daughter, and when the young man asked for her hand, though he wished to refuse, yet he could not do so.

At the wedding, no entertainment was given; only a few friends were present, and strange to say, even to them wine was not served. Mr. Fielding would have set forth poison as quickly as wine. And why? Had he changed his views in regard to its utility? Not so much that, as he feared the production of evil results likely to effect himself and family. His principles were based rather upon a regard for himself than dependent on abstract appreciations of right and justice—and this was one fact that he had yet to learn. As it was, he was made to feel, almost in his own person, the evil of serving wine to any and every one, without regard to acquired or hereditary predispositions to over-indulgence ; and in the future, his practice was as different from what it had been as could well be conceived.

A REFLECTION AT SEA.

SEE how beneath the moonbeam's smile
Yon little billow heaves its breast,

And foams and sparkles for awhile,

And murmuring then subsides to rest.

Thus man, the sport of bliss and care,
Rises on time's eventful sea,

And having swelled a moment there,
Thus melts into eternity.

DOMESTIC SLAVERY IN THE EAST.

BY MISS PARDO E.

WERE 1 a man, and condemned to an existence of servitude, I would unhesitatingly choose that of slavery in a Turkish family for if ever the "bitter draught" can indeed be rendered palatable it is there. The slave of the Osmanli is the child of his adoption; he purchases with his gold a being to cherish, to protect and to support; and in almost every case he secures to himself what his gold could not command-a devoted and loving heart, ready to sacrifice its every hope and impulse in his service. Once forget that the smiling menial who hands your coffee, or pours the rosewater on your hand from an urn of silver, has been purchased at a price, and you must look with admiration on the relative positions of the servant and his lord-the one so eager and so earnest in his service-the other so gentle and so unexacting in his commands.

No assertion of mine can, however, so satisfactorily prove the fact which I have here advanced as the circumstance that almost all the youth of both sexes in Circassia insist upon being conveyed by their parents into Constantinople, where the road to honor and advancement is open to every one; the slaves receive no wages; the price of their services has already been paid to their relatives; but twice in the year at

stated periods, the master and mistress of the family, and indeed every one of their superiors under the same roof, are bound to make them a present, termed the Bakshish, the value of which varies according to the will of the donor; and they are as well fed and nearly as well clothed as their

owners.

As they stand in the apartment with their hands folded upon their breasts, they occasionally mix in the conversation unrebuked-while, from their number (every individual maintaining as many as his income will admit,) they are never subjected to hard labors; indeed, I have been sometimes tempted to think, that all the work of a Turkish house must be done by the fairies; for although I have been the inmate of several harems at all hours, I never saw a symptom of any thing like domestic toil.

There is a remarkable feature in the position of the Turkish slaves that I must not omit to mention. Should it occur that one of them, from whatever cause it may arise, feels himself uncomfortable in the house of the owner, the dissatisfied party requests his master to dispose of him; and having repeated his appeal three several times, the law enforces compliance with its spirit; nor is this all-the slave can not only insist on changing owners, but even on selecting his purchaser, although he may by such means entail considerable loss on his master. But, as asservation is no proof, I will adduce an example.

The wife of Achmet Pasha had a female slave, who, being partial to a young man of the neighborhood, was desirous to become his property. Such being the case she informed her mistress that she wished to be taken to the market and dis

posed of, which was accordingly carried into effect; but as she was young and pretty, and her lover in confined circumstances, he was soon outbidden by a wealthier man; and on her return to the harem of Achmet Pasha, her mistress told her that an Asiatic merchant had offered twenty thousand piasters for her, and that she would be removed to his house in a few days. "I will not belong to him," was the reply: there was a young man in the market who bade twelve thousand for me and I have decided to follow him. My price to you was but ten thousand piasters-and thus you will gain two thousand by selling me to him." Her declaration was decisive; she became the property of her lover, and her resolution cost her mistress eighty pounds sterling.

66

The most perfect cleanliness is the leading characteristic of the Eastern houses-not a grain of dust, not a footmark defaces the Indian matting that covers the large halls, whence the several apartments branch off in every direction; the glass from which you drink is carefully guarded to avoid the possibility of contamination; and the instant that you have eaten, a slave stands before you with water and a nap kin to clean your hands. To the constant use of the bath I have already alluded; and no soil is ever seen on the dress of a Turkish gentlewoman.

I am quite conscious that more than one lady-reader will lay down my volume without regret, when she discovers how matter-of-fact are many of its contents. The very term "oriental" implies to European ears the concentration of romance, and I was long in the East ere I could divest my. self of the same feeling. I could have continued the illusion, for oriental habits lend themselves greatly to the deceit, when

the looker-on is satisfied with glancing over the surface of things; but with a conscientious chronicler this does not suffice; and consequently, I rather sought to be instructed than to be amused, and preferred the veracious to the entertaining.

This bowing down of the imagination before the reason is, however, the less either a merit on the one hand, or a sacrifice on the other, for enough of the wild and the wonderful, as well as the bright and the beautiful, still remains to make the East a scene of enchantment. A sky, whose blue brilliancy floods with light alike the shores of Asia and of Europe— whose sunshine falls warm and golden on dome and minarets and palaces—a sea, whose waves glitter in silver, forming the bright bond by which two quarters of the globe are linked together—an empire peopled by the gathering of many nations the stately Turk-the serious Armenian-the wily Jew-the keen-eyed Greek-the graceful Circassian—the desert-loving Tartar-the roving Arab-the mountain-born son of Caucasus-the voluptuous Persian-the Indian dervish, and the thoughtful Frank-each clad in the garb and speaking the language of his people, suffice to weave a web of tints too various and too brilliant to be wrought into the dull and common-place pattern of every-day existence.

:

I would not remove one fold of the graceful drapery which veils the time-hallowed statue of Eastern power and beautybut I cannot refrain from plucking away the trash and tinsel that ignorance and bad taste have hung about it and which belong as little to the master-piece they desecrate as the votive offerings of bigotry and superstition form a part of one of Raphael's divine Madonnas because they are appended to her shrine.