parents and seniors. The Namaquas are of a lively disposition. Dancing is an amusement of which they are passionately fond, though their graceless steps are flattered by the name. It is scarcely necessary to say that this diversion is, with them, the synonym of a catalogue of excesses: it is inseparable from a host of moral delinquencies. It is the exponent of their position with respect to Christianity. When a native says of any of his people," They dance," he means, 66 They are still Heathens." On the contrary, to say, "They have given up dancing," implies that they have embraced Christianity; and "They pray" signifies that they are really pious. They have no warlike or pastoral songs. Their musical instruments are of a very simple character: a reed, on which they produce some plaintive notes, a tambourine, and a rude imitation of the violin, made of a few strings stretched over a piece of calabash, compose the list. Drunkenness is a crying evil of the Hottentot race. The Namaquas make a strong intoxicating liquor of honey. It is diluted with water, and an infusion from a certain root produces fermentation. The same process is adopted with the juice of their favourite berry, with equal success.

They have feasts on occasions of births, marriages, and coming of age. Marriage is viewed as an important event. The day is spent in mirth, and the parents of the bride give up their hut to the newly-married pair until they have time to make a new one.-Death is generally regarded in a very stoical manner. All the feeling manifested is by the couch of the sick : after the spirit has departed, it is seldom that any emotion is shown by the bereaved. A tear is seldom seen to fall from the eye of a widowed relict or an orphan." Weeping cannot bring them back: why then should we mourn?" is the common saying. The corpse is generally interred on the day of decease, wrapped in skins. Earth is thrown into the grave by all the male relatives in turn; and a mound of stones is raised over the spot to protect it from the ravening wolves.

The Government is by a Chief and Council. The chieftainship is hereditary, but the council of elders is always a check on despotism. Their mode of warfare does not display much tact or courage. When two parties take the field, they approach each other by creeping from bush to bush, and rock to rock. A single man may defend himself against a host, if he can get into a good position.

As to religion, their minds appear to have been almost a blank. They do not seem to have been in the habit of observing any rites or ceremonies of this character, or to have had any idea of responsibility to a higher Being. The fact that their language contains names for God, and spirits, and also for the wicked one, seems to indicate that they were not totally ignorant of those subjects. The superstitious tales which have been gleaned from them by travellers, and advanced as religious records, are regarded by the natives themselves in the light of fables. They have much more confidence in witchcraft than in religion. Almost every disease or calamity, and sudden death in particular, they attribute to some enemy who is supposed to hold the fatal charm. The practice of medicine is almost

exclusively confined to the "witch doctor;" and though his efforts often result in signal failure, yet their occasional success, attributable to the simple remedies which he employs, confirms them in their belief of the accusations which he makes, and the power that he arrogates. The doctor generally practises some sleight of hand, and pretends to extract pieces of stick, sheep's bones, and other substances from the limbs of his patients. As a native Council will seldom meet without breathing destruction to some well-fed beeves, so the "witch doctor" never carries on his operations without sacrificing the best of his patient's flock to his art, or rather to his appetite, and demanding exorbitant pay besides.

MEDINA AND THE PROPHET'S TOMB.

NEARLY eight days were consumed in travelling over little more than one hundred and thirty miles. Many a spot, consecrated by the false prophet's footsteps, or by the blood of the "faithful," was pointed out; and now the sacred city itself appeared in view. All halted, as if by word of cominand, and sat down, jaded and hungry as they were, to feast their eyes with the sight. Ejaculations to Allah broke forth on every hand, and in rich poetical language, born of religious enthusiasm, the Arab might be heard exclaiming, "Live for ever, O most excellent of prophets! live in the shadow of happiness during the hours of night and the times of day, whilst the bird of the tamarisk (the dove) moaneth like the childless mother, whilst the west wind bloweth gently over the hills of Nejd, and the lightning flasheth in the firmament of El Hejaz." The bright domes and minarets of the mosques, and the four tall towers encircling the restingplace of Mohammed, with the green dome under which his remains repose, stood out conspicuously above the chill grey mass of house and ground. Behind lay the thick palm-groves, celebrated in El Islam as "the trees of El Medina;" while fields of black basaltic scoriæ in the foreground, showing clear signs of a volcanic origin, set off the scene. Remounting their camels, a few minutes more brought them to the gate of the city; and, though it was yet early morning, the way was crowded with eager multitudes coming out to meet the caravan. Friends and comrades greeted each other, regardless of rank or fortune, with affectionate embraces, and an abundance of gestures.

