and though our author offered large rewards to any one who would point out a nest, the eggs and nidification still remain to be described. The natives adopt the following method of obtaining specimens of the Seleucides:

Patiently searching the forest until he has discovered the usual roosting-place of the bird, the hunter conceals himself beneath the tree, and, having noted the exact branch chosen, climbs up at night and quietly places a cloth over his unsuspecting quarry. The species being exceedingly fond of the scarlet fruit of the pandanus, the roosting-placcs are easily recognized by the dejecta. The plan would, perhaps, by most of us be regarded as very similar to that counselled by our nurses, in which a pinch of salt is the only requisite; but the noiseless movements of the native hunters overcome all difficulties, and the tree once discovered, the chances are said to be considerably against the bird.

Dr. Guillemard gives us some amusing anecdotes of the pet animals on board the Marchesa. While at Kamschatka, a large but not fully developed bear, called Misky, and a charming little Sinhalese mongoose were presented to the voyagers by some Russian officers. favorite, but not altogether a source of Misky was a great unmixed pleasure.

A gallant lieutenant coming on board one day in full dress proved too great a temptation for Bruin, who immediately seized him by the coat-tails. It was found impossible to make him let go until the discomfited officer had reduced himself to his shirt-sleeves, when, delighted with his success, the delinquent shuffled off. He was apparently almost indifferent to pain. A smell of burning being one day discovered forward, one of the crew proceeded to investigate the cause, and found Misky standing upright on the top of a nearly red-hot stove, engaged in stealing cabbages from a shelf above. He was growling in an undertone, and standing first on one leg and then on the other, but he nevertheless went on slowly eating, heedless of the fact that the soles of his feet were burnt entirely raw. Punishment for his numerous offences was in vain; as he grew older he got tions of the cabin skylight and a man's worse, "and after having devoured porthumb, and finished by drinking the oil out of the binnacle lamp, he was shipped to England" on the arrival of the Marchesa at Hongkong, and probably may now be seen in the bear-pit of the Zoological Gardens. As to the mongoose, his sole object in life was mischief.

However, it is not so easy to find the tree, and a month spent by the natives employed in the forest resulted in the capture of only one bird. The natives of the Aru Islands, taking advantage of their knowledge of the habits of the great bird of paradise (Paradisea apoda, Lin.), the largest known species, obtain specimens with comparative ease. At a certain season of the year, some time in May, these birds commence their dancing-parties, called by the natives their sácaleli, that are held in certain trees of the forest, on branches affording a clear space for the birds to play and exhibit their plumes. On one of these trees, Mr. Wallace tells us, a dozen or twenty full-plumaged birds Whether biting one's toes as one lay asleep assemble together, raise up their wings, in the early morning, capsizing the ink-bottle, stretch out their necks, and elevate their morsel from the dinner-table, he was never or bolting surreptitiously with some coveted exquisite plumes, keeping them in a con- still; but his greatest happiness-for it was tinual vibration. As soon, then, as the attended with that spice of danger which gives male birds in gorgeous nuptial attire have the true zest to sport-was to "draw" Misky. fixed on a tree on which to exhibit, the When that unsuspecting animal was rolling natives build a small shelter of palm | his unwieldy body about on deck, ignorant of leaves in a suitable place among the the proximity of his enemy, the mongoose branches. Before daylight the hunter, would approach noiselessly from behind and armed with his bow and arrows, whose points are round knobs, ensconces himself under cover of the palm-leaf shelter. At the foot of the tree a boy awaits, and when the birds in sufficient numbers have arrived and have begun to dance, the hunter shoots with his blunt arrow and stuns the bird, which falls down, and is immediately secured and killed, without the plumage being injured by a drop of blood, by the boy attendant. Mr. Wallace gives in his delightful work an illustration of this method of shooting the great bird of paradise by the natives of Aru.

nip him sharply in the foot. Long before the
huge foot had descended in a futile effort at
revenge the little rascal was safely under
and the bear might just as well have attempted
cover, on the lookout for another opportunity,
to catch a mosquito. A more thorough little
pickle never existed, but, like all pickles, he
was very popular, and when one morning he
disappeared never to return there was great
lamentation among our men.
We never
learnt his fate. Probably Misky had caught
his tormentor, after many months of vain en-
deavor, and had dined off him.

