a great number of people, even strangers. At the conclusion of the entertainment, the daughter was called in, and from the guests she selected him for her husband to whom she presented water. When the bridegroom received her fortune, he added to it an equal sum of his own. The whole money was then employed by them as they conceived to be most advantageous, and the profits of it placed apart. When either of the two died, the capital, and all that it had yielded, remained for the survivor. Husbands had the power of life and death over their wives and children. In the primitive ages of simplicity, even princes were inured to labour by a hardy education. They did not disdain employments which are now considered menial and degrading, for those employments were associated with their earliest ideas. Nausicae, the daughter of Alcinous, King of the Phocions, was commanded to wash her clothes and make all necessary preparations for her marriage. The Princess immediately repaired to the apartment of the King her father, where her mother was sitting near the fire, with her women round her, spinning wool.-Nausicae asked a chariot of her father to carry her clothes to the river to be washed. Alcinous ordered a chariot, to which mules were harnessed. Nausicae's clothes were brought from her apartment, and thrown into the chariot. There likewise was placed, by order of her mother, a basket of provisions for her dinner with a bottle of wine. Nausicae mounted the chariot, and drove to the river, or to the place where they had receptacles of water for washing. The mules were unharnessed, and left to feed on the banks of the river, while the clothes were taken from the chariot and washed; and while they were drying in the sun, they sat down to their dinner. Solon prohibited the giving of fortunes in marriage: he allowed the brides only to bring three robes, and some furniture of little value. His intention was, to raise marriages from a selfish and despicable commerce, to an honourable union for the increase of the human species-to a humane and agrecable state-to the tenderest and sweetest friendship. Dionysius, the Sicilian tyrant, from a reverence to this harmonious connection, gave the following answer to his mother, when she requested him to marry her to a young man of Syracuse: To make myself master of a city, I have been able to force its laws; but I cannot force the laws of Nature, to make improper marriages tolerable to each party." The custom of the Indian women burning themselves with the bodies of their husbands, originated, according to a passage in Diodorus Siculus, in consequence of, the crime of a wife, who had poisoned her husband. SHOPPING IN INDIA. BY EMMA ROBERTS. One of the amusements from which European females are supposed to derive infinite delight (that of shopping) is almost denied to the ladies of India, who can receive little gratification from visiting the dingy depots, in which a multifarious assortment of articles, more distinguished for their variety than for their beauty, are heaped together with a very slight attention to method in their arrangement. People in England are apt to form magnificent ideas of an eastern bazaar, which is, in fact, nothing more than a common market, in which coarse wares of every kind, grain and vegetables, are exposed for sale in open stalls;-the richer productions of Hindostan being secluded in warehouses, and only brought out to persons who intend to purchase: thus the gold and silver stuffs, the embroidered turbans, and spangled scarfs, manufactured at Benares, are not displayed to tempt the passenger's eye; but those who are desirous of becoming customers acquaint the native merchants, who either send samples in boxes, according to order, or receive the visitor in their own houses. The dealers in pearls and diamonds pursue a similar plan; there is, therefore, not many opportunities afforded to people, who are not rich enough to purchase, of even seeing the more precious commodities of the land. A few of the shops at Calcutta boast some degree of neatness in their arrangement, and present numerous tempting articles, particularly those stocked with the manufacture of "',China; and up the country, Mr. Hevell's spiendid establishment at Dinhpore, comprising farm, garden, provision ware house, and Magazin des Modes," is the admiration of all Indian travellers. Although to persons accustomed to the splendour of London, there is little inducement to pay a second visit to these dusty emporiums; yet the inspection, by a stranger of a European shop kept by a native, (that is, a shop kept for the sale of European articles,) cannot fail to afford some amusement. That the trade is a thriving one, is sufficiently evinced by the appearance of the Baboo and his principal assistants. He is generally a tall, fine-looking man, in exceedingly good case ;-indeed, the rich and the poor, the high and the low Hindostanee people, may safely be arranged into two classes-the fat and the thin. Those who can afford to live in idleness, and to eat large quantities of ghee, a sort of butterative dishes, attain to a degree of made of buffaloes' milk, and a principal ingredient in rotundity