eva, which we left the 21st. The wind blew strong and piercing down Lake Leman. Anxiety to escape into a milder climate, as speedily as possible, prevented me from taking a sail on it, in the steamboat to Lausanne and Villeneuve. The sight of Mont Blanc in the distance, covered with snow, did not prove either exciting or attractive to my curiosity, having to encounter, whenever I went out, the strong blasts of wind rushing from the surface of the lake, which led me to think the equinoctial storm must be at hand. I had hoped to avoid it by escape previously from the region of the Alps.

During my stay in Geneva, however, I found time to visit the chief places of interest, and to spend an hour of pleasant and profitable converse with the celebrated religious historian of Geneva, Dr. Merle d' Aubigne. He speaks the English with some ease, and extended his kind courtesy to myself and my fellow traveler, who accompanied me. His abode is outside the town, and both it and its grounds are neatly and tastefully arranged, adorned after the Swiss fashion, and ideas of comfort and ease. It was in the morning we paid our visit. I thought I perceived very plainly that while his courtesy, in accordance with the letter of introduction I bore, was politely extended, his thoughts were in his study, and that he would have much preferred the visit should have been post meridian. The remark he made when taking my leave of him, confirmed my impression, "Our time," said he, "belongs to the church, and we must employ it." Its truth deterred me from waiting on Dr. Malan, with my letter to him. I had felt often myself the annoyance of visits in the morning, during the time devoted to study, and would not, therefore, have objected, had I not, on entering, explained my reason for calling at that hour. I acknowledge, I have myself felt justified and called upon to cut short trifling visits; but there is such a thing as being over righteous, and he did not know, but that to a distant stranger and foreigner, he might afford some of his time with more advantage to the church than by study at the moment. It rather appeared to me a small vanity I expected not to meet in Dr. Merle, as my object was to learn the con dition of the churches in Geneva, and the interests of evangelical religion among them. He expressed strong convictions that the spirit of rationalism was on the wane, and that there was a growing tendency to respect and honor the authority of the Bible as a book miraculously inspired; yet it is unquestionable, that Geneva does not stand now the citadel of truth, as it once was called "le vieux bonlevard du Calvinisme;" but I see that, if the epithet of the old were stricken out, it would not, with show of truth, be now pronounced the fortress of Calvinism at all.

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LAND OF THE PYRAMIDS.

BY WARREN ISHAM.

CHAPTER XXIII.

A Sunrise Ramble through the fields-Passing various Field Crops-Gum Arabic Tree-Palm Grove ornamenting a Wheat Field-An Agricultural SpectaclePloughing and Harrowing-Scripture Illustrations-Extraordinary Species of Grass-Chicken Hatching-Fight with Dogs.

I ascended the left bank of the Nile just as the sun rose above the Arabian Desert. All nature seemed glad at his coming-the birds, the flocks and herds, the deep green fields, everything seemed to rejoice at his glorious presence. It was only an every day morning, such as is shed down upon this valley at every revolution of the earth, through the entire winter months, but somehow my spirit was more than usually in accord, that morning, with the harmonies around me, and I abandoned myself to the full flow of its sympathies.

Before me was a field of pulse, all bespangled with blossoms, pealike in form, of a spotless white, relieved by jet black dots, and strung like jewels upon the stalk, (some two feet high,) from bottom to top, all bathed in the dew drops, and glittering in the sunbeams of the morning.

To my right was a plat of trefoil, upon which flocks and herds were feeding, all mutely joyful at the returning light of day, while the little warblers all around, poured from their tiny throats the melody of song.

To my left, directly on my way, was a field of wheat, of that deep, rich shade, which glads the heart of the husbandman, gracefully waving in the breeze of the morning, as though making its obeisance to the rising "god of day." So thriftily had it shot up from the warm, alluvial soil, that some of its leaves had a breadth of more than an inch.

To this succeeded a field of flax, not spindling up in single slender stalks as with us, but branching out qnite tree-like, and sprinkled all over with blossoming beauties, like flakes from the skies.

Then followed a field of barley, which had arrived at a more ad vanced stage of its growth than the wheat, reminding me strongly, of the passage in Exodus, "The flax and the barley were smitten, for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled. But the wheat and the rye were not smitten, for they were not grown up." I had the evidence before me, that, when the barley would be in the ear, and the flax bolled, the wheat would not be "grown up"-that is, to earing.

A little farther on I passed a field of sugar cane, bearing no unapt resemblance to our American forests of Indian corn, so densely set, and rank of growth, as to make it an almost impenetrable swamp, while near it rose one of the sugar refineries of the Pacha, a common spectacle upon the banks of the Nile.

Passing on, I entered a cotton field, in the third and last year of its growth, quite grove-like in aspect, with its downy product just bursting from the bolles. The culture of the cotton plant was introduced into Egypt by Mohammed Ali, as I have said, within the present century, but, from the fact, that cotton seed has been found deposited with the mummies in the tombs, sepulchered there, three thousand years ago, it is rendered almost certain, that it was a product of this valley in common with wheat, barley, flax, &c., in those early times.

Fields of that beautiful plant, Palma Christi, and of mustard, in full bloom, also rose upon my view, while patches of peas, beans, tobacco, onions, poppies, safflower, cucumbers, melons, &c., alternated with pleasing effect.

