oppressive nature, but merely an education of the female sex; for after the completion of her term of probation, the woman becomes free, enters on the full rights of the married state, and is the independent mistress of the house. If her husband is the head of the family, and she survives him, she succeeds to his place and privileges, and is obeyed with the same veneration as the father, the patriarch of the family. She then occupies a social rank higher than any wo man in the East, and indeed one commanding From the very full and most interesting ac-more respect than even amongst Europeans.— count of the Armenians we can quote only a Abovian's mother was in this position. narration of the curious plan adopted for the management of wives, which Baron von Hax-mate, an absorbing, and exclusive relation in the thausen considers to be based on a subtle knowledge of the nature of a woman.

The young unmarried people, of both sexes, enjoy perfect liberty, within the recognized limits of manners and propriety. Custom is here precisely the reverse of what prevails in the surrounding countries; whilst in the latter the purchase of a wife is the only usual form of contracting a marriage, until which time the girl remains in perfect seclusion,-among the Armenians, on the contrary, the young people of both sexes enjoy free social intercourse. The girls go where they like, unveiled and bareheaded; the young men carry on their love-suits freely and openly, and marriages of affection are of common occur rence. But with marriage the scene changes; the word which the young woman pronounces at

From these customs moreover arises an inti

married state: the wife's very existence becomes part of her husband's; she lives in him, and has intercourse with the world only through him.— This seclusion lasts for years,-it grows into a habit; the close intimacy of married life has time to be matured and confirmed, and the wife's character is unfolded and strengthened in her early years she has been screened from the temptation and opportunity for indulging in scandal and intrigue, and it is unlikely that she should gain a taste for this in after life; and when, after her probation, she acquires the liberty of speech, she learns to use this privilege with discretion.In short, marriages among the Armenians, I was assured, are generally patterns of conjugal happiness.

This subject may be regarded also in a somewhat amusing light. Imagining five or six young married women (be it said with all due re

spect) living together in the same house, should fireside one evening by an Ossetian host, and we not anticipate continual quarrels and distur- noted down next day. It is a story like the bance, and the loss of all authority in the head serpent of eternity, continually swallowing its of the family? No such thing: this danger is own tail; a story without end, of which the inremoved. Women's quarrels generally arise from tention of course is to lull the hearer to rethe use of women's tongues; and it is not easy to quarrel for any length of time in pantomime, pose. whilst the amusement of the spectators tends to allay any angry feelings. Even afterwards, when freedom of speech is restored, this being carried on in a whisper is unfavorable to quarrelling.In short, to any one who has to manage a large household, containing several young women, I could give no better advice than to introduce this Armenian custom.

There once lived a man and his wife who had

sixty bees; they counted them every day, and one time they missed a bee, they sought for it high and low, and at last found it yoked to a plough. The husband set to work to plough, and his wife led the bee; whereupon the bee stung her in the neck. Then the man got some nut oil, and rubbed it on the wounded This traveller's account of the Yezidis, part, which swelled up to the size of a mountain. A nut tree grew out of the mountain on her known as devil-worshippers, differs in some neck and bore many nuts. The husband countmaterial respects from that of Mr. Layard.ed the nuts every day until they were ripe, when A part of it may be quoted:

