138 FLORAL CEREMONIES. 



After the feast of Whitsuntide, says VON TEITZ, the 

 young Russian maidens seek the banks of the Neva, and 

 ..fling in its waters wreaths of flowers. These are tokens 

 of affection to absent friends. Our own modern Anacreon 

 thus addresses the river in which his suppositions wreaths 

 are cast: 



Flow on, thou shining river, 



But ere thou reach the sea, 

 Seek Ella's bow'r and give her 



The wreaths I fling o'er thee : 

 And tell her thus : If she'll be mine 



The current of our lives shall be, 

 With joys along their course to shine 



Like those sweet flowers on thee. 



But if in wandering thither, 



Thou find she mocks thy pray'r, 

 Then leave those wreaths to wither 



Upon the cold bank there. 

 And tell her thus : When youth is o'er 



Her lone and loveless charms shall be 

 Thrown by upon life's weedy shore, 



Like those sweet flowers from thee 1 