Field after field I passed, from which had been taken a crop, o which the peasantry of Egypt almost entirely subsist, that of Dourah corn, or Indian millet, (called "Guinea corn," in the U. S.) and which was almost entirely harvested before my arrival. It runs up like broom corn, and, while the grain furnishes a nourishing diet, both for man and beast, the stalks are abundantly useful for fodder, fuel, roofing, fencing, &c. &c.

Rambling on, I entered a grove of the gum Arabic species of the Acacia (Nilobia), covering, perhaps, fifty acres of ground. The Nilobia makes but a small figure as a tree, compared with some other more stately varieties of the Acacia. A grove of it more nearly resem bles a fruit orchard, in size and height, but it is unsurpassed for beauty of foliage. It was in full bloom, the blossoms being apparently fac similes of the "bachelor's button." I noticed the gum oozing from the trunks of the trees-it is the gum Arabic of commerce.

That is a

And near by was an extensive grove of the date palm. spectacle to be seen at every village, but not as here, extending over an area of perhaps a hundred acres of ground, while, underneath,

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waved the luxuriant wheat crop. No rural spectacle can be more beautiful than such a field crop, studded all over with the graceful palm, and spotted with its shadows, which are so small and shifting as to do little or no injury.

Later in the day, I observed a man ploughing a field, a sight not often seen in many parts of Egypt-and such a sight! The oxen were just the color of mice, and about the size of a yearling steer, with us, with a pole ten or twelve feet long for a yoke, and a mere hook to tear up the surface of the soil, for a plough. And this reminds me of a threshing machine I met with in one of my tramps, a mere sledge, running upon jagged rollers, drawn by oxen, with a boy mounted on it, driving round and round over the threshing floor, the grain (the heads only being cut off) being partly tramped out by the hoofs of the cattle, and partly shelled by the machine. The same implement was in use thirty centuries ago, as appears from pictorial representations upon the walls of the tombs, and a very similar implement was doubtless used in Palestine in Old Testament times. "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn."

Often I passed large, promiscuous flocks of sheep and goats, attended sometimes by a little dirty, ragged, tattooed girl, whose charms were set off with ringlets, and huge dangling ear-drops. When the flock is driven in at night, "the shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats," putting them in separate apartments.

These flocks I frequently found feeding upon a species of wild grass, which I should not have expected them to touch. Thousands of acres in a tract, a little back from the river, I often found covered with a species of wild grass, so large, fibrous, and tough, that I should suppose it to be proof against the masticating powers of any animal, except the camel, and sometimes these tracts come quite up to the river bank. I had often observed roots protruding, where the bank had been broken off, and hanging pendulous, about the size of young grape vines, and so thick, often, as to cover the perpendicular bank as with a mat, several feet down, when neither vine nor tree was to be seen upon the top, and I wondered from what they could pro ceed. I tried to link them to the palm trees, at first, and I was never more surprised than to find that they belonged to the grass I have mentioned. It must be an immense labor to reclaim land overrun with it. When suffered to grow unmolested, it throws up a stalk quite like a little tree. When kept fed down close, however, it is less fibrous and tough, and that is the only practicable way of feeding it at all. Go ashore when I would, near the villages, I never failed to scare up the dunghill fowl, which abounds in Egypt. All chickens here

are hatched by artificial heat; I have seen hundreds of these chickenhatching establishments in the country, to which the peasantry bring their eggs, one chicken being given for every two eggs. The dunghill fowl, here, however, is very small, and its flesh comparatively flavorless. And equally certain was I, if not to be scared up myself, at least to be pretty thoroughly rallied by the dogs, every time I set my foot on shore at the villages, and the higher I ascended, the saucier and fiercer they became, assailing me in troops, with jackal ferocity, as though they would tear me in pieces. Their masters never interfere, and your only alternative is to fight, but a few well directed blows with your club generally gives you the field.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Screwing and Wrenching Machinery of Government-The Bastinado Witnessing the horrors of it.

I was at last doomed to witness the infliction of the bastinado, and, to this hour, the scene is as fresh before me, as though it had been but yesterday. The occasion was a very common one, viz., to enforce the payment of taxes, or rather, the exactions of government.

The Viceroy having fixed the amount of revenue which it is his pleasure to have placed at his disposal, apportions it among the governors of districts, (instead of the beys, as formerly,) holding them responsible for its collection and delivery. The governors, in their turn, apportion the amount allotted to each of them respectively, to the Sheiks, or head men of the towns and villages, in their several districts, upon whom devolves the task of wrenching it from the poor fellahs.

The amount is always several millions of dollars, sometimes as high as seventeen millions, to be raised from less than three millions of people, including men, women, and children, most of them in a state of abject poverty. The Sheiks have no alternative-raise it they must, by fair means or foul, and all they can torture out of the poor wretches besides, to put in their own pockets, is so much clear gain, there being nothing to set limits to their exactions.

The assessments are made without any regard to an equalization of the burden, friends and favorites being exempted, and others drawn upon the heavier to make up the deficiency. And then, everything is taxed, and taxed, and taxed. The land is taxed, the crops, even the trces that grow on it are taxed, the stock, even the fowls are taxed, and the eggs the fowls lay, are taxed, nothing escapes, not even a