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Ye, therefore, who love mercy, teach your sons
To love it too. The spring-time of our years
Is soon dishonored, and defiled in most,

By budding ills that ask a prudent hand
To check them. But, alas! none sooner shoots,
If unrestrained, into luxuriant growth,
Than cruelty, most fiendish of them all.

Mercy, to him that shows it, is the rule,

And righteous limitation of its act,

By which Heaven moves in pardoning guilty man;
And he that shows none, being ripe in years,
And conscious of the outrage he commits,
Shall seek it, and not find it, in his turn!

COWPER.

Spell and pronounce : — conscious, budding, prudent, outrage, therefore, dishonored, righteous, pardoning, mercy, defiled, sovereign, economy, extinguish, convenience, and

fiendish, interfere.

LESSON CXXI.

fărʼri er, one who shoes horses. mot'ley, mixed up.

sheik, an Arabian or Moorish chief.

gôrge, to feed greedily.

ew'er (yur), a water pitcher with a wide spout, used to bring water for washing the hands.

TRAVELING IN THE EAST.

Near Damascus we saw many of the people sitting at their work. No Moslem will move when he can stand, or stand when he can sit. We observed three men in a farrier's shop, devoting their combined energes to the shoeing of a little mule. One sat under the mule's nose and held it down with the

halter; another sat with its foot turned up in his lap, and a third sat alongside while he fitted and nailed the shoe.

Even the masons' laborers must sit on their haunches to fill their baskets with lime; and a little farther on, where some new pavement was being laid down, all the workmen sat at their work, from the boys lolling on their hams, who passed the stones from the heap, to the two men who sat face to face with a great mallet between them, and in that posture lazily poised it and let it fall.

But the perfection of the art of sitting seemed to have been reached by a party of reapers in a wheat-field through which we rode. All in a long row, men and women, sat to reap, and jerked themselves forward or sideways as their work progressed. We watched them for some ten minutes, and during all that time not one of the twentyfive ever found it necessary to rise.

A MOSLEM FUNERAL.

About a mile from Sidon, we observed a Moslem funeral coming out of the city-a noisy, disorderly crowd rather than a procession. First came a large party of women, closely veiled, and howling, the hired mourners, doubtless, of the occasion. Then was borne the bier, with the body stretched on it, dressed in its best clothes, followed by a motley straggling mob of men and boys in every sort of costume, talking and jostling in the most unconcerned manner till the grave was reached.

The men then took up the wailing-“There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God"-repeated at the top of the voice with breathless rapidity, as if trying to drown the "lullulu"

of the women, until the whole party seemed utterly exhausted, and paused for an instant, foaming at the mouth. The body was let down on a narrow plank into the shallow grave, which was rapidly filled in, a few stones were heaped over it to protect it from the jackals and hyenas, and the mourners dispersed.

BEDOUIN ENTERTAINMENT.

The camp lay in a valley between the barest and dreariest of hills, without a shrub or a tree in sight. Among the group of twenty others of which the encampment consisted, we recognized the Sheik's tent by the tall spear planted against it.

Leaving our horses in charge of the ragged retainers who came rushing round us, we stepped across some tent-ropes, and under a large, low, black tent, open in front, found an abundant display of cushions and Turkey rugs spread on the ground.

The firstling had already been killed, and the fine flour kneaded for the feast; but we had an opportunity of seeing the whole process of coffeemaking, with the serving of which our entertainment began. Over a few hot ashes and wood-ashes was placed a sort of perforated ladle, and over this was held a second smaller one, on which a few green coffee-berries were placed and roasted, each berry being singly turned as soon as it was sufficiently toasted on one side. They were then pounded and put into the kettle of boiling water and simmered for a few minutes among the embers. Delicious coffee, fragrant and strong, it was, though the supply of cups was short.

Pipes followed, till dinner was brought. This consisted of a single course, served in a huge bowl

about a yard in diameter. The bottom was filled with thin flat cakes, thinner than oat-cake, and which overhung the sides as graceful drapery. On them was heaped boiled rice, saturated with butter and soup; while the separated limbs of the sheep which had been slain for the occasion were piled. in a cone over all.

The bowl having been placed in the corner, in front of us, the Sheik and his brother sat down opposite to us, but without partaking; and, turning up our sleeves, we prepared for action. Knives and forks are, of course, unknown, and we were expected, using only one hand, to make balls of the greasy mess, and devour, chucking the morsels into the mouth by a dexterous movement of the thumb. This, after a little practice, we contrived to do. An important piece of good manners was for each to have his own digging in the dish, and to keep his fingers to it alone. The meat had to be rent in strips from the bones and eaten, too, with the fingers.

As soon as the host was quite satisfied that it was utterly impossible for us to eat more, the huge bowl was lifted by two attendants, and placed a little farther to the left, where the retainers of the better class had been sitting, and watching us with eager eyes. All the rest, the rabble of the camp, sat outside motionless and silent. As soon as the second table had been sufficiently gorged, which was a very rapid process, the bowl was passed outside, and cleared in the twinkling of an eye: the monkey paws of sundry urchins being inserted from behind their seniors, and extracting large flaps of greasy cake with marvelous dexterity. Finally, the pack of poor, hungry dogs had a scramble and a fight over the well-picked bones.

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Let us walk over the abbey as it is to-day. I fear that, on entering the abbey, you will at first be greatly disappointed. The grimy, dingy look of the place will vex you, particularly if you choose for your visit a dull day. I grieve to say that the dinginess is inevitable. The abbey rears its towers into an atmosphere thick with the smoke of innumerable chimneys, and laden with acids which eat away, with increasing rapidity, the surface of its stones.

And yet, as you enter the cathedral which enshrines memorials of nine centuries of English history, as you pass under the roof which covers more immortal dust than any other in the whole world,-you can hardly fail to feel some sense of awe. And, before you begin to study the cathedral in detail, I should advise you to wander through the length and breadth of it without paying any attention to minor points, but with the single object of recognizing its exquisite beauty and magnificence.

You will best understand its magnificence as a place of worship if you visit it on any Sunday afternoon, and see the choir and transepts crowded from end to end by perhaps three thousand people, among whom you will observe hundreds of

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