the women have earthenware drums, murderer is more generally mulcted which are concealed from the men. than slain. Little is said concerning Languor and apathy are the gifts the death of a slave, and a man found of the climate ; moreover, man in pilfering is chastised by the propriethese lands, wanting little, works tor with sword or arrow. The tribe little. Two great bodies, indeed, is divided into half-a-dozen clans, seem everywhere to make of life oné each in number perhaps sufficient to long holiday--the civilised rich, who stock a small European town. Petty have all things; and the savage, who political jealousies and dissensions possesses little or nothing. Yet are are as necessary to these savages as the Wanika, and indeed all wild to the highly civilised. men, greedy of gain-perfectly disho- The Wanika are an anomaly in nest'in quest of lucre, and not to be mental gifts. With time and tune bound by agreement or oath. Like well developed, they easily learned all nations in this part of Africa, music from the missionaries ; but they are essentially and instinctively they ever prefer their own meaningthieves. They never go to war. less recitative. At first they attended Agriculture and settled life have the schools; presently, with their enervated them, without supplying usual laxity and levity, growing superior knowledge. They scratch weary of application, they dubbed the ground with sinall hoes—wander all who so exerted themselves Waabout with their few goats and cows zingu, or fools. They possess in a -sit in the sun, and spend hours high degree the gift of most African squatting round an old well whilst races, an unstudied eloquence. Their water collects, rather than dig a pit unpremeditated speech rolls like the or dam a ravine. They thus labour torrent ; every limb takes its part in three days, and rest on the fourth, the work of persuasion, and the pecalled Yuna, from Yuma, the Moslem culiar rhythm of their dialect is faSabbath : this is their only idea of vourable to such displays of oratory. weeks. Their time is principally Few, however, can follow the « passed in intoxication, by means of words "—that is to say, answer the thembu, or palm-wine. The drum heads of an opponent's speech. Such scarcely ever ceases; as amongst the power of memory and logical faculty Sawahili, it sounds at all times, sea- are not in them. The abuse of the sons, and occasions. The music is gift of language makes them boistersimple : they are contented to re- ous in conversation, unable to keep cite, for the livelong night, such silence—the negro race is ever loquamerum nectar as cious—and to “bend their tongue like their bows for lies.” They can"Kitosí múlălány káůká."* not even, to use a Zanzibar German The polity of the Wanika is the merchant's phrase, “lie honestly." rude and lawless equality of Bush- Their character may thus be briefly None commands where none summed up: a futile race of degraded obeys; consequently there is no com- men, drunken, destructive, cowardly, , bination, no improvement. The chief boisterous, immoral, indolent, and plies bis hoe like the serf; and even improvident. Their redeeming points to protect life, men will not unite. are a tender love of family, which Causes are decided according to the displays itself by violent “kin-grief," great African code, ancient custom, and a strong attachment to an uninby a council of elders. Adultery is viting home.+ punished by the fine of a cow; the The men's dress is a tanned skin men. * “ The bird starts not from the palm.”. + A proletarian critic has complained of my description of Somal inconsistency: -“This affectionately-atrocious people,” he declares, “is painted in strangely opposite colours." Can he not, then, conceive the high development of destructiveness and adhesiveness, to speak phrenologically, combining in the same individual ? and are not the Irish peasantry a familiar instance of the phenomenon? Such is the negro's destructiveness, that I have never seen him drop or break an article without a burst of laughter. During the fires at Zanzibar he appears like a demon a a or a cotton cloth tied round the as in a platter ; white and pink beads, war waving brands over his head, dancing with delight, and spreading the flames as much from instinct as with the object of plundering. On the other hand, he will lose his senses with grief for the death of near relations : I have seen men who have remained in this state for years. But why enlarge upon what is apparent to the most superficial observer's eye? In the “ Reise auf dem Weissen Nil," extracted from the Vicar-General, Dr Ignaz Knoblecher's Journals (p. 32), we read of the chief Nighila and his followers rying stools of tree-stumps ornamented with glass-ware. The other approximations in character, costume, and climate, between the upper country of the White River and the coast of East Africa, are exceedingly interesting. † A common article of diet in East Africa. Similarly, the Lapps mix reindeer blood with milk. a he was terribly mutilated during of congeners speaking the same dialife, and was put to death with all lect, the Masai. The habitat of this the refinements of cruelty. The grim race is the grassy and temperWanika consider service, like slavery, ate region westward of Chhaga : a dishonour; they have also some nomades, but without horses, they food-prejudices which render them roam over the country foraging their troublesome to Europeans. The camels and herds, without, it is said, missionaries were obliged to engage building huts, and