up the ass in its old stall, and went into the house to search it. As he had almost expected, not a para was to be found: not a vestige of anything valuable was visible in any corner of the wretched abode. While Rajeb was prosecuting his examination, he was surprised by the continued whining and braying of his ass. Thinking he had neglected its wants, he went out several times, and put barley, straw, and water before it: but the animal would not touch them, and continued to stamp on the floor of its stall with its foot. Rajeb's attention was at length attracted to this movement, and the ass seeing this, repeated it with increased vehemence. Its master, seizing a bar of rusty iron which stood by, then commenced to turn up the ground where the ass struck. As he did this, the animal looked on with eyes glistening with eager pleasure, and seemed as if it would fain say: 'Go on, go on: it is there!' At last, Rajeb came to a coffer. He turned it out, and, behold! it was filled to overflowing with doubloons, sequins, and all sorts of precious coins. The youth hugged his treasure, but the ass would not yet let him rest. It struck the ground in another spot with his feet; and Rajeb, on digging anew, found a second coffer, filled with pearls, rubies, emeralds, and other valuable gems. The ass stamped no more, and Rajeb hastened to secure his treasures, and to get them transported to Cairo. He put them into two panniers, and although they were very heavy, the ass never slackened its speed, nor gave any signs of weariness, until it brought its burden to its master's door. On the night of his arrival, Rajeb hastened to the house of his mistress. He was just in the nick of time, for an old Turk had seen her, and offered the 5000 piastres to the parents. Rajeb, however, took the father home with him, and showed a part of his treasures, when the marriage was at once agreed on. The young bride proved to be really as virtuous as she was beautiful, and made Rajeb happy. He gave large donations to the poor on the occasion of his wedding. As for the ass, it had the place of honor, during its life, in the stable, and was never doomed to any other toil than that of bearing its mistress and her children. Its master visited the stable every day, and spoke with it as with an old friend. Behold, in this story, a lesson never to despise animals, but always to be gentle and compassionate to them, for they may often repay a hundredfold the little kindnesses which we do to them. SLEEP-WALKING. No phenomenon in the human economy is calculated to excite so much surprise as that called Somnambulism, or Sleep-Walking. If sleep be the intermediate state betwixt wakeful life and death, somnambulism is a condition intermediate betwixt sleep and wakefulness. In perfect sleep, all the organs or faculties composing the mind, together with the external senses and the powers of voluntary motion, are in a state of rest or torpor. Dreaming is a slight approach to wakefulness, seeing that some of the cerebral organs are then in a state of activity, while others are quiescent. In dreaming, the external senses may or may not be in a state of activity. Some people, for example, can be led to dream of particular subjects by the talk of others placed near them when sleeping; while other dreamers are totally insensible to all sounds emitted within the range of their organs of hearing. In ordinary dreaming, too, the powers of voluntary motion are often exercised to a slight extent. A dreamer, under the impression that he is engaged in an active battle, will frequently give a bedfellow a smart belaboring. Often, also, in cases of common dreaming, the muscles on which the production of the voice depends are set in action, through the instrumentality of that portion of the brain which is not in a quiescent state, and the dreamer mutters, or talks, or cries aloud. All these partial demonstrations of activity in the external senses, and in the powers of voluntary motion, form an approach to that remarkable state termed somnambulism, in which all or nearly all of the senses, and of the muscles of the body, are frequently in perfect activity, the torpor of a part of the cerebral organs being the only feature rendering the condition different from that of waking life. The degrees in which the preceding characteristics are observable in somnambulism, vary, as is natural, in different cases; and the causes of this, as well as of the condition itself, are well and forcibly explained by Mr. Macnish in his Anatomy of Sleep. If we dream that we are walking, and the vision possesses such a degree of vividness and exciting energy as to arouse the muscles of locomotion, we naturally get up and walk. Should we dream that we hear or see, and the impression be so vivid as to stimulate the eyes and ears, or, more properly speaking, those parts of the brain which take cognizance of sights and sounds, then we both see any objects, or hear any sounds, which may occur, just as if we were awake. In some cases, the muscles only are excited, and then we simply walk, without hearing or seeing.' In other cases, for the reasons given, we both walk and see; and in a third variety, we at once walk, see, and hear. In the same way, the vocal organs alone may be stimulated, and a person may merely be a sleep-talker; or, under a conjunction of impulses, he may talk, walk, see, and hear. These brief explanations may aid in preventing the reader from being