he shook them down; but on counting them, one was gone, which he saw the bee dragging The Yezidis are monotheists, and are ignorant away. In a great passion, he took up a handful of the doctrine of the Trinity. Of the Holy of earth, and threw it after the bee, and out of Spirit they know nothing; they designate Christ this sprang a field, large enough to occupy three as the Son of God, but do not recognize his divi- days in tilling it. This field he sowed with nity. They believe that Satan (Sheitan) was millet, and went every day to see how the crop the first created, greatest, and most exalted of the was growing. One day a wild-boar came, rootarchangels; that the world was made by him at ed up the field, and destroyed the crop. The God's command, and that to him was entrusted man shot the swine dead, and found in its tail a its government; but that, for esteeming himself roll of paper, on which the following was writequal with God, he was banished from the Di- ten: Once there came together to a mill two vine presence. Nevertheless he will be again re-men, one rich and one poor; when each of them ceived into favor, and his kingdom (this world) went to take his own meal, they found it all restored to him. They suffer no one to speak ill mixed up together, so that it could not be sepaof Satan: if the Tatar Mohammedan curse, rated. So if they baked a cake, and the ques"Nalat Sheitanna !" (Accursed be Satan!) be tion arose, to whom the cake belonged; then uttered in their presence, they are bound to slay they agreed that he who should tell the best either the speaker or themselves. On a certain story should have the cake; whereupon the rich day they offer to Satan thirty sheep; at Easter man began:-" Once upon a time I had a goose, they sacrifice to Christ, but only a single sheep; upon which I loaded the food that I intended Christ, they say, is merciful, and his favor easily for ten laborers during the whole day; and she procured, but Satan is not so readily propitiated. carried the food into the field. But a wolf met The sacrifices take place usually in the open her, and ate up half the side of the goose. I country, but sometimes near the Armenian healed the wounded side with brush-wood, and churches; they are offered chiefly to Satan, some- again loaded the food upon her back, and sent it times to Christ and the Saints, rarely or never to the workmen, and they had their dinner eardirectly to the Supreme Being. Satan is called lier than all the other workmen in the country." Melik Tuous (King Peacock). The Yezidis have This was the tale of the rich man ; the poor man no special forms of prayer, but observe certain then began as follows:-"I and my wife had fasts. Peter Neu assured me that they are ex-sixty bees, which we counted every day, till at tremely superstitious: if a circle is drawn around one of them with a stick, he dares not step out of it; he will utter loud cries, but will remain on the spot for a week, unless the circle is erased by the person who drew it and with the same stick. Great purity of morals is required in the priests. They are not permitted to wear linen or cotton, only hair-cloth next the skin.

We should add that the account given in this most interesting book of the Ossetes, and the inquiry into the affinity between their customs and those of the ancient Germans, is of considerable value. But we cannot stop to discuss it. We must bring our notice to a close, when we have extracted one more good story from its rich collection. It was told at the

last one was missing; we searched for it high and
low, and at last found it yoked to a plough.—
Then I went to plough, and my wife was to lead
the bee, but it stung her in the neck; I poured
some oil upon the wound, for her neck had
swelled up as big as a mountain." And thus the
tale goes on, gracefully weaving one story into
another without end, until the listeners, one by
one, drop off to sleep. It has quite the character
dreaming upon the sleepers.
of a dream, and probably produces the effect of

The whole work is adorned, we should add, with beautiful little sketches of scenery very ingeniously printed in colors. They form a most agreeable addition to a book that is wise, accurate, methodical, and at the same time as entertaining as novel.

crew.

From the Buffalo Democrat, Aug. 17.
WHAT THE SEA GIVES UP.

By the courtesy of Messrs. Mann, Vail & Co., and the gentlemen in their office, we were yesterday shown the results of the enterprise, as far THIRTEEN years have rolled away, with their as they have been revealed, and a melancholy joys and sorrows, their hopes and fears, their story they tell. The coin which has been obanticipations and disappointment, their fruits tained from the wreck, is partly American and and their ashes, since the happy throng that partly French. Some $1,200 in bright Ameriwaved their adieus and shouted "good bye," can Eagles and lesser pieces, was deposited in from the decks of that "new and staunch steam-the Hollister Bank, and about the same amount er," the Erie, were borne away from our wharves, in gold, which has been burned and discolored one bright, Summer evening, to the joyous cheer- but without loss of value, complete the tale of ing of friends ashore, amid the flaunting of ban-perfect coin rescued, thus far. By far the greater ners and accompanied by the best wishes of hun-amount of treasure is probably contained in the dreds of spectators.-Crowding her forward and unshapen masses of metal, which have been taken lower decks were scores on scores of foreign peo- from the mud and ashes in the bottom of the ple, freshly arrived from the densely inhabited hull. These present the appearance of having countries of Europe, and bound for the broad been melted and dropped into water, and are of prairies of our fair land, to reaching which they gold and silver, in some cases perhaps, with the now looked with hopes stimulated by a prosper-baser metals mingled in them, and only by their ous voyage thus far and a cheerful reliance upon great weight revealing their intrinsic worth. the good ship beneath them and her experienced Rouleaux of five franc pieces, which having been slightly tipped from the perpendicular, are solAs they stood there, the young, the aged, the dered together by fusion, and in one case we parent and child, sexes and conditions all min-noticed a gold piece with a single link of a lady's gled in the pursuit of the one object, the seeking watch-guard adhering to its edge, as if placed a new home among strangers, in a clime of which there to suspend the coin. Two pork barrels they knew absolutely nothing, those ill-fated are filled with this confused and agglomerated emigrants thought little of the perils of the deep, nor conjured up any visions of the alternative so soon to be presented to their bewildered minds, of a death by the demon of fire, or a quieter grave beneath the waters of the lake that looked so placid and so innocent of danger. Thus she went off, with banners streaming, cheers resounding, music playing, and majestically ploughed the bosom of her adopted element, the peerless and unrivalled craft that was to bear the palm from all contestants. There were some who came to the wharf too late, and these were greeted by derisive shouts from those on board, and many a contemptuous laugh. But later at night, there came the awful rumor of a ship on fire and burning at sea, and those who watched the great globe of fire, and saw it rise and fall upon the swells, knew it for a beacon of death and woe, and went shudderingly to their couch-they stopped forever, knives, even the little pipes es to await the morning, with its full revelations of disaster.