Sheikh Hamid first received the salutations of his mother and daughter in private; for the Arabs do not like strangers to overhear the shrill cries of joy with which the female members of their household usually welcome them. Then came the reception of relations and friends, who are always expected to call on the traveller the very day of his return. Everyone had laid aside the dirty, tattered raiment of the desert for his finest suit; for a man's prosperity is judged by his dress in El Medina, as well as in more civilized cities. The visiters arrived in great numbers to do honour to the Sheikh. They sat down, smoked, chatted politics, asked all manner of

questions about the other wayfarers and absent friends, drank coffee, and, after about half an hour spent in this manner, rose abruptly, and, exchanging embraces, took their leave. The "Holy War"—as at that time it was generally termed throughout the East-was the grand topic of conversation. The Sultan had ordered the Czar to become a Moslem; the Czar had sued for peace, and offered tribute and fealty. But the Sultan had exclaimed, "No, by Allah! El Islam!" The Czar could not be expected to take such a step without a little hesitation, but "Allah smites the face of the infidels!" Abdel Mejid would dispose of "the Moskow" in a short time, after which he would turn his victorious army against the "Feringistan," beginning with the English, the French, and the Greeks!

Mohammedan custom enjoins that the visit to the harem, or sanctuary, be not delayed by the pious; and the latter portion of the day of arrival was [very strangely] devoted by Lieutenant Burton and the Sheikh to this self-imposed duty. There is no outer front to the prophet's mosque ; consequently, as a building, it has neither beauty nor dignity. The approach is choked up by ignoble houses, some actually touching the holy walls, others separated by a narrow lane. Our traveller entered by "the Gate of Pity," up a diminutive flight of steps; and he confesses his astonishment at the mean and tawdry appearance of a place so universally venerated in the Moslem world. "The longer I looked at it," he says, "the more it suggested the resemblance of a museum of second-rate art-a curiosityshop, full of ornaments that are not accessories, and decorated with pauper splendour." The building covers a parallelogram about four hundred and twenty feet in length by three hundred and forty broad, the directions of the long walls being nearly north and south. The length of St. Paul's, it may be remembered, is four hundred and eighty feet from east to west, and its breadth at the transept two hundred and eighty feet; but there are no points of comparison between the masterpiece of Wren and the mosque of El Medina. In the centre is a spacious area surrounded by a peristyle, with numerous rows of pillars, like the colonnades of an Italian monastery. Along the whole inner length of the northern side runs the Mejedi riwak, or porch, so called from the reigning Sultan, at whose instance it was commenced five or six years ago; which, should it ever be finished, bids fair to eclipse the rest of the building in magnificence.

The mausoleum consists of a hujrah, or chamber, so called from its having been Ayisha's room, the home of the prophet's favourite wife. It is an irregular square of from fifty to fifty-five feet, separated on all sides by a narrow passage from the walls of the mosque. Inside there are, or are supposed to be, three tombs facing the south, surrounded by stone-walls without any aperture, or, as others say, by strong planking. Whatever the material is, it is hung outside with a curtain that suggests the idea of a large four-post bedstead. There are two railings round it, a dark passage running between them: the outer one is painted a vivid grass-green, but has, carefully inserted in the verdure, in gilt or burnished brass-work, the