On the return of the Marchesa from
New Guinea, the yacht was like a floating

up on the curly coat of Dick, the retriever, or alongside the big cassowary, who would resuitability for food. Chugs grew so rapidly gard him wonderingly, and as if debating his that he was soon nearly as big as Dick; but he still continued to use him as a sleepingmat, and towards the end of the voyage poor Dick hardly dared to lie down.

menagerie; the gem of the collection was | smacking of lips, grunting contentedly the the twelve-wired bird of paradise (Selen- while. When tired he would nestle himself cides nigricans), which got very tame, and would readily eat from the hand. Seizing any cockroach that ventured into his cage, he would throw it in the air and catch it lengthwise, "displaying the vivid grassgreen coloring of his mouth and throat in the operation." He seemed to feel the least fall in temperature, and died before We must now take leave of Dr. Guillethe ship got beyond the tropics. Mon- mard and the Marchesa. The perusal of keys sat gibbering on the bulwarks, and this work has given us the greatest pleas large white cockatoos sidled solemnly ure; it is one of the best-written, most up and down their perches, cassowaries instructive, and fascinating_records of roamed at will from end to end of the travel we have ever read. The illustra yacht; one young cassowary was as play- tions, by Messrs. Edward and Charles ful as a puppy. "His favorite diversion Whymper and J. Keulemans, whether in was to get up a sham fight with a venti- the reproduction of magnificent scenery, lator, dancing round it in the most ap- or of figures of men and animals, are all proved pugilistic style, now feinting, now fine specimens of the engraver's art. getting in a right and left. The blows book is furnished also with a number of were delivered by kicking out in front." clearly executed maps, and with several On Sundays the decorum of the service appendices of lists of birds and other would often be disturbed by the casso-zoological collections, as well as with a wary appearing among the congregation vocabulary of the Sulu, Waigiou, and Jobi engaged in a lively skirmish with a kanga

roo, which entertainment would attract a

select gathering of various dogs and a tame pig to see fair play. There were two species of tree kangaroos (Dendrolagus) on board, about the size of small hares. In Australia the kangaroo is a terrestrial animal, but in New Guinea the dense jungle necessitates a change of habit, so that in Dendrolagus we have an interesting instance of a ground animal gradually becoming arboreal; although a tree-haunting animal, it is as yet only a tyro in the art of climbing, and performs the operation in a slow and awkward man

ner.

Neither species lived to see England. Before we conclude we must notice one more pet, viz., "a pig of tender age, who had perhaps more character in him than any other member of the menagerie." Chugs was the name of the porcine infant. "In many parts of New Guinea the women make pets of these animals, carrying them about and suckling them with their own babies," but whether Chugs had been so reared is uncertain.

He was striped longitudinally with alternate bands of black and yellow,* and, though hardly more than eight inches long when he first joined the ship, was afraid of no living thing aboard. He roamed the deck from morning till night, chasing the cockroaches and devouring them with much gusto and

It is a well-known but very curious fact that the young of wild pigs generally, if not universally, are longitudinally banded, and that this character disappears under domestication.

The

languages. Dr. Guillemard evidently possesses high qualifications for a successful traveller; he is thoroughly scientific, and a man of wide general culture, full of energy, determination, and patience, a good sportsman and an admirable narrator, with a lively sense of the humorous and a keen appreciation of what is best to tell and what best to leave untold. Author, artists, engraver, and publisher may all be heartily congratulated on the production of this work.

From The Gentleman's Magazine. THE SEASON OF THE TWELVE DAYS.

