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wolf. She made a few steps into the room; her knife and her hands were stained red.

"Good God! what is it?' "Nothing,' she said. "She threw the knife into a corner, and said with great nonchal ance,-'It was my husband. He would have killed us. I preferred to be beforehand. Come and help me to throw the body into the water.'

"I remained stupefied, regarding her with horror, whilst she also gazed at me, but her eyes only expressed unmitigated contempt, as she said in a tone which I shall never forget - Frenchmen indeed! What absurd nervousness !'

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and called a waiting-maid, whom she commanded to open the window. Then, as though they were doing something perfectly natural, the two of them lifted up the body and threw it into the waters of the river, which engulfed it.

"Ma foi! the adventure was becoming too oriental for a Parisian. I confess that I was seized with an insane terror, and, without waiting to bid adieu, I fled like a madman. How did I get out? I absolutely_cannot tell. In about ten minutes I found myself in the streets, through which I ran as if pursued by a legion of devils. On reaching home I locked and double-locked myself in, cursing Nissá and all the houris of the

"She shrugged her shoulders, East.

III.

"What a night I spent! It was not until morning that I fell into a heavy sleep. When I awoke the sun was already high and streaming into my room. I was thoroughly cowed and demoralised. What had happened? A man cannot disappear without justice intervening. Nissá had not even attempted to hide the deed. Her maid had seen and helped it. I should be implicated in the affair, and the bare idea of being mentioned even in connection with such a crime was appalling, and made my hair stand on end. Should I confide all to the French Minister? Unfortunately he had just gone off on a holiday, and the first secretary was too young for me to confide in. In any case, my whole future career was blighted. It was indeed a pretty termination to my mission for the Minister of Fine Arts.

in the direst anxiety, not daring to go out. The evening came without my having taken any steps, and still without any news of Nissá. Had she been arrested? What had become of her? I went to bed early, but without being able to sleep. At last, on the second day, I could no longer restrain myself. I decided to go and see my friend the Sartip. I preferred anything to the terrible uncertainty in which I was. felt sure that Mahamad Aga would not leave home before his breakfast. I got to his palace, accordingly, about noon. I was duly announced and admitted. The Sartip was lolling at his ease on a sofa, peacefully smoking his chibouque.

I

"Ah! so it's you, is it?' said he, on seeing me. 'How are you?'

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Very well, thanks.' 'By the way,' he continued, "The whole day I thus remained 'have you heard the news?'

VOL. CXLIX.-NO. DCCCCVI.

2 M

"The n'

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. n' . . . news? Not I. I know nothing . "You remember Ismatulla, the rich merchant of the old suburbs?' "If I rem . . .' "But yes the husband of Nissá, don't you know, whom I was telling you about?'

"I felt myself growing red, flushing to the very roots of my hair. It was all over; the crime was discovered, and I dared not anticipate the end of the adventure. I stammered out, 'Ye... s.' "The poor devil!' continued the Sartip, my dear fellow, he has suddenly disappeared.'

"I was half suffocated. How

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MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND THEIR HOMES.

UNDER the above title a sumptuous volume comes to us from America—not in rivalry to work so splendid as that of Messrs Hipkins and Gibb, whose exquisite coloured plates have recently familiarised us with all the most celebrated musical instruments of European nations in times past and present, but rather designed to illustrate the gradual improvement of such instruments from their most primitive types as found amongst numerous races, savage and semi-civilised, in Asia, Africa, America, and various widely scattered groups of islands. Not that Europe is omitted · on the contrary, many curious specimens are shown of French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and other instruments.

The work is illustrated by 270 most careful drawings in pen and ink by Mr Brown, from specimens in the splendid collection which his mother purposes presenting to the New York Metropolitan Museum of Arts.

The first half of the volume is devoted to the music of China, Japan, Corea, India, Siam, and Burmah. The second half treats of the music of the Arabs, Persians, Turks, and of all the negro races, the Indians of North and South America, and of divers peoples, ranging from Greenland to the Equatorial Isles.

A great mass of very interesting information is thus accumulated, and we are enabled to see at a glance the musical development of these various nations, and what instruments find most favour with

each.

Thus we also see plainly the natural order in which musical invention has invariably progressed: first, the manufacture of instruments of percussion, including all varieties of drums, castanets, cymbals, bells, and rattles; secondly, all manner of wind instruments, from the Æolian harp and rudest form of bagpipes to the musical clarionet or stately organ; and thirdly, the invention of stringed instruments, and the discovery of the effect of divers materials in producing diversity of tone, progressing from the single-stringed banjo to the most perfect of pianofortes.

To glance first at the music of THE CHINESE. One of the many anomalies in that strange race is that with all their vaunted reverence for the teachings of Confucius, and notwithstanding all he said in favour of music, they now deem its pursuit the lowest of callings; and though music holds a prominent and essential place in all solemn ceremonials of worship, as also on such occasions as births, weddings, and funerals, professional musicians are looked upon with contempt, and their ranks are recruited from the lowest of the people, the respectable Chinese deeming it below their own dignity to perform on any instru

ment.

