THE CARIBS.

THE late Bishop Rigaud, of Antigua, found a remnant of the Caribs on the island of Dominica :

"They live in villages of their own, in the interior of the country, and consequently among the hills. My stay was necessarily so short on this occasion that it was impossible for me to visit them. They retain many of their old habits. The occupation of the men is still the chase, as of old; and they are but little, comparatively speaking, given to agricultural pursuits. Nature provides them with abundance of food; and, in fact, almost a the wild creatures of the mountain, the forest, and the stream, form their game. The mention of these will necessarily lead me to mention some of the objects of interest in natural history which are to be found here.

particular form the Caribs cook him I know not; but they do cook him, and one regrets to hear that from the want of proper care he is getting scarce-only a little so, however, at present.

"When we add the more common birds and animals to those I have mentioned, it will appear that the Carib hunter need not starve, and, when I add that this glorious island is as rich as can be conceived in fruits and vegetables, the latter simply requiring to be put into the ground to return a hundred-fold, and that the fruits grow wild, it will not be surprising to add, is disinclined to labor. For what does he want money? His tobacco grows around him. Rum is one of the staple productions of the island; for the sugar cultivation continues, though that of the coffee has passed away; and he can get his spirituous poison for a trifle; and so there he lives up in the hills, over which his forefathers once reigned a free and manly race-a sadly degraded savage. I know not yet that it will be possible to do any thing in the way of a mission to them.

"Bishop Coleridge could do little or nothing for them; and what should I do? But I must go back to the island soon, to see if any thing and what, can be done; for it is a miserable thing to think of a whole people passing away from the face of the earth, as these will do in a generation or two, unless something can be done to redeem them in temporal matters. And what affords so good a hope as making known to them the great offers of spiritual redemption? I fear, however, that I shall find that they are many of them nominally Roman Catholics, resting in lazy, simple acquiescence in the sacramental theory of popery, and combining nominal Christianity with almost heathen darkness. As I have allowed myself to write so much on the subject of Caribs, I will conclude the information I have been able to collect of them at once, though I ought, according to my plan to have continued and completed my account of the natural productions of the island, in the inferior orders of creation.

"Among the quadrupeds less common in other islands are the agouti and the manacoe (or manacou). [The oe is pronounced like oo, and, I believe, is the more correct spelling; the former name we generally mispronounce in England calling it agou'ti, whereas the accent is on the first syllable, and the second is pronounced short, a'gouti.] The manacoe is a small animal, not indigenous, I believe. It is said to have been introduced in hopes that it would wage war with the rats, which did much damage to the planter; but, instead of doing this, he prefers a vegetable diet, and does plenty of mischief himself, so that the taste for him, on the part of the Caribs, is decidedly beneficial. He is like a small opossum. "Besides these quadrupeds, there is a fine and handsome breed of parrots-green on the back, and dove color, brightening into purple, on the breast-which is also eaten. There is a remarkably fine pigeon which abounds in the forests here, known as the Ramier pigeon; and these, I think, are the most peculiar birds and animals. The iguana or guana, as it is often called, exists here, it is said, but not in any great numbers. The most remarkable reptile is probably the "crapaud;" this is a frog, not a toad. Of the Dominica crapaud, I might say much, for he is a great creature; six and a half inches from stem to stern, and They seem to have but one industrial ocfour and a half inches broad, is one which I cupation, and that is a peculiarly beautiful have brought home with me preserved and basket work. Their shape, when covered varnished. His thigh is about the size of down, is an oblong square; there is no handle. that of a spring chicken. He is excellent eat- They are beautifully plaited-of spilt bamboo, ing, being cooked in various ways. In what I fancy-at any rate, of narrow stripes, stained

of different browns and black, or left of the at least, the innermost barely a foot in length. natural white-are called water-tight, and But smaller nests are to be had, of a pretty really are impervious to rain, consisting not round form. If a complete nest of any kind only of a double woven or plaited case, but is wanted, the only certain way of obtaining having leaves, or strips of leaves, probably of it is to send up into the mountains and order the plantain or banana, laid between the it, and, perhaps in nine months, an energetic woven work. Again, they are very conven- Carib will complete a nest of twelve large ient for packing linen and ladies' light things ones. He will perhaps charge ten dollars, for travelling. The two portions, bottom and and that will keep him in spirits—literally, and lid, are of equal depth, one of which will just not metaphorically-and clothes for a year. fit over the other; they can, therefore, be ex- This will give an idea of the amount of their tended to nearly double the capacity in one industry, and of the call upon their industry; state that they are in the other. And latterly, ated, man will only work to supply the simplest and of course, unless artificial wants are crethey are made and sold in nests-i.e., one needs. The stimulants, tobacco, and spirits, within another, to the number of a dozen in unhappily become a need, and, still more unthe largest nest. In these, the outer basket happily, are each supplied at little cost inis near three feet long, by twenty inches wide deed-Canada Echo.

|ing more remained to be done-the signal was given, and the parents came into the room from their place of durance, treading softly and reverentially and shading their eyes with their hands, as if dazzled with the unexpected brilliancy of the scene, which they had been surreptitiously watching through a crevice in the door of the china-closet for the last half-hour. Then the children clustered around their father and mother, and each presented his little gift with kisses and embraces. The mother, overcome by her feelings, wept aloud for joy and tenderness, and the tears ran down the good doctor's face, who clasped the little ones to his breast, as if trying to stifle the emotions that struggled within. In the course of the evening, while the young folks were dancing the national Allemande, whirling and spinning with a rapidity perfectly bewildering, I expressed to the good doctor the pleasure I experienced in witnessing for the first time the scene I have described.