halting where Moslems as menials. water and green meat abound. They We had proposed a short excur- are described as a fine, tall, and dark sion inland from Mombas, but every- nation, like the Somal, with a fearthing was against its execution. ful appearance, caused by their The land was parched up, provisions nodding plumes, their pavoises or were unprocurable, and neither guides shields long as those of Kafirs, their nor porters would face the plunder- fatal knob - sticks, and glittering ing parties then near the town. In- spears of shovel-breadth, made of the deed, it is to be feared that the excellent charcoal-smelted ore of the entrance to Chhaga, Kilimanjaro, and interior. Their rude and abrupt the hill-country, will be closed to manners terrify Sawahili strangers ; travellers for many years. Such is they will snatch a cloth from the trathe normal state of East Africa. veller's body, and, to test his courage, The explorer can never be sure of bend a bow with an arrowhead finding a particular road practicable: touching his limbs : life is valueless a few murders will shut it for an amongst them, and arms are the sole age, and stop him at the very thresh- protection. When in peaceful mood, old of ingress. On the other hand, they are visited by traders from the merchant always commands an Mombas, Wasin, Tanga, and Panentrance for his goods : if one be gany. This year, however, even blocked up, another forthwith opens. those who went up from the southern But last year the north-western pro- points feared to pass the frontier. vince of Ukambany, called Kikuyu, Cattle is the end and aim of their first visited by the enterprising Dr forays : all herds, they say, are theirs Krapf at the imminent risk of life, by the gift of their god and by right began commercial intercourse with of strength-in fact, no other nation Mombas. The ground is reached should dare to claim possession of a after fourteen long stages, and the cow. They never attack, I am told, route bids fair to become a highway by night, like other Africans, disdain into Intertropical Africa. But let the name of robbers, and delay near not geographers indulge in golden the place plundered, dancing, singvisions of the future ! Some day the ing, and gorging beef, to offer the Arabs of Mombas will seize and sell enemy his revenge. They fear the à caravan, or the fierce Gallas will gun because it pierces their shields, prevail against it. Briefly, no spirit and, though rough in demeanour, of prophecy is needed to predict that they are not, according to travellers, the Kikuyu line will share the fate inhospitable. Until this year they of many others. But a few years have shunned meeting Moslems and ago the Wakuafy were the terror of civilised men in the field : having this part of Africa ; they have now obtained a victory, they will, I fear, been almost exterminated by a tribe repeat the experiment. a (To be Continued.) THORNDALE ; OR, THE CONFLICT OF OPINIONS. a READER, in this age of book-mak- deals hardly with the beautiful by ing and universal reading, you have wedding it to the mean, that the latoften been required to visit in imagi- ter be not quite despised. But turn nation the Bay of Naples. Possibly from those chattering multitudes, in you have yourself been there. If so, whom the soul of the ape seems to you know the grotto of Posilipo, and animate the frame of man,-turn from the heights above it, commanding the this mere outside of humanity, and celebrated view of the Parthenopoeian we will show you, close by, a being shores. Up near the summit of that so different from these that he might hill, a little villa appears on a solitary well be the denizen of another planet. platform, from which the rock de- Come with us up to the Villa Scarpa. scends in a precipice. It is the Villa Push open the gate, and amid the Scarpa. There it stands—so elevated, odour and glow of flowers around, yet so secluded,—and from its terrace and with that glorious vision of the you look sheer over the beautiful ex. Bay beneath, let us advance along panse of waters, with all its islands the terrace to the house. In the and environing mountains. A colon- shady recess of the colonnade a slight Dade fringes with shade the base- tall figure stands leaning against a ment story of the villa ; up these pil. pillar, gazing quietly and fixedly upon lars clamber roses and myrtle, and in the lovely view, now glowing in the the interspaces appear vases and full light of the sun. It is Charles statues. You are within an hour's Thorndale. Ere we interrupt his walk of the noisy swarming popula- musing, you mark his pallid cheek; tion of Naples; but here, on these and as he turns to greet us, you are heights, is perfect stillness, with per- struck by his beaming eye. It is not fect beauty. To the left are Vesuvius an eye that looks through you,-it and Sorrento,-to the right the shores rather seems to be looking out beof Baiæ,-while in front spreads the yond you : you are the half-forgotten Bay, with the islands of Capri and centre round which the eddying Ischia in the distance, breaking and stream of his thoughts is playing, relieving the wide expanse and deep and you stand amid his gaze like azure of the sea. How happy, you some islet in a river encircled on all say, the tenant of that villa! How sides by the silent sparkling flood. matchless the prospect for ever open His air is half shy and retiring,-but to his eye, like a glorious silent pic- seclusion has wrought no embitterture! Picture ! is it not rather the ment of temper, for