very nearly approaching to the aldermanic; while persons with whom money is scarce, and who are obliged to content themselves with simple kaarees, a plate of boiled rice, or a cake of coarse flour, are proportionably lean. The Baboo dresses handsomely an ample turban crowns his good-humoured face, he wears a fine sprigged muslin coat, or, perchance, with his loins girded with an immense quantity of snowy drapery descending to his ancles, merely wreaths his fat shoulders with a long piece of muslin, thrown scarfwise across his body-a common costume of the Hindoos of Bengal; though in the upper provinces they usually adopt the graceful vest worn by the Mussulmans, whose dress is parti cularly becoming and picturesque,-consisting of wide trowsers, a coat fitted to the shape as far as the waist, and flowing down to the heels, fastened with a handsome sash of muslin or shawl, and not unfrequently worn over a shirt, or under garment, also of muslin. The merchant, or Soudagur.-whose name, if a Hindoo, may probably be Sankey Doss, or Dowbalut Sing; if a Mussulman, Maam Bucks, or some such appellation,-salutes the gentleman of the party, with the usual address: Well, Sahib, what want?-all things got!" At this sweeping assurance, some luxurious, or perchance unheard of, article is named. The Baboo, shaking his head, yet nothing daunted, with an indescribable chuckle, replies: "All sold." This generally comprises all his English, except that when you complain of the prices of his goods, he may say, "Much money for freight-Captain very dear make little profit-very poor man." His words, though few, are seldom, if ever, mispronounced ;-there is a slight Indian accent; but you never hear a native of Hindostan speak the gibberish which characterizes the African attempts at English. They take the liberty, however, of making considerable alterations in those English words which they have been compelled to adopt, to designate foreign productions-for instance, muffin is invariably called "mufkin"; and dumpling, dumpkin," by the native servants. To return to the European shops. You are ushered into a long, large, dark apartment, supported upon pillars, but having otherwise much the air of a pawnbroker's lumber room; down the centre are rows of tables, and on these dianer and breakfast services of delph and china are placed, together with chandeliers, lustres, cut-glass dishes, candlesticks, lamps, and a variety of hardware, all covered with dust, and all frightfully dear. Along the sides of the apartment are glass cases, in which a strange miscellaneous collection of articles are displayed: bonnets and gowns, which look as if they had been swept out of Cranbourne Alleyrolls of faded ribbon in boxes-non-descript garments made up of long exploded lenos, and other antediluvian fabrics, now without a name cards of dirty blonde lace, mingled with soap, brushes, battledores, bird cages, toilet boxes, and looking-glasses. Then there is European jewellery of the most vulgar description; tawdry brooches, pins, and earrings, with, perchance, a set garnet necklace, and bead negligees, strung in monstrous patterns. Somewhat amazed, you inquire if these goods ever find a sale, and are told that they are frequently purchased by half-caste females, who are extremely fond of European productions, preferring the soiled and faded millinery, and the debased, deteriorated metal, called jeweller's gold, to the manufactures of native looms, and the pure, unalloyed gold and silver worked up into native ornaments. Hitherto, the Soudagur's warehouse has not offered any thing very tempting, though, should the visitor have met with a disaster in the wreck of the crockery department, he may think himself fortunate in being able to supply the breakages at any price; for, excepting at these shops, there is not a glass, a plate, or a tea-cup, to be had throughout Hindostan. The natives cook and eat out of brass utensils; and their earthenware is of the commonest and coarsest description. Here also is to be had, all that the bazaars will not supply: --English vinegars, oils, pickles, preserves, cheese, wine, brandy, and beer. The latter, in stations far removed from Calcutta, is frequently sold at sixteen rupees (two and thirty shillings) per dozen. I have seen four rupees (eight shillings) paid for a wine bottle filled with rape and canary seed; and every thing else is proportionably dear. Half suffocated with heat and dust-disappointed in not finding some simple thing of which you are in want-a pair of scissars, perhaps, or a few reels of thread-and deterred from purchasing the solitary article which took your fancy, because you do not choose to give ten times its value,-you depart disappointed, ordering only those things absolutely necessary for the supply of the table. ON SEEING A MONUMENT BY CHANTRY, ERECTED IN LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL TO THE MEMORY OF TWO CHILDREN. BY RALPH FERRARS, ESQ. Whilst freed from pain, dear babes, your spirits fly And Earth, within her kindred breast contains All that of poor mortality remains; What forms are these, which through the glimmering shrine To thee, blest Genius, whose creative power |