CHRISTMAS IN GERMANY.-The Christmas tree, although only lately introduced into England, performs one of the most interesting and important parts in the Christmas ceremonics of Germany. Many years ago, while travelling through that country, I had the good fortune to be present at the celebration of Christmas Eve in the family of a physician named Elverdink, who lived at Drusenheim, near Strasbourg. My host, though a sensible and well-informed man, was, like most Germans, inclined to mysticism, and a belief in the existence of supernatural beings. He knew as many wonderful stories of dwarfs, nixes, nisses, elves and mermaids as would have furnished the Brothers Grimm with a fresh collection of tales and legends. His family consisted of a wife and eight boys and girls, by whom Christmas was celebrated in a spirit of pure and simple enjoyment perfectly delightful. For three or four months preceding the festival the girls and boys had been saving up their pocket money to purchase or make little articles to present to their parents and each other, and the most profound secrecy was observed by the givers until the moment had arrived for producing them. On the eve of Christmas the largest parlor was taken possession of by the young people, who had invited as many of their friends LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP.-No one can propand companions as could be collected to witness erly define the difference between love and the installation of the Christmas tree. Mr. and friendship, but those who have bountifully enMrs. Elverdink were, at the commencement of tertained both sentiments. Love is less generthe proceedings, committed for safe custody to ons than friendship, and the highest type of the the china closet, where they were enjoined to re- latter may be found in the bond between "Hammain without attempting to get a peep at what let and Horatio." Friendship, as well as love, was going forward. Then, when the Christmas is avaricious, but friendship desires confidence, tree had been properly fixed in the centre of the love enjoyment and monopoly. Both to some room, and the little tapers fastened to the boughs extent are selfish; but love indulges that crav lighted, and the glittering toys and flags and ing to excess. An explanation of the distincstreamers of colored paper with which it was tion might be given by referring love to the decorated displayed to the best advantage, noth-heart, friendship to the mind.

"It is one of the old customs of your country," said I.

"So old that we have no tradition of its origin," he replied; "but we have a legend which dates as far back as the seventh century."

From The Economist.

gagements." The word collaborateur, in its literary application, is French, and the thing denoted by it is, in its perfection, French also. If any one wishes to see how well and how ill

Dictionnaire Universel des Contemporains, contenant toutes les Personnes Notables de la France et des pays Etrangers. Ouvrage rédigé et continuellement tenu a jour, avec le concours d'Ecrivains et de Savants de precisely the same kind of work is done in tous les pays, par G. Vapereau, Ancien France and in England, let him compare Elève de l'Ecole, Ancien Professeur de volumes for the same year of the "Annuaire Philosophie, Avocat à la Cour Imperiale de des Deux Mondes" and of the "Annual Paris. Paris: L. Hachette et Cie. 1858. Register." The systematic treatment, the SOME one (the late Mr. Croker if we mis- methodical analysis, and the exhaustive comtake not) has pronounced the most valuable pleteness of the former, are in striking conpart of every library, and that which it will trast with the bungling and confused arrangebe most profitable for the student frequently ment and the serious omissions characteristic to consult, to be the shelves which contain of the latter. Our best encyclopædias,books of reference. Without just now dis- those, for example, of Mr. Knight, the "Encussing this opinion, or staying to dwell on cyclopædia Britannica," and the "Encyclothe abuse of such books for purposes of pædia Metropolitana,"-contain many valua"cram," and for the display of a second-hand knowledge, got up for special occasions and seldom surviving them, we may remark that the most valuable works on those shelves will, with few exceptions, certainly be in the French tongue. The genius of the French mind, and the corresponding fitness of the French language, for precise statement and orderly arrangement, give to French writers an easy mastery of the art of succinct and lucid exposition, and condensed yet unconfused narration of principles and of facts. "What is not clear," says a brilliant living French author, "is not French." It is this peculiarity which makes France the interpreter, as it were, of the nations; and almost justifies the boast of M. Guizot, that no idea ever attains universal currency without first passing through the alembic of the French mind; and it is this which has made the French language the international language of Europe. Further, French writers seem to possess a greater power of working together, of harmonious co-operation, than English authors can boast. Whether this circumstance is to be traced back to their habit of submitting to a centralized authority, and our habit of revolting at it and asserting a sturdy and even mutinous self-will, is a speculation which we recommend to those who are curious to trace in unexpected results the influence of political constitutions on the character of a nation. We cannot imagine a French editor pleading, In noticing the yolume before us, nearly a as we learn from a contemporary that the year after the time of its publication, we may English editor of a valuable scientific work seem to have been guilty of some delay. But has recently done, in apology for avoidable such a work can only be tested by, and hondelay and shortcoming, that some of his con- estly criticised after the habitual use of it for tributors "completely failed to fulfil their en- a considerable period. The estimate of it