Thirteen years have passed since then, and many another calamity has obscured, with its dark story, the details of that dreadful night. For thirteen years the ashes of the Erie's dead have been washed by the surges that boomed their requiem upon the lonely beach, and tossed the bones of the victims, and the treasure that went down with them and the sand and shells of the deep in one confused heap.

material, much of it in bits like shot, and weighing, altogether, some 1600 pounds. Beside this, there are many pounds weight of coin partly melted, and clinging together very curiously. At a rough estimate, if the metal prove only silver, we should say that $20,000 of treasure has been recovered, which, with the avails of the machinery, iron, etc., will make a handsome return for the outlay.

Our article is already so extended, that we have room only to advert to the other valuables that have been brought to light, and which, even more than the money seem to carry the mind by association, back to the owners of it all. The household goods, the little familiar articles of property that so directly point to HOME and its joys, and tell the tale of sorrow so plainly, watches, with the hands pointing to the hour when

that were in the pockets of the dead all act as silent historians and remembrances of the awful eve and seem by their familiar look, to take us back, at once, to the day and moment when those who used them were hurried from life into a death as horrible as unlooked for.

From the Examiner. LOUIS NAPOLEON AND FREE TRADE.

THE French Emperor has just given a striking illustration of the truth of what Sir Robert Peel urged upon his last cabinet, to the horror and disbelief of some members of it. He assert

But once more the light of day shines in upon the secrets that the sea has so long kept, and the ocean renders up its charge, at the behest of men who claim the hidden treasures. As of old the savage nations consecrated a great entered that if the corn duties were once totally reprise by the sacrifice of living beings, so this exploration of the watery sepulchre has been accompanied by new deaths, and the darker, final secret, is shared by those who would have learned the lesser ones. But long and difficult labor has accomplished the task of the searchers, and their zeal has been rewarded.

pealed, even in a time of famine,-they would not again be enacted. France has enjoyed for the last year a free trade in corn, owing to the failure of the preceding harvest. Á more abundant harvest than the present was never produced in France. The government nevertheless has come forward with a decree, that the free-trade

regulations of last year shall endure, and the un- | which we cannot hesitate to pronounce unjust restricted import of corn be permitted. France and illiberal. Foremost among these is the opin therefore is brought to a level with England on ion entertained by the writer of Napoleon, of his that great and important point of legislation. The trade in corn of both countries is free. The similar reduction of duties on salt meats and cattle will in all probability also be preserved, and no doubt the principle found to be so advantageous will be extended to other articles of necessity. As to luxuries, France abounds in them. and can well afford, upon other than free-trade reasons, to lower her tariff.