And yet it is recorded of Confucius that when, in the days of his poverty and starvation, his disciples marvelled that he should continue to sing and play as usual, he taught them that "the wise

Musical Instruments and their Homes. By Mrs J. Crosby Brown and Wm. Adams Brown. Published by Dodd, Mead, & Co., New York. Agents in England, Messrs Ellis & Elvey, 29 New Bond Street, London.

man seeks by music to strengthen the weakness of his soul; the thoughtless one uses it to stifle his fears." Theoretically, therefore, music is held in reverence. "One of the nine tribunals which have charge of the general affairs of the empire supervises the musical rites and ceremonies. The Mandarins of music rank higher than those of mathematics, and have their college in the enclosure of the Imperial Palace." Notwithstanding the wholesale destruction of musical treatises and instruments in the year 246 B.C., the library at Peking is said to contain 482 works on the subject of music, chiefly most abstruse theories; and the Imperial Board watches over all new compositions in order that the style of ancient music may be preserved, and that which in bygone ages was prescribed for every evil in life may be rigidly adhered to. Thus music, like all other arts and sciences in China, is cramped by the strait-waistcoat of antiquity.

Never were practice and precept more curiously divorced than in this extraordinary reverence for "the spiritual principle represented by the sound of music," as distinguished from "the material principle, represented by the instruments themselves." And yet the Chinese believe music to have been reduced to an art by the Emperor Fu Hsi, 2852 B.C., and to have been further developed about a hundred years later by Huang Ti, the Yellow Emperor. Hence in the oldest musical scale the lowest note was called Emperor, the next Prime Minister, a third Loyal Subjects, and so on.

In the year 2284 B.C. the Emperor Shun (himself a most erudite composer) appointed as the Censor of Music a certain Kouei, whose

music was so pathetic that the wild beasts were spell-bound, and gathered around him to listen, a thousand years before they paid the same tribute to Orpheus.

Now wealthy nobles have domestic musicians; and troops of wandering minstrels, largely consisting of blind men, wander about the country armed with drums, castanets, flutes, clarionets, twostringed violins, three-stringed and moon-shaped guitars, all of which they try-most ineffectually-to play in unison, with a result truly appalling to Western ears. These orchestras, however, attain their highest capacity of ear-torture when accompanying theatrical representations the one ideal of excellence apparently consisting in the amount of noise which can be produced. At other times Chinese music is both shrill and monotonous to a degree. Its pitch is always considerably higher than our own, and the melodies are neither major nor minor, but waver between the two.

The basis of all Chinese music is the division of the octave into twelve tones called Lüs. These were in very early times-about B.C. 2700-represented by a combination of twelve pieces of bamboo, of the same size but of various lengths. Afterwards these were made of copper, and when these were found to be affected by atmospheric changes, marble or jade was substituted, as being in no measure affected by heat or cold, dryness or humidity. These Lüs were used solely to determine the pitch of the music, and so regulate all the instruments in an orchestra.

This use of sonorous stone for musical purposes is almost peculiar to China. The Siamese have marble flutes; and it is recorded that the ancient Peruvians had a musical instrument of green stone, about

a foot long and an inch and a half wide, arched in the centre, where it was pierced by a small hole, and thus suspended. When struck like a gong the sound produced was singularly musical. With these exceptions, however, the Chinese alone seem to have discovered the melody to be extracted from stone. This they extol as one of the most beautiful of all sounds, ranking midway between the sounds of wood and metal, and more clear and pure in tone than either of these.

Three species of sonorous stone are in use, that which is most highly prized being the Yu, of which large water-worn boulders are found near the mountain torrents in the province of Yun-nam. It is very hard, and takes a polish like agate. Its colour varies greatly, and affects its value, the most melodious tones being obtained from the whey-coloured Yu, after which ranks light-blue, then skyblue, indigo, light-yellow, orange, dark-red, and pale-green. These stones, which are of very great weight, are rarely found more than two feet in length. Among the treasures of the Imperial Palace at Peking, however, are a set three feet eight inches in length, supposed to be unique.

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These stones are hung so that they can be struck successively, forming a King," or great-stone chime. Sixteen stones, each shaped like a carpenter's square, are suspended in two rows of eight, one above the other, in a handsome frame. The thicker the stone, the deeper is its tone when struck, and most skilful carving is requisite to obtain a gradation of tone. So highly were these musical stones prized, that 2000 years before Christ they were brought to China as tribute, reserved for the sole use of the

Emperor. Confucius, however, was so enraptured with their melody that now every Confucian, as well as every Imperial temple, possesses one of these "Kings."

A simpler form of the stone chime, but one likewise reserved only for religious services, is the T'se King, which stands outside the temples. It consists of only one large stone, suspended from a frame by a strong cord passing through a hole bored at the apex. It is struck with a hammer, to give a single note at the end of each verse in the service.

The Chinese also employ sonorous stone in the manufacture of two varieties of flutes, the object being to avoid the changes to which bamboo is liable in varying temperature.

They recognise eight distinct musical sounds as the product of as many different materials. These are the sound of skin, of stone, of metal, of silk, of wood, of bamboo, of gourd, and of baked earth. From skin they obtain drums; from metal, gongs and bells. Stone is fashioned into stone chimes, silk into stringed instruments, wood makes castanets and vibrating instruments, flutes and mouthorgans are produced from bamboo and gourds, while horns and the body of certain drums are made of baked earth, as is also the Hsuan, a curious cone, ornamented with designs of dragons, clouds, &c., and pierced with six holes, one at the apex to blow through, three in front, and two behind. It is used only in Confucian ceremonies, and is said to have been invented B.C. 2700.

Equally ancient is the Chêng or mouth-organ (known in Japan as the Shō), which consists of a gourd into which are inserted seventeen slim bamboos of divers lengths, each having at the base a little

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