and the tyrannical power of cruel rajahs, and to the sayings of learned Brahmins. Hundreds of Hindoo proverbs turn on the words and deeds of Vishnu and Krishna, or of the savage Siva. The servility and cunning of the people is visible in them as well as their superstitions, and the frequent allusions to sham devotees and hypocrites give one a clear impression that corruption has gained much ground even among the worshippers of Brahma.

A terrible phase of Hindoo life is suggested by a curious Bengalee proverb that says a man in a tiger's mouth is not so much afraid of the tiger's teeth as of the jungle he is going to; meaning that even in the presence of great calamities, small future ones seem more terrible. An equally cruel enemy of the Hindoo is alluded to in the following prudent proverb: "What! dwell in the water and quarrel with the crocodile."

We do not think that, taking an equal Many of these proverbs turn on mythonumber of proverbs, there is half so much logical and traditionary illusions; for inshrewd sense or original thought in Hin- stance, a man impatient of waiting for an doo as in Arabic or Persian proverbs. appointment will say, "How much longer But the Hindoo adages are so essentially shall I stand and hold Lakshman's fruit?" Indian that the idea they contain acquires The gentleman referred to held some fruit an interest from the novelty with which it for his legendary brother, Ram, fourteen is treated. The power of money, for in-years without eating it. Here is one stance, is alluded to in the proverbs of which is full of oriental colour: "The every nation, but only a Bengalee would bracelets tinkle on the lady's arm, and the think of saying, "One could buy oneself fool cries, ‘She is taking up rice for me.'" tiger's eyes if one had only money; or Here, too, is one Hindoo all over :when in a difficulty declaring it was as hard "The snake-charmer can hear the snake to do "as to kill seven snakes with one sneeze;" intimating that a man understroke." "Old servants and old rice are stands the business on which he is always best," is a kind of Hindoo proverb re-engaged. minding us that fidelity is now unknown in the East. In many Indian proverbs we find that half-humorous observation of the habits of animals which we might expect in the authors of so many fable-books. They say of a hypocrite, "The crane is a choice saint," referring to the sanctimonious gravity with which that bird waits for its prey; and they compare a fussy man to the small saphari fish splashing in a basin of water.

"The sandal-tree does not grow in every wood," is a thoroughly Hindoo proverb, and so is "You can never wash charcoal white." Some of these sayings require a knowledge of Hindoo customs before they can be understood, as "He's oiling his hands while the jack-fruit is still on the tree," a saying applied to people who count their chickens before they are hatched it being necessary to oil the hands before touching jack-fruit, which exudes a glutinous juice.

The blind in Hindostan have the credit, especially when they turn beggars, of being rogues, and there is a proverb, "The blind man is to the house what the rank weed is to water." Nor are all proverbs that apply to Brahmins equally complimentary, for there are some as bitter as the old mediæval jokes against greedy priests. A furious encounter the Bengal people call "a serpent and ichneumon fight," from the inveterate hostility of these two animals.

And here are two more: "I won't give you the water I wash my cowries in," and, "The pin fish goes on falling into the hands of a bad cook.” The pin fish is a great delicacy, and the proverb means that a clever person can never be understood by a fool. "He breaks the cocoanut on another's head," is a Bengalee way of saying that a man has gained something to the loss of another. "Plantain sauce and parched rice," is a Hindostanee way of expressing a complete incongruity. "The mother of many never reaches the Ganges," is a Hindoo way of saying,. "Everybody's business is nobody's business," and that the body will remain unburied.

There is a good, wholesome spite in some of these proverbs of Hindostan, that prove a fair amount of scolding can be carried on either in Bengalee or Mahrattah. If one low fellow praises another, a Hindoo says, "The ballad-singer praises the cowherd," two very low castes. If a poor man gives himself airs he is pretty soon told at the bazaar or the bath-room that he is "only the horn-bearer's bagbearer." If a trader is sluggish in business, the proverb thrown at him is "Rub your nose with mustard oil and go to sleep," an allusion to a custom of the poorer Hindoos of snuffing up lamp-oil to induce sleep.