Whatever on other grounds, then, may be said of the Emperor of the French, he undoubtedly seeks his supporters in the large masses, not in privileged classes. As the great proportion of the French people raise their own food and consume their own produce, the price is of comparatively small importance, whilst the difference between scarcity and abundance is of very great importance. In France at present, moreover, the state, or the authorities local or central, are the great employers. It is a condition of things out of which government finds it necessary to extricate itself, yet this it can never hope to do unless in times of cheapness and abundance. The Emperor seems wisely resolved to get out of the difficulty by quietly adopting the principles of free trade.

Germany from 1760 to 1814. By Mrs. AUSTIN.

London: Longman & Co.

conduct and its effects in Germany. Starting with unmitigated hatred of the great conqueror, and blind to all the valuable legal and political, improvements introduced by him into Germany, Mrs. Austin heaps upon Napoleon all the abuse and obloquy she can. In this, womanlike, she is biased by the unworthy conduct pursued by the Emperor towards the Queen Louisa; but, in judging him, Mrs. Austin ought not to overlook the fact, that even at the time of the invasion of Germany there were many among the people who preferred the grandeur of French slavery to the abject torpidity created by German mismanagement, while a still livelier sense, of affection' it cannot be called, but of respect at least for the character of him she abuses, now animates the, minds of the many even in Germany, whose aspirations for political progress and political freedom are more than ever crushed by the boundless social tyranny of native princes and their governments. Harsh in her judgment on Napoleon, Mrs. Austin is unjust in the opinion she expresses of Ritter Lang, whose memoirs have afforded us unmixed pleasure, with a great insight into the peculiar absurdities which characterized the diplomatic service in Germany at the close of the last century. Mrs. Austin calls him a derisor, a sneering writer who could see nothing but the hard realities of life, and who found in them the materials for ridicule only. In a literary point of view she may be right, in preferring Göthe's highly colored and varnished picture of the last coronation of a German Emperor at Frankfort, but, as a picture of the manners of the time, of the meanness of earthly pomp in Germany, of the incomparable nothings with which German sovereigns occupied themselves, Ritter Lang deserves credit for truthfulness and care in painting details, while Göthe has drawn chiefly and acknowledgedly from imagination. Without entering further into the contents of the book, we can recommend it to our readers as an amusing and well-selected collection of extracts from a variety of German authors, to whose writings it may perhaps introduce them. If the only result of its publication should be the translation of Ritter Lang's memoirs, Mrs. Austin will have rendered a service to the English literature.-Economist.

Ir is a known fact, that until the close of the eventful period with which this century commenced, our neighbors the Germans had produced but few autobiographies or memoirs of any historical or literary value. Whatever the cause, the fact is not to be denied. Only within the last twenty years has anything like progress in this direction been made; and the tide, once set in, the publication of the memorabilia of the worthies, who either assisted in creating or were created by the convulsions of the above period, has increased in an unprecedented degree. From the readable as well as the unreadable of the volumes which have in this way deluged the Leipsic book mart, Mrs. Austin some years ago collected the materials of several interesting articles, which were printed in the Edinburgh and North British Reviews. As such they merited and were properly praised, but when replaced before the public in the dignified form of a large octavo, and under the imposing title of "Germany from RESPECT FOR PROPERTY AND FEELING IN 1760 to 1814," the expectation such a book na- FRANCE.-Let us do justice to the French charturally excites is not gratified. We of course acter. Their self-command, their upon-honor expected, on opening the volume, to find much principle, is very remarkable, and much more original matter, derived from the authoress's long generally diffused than among our own popula residence in the country and acquaintance with tion. They are, I believe, a more honest people its language and history, but were sadly disap- than the British. The beggar, who is evidently pointed to find it consist almost entirely of long hungry, respects the fruit upon the road-side quotations, translated from diverse authors strung within his reach, although there is nobody to together, it is true, with due regard for time and protect it. Property is much respected in France; place, but exhibiting little more than the paste and scissors cleverness of a bookmaker, combined with tolerable powers of translation. Of the few original ideas with which Mrs. Austin has interlarded this scrap-book, there are one or two DXL. LIVING AGE. VOL. VI. 39

and in bringing up children, this fidelity towards the property of others seems much more carefully inculcated by parents in the lowest class, in the home education of their children, than with us. This respect for property is closely

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