long and graceful letters of the Suls character, disposed into the Moslem creed or other religious sentences; while on the south side, for greater honour, it is plated over with silver, interlaced with silver letters. This fence has four gates, three of which are constantly kept closed, the fourth being free only to the officers and servants who have charge of the place and the treasures deposited there. In the southern side are three windows, or rather holes, about half a foot square, the most westerly of which is supposed to front Mohammed's tomb, and is therefore called the Prophet's Window; next on the right is Abubekr's; and beyond that, Omar's. At the grave of each of these mighty men of the past, the pilgrim offers his devotions. Straining his eyes to look through the aperture-for he did not choose to pay an exorbitant sum for admission to the inner passage— Lieutenant Burton saw hangings with three inscriptions in large gold letters, informing readers that behind them lay Allah's prophet, and the first two Caliphs; and suspended to the curtain breast-high, to distinguish the exact place where the sacred ashes rest, was a large pearl rosary, and a peculiar ornament, the celebrated kankab el durri, or constellation of pearls. Above the hujrah rises the green dome, surmounted by a large gilt crescent springing from a series of globes; and this gem of the building the Moslem imagination crowns with a pillar of heavenly light, which directs from three days' distance the pilgrims' steps towards El Medina. The whole place within and without is beset by beggars; some mild and picturesque, squatting quietly on the ground, and looking wistfully at their napkins spread before them; some angry, cursing if not gratified; some noisy and petulant, capturing their victim by the skirts, and extorting a ransom; some pretty and young, some ugly and dirty in unwashen age; while in close vicinity is a whole tribe of blind, and halt, and diseased. The first visit cost our traveller a pound sterling, and never afterwards could he escape without paying half that sum.

There is a large staff of officers connected with the mosque. Of these, the principal at present is a Turkish Pasha appointed from Constantinople; under whom are various subordinates, and one hundred and twenty eunuchs, divided into three orders according to their specific duties. Next come a number of servants, embracing almost all the middle and lower class of citizens, divided into parties of thirty each, which change every week, and render assistance to the eunuchs in their menial work. And then there is the chief of the water-carriers, with about fifty men under his authority, to sprinkle the floors, and water the garden, and perform other similar offices. Not less extensive is the literary establishment.

The town of El Medina itself presents few points of remarkable interest. The walls are built of granite and lava-blocks; the streets are deep, dark, and narrow, the chief of them radiating towards the mosque; and the population, including those resident in the suburbs and castle, is estimated at about sixteen hundred. Without the city are five mosques,-of similar character and pretensions to that within,—all of which the pilgrim is expected to visit. In the vicinity, too, are the mosques of Kuba, where the

prophet's camel knelt down after the flight from Mecca, and other spots of superstition, to all which devotees are expected to resort.-Abridged, in "Leisure Hour," from Lieutenant Burton's "Personal Narrative."

AUGUSTINE, BISHOP OF HIPPO.

I. "CONFESSIONS"-EARLY LIFE-MANICHÆISM.

No name in the earlier church bears so representative a character as that of Augustine. He is the first of the Fathers, whether of the East or West, in depth, comprehensiveness, and versatility of genius. No one of them stamped his impress more deeply upon his own times; while, in direct or indirect influence upon the after-ages of the church, he is far beyond them all. In his own age, his remarkable conversion, the force of his intellect, his deep sanctity, his experience of heresy and unwearied zeal in opposing it, his writings in every department of theology and sacred philosophy, his energy as a Preacher, his apostolical devotion as a Bishop, his untiring watchfulness over the interests of the church of Christ, all conspired to give him the highest place in the Christian world, and to make Hippo, in Northern Africa, the real centre of the church. His influence upon the theology and religious life of Christendom during the succeeding thousand years was immeasurable in every direction,-at least, in the western world. The Latin Fathers who followed him, down to the time of Bernard, were to a great extent the expositors of his genius, exhibiting traces of his mind in almost every page of their writings. His works, with those of Jerome, Ambrose, Gregory the Great, but his especially,-transmitted to the middle ages the materials of the scholastic divinity, in which Aristotle reigned; while, on the other hand, the mystical divinity which kept pace with it, and over which the spirit of Platonism presided, derived from his contemplative writings its main impulse and direction. The monastic institution owed much of the good which was in it to his influence; the Order which bears his name was the cradle of the Reformation. He did much to consolidate and develop the gigantic system of doctrine and ecclesiastical polity which was first disturbed by the Reformation; but his influence was scarcely less than supreme in the earlier tendencies of the Reformation itself. Luther was an earnest student of his writings, and received from them an impression which moulded his theological character, and was felt long after he had left his master behind. And all the divines of that new age of theology paid their tribute to his genius. Jansenism. within the Roman Catholic Church, and Calvinism without it, were only the reproduction of the Augustinian system. They both bear witness to the high service of his writings, as unfolding and prominently exhibiting the great distinctive doctrines of redemption and grace-with whatever errors encumbered. He holds a high place, almost the highest, in the Roman Kalendar; but he is also venerated in every truly catholic community To no name in the church is appeal made by so many and so