IT is only five days from London to the Piræus, and after eating our Christmas dinner at home and going through the customary festivities we found on our arrival in Greece that we had yet several days to spare before Christmas according to the old style would be celebrated. Our route lay northwards, and, having time at our disposal, we determined to spend the season of the twelve days, as the period. between Christmas and Epiphany is called in Greece, at places where we could study the Greeks in their more primitive abodes, and enjoy old Father Christmas in his genuine old style. A steamer landed us at Chalcis, in Euboea, on Christmas eve, a charming old town, semi-Turkish in character, with the minarets of mosques now converted into shops and barracks for sol

diers, with a massive and picturesque for- | tanned goatskin fastened to two reeds and tress of medieval days commanding that slung over her shoulders by two cords. celebrated stream the Euripus, the narrow She wished me to take the baby too, which current separating Eubœa from the main was sleeping in it; but this I declined. land, which changes its course sometimes The result, however, of making this exas often as fourteen times in twenty-four traordinary purchase, was that I soon hours. possessed a host of eager inquisitive friends, peasants from the mountains, respectable citizens of Chalcis, each and all of them ready to talk about Christmas, and the customs observed by them in its celebration.

us.

As I returned towards the inn, with my cradle concealed as well as it could be inside my coat, I observed some children going from door to door singing ditties,

The landing at Chalcis was somewhat difficult, for the current was racing against First we labored up one side of it as far as the castle, which is built in the middle of the stream; then we were twisted round at a great rate towards our ship again; and then another twist carried us into the backwater and landed us on Euboea. For some time after landing we stood on the bridge and watched this nat-after the fashion of our own Christmas ural phenomenon and the numerous little craft which were going through the same difficulties that we had experienced ourselves, whilst beneath us boiled the rushing water of the current, apparently not intent on changing its course for some time to come; and we thought of the legend which relates that Aristotle sought to drown himself with despair because he could not discover the causes of this natural wonder, which baffles even the learned of this scientific age. The views around as were superb. Chalcis, with its walls and towers built on a projecting tongue of land; the circular bay of the Holy Minas, which serves as a port for the town, dotted with pretty caiques with gay-colored sails; to the east the mighty snow-clad peak of Euboea, Mount Delphi, made an exquisite background to the red roofs and towers of the town. To the west rose the Bootian Mountains on the mainland, joined to Euboea by a bridge. Somewhat loth to leave this glorious scene, we followed the porter who carried our luggage through some tortuous streets, and found ourselves in a miserably dirty inn, established for Christmas. Of course we carried sheets and towels with us; for when it is considered time to wash these articles in a Greek inn I know not; generations of travellers must have slept in those that were originally spread on our beds, and used the slippers and the comb which are always provided; but we had severed our-epithet "festive." selves from civilization for a purpose, and Father Christmas in his Eastern home cannot be visited without a spirit of resignation and a certain degree of fortitude.

On Christmas eve I bought a cradle from one of the most delightful women I have ever seen, dressed in a long tunic of homespun material embroidered at the edges, and her head enveloped in a yellow kerchief. The cradle was made of un

carols, about the birth of Christ, and re-
ceiving as they passed by from each
housewife presents of dried fruit and eggs.
I entered one of the houses, of mean as-
pect, which are built on the higher slopes
of the town, and which form all that is left
of the old Turkish town. Here I found
many peasants assembled, and very hos-
pitably inclined, inasmuch as they insisted
on my gulping down a glass of mastic and
eating a spoonful of jam. In a moment
of inadvertence I opened the buttons of
my coat, and down on the floor fell my
cradle, to my intense horror and the as-
tonishment of the assembled peasants.
They did not laugh; if they had done that
I could have borne it better.
"The man
has a cradle with him!" they whispered
to one another. "Do the Frank men carry
the babies?" said another, and it was use.
less to tell them that I had bought it for a
curiosity. I am sure they looked upon
me as a specimen of some effeminate race
of mankind who mind the babies whilst
their wives work in the fields. To change
the subject, I murmured that I had come
to spend Christmas amongst them, that I
wished to know exactly what they did on
this occasion; and before I left I received
a general invitation to look in any time I
liked during my stay at Chalcis and see
for myself what are the habits and cus-
toms of the Euboeans during the season
which we are pleased to describe by the