A truly lazy proverb, and thoroughly characteristic of the country, is this one: —“If I can find mangoes at the plantain's

foot, why should I look under the mango- | pare to "a tiger in a sacred grove." To a tree?" If an upstart talks like a rich or vulgar, boastful fellow, strutting about great man, they say, "Here's a hireling over-dressed, some one is sure to cry, “ A on thirty cowries giving drafts on Chitta- red mango in the ape's paw and the ape gong.' Useless trouble is called "Going cries 'Ram, ram,' ," words of delight; and to Ceylon for a grain of turmeric.” lastly, to close our specimens, when one man has gained an object by hard labour and another tries to gain the same without work, the saying used is, "One man kills himself with pounding the rice and another fills his cheeks with it smoking hot."

There is no country where the proverbs are founded more on local customs than in Hindostan. "A great man's word is like the elephant's tusk" (not to be concealed or withdrawn), is a common Hindoo saying. A false devotee they com

IN his just published report to the foreign trees, the petals of flowers, the wings of birds, office, her Majesty's consul at Yokohama etc. . Into all this gold powder enters, gives some interesting information respecting the working-in of which requires a light brush the preparation of lacquer-ware in Japan. and a skilful hand. After this has Some Japanese, he says, give A. D. 724 as the well dried, a particular kind of lacquer-vardate when the art of lacquering was first dis-nish, known as yoshimô urushi, is well rubbed covered, but those among them who have in, and the whole then polished with horngiven attention to the subject fix the date as dust. The polishing process is done with the A. D. 889 or 900. It would appear to have at- finger, and is continued until the gold-glitter tained to some perfection in 1290, for the shows out well." Academy. name of a distinguished painter in lacquer at that time is still handed down as the founder of a particular school of art in lacquer-painting. Having described the manner in which the lacquer-varnish is obtained, Mr. Robert- M. BERTRAND (Revue Archéologique, Sepson gives some details of the mode in which tember), gives an account of a very remarkdesigns in lacquer are worked. "The first able discovery of antiquities at Graeckwyl in thing," he says, "is to trace out on the thin- the canton of Berne, in 1851. Two túmuli nest of paper the required pattern or design, were opened, one of them yielding a bronze and the tracing is then gone over with a com- vase- with ornaments in relief and in the position of lacquer-varnish and vermilion, round on the neck and handles of which an afterwards laid on whatever it is proposed to engraving accompanies the article. It is cerimpart the design to ... and well rubbed tainly curious, as M. Bertrand remarks, that a over with a bamboo spatula." The outline vase which from the artistic character of its thus left "is now gone over with a particular ornaments can only be compared with Etruskind of soft lacquer-varnish. When this in- can work, or better still with the gold ornadustry is pursued in hot weather the varnishments from Camirus in Rhodes (in the British speedily dries, and consequently where the Museum and in the Louvre), should be found pattern is a good deal involved in the district of Berne, because it is not supsmall portion only is executed at one time, and posed that much of what is called civilization the gold powder, which enters largely into had reached that quarter till Roman times, most of the lacquer-ware for the foreign mar- whereas the Camirus gold ornaments, which ket, is applied to each part as it is being exe- are exact counterparts of those on the Graeckcuted. For this a large and very soft brush is wyl vase, can be confidently assigned to the used, and by its aid the gold powder is well seventh century B.C. Perhaps the more arrubbed in with the lacquer or varnish. The chaic works of this kind are studied, the more work is then left to dry for about twenty-four it will be found that they prevail in the Greek hours, after which the pattern is lightly rubbed islands- see, for instance, as to vases and over with charcoal made from a particular terra-cottas, the guide-books to the first and kind of wood, this process securing evenness second vase-rooms of the British Museum. of surface. The work is next rubbed with From this evidence such objects could be polishing powder, and afterwards carefully traced to a period of activity in maritime trade wiped." After all this outlining has been which might readily have attracted patrons or done "there still remains a good deal of fin- traders from even higher regions of Europe ishing work, such as the tracing of leaves on than Berne.

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