32. KIDD’S OWN JOURNAL. 
and minarets of a lage city, apparently of an 
Egyptian character, and about 25 leagues from 
Ocosingo, in the same latitude, and in the direct 
course of the River Lugartos. This city they 
eventually reached. Velasquez describes it to 
be of vast proportions, with heavy walls and 
battlements, full of temples, gigantic statues, 
and pagan paraphernalia; the people having 
Peruvian manners combined with Assyrian mag- 
nificence, and bound to remain within the walls, 
seeking no intercourse with the world around. 
The name of the city is Iximaya. The travellers 
were informed that white men had previously en- 
tered it, but that no white man had ever returned. 
Hammond and Huertis were both slain—the 
former in entering the city, the latter in endeavor- 
ing to make his escape. Velasquez, being more 
wary, lulled his captors into security, and not 
only escaped himself, but brought with him two 
children belonging to the priests—these very two. 
This tale may, or may not be true. WE 
question its accuracy. However, there is 
sufficient to gratify curiosity. There could 
be no deception whatever practised as to 
the little people exhibited. They are very 
animated in their looks, gestures, and move- 
ments, and both appear to be intelligent. They 
show an aptitude, too, for acquirmg know- 
ledge; possessing evidently the faculty of 
imitation in a considerable degree. ‘They 
seem to be in good health, and pleased with 
the interest that is expressed for them. 
They have been seen by Frof. Owen, Sir 
Benjamin Bordie, Bart., Lord Rosse, Lord 
Brougham, and many other scientific men. 
These all pronounce the little fellows to be 
“ curious specimens ;”’’ andsothey are. They 
are money-getting folk, too. They get their 
living by being “looked at!” This 2 a 
funny world truly ! 
IMPORTANCE OF LIGHT AND AIR. 
_ Dr. Moors, the eloquent author of “ The Use of 
the Body in relation to the Mind,” says,—a tad- 
pole confined in darkness would never become a 
frog, and an infant being deprived of Heaven’s 
free light, will only grow into a shapeless idiot, 
instead of a beauteous and reasonable thing. 
Hence, in the deep dark gorges and ravines of 
the Swiss Valais, where the direct sunshine 
never reaches, the hideous prevalence of idiocy 
startles the traveller. It is a strange, melancholy 
idiocy. Many citizens are incapable of any arti- 
culate speech; some are deaf, some are blind, 
some labor under all the privations, and all are 
mis-shapen in almost every part of the body. I 
believe there is in all places, a marked difference 
in the healthiness of houses according to their 
aspect with regard to the sun; and that those are 
decidedly the healthiest cawteris paribus, in which 
all the rooms are, during some part of the day, fully 
exposed to direct light. It is a well known fact 
that epidemics attack the inhabitants on the 
shady side of the street, and exempt those on the 
opposite side; and even in endemics, such as 
ague, the morbid influence is often thus partial in 
its action. 
OUR NATIONAL FAILING. 
Ir cannot be denied, yet must it ever be lamented, 
that the national character of the English is pride, 
and the meanest of all pride—purse-pride. Even 
a poor Lord is despised ; and, to increase his for- 
tune, a necessitous peer will condescend to marry 
into a rich citizen’s family. An overweening 
affection for money—an idolatrous worship of gain, 
have absolutely confounded the general intellect, 
and warped the judgment of many to such an ex- 
cess, that, in estimating men or things, they always 
refer to,—“ What is he worth?” or ‘ What will 
it fetch ?”? Were we to point out a person, as he 
passes, and say, ‘‘ There goes a good man; one 
who has not a vice””—he would scarcely be noticed ; 
but exclaim, “That man is worth £500,000,” and 
he will be stared at till out of sight! 
Is it not strange that, knowing these things, we 
do not attempt to alter them? We talk about 
man being a “free agent,” and we insist upon the 
fact. If so, the greater must be the crime of which 
we are guilty in offending so signally in a matter 
of such grave import. 
Virtue is undeniably a secondary consideration 
with us; but money carries all before it. When 
the truth is laid bare, how strange is the picture 
presented to the view! 
A HINT TO PARENTS. 
Bap temper is more frequently the result of un- 
happy circumstances than of an unhappy organisa- 
tion. It frequently, however, has a physical cause, 
and a peevish child often needs dieting more than 
correcting. Some children are more prone to 
show temper than others, and sometimes on ac- 
count of qualities which are valuable in them- 
selves. For instance, a child of active tempera- 
ment, sensitive feeling, and eager purpose, is 
more likely to meet with constant jars and rubs 
than a dull passive child; and if he is of an open 
nature, his inward irritation is immediately shown 
in bursts of passion. If you repress these ebul- 
litions by scolding and punishment, you only in- 
crease the evil, by changing passion into sulki- 
ness. A cheerful, good-tempered tone of your own, 
a sympathy with his trouble—whenever the trouble 
has arisen from no ill-conduct on his part, are the 
best antidotes; but it would be better still to 
prevent before-hand all sources of annoyance. 
Never fear spoiling children by making them 
too happy. Happiness is the atmosphere in 
which all good affections grow—the wholesome 
warmth necessary to make the heart-blood circu- 
late healthily and freely. Unhappiness is the 
chilling pressure which produces here an inflam- 
mation, there an excrescence; and, worst of all, 
the mind’s green and yellow sickness—ill-temper. 
CHEERFULNESS. 
CuEERFULNESS is like a sudden sunshine, that 
awakens a secret delight in the mind without 
her attending to it. The heart rejoices of its 
own accord, and naturally flows out into friend- 
ship and benevolence towards the person who has 
so kindly an effect upon it. 

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