In the first place, it must be clearly understood that Christmas-time to a Greek is by no means considered as festive; in fact, they look upon the twelve days which intervene between Christmas and Epiphany rather with abhorrence than otherwise; it is to them the season when ghosts and hobgoblins are supposed to be most rampant; it is generally cold, ungenial weather, and the Greeks of to-day, like

their ancestors, live contented only when | and the excellence of the dish, and great the warm rays of the life-giving sun scorch was my relief when it was removed and them. They can get up no enthusiasm, dried fruits and nuts took its place. To as we can, about yule logs and blazing drink we had resinated wine that is to fires, for they have nothing to warm them- say, wine which has been stored in a keg selves with save small charcoal braziers covered with resin inside, which gives the capable of communicating heat to not flavor so much relished by the Greeks, more than one limb at a time; all the fes- but which is almost as unpalatable to an tive energies of the race are reserved for Englishman as beer must be to those who Carnival and Eastertide, when the warmth drink it for the first time. The wine, of spring enables them once more to enjoy | however, had the effect of loosening the life out of doors the only one tolerable tongues of my friends, who had been too when you know what their low, dirty busy as yet to talk, and they told me houses are like. The saying thus runs in many interesting Christmas tales. Greece: "Stop in bed at Christmas, and put on fine clothes at Easter." I verified for myself the fact that this saying is put into frequent practice; for next morning, a dull cheerless day, with a biting cold wind from the surrounding mountains, in almost every cottage I entered I found the master of the house buried under a pile of homespun rugs on the family couch murmuring "Winter! winter!" whilst his wife was bustling about preparing for the Christmas meal.

In the first place, the conversation turned on certain spirits called "lame needles," which every Euboean woman of low degree will tell you visit the earth at this season of the year; one lame needle, presumably the leader, comes on Christmas eve, and the rest of the tribe put in an appearance on Christmas day. They are dreadful creatures to look upon, and, according to my friends, they live in caves whilst on earth, near which no wise person at this season of the year will venture. They subsist, like the Amazons of old, on snakes and lizards, and sometimes on women, if they are lucky enough to entrap one. These demons are only dangerous at night, from sunset to cockcrow. When not engaged in dancing the lame needles wander about, and do any amount of mischief. It is their custom to enter houses by the chimney; so every housewife is careful at this season of the year to leave some embers burning all night, for they dread fire and also crosses, and it is for this reason that at Christmas-time we see so many whitewash crosses on the cottage doors in Greece.

For a month before Christmas every pious Greek has observed a rigid fast; consequently the "table" which on that day is spread in every house produces something akin to festivity. My friends of the evening before begged me to sit down and partake of the meal that they had prepared. It was somewhat of a struggle to me, I must own, for I expected it would not be served in very magnificent style. Still I was hardly prepared for what actually happened. On a small round table was placed a perfect mountain of maccaroni and cheese. not such cheese as we are accustomed to put with ours, but coarse sheep's-milk cheese, The priests alone have any power over which stung my mouth like mustard, and them, and it is to ward off these uncanny left a pungent taste therein which tarried visiters that the procession which we saw, there for days. Then there were no plates, of the priests and two acolytes going from no forks, no spoons. The master of the house to house, is made on Christmas house had a knife with which he attacked day; they give each house their blessing, the dish, and the one which on ordinary waft the censer in at the door, and pass occasions fell to the mistress was now on. When Epiphany comes these lame kindly placed at my disposal. As for the needles are forced to flee again underrest of the family, they were an example ground; but before they go they take a of the adage that fingers were made before hack at the tree which supports the world, forks, and these fingers grew obviously and which one day they will cut through. cleaner as the meal progressed. What a | In appearance, these ugly visitors are meal it was indeed, as if it were a contest supposed to be goat-footed goblins, far in gastronomic activity! Yet it was pleasant to see the appetite with which great and small entered into the contest and filled their mouths to overflowing with the savory mess. I was left far behind in the contest, and had, I fear, to tell many untruths concerning my appetite

taller than any man; and when they stand erect they are higher than the highest chimney; in fact, I should imagine that they are lineal descendants of the satyrs of old, still haunting their accustomed purlieus. They are more especially troublesome to women, and from amongst

