LOCUSTS- QUAILS.

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Upper Egypt. A French traveller, who passed this place, on his way from the upper country and the Red Sea, assures me, the Arabs make a sort of bread of them. They dry them, grind them to a powder, then mix this powder with water, and make small round cakes, which serve for bread, when that necessary article is scarce: so that the account of St. John's eating locusts, in the Wilderness, can only be sneered at by fireside travellers.

In Smyrna, I have seen the sky literally black with them; they appear always to travel in a straight meridional line, and thus all the line of country in their course is laid waste by them : "the land which is before them is as the Garden of Eden; and behind them, a desolate wilderness.'

Quails come to Egypt in immense flocks annually, at harvest time; the Arabs take them by thousands, in nets; and consequently, they are so cheap in Alexandria and Cairo, that one may have a large dish of them for a couple of piastres. But whether these are the quails of the Israelites or not, I cannot determine. Like all other migrating

birds, they fly in a direct line, from north to south, and very rarely from east to west.

My information is scanty on this subject; but, such as it is, receive it with the assurance of my respect.

Yours, my dear Sir, very truly,

R. R. M.

LETTER XXVII.

TO CHARLES MATHEWS, ESQ.

MY DEAR MATHEWS,

Thebes, Aug. 18, 1826.

YOURS was the " lily hand" which waved my last adieu, on the beach of Baia, when " my bark was on the sea, and my boat was on the shore." Years have passed away since the light of your jocund countenance beamed upon me; and the memory of those scenes of humour we have together witnessed, I am anxious to recall, for I fear their repetition is not to be expected.

If a few of my adventures between Siout and Thebes can renew the recollection of our old exploits, I shall esteem the labour of my letter as well bestowed; but should I have curtailed my "after dinner's sleep," to receive only a yawn of reminiscence for my pains, I must play the stoick, and affect to be content. Our voyage, from Siout

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ARAB SHEPHERDS.

to Thebes, was followed by a succession of misfortunes; sometimes, indeed, of the most ludicrous description. Provisions were so scarce that nothing was to be bought at the villages but black bread and dried dates.

In the evening it was our custom to send the crew ashore, to milk the first goats and buffaloes they met with. One night, after doing so, some Arab shepherds, who were tending their flock on the river side, imagined our men had a design on their sheep, and actually pretended there was one missing. My companion, hearing this, unfortunately began to bleat like a sheep, in the chamber of the kangea.

The Arabs, who only made the charge of the theft for the purpose of extorting money, now thought they had lost one in reality. Our Reis and the crew protested their innocence, offering to let them search the boat, but nothing would satisfy them. I lost all patience, and threatened to shoot the man who laid hold of the gunnel of our boat. The crew at last offered to refer the business to the Sheik of the village. This was agreed to.

The Reis and myself marched off to the Sheik

COURT OF JUSTICE.

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el belled's house, surrounded by twenty or thirty Arabs, and there the robbery was gravely stated; half a dozen ragged children were produced as witnesses; they all pointed at me as the person who decoyed the flock to the river side. The name of Frangy was enough to get a thousand witnesses against a Christian.

The thing looked serious: in England a man might be hanged on such testimony; but, nevertheless, I was exceedingly amused; it was the first time I was ever brought before a tribunal of justice; and to appear there on a charge of sheepstealing was so singular that, when I was called on by the Sheik for my defence, I burst into laughter.

No Arab can withstand the influence of good-humour; he can resist reason, but he cannot mirth— he is proof against rage, but a smile overcomes him; his tympanum is inured to vituperation and his tongue to invective, but the ludicrous triumphs over all. Let his opponent only relax his features, let a bystander only say something ridiculous, the choler of the Arab vanishes into thin air; in short, he cannot resist good humour.

The Sheik el belled, who should have committed