IdO African Discoveries. [August, 



anecdote, had astonished the whole court with that recherche instrument, 

 a barrel-organ. The hearer v/as either a king, or that much greater 

 man, a prime-minister, we forget which — 



" The organ, which Mr. Coffin had just begun to turn, next took his attention ; 

 he stood several minutes looking at it, at last went close to it, looked at the 

 inside, and appeared quite lost in contemplation. ' I hear it breathe,' said he, 

 several times, and as, upon putting his ear close, he could hear a hiss now and 

 then, occasioned by there being a small hole in the leather on one side of the 

 bellows, he cried out, ' By Saint Michael there is a snake in it ! I hear it plainly;' 

 and quickly drawing back, he exclaimed, ' Such a thing which contains a devil 

 cannot be fit for a church.' Allicar Barhe, the high-priest, standing close by, 

 said, ' Ganvar, I beg your pardon, it is an angel, not a devil ; our church has 

 not suffered in any way since it came into it, but on the contrary has rather 

 increased in prosperity. Ito Pearce has opened the whole before the carmarf 

 [congregation of priests] and all are of opinion that nothing but the wisdom of 

 man, such as God gave unto Solomon, had made it;' and he added, ' Abuna 

 Counfu told us that he saw one in the church of St. Paulos and Petros, in Rome, 

 as large as twenty of this.' " i. 266-7. 



There are in Abyssinia all the contrivances that Europe exclusively 

 boasts of; but, as it will be seen, without reason. Abyssinia has 

 gaming-tables, opera-dancers, according to the African fashion, duelists, 

 professional hangmen, a hierarchy of as much vigour and utility as any 

 corporation of pope and cardinals on earth. Curricles, that break necks 

 and legs ; bankrupts, insolvent debtors, prize-fighters, and epidemics — 

 and yet we talk of our superior civilization ! 



THE OLDEN TIME. 



Ye reminiscences of olden time. 



Ye dwell upon my memory like a dream. 



Ye come and go, like bubbles on a stream ; 



Or like those clouds that float around the moon. 



I listen — for to me there comes no chime 



Without its echo, and all voices seem 



To speak in words of some familiar rhyme 



I listened to of old. — Ah, me ! as soon 



Shall winds forget their minstrelsy, the trees 



Forget the sunshine in the month of June, 



The tranquil waves forget the stormy breeze. 



And the cold lakes of mountain-tops to freeze. 



As the unhappy one, while life may last. 



Shut from his heart the memory of the past. 



R. F. W. 