nel between Euboea and the mainland, past the far-famed baths of Edipsus, past the mountains which look down on Thermopylæ, and next morning we woke in the harbor of Volo, the port of Thessaly, a town which will eventually rise to importance if ever modern Hellas is to have a future. The next event of interest in connection with the season of the twelve

these they select as the object of their attack widows and expectant mothers; and no wise woman who may chance to belong to either of these critically situated dasses of females would dare to go out at night and fetch water from the well during the season of the twelve days, or she would be waylaid, and, if not eaten, cruelly handled. It is considered as a distinct calamity to a family if a child is born dur-days found us at Trikkala, a fortress ing these days, for these unfortunate children will be sure to walk in their sleep and be otherwise queer, and after their death they will go to swell the ranks of the much-dreaded lame needles.

I will give you a specimen of one of the stories which my friends told me when I slightly threw discredit on the above-described apparitions. It is not a very lively one, but will show the character of the Christmas stories which are current in Greece to-day. The lady of the house it was who vehemently took up the cudgels on behalf of the discredited lame needles, and told the tale which she was sure would beyond all doubt establish the truth of her previous assertions.

town on the frontier of Greece and Turkey, at the wretched little inn America, where no guest expects a whole room to himself more than he would a whole railway carriage.

Trikkala is very Turkish, having only been in Greek hands for eight years; but though you see mosques and latticed windows at every turn, there is not a Turk left; when his rule is over the Mussulman packs his luggage; he will not be subject to the infidel. It is very squalid indeed, and down the bazaar ran an open drain; but, nevertheless, the walk by the river, a tributary of the Peneus, is pretty, and towards evening women came down to the stream to wash and fetch home water in quaint round bottles. I think one of the most marked distinctions between Turk and Greek is whitewash. Greeks love whitewash. Houses, churches, public buildings, are excessively clean outside, and promise what the interior fails to fulfil. This is especially remarkable at Trikkala, where the brown mud houses of Turkish days are being rapidly coverted

"A lame needle once overheard two women settling to get up at night during the season of the twelve days to leaven bread at the house of one of them. Accordingly he knocked at the door of the woman who was going to carry her dough to the other's house, and pretended to be a messenger sent to hurry her. Fearing nothing, the silly woman set off with her dough, accompanied by the uncanny mes-into white Greek ones. senger. When they had got a little distance the lame needle turned round and said, 'Stop; I wish to eat you.' Whereat the woman recognized who he was, and, mindful of the fact that lame needles are very inquisitive, she replied, 'Just wait till I tell you a story.' It was very long and very interesting, so the first cock crew before it was finished. 'It is only the black one; go on; I have yet time,' said the eager lame needle. Then the second cock crew, and he said, 'It is only the red one; I have nought yet to fear.' Just as the woman had reached the most thrilling part of her story the third cock crew. It is the white one!' exclaimed the terrified hobgoblin; 'I must be gone.' ."" I am sure this story is believed in by the peasants of Euboea, they are still so primitive and unsophisticated; and a dread of these uncanny creatures forms the basis of their dislike to the period which had just commenced.

A steamer touched at Chalcis next day and carried us north, up the lovely chan

It was St. Basil's eve that is to say, the Greek New Year's eve, a very marked day in the period of the twelve days, and one on which all make merry. The squalid streets of Trikkala even looked bright as bands of gaily-dressed children, nay, even grown-up young men, went round singing the Calend songs- - Greek Calends, that is to say, which, though it is twelve days later than ours, came at last. And on this the eve of the Calends these bands paraded the streets, each carrying a long pole, to the top of which was tied a piece of brushwood, within which was concealed a bell, and to which were tied many scraps of colored ribbon. At each house the singers stopped. The inhabitants came out to greet them and offer them refreshments figs, nuts, eggs, and other food - which were stowed away by one of the band who carried a basket. Their songs to our ears were exceedingly ugly long chanted stories beginning thus: "To-morrow is the feast of the circumcision of our Lord and the feast of the blessed great