ble essays, and are no doubt to be depended on as storehouses of varied and accurate information; but while they do not excel in these particulars such French publications as the "Dictionnaire de la Conversation," the " Encyclopédie Moderne,” the " Encyclopédie des Gens du Monde," they omit much which they ought to have, and which the latter contain, and are far inferior to them in the artistic finish of style which gives to a condensed summary the freshness and animation of an original essay. A still more striking illustration of the same fact may be found in a comparison of the elaborate and important work which has suggested these remarks, with the only English publication of a similar kind (if it can be said to be of a similar kind),—the unsatisfactory little volume annually issued by Mr. Kent under the title of "Men of the Time." Mr. Knight's "Cyclopædia of Biography" contains, it is true, a few living names, but they form only a subordinate part of the design. The editor acknowledges that many persons who ought to be included in a complete catalogue of living celebrities, and who deserve admission at least as much as some who are inserted, have been left out, in order to confine the book within the stipulated limits, size, and price. The "Cyclopædia," therefore, does not enter into comparison with a record which aims, like M. Vapereau's "Dictionary of Contemporaries," at universality.

which we shall express is based on the impressions derived from frequent reference to it during many months.

place in the hands of every one the key of all these enigmas. It will offer to our curiosity, roused by a new incident, the past life of him who accomplishes it, his birth and family, his first efforts, his works. We shall understand the act of to-day, by means of the act of the day before; we may even anticipate the act of the morrow, and estimate what we have to

The "Dictionary of Contemporaries," containing, as M. Gustave Vapereau informs us, in its three thousand six hundred closely printed columns, "the matter of sixteen large octavo volumes of the ordinary form," is un-expect from the statesman who has attained doubtedly the most valuable contribution ever made to the knowledge of the personnel of the present time. The importance of the work for the future historian and its immediate utility are well stated in the prospectus, in which, five years ago, the plan of the projected dictionary was explained:

to power, from the general invested with a difficult or glorious mission, from the magistrate and from the prelate elevated to high whom a new discovery or an additional masdignities, from the savant and the artist of terpiece is announced."

As is natural in a work, written by French

"In spite of the abundance of historic docu-authors, and in the French language, and inments, which, thanks to the press, each epoch tended primarily for a French public, the henceforth transmits to the epoch which sucnames of eminent Frenchmen occupy the ceeds it, or rather owing to this very abun- largest space; and that portion of it which dance, historians find themselves in consider- refers to them is by far the most satisfactorily able embarrassment and liable to strange executed. We speak from experience when confusion. The identity of names; the diver- we say that it is a valuable and almost necessity of persons playing the same part, or of sary aid in the study of the political history parts filled by the same person; the ignorance of an exact date, which at a distance it be- or the literature of France during the last comes more difficult to fix; in short, a crowd half-century. The connected narratives which of causes of uncertainty induce us often to it contains of the lives and labors of eminent assign to the men of the past a participation statesmen and men of letters, enable the in events of which they scarcely had knowl- reader to fill up the hiatuses and to explain edge. The register under the very eyes and the allusions in more general works, which, under the perpetual control of the living, the without such help, must either confuse or espart which each played in the great drama of cape him. Especially the vicissitudes of pocontemporary life,-to mark, in some way, the precise moment in which each actor en litical affairs, the coalitions of hostile parties ters on the stage, that in which he quits it, and individuals, the ruptures of old or new the succession of the characters assumed by alliances, the rise and fall and reconstruction him in different acts, the reception which he of ministries, the change of policy implied in gains, his failures and triumphs,-is not this the change of the personnel of a government, the way to render beforehand the errors of can only be understood in their full signifithe future less frequent? Yes: the biogcance by the details which this work contains, raphy of the living, complete, impartial, with its precise dates, its positive information, in and which the properly historical writer, condetermining the exact place of individuals in fining himself to general causes and their rethe midst of the movement of the epoch, opens sults, must omit. But, although the French for the future a valuable source of history. biographies in this work are the most com"Its immediate utility is still more mani-pletely and efficiently executed, those of the fest. Acquaintance with contemporary men notable persons of other countries are, considand facts, interesting at all epochs, becomes, ering the greater difficulties under which the in the midst of modern life, a veritable neces-editor and his coadjutors must have labored in sity. In this age of rapid communication,

which is universal among the countries of the procuring and verifying information, scarcely world, of mutual approximation, of perpetual less creditable. The accounts of eminent interchange of ideas, interests, and things, Englishmen, living or recently deceased, if how many names, celebrated on various separately published, would form a better grounds, meet our ears, which are for us only book of reference than any of the same class names! What enigmas do the journal, the which we possess. It is true that these nobook, travel, conversation even, and all the tices contain many errors, some of which are relations of life, present to us every instant! Our Universal Dictionary of Contemporaries' rather ludicrous. But such errors are inevitwill give a meaning to all these names, will able in the first edition of a work of this kind,