puzzled by the philosophy of this curious condition of the bodily system, or from being disposed to discredit the cases related. The simplest and perhaps least surprising cases, are those in which the locomotive powers alone of the body are set in action by the vividness of a dreaming impulse. The person rises, strikes his head or body against something, and awakes. A leap from bed is also a comparatively common and slight species of somnambulism. In the belief of being compelled to cross a ditch by the pursuit of a bull, a gentleman bounded some time since from bed, and at one spring found himself placed upon a dressing-table which stood a short way from the foot of the bed. A few inches farther, and he would have passed through, or at least struck, a window. But such cases have little interest in comparison with those in which the somnambulism is not momentary, but of continued duration. The following case is related by Smellie in his Philosophy of Natural History: Near thirty years ago, I had an opportunity of examining a striking example of somnambulism. Within a mile of Edinburgh, I happened to reside some time in a farmer's house. Mr. Baird, my landlord, had a servantmaid, whose name was Sarah. I was not long there, when I learned from the family that Sarah, particularly after receiving an affront, or being angered, was accustomed to rise in her sleep, to go out, and to walk about the fields. My curiosity was excited, and I begged to be informed the first time that Sarah should rise in her sleep. A few nights afterwards, one of Mr. Baird's sons awaked me, and told me that Sarah had got out of bed. I immediately hastened to the apartment where she slept. When I arrived, Mr. and Mrs. Baird, one of their sons, and a servant-maid, Sarah's companion, were present. Sarah was in the midst of them. I took my seat by her. We began immediately to converse. She answered any questions that were put to her pretty distinctly; but she always mistook the person who spoke, which gave us an opportunity of assuming any character within the circle of her acquaintance. I knew that one of the farmer's servants, whose name was John Porteous, was a lover of hers; and therefore I addressed her in the style which I supposed John might have sometimes done. From that moment she began to scold me, and in the most peremptory manner forbade me ever to speak to her again on that topic. The conversation was accordingly changed. I talked of her mistress, who was in the room, because I knew that they had occasional quarrels. Till now, I suspected that the whole was a trick, but for what purpose I could not discover. Sarah, however, abused Mrs. Baird in the harshest terms; she said but the other day she had been accused of stealing and drinking some bottles of ale; that her mistress was suspicious, cruel, and narrow-minded. As the mistress of the house was present when these and other opprobrious terms were used, I began to be shaken in my preconceived notion of imposture, and therefore changed the object of my experiments and inquiries. I examined her countenance, and found that her eyes, though open, wild, and staring, were not absolutely fixed. I took a pin, and repeatedly pricked her arm; but not a muscle moved, not a symptom of pain was discoverable. At last she became impatient to leave the room, and made several attempts to get out by the door; but that was prevented by the domestics. Perceiving her inability to force the door, she made a sudden spring at the window, and endeavored to throw herself over, which would have been fatal to her. To remove every suspicion of imposture, I desired the people, with proper precautions to prevent harm, to try if she would really precipitate herself from the window. A seemingly free access was left for her escape, which she perceived, and instantly darted with such force and agility, that more than one half of her body was projected before her friends were aware. They, however, laid hold of her, and prevented the dreadful catastrophe. She was again prevailed upon, though with much reluctance, to sit down. She soon resumed her former calmness, and freely answered such questions as were put to her. This scene continued for more than an hour. I was perfectly convinced, notwithstanding my original suspicions, that the woman was actuated by strong and natural impulses, and not by any design to deceive. I asked if any of the attendants knew how to awaken her. A female servant replied that she did. She immediately, to my astonishment, laid hold of Sarah's wrist, forcibly squeezed and rubbed the projecting bones, calling out at the same time, "Sarah! Sarah!" By this operation, Sarah awoke. She started with amazement, looked round, and asked how so many people came to be in her apartment at so unseasonable an hour. After she was completely awake, I asked her what was the cause of her restless and violent agitation. She replied, that she had been dreaming that she was pursued by a furious bull, which was every moment on the point of goring her.' In the preceding case, there is one point worthy of especial note, and this is the insensibility of the girl to pain when her arm was repeatedly pricked. As will be shown afterwards, this is a phenomenon which has recently thrown quite a novel interest over somnambulism, and made it a subject of greater importance. The somnambulist in Smellie's case had not apparently the perfect power of vision. She did not or could not |