his quiet face is living Spirit of the Universe mani- full of kindness and gentleness. Yet festing itself in glowing vision to the there is a double weight upon him. sight and soul of man? Languid health pervades his whole Down in the city, thousands of air, and he has another burden also lazzaroni are jostling and chattering to bear. A cold shadow of melanin the noisy streets, or lie sunning choly hangs over him ; and on his themselves on door-steps and the brow you see the clouding of that beach, almost too lazy to eat their bit noble sorrow which falls at times on of bread and water-melon. Idlest of every sincere inquirer who finds himthe idle, emptiest of the empty,-men self baffled in his search for truth. in whom sense of duty and aspira- With the strong, the busy, and the tions after happiness can reach no healthy that sorrow does not settlem higher ideal of life than the dolce-far- it but touches the spirit with its niente! Are these the tenants of raven wing, and passes by. The very this paradise ? Can man indeed be cares of business or duties of domestic so degraded where nature is so beau- life, not less than the electric touch tiful? Alas! it is so : Nature at times of active human joys, ordinarily pre Thorndale ; or, The Conflict of Opinions. By WILLIAM SMITH, Author of " Athelwold, a Drama ;' “ A Discourse on Ethics,” &c. 1857. no cares. vent the noble search for truth from “God-Immortality-Progress, these permanently overcasting the soul are my three watchwords; these are with that indefinable melancholy. the three great faiths which I deBut poor Thorndale ! what has he to sire to keep steadily before my mind. dislodge it? He has no personal ambi- Much still remains obscure to me, tion, no domestic bonds, no duties, and would remain obscure were I to Life has no interest for live to the age of Methuselah, as to him—now at least—if philosophy can the precise conception we can permit yield no truth. No wonder, then, ourselves to form of God,-as to the that that kindly, pallid, lustrous face nature of our life Immortal,-as to is burdened with sadness. the degree and description of ProIt was during a Continental tour, gress which man is destined to achieve made when he was in perfect health, on earth. But I can say—and am that Thorndale had first seen and happy in saying it—that these three been charmed with the exquisite re- faiths are mine." treat in which we find him. He was He does not tell you this as you not long to enjoy it now. So far as stand with him under the colonnade relates to life on earth, he is a of the Villa. Musing and reserved, doomed man. The pulmonary dis- he does not speak on such themes, ease which was his excuse, rather than save to the rare few-the two or three his motive, for quitting England, was —who enjoy his confidence. We are of too decided a character to be reading from a large solid note-book checked by a change of climate. This which lies on a table in the room he knew : he allowed others to talk within, close to the open window. of the medicinal virtues of the air of Seen from that shaded recess, the Italy,-he thought only of his beauti- panorama without presents quite a ful solitude on Mount Posilipo. He magical effect : the bay, with all its wished to be alone, and “sook his waters, islands, and mountain-shores, last” here. The habit of the pen, seems no longer to rest upon the too, clung to him to the end ; and in earth at all, but to be lifted up and the little time left, he felt there was poised like the clouds, midway to 80 much to think of a whole world heaven - rather itself a veritable of thoughts still to be put in order, heaven. And there Thorndale used and all the fruitless fascinating spe- to sit, admiring. “ that beautiful culations of philosophy to be reviewed nature," and noting down, in disonce more, before they were parted jointed fragments, those thoughts with for ever. He is at Naples, the upon man, and souvenirs of his own Elysian fields of the scholar and life, which came back upon hiin most archæologist, ---but you will hear no vividly when life itself was waning. mere scholarly talk upon petrified Do not think he was all sad as he sat trifles of the past from him. Themes there. His burden of melancholy, of the dilettanti ! how small you look indeed, was too great, but in essence in the light of everlasting truth, or it was divine. Let those secret pages when man is face to face with eter- tell how the hours passed with him : nity! _“I cannot describe (he writes) that I am here upon classic ground,” mysterious tremulous calm with he says,“ surrounded, as they say, which I look out upon this expanse by classical associations ;-a Sybil's of sun-lit waters,-tremulous they cave-the tomb of Virgil—the baths also with light, as I with feeling. of one Emperor, the palace of another. Here, as I sit at the open winVery slight and transitory, and mere dow, with this beautiful bay outaffairs of yesterday, seem these grave stretched before me, the mind is antiquities to me. Such classical as- stirred as with the music of unsociations have ceased to affect me; utterable thoughts. Happy memothey have fallen off from the scene. ries, and every sweet emotion I have I see only this beautiful nature, I known, come back and crowd around meditate only upon man. Rome and Once more ! once more !look the Cæsars are a little matter : God, too on me, and on me l' each thought Nature, and Humanity-on these I seems to utter as it passes. . think incessantly.” Again he speaks : Why should I wish to live? Have I me. |