upon the camp of the enemy from an eminence excelling by many feet that of the Pyramid of Cheops, and by several that of the temple of Belus.

"Verily," sighed the Pharisee, as he peered dizzily over the precipice," the uncircumcised are as the sands by the sea-shore, as the locusts in the wilderness! The valley of The King hath become the valley of Adommin."

"And yet," added Ben-Levi, “ thou canst not point me out a Philistine-no, not onee-from Aleph to Tau, from the wilderness to the battlements-who seemeth any bigger than the letter Jod!"

66 Lower away the basket with the shekels of silver!” here shouted a Roman soldier in a hoarse, rough voice, which appeared to issue from the regions of Pluto; "lower away the basket with the accursed coin which it has broken the jaw of a noble Roman to pronounce! Is it thus you evince your gratitude to our master Pompeius, who, in his condescension, has thought fit to listen to your idolatrous importunities? The god Phoebus, who is a true god, has been charioted for an hour, and were you not to be on the ramparts by sunrise? depol! do you think that we, the conquerors of the world, have nothing better to do than stand waiting by the walls of every kennel to traffic with the dogs of the earth? Lower away, I say, and see that your trumpery be bright in colour and just in weight!

"El Elohim!" ejaculated the Pharisee, as the discordant tones of the centurion rattled up the crags of the precipice and fainted away against the temple-" El Elohim!-who is the god Phoebus ?-whom doth the blasphemer invoke? Thou, Buzi-Ben-Levi, who art read in the laws of the Gentiles, and hast sojourned among them who dabble with the Teraphim, is it Nergal of whom the idolater speaketh ?-or Ashimah ?—or Nibhaz ?-or Tartak ?-or Adramalech ?-or Anamalech ?-or Succoth-Benith ?-or Dagon ?-or Belial ?— or Baal-Perith ?-or Baal-Peor ?-or Baal-Zebub ?"

"Verily it is neither-but beware how thou lettest the

rope slip too rapidly through thy fingers; for should the wicker-work chance to hang on the projection of yonder crag, there will be a woeful outpouring of the holy things of the sanctuary."

By the assistance of some rudely constructed machinery, the heavily laden basket was now carefully lowered down among the multitude; and, from the giddy pinnacle, the Romans were seen gathering confusedly round it; but owing to the vast height and the prevalence of a fog, no distinct view of their operations could be obtained. Half an hour had already elapsed.

"We shall be too late," sighed the Pharisee, as at the expiration of this period he looked over into the abyss; we shall be too late! we shall be turned out of office by the Katholim."

"No more," responded Abel-Phittim, "no more shall we feast upon the fat of the land-no longer shall our beards be odorous with frankincense, our loins girded up with fine linen from the Temple.'

"Racca!" swore Ben-Levi, "Racca! do they mean to defraud us of the purchase money? or, holy Moses! are they weighing the shekels of the tabernacle ?"

66

They have given the signal at last," cried the Pharisee, "they have given the signal at last!-pull away, Abel-Phittim!-and thou, Buzi-Ben-Levi, pull away!for verily the Philistines have either still hold upon the basket, or the Lord hath softened their hearts to place therein a beast of good weight!" And the Gizbarim pulled away, while their burthen swung heavily upwards through the still increasing mist.

"Booshoh he!"-as, at the conclusion of an hour, some object at the extremity of the rope became indistinctly visible-"Booshoh he!" was the exclamation which burst from the lips of Ben-Levi.

"Booshoh he-for shame!-it is a ram from the thickets of Engedi, and as rugged as the valley of Jehosaphat!"

"It is a firstling of the flock," said Abel-Phittim; "I know him by the bleating of his lips and the innocent folding of his limbs. His eyes are more beautiful than the jewels of the Pectoral, and his flesh is like the honey of Hebron."

"It is a fatted calf from the pastures of Bashan," said the Pharisee; "the heathen have dealt wonderfully with us!—let us raise up our voices in a psalm!-let us give thanks on the shawm and on the psaltery-on the harp and on the huggab-on the cythern and on the sackbut!"

It was not until the basket had arrived within a few feet of the Gizbarim, that a low grunt betrayed to their perception a hog of no common size.

"Now El Emanu!" slowly and with upturned eyes ejaculated the trio, as, letting go their hold, the emancipated porker tumbled headlong among the Philistines, "El Emanu!-God be with us!-it is the unutterable flesh!"

A TALE OF THE RAGGED MOUNTAINS.

DURING the fall of the year 1827, while residing near Charlottesville, Virginia, I casually made the acquaintance of Mr. Augustus Bedloe. This young gentleman was remarkable in every respect, and excited in me a profound interest and curiosity. I found it impossible to comprehend him either in his moral or his physical relations. Of his family I could obtain no satisfactory account. Whence he came I never ascertained. Even about his age, although I call him a young gentleman, there was something which perplexed me in no little degree. He certainly seemed young, and he made a point of speaking about his youth, yet there were moments when I should have had little trouble in

imagining him a hundred years of age. But in no regard was he more peculiar than in his personal appearance. He was singularly tall and thin. He stooped much. His limbs were exceedingly long and emaciated,

His forehead was broad and low. His complexion was absolutely bloodless. His mouth was large and flexible, and his teeth were more wildly uneven, although sound, than I had ever before seen teeth in a human head. The expression of his smile, however, was by no means unpleasing, as might be supposed; but it had no variation whatever. It was one of profound melancholy-of a phaseless and unceasing gloom. His eyes were abnormally large, and round, like those of a cat. The pupils, too, upon any accession or diminution of light, underwent contraction or dilation, just such as is observed in the feline tribe. In moments of excitement the orbs grew bright to a degree almost inconceivable, seeming to emit luminous rays, not of a reflected, but of an intrinsic

lustre, as does a candle or the sun; yet their ordinary condition was so totally vapid, filmy, and dull, as to convey the idea of the eyes of a long-interred corpse.

These peculiarities of person appeared to cause him much annoyance, and he was continually alluding to them in a sort of half explanatory, half apologetic strain, which, when I first heard it, impressed me very painfully; I soon, however, grew accustomed to it, and my uneasiness wore off. It seemed to be his design rather to insinuate than directly to assert that, physically, he had not always been what he was-that a long series of neuralgic attacks had reduced him from a condition of more than usual personal beauty to that which I saw. For many years past he had been attended by a physician named Templeton-an old gentleman, perhaps seventy years of age-whom he had first encountered at Saratoga, and from whose attention, while there, he either received or fancied that he received great benefit. The result was that Bedloe, who was wealthy, had made an arrangement with Doctor Templeton, by which the latter, in consideration of a liberal annual allowance, had consented to devote his time and medical experience exclusively to the care of the invalid.

Doctor Templeton had been a traveller in his younger days, and at Paris had become a convert, in great measure, to the doctrines of Mesmer. It was altogether by means of magnetic remedies that he had succeeded in alleviating the acute pains of his patient; and this success had very naturally inspired the latter with a certain degree of confidence in the opinions from which the remedies had been educed. The doctor, however, like all enthusiasts, had struggled hard to make a thorough convert of his pupil, and finally so far gained his point as to induce the sufferer to submit to numerous experiments. By a frequent repetition of these, a result had arisen, which of late days has become so common as to attract little or no attention, but which, at the period of which I write, had very rarely been known in America. I mean to say,