A QUESTION FOll ALGEBRAISTS. 



Spanish government than to any efforts of the Mexican patriots. This 

 consideration, however, did not check the exultation of victory, nor 

 damp the spirit of the balls, or cock, and bull-fights, or lessen the 

 number of fire- works let off in honour of the event. The author of a 

 congratulatory address on the occasion calls on his " beloved coun- 

 trymen to let off millions of crackers in manifestation of their just 

 joy at so memorable a success." I confess myself no connoisseur in 

 crackers, but as far as I can judge, the Mexicans seem to excel in 

 such compositions. They have what they call toros, or bulls, a col- 

 lection of crackers fixed on the head of a man, with which he runs 

 into the midst of a crowd, butting after the most approved fashion of 

 that animal. But their grandest display is in the Castillo, an erection 

 of various fireworks, like a kind of castle, which, being ignited at the 

 top, burns gradually to the ground. " No hay de esos en su pai's." 

 " There are none of those in your country," said a quarrelsome old 

 fellow to me, on one of these nights of festivity. " No hay, no hay," 

 he repeated, shaking his fore-finger at me in drunken defiance, and 

 it would not have been quite safe to have risked a contradiction of his 

 assertion. 



The Mexican bull-fights scarcely merit a description, a mere 

 caricature of the chivalrous and romantic spirit which animated 

 Spanish exhibitions of the kind. The combatants prance about a 

 great deal, and afford tolerable displays of horsemanship, but with 

 little real exposure, the horns of the bull being usually cut to pre- 

 vent mischief. The female part of the spectators seem not the least 

 interested in the amusement, because there is no danger. Both sexes, 

 however, little to their credit, take still more delight in the cock- 

 fights, where the poor birds are armed with slashers, longer and 

 broader than a common penknife, and kept in the sharpest state pos- 

 sible, so that the first blow in most cases decides the battle. 



A QUESTION FOR ALGEBRAISTS. 



Two Arabs had sat down to dinner, and were accosted by a 

 stranger, who requested to join their party, saying, " that as he could 

 lot get provisions to buy in that part of the country, if they would 

 admit him to eat only an equal share with themselves, he would 

 willingly pay to them for the whole." The frugal meal consisted of 

 eight small loaves of bread, five of which belonged to one of the 

 Arabs, and three to the other. The stranger having eaten a third 

 part, and each of the two Arabs a third part of the tight loaves, arose 

 and laid before them eight pieces of money, saying, " my friends, 

 there is that which I promised to you, divide it between you accord- 

 ing to your just rights," A dispute, of course, arose respecting the 

 division of the money; but a reference being made to the Cadi, he 

 adjudged seven pieces of money to the owner of the five loves, and 

 only one piece to him who had owned the three loaves. Yet the 

 Cadi decided justly. 



