
KIDD’S OWN JOURNAL. 

beautiful hair, and generally fine teeth ; but more 
than that cannot be said by those who are content 
to give an honest and candid opinion. I have 
rarely seen one whose features could be called 
strictly beautiful ; and that bewitching grace and 
fascination about their figure and walk which they 
formerly possessed, have disappeared with the high 
comb which supported the mantilla and the narrow 
basquina—which gave a peculiar character to 
their walk. 
With the change in their costume, those dis- 
tinctive charms have vanished. The gaudy colors 
which now prevail have destroyed the elegance that 
always accompanies black, in which alone, some 
years since, a lady could appear in public. No 
further proof of this is required than to see the 
same people at church—where black is still con- 
sidered indispensable, and on the Alameda, with 
red dresses and yellow shawls, or some colors 
equally gaudy, and combined with as little regard 
to taste. Although I have not yet discovered the 
beauty of the Spanish women, I must say that the 
Malaguenians are fairly entitled, in all that does 
exist, to dispute the palm with the inhabitants of 
any other town we have visited. There wre some 
very pretty faces, and very characteristic of the 
Spanish countenance. They are generally very 
dark, and almost all Lave that peculiar projecting 
brow which gives to the face quite a character of 
1ts Own. 
This involuntary admission argues still 
more forcibly that her ladyship’s prejudice 
blinds her better judgment. 
The women have a universal custom of putting 
fresh flowers in their hair. It strikes one much 
upon first arriving, to see those of every class 
(even the poorest) with some flower or other most 
gracefully placed in their rich black hair; the 
beauty of which is not a little enhanced by the 
bright red rose or snowy jessamine, contrasting 
so well with their raven tresses. The hair is 
generally worn plain,—curls being seldom seen, 
for they do not suit the mantilla; and if flowers 
cannot be procured, some bright ribbon is in- 
variably worn as a substitute. The love of bril- 
liant and showy colors appearing to form a ruling 
passion in the present day, offers a, singular con- 
trast to the fashion twenty years ago, when a lady 
who would have ventured into the street dressed 
in anything but black, would have been mobbed 
and insulted by the people. Our first visit to the 
theatre at Malaga confirmed my impressions of 
the exaggeruted accounts generally given of 
Spanish beauty. 
This final fling settles the point. The 
anmus of the writer is seen bright as the 
sun at noon-day. We therefore take it for 
granted that the Spanish women have very 
good taste, and that their beauty is unde- 
niable. 

OUR OLD ENGLISH WRITERS. 

Tue fault of the old English writers was, that 
they were too prone to unlock the secrets of 
nature with the key of learning, and often to 
substitute authority in the place of argument. 
NATURE’S OWN CHARADE. 

On! wuo would linger when gay Summer calls 
From every flowery mead and bosky dell? 
Oh! who would linger ‘neath the city’s walls 
When waves upon the wind the heather-bell ? 
When the green corn-fields’ promise ’gins to 
swell 
The filling ear? When silence at high noon 
Doth of the songsters’ callow younglings tell ? 
Who can resist the merry voice of June, 
When Nature in reply doth every heart attune ? 
Now venture forth my first, with buoyant grace 
And light step, wandering thro’ the grassy 
lane ; 
Health spreads its mantling blushes o’er her face, 
And shyness doth her spirits’ flow restrain. 
Soon as the summit of the hill we gain, 
And the pure breeze hath fanned her open brow, 
To check the gay infection were in vain,— 
And laughing, warbling, bounding she will go, 
Racing to reach the brook which cheers the vale 
below. 
Then, bending o’er the streamlet’s leaf-fringed 
side, 
To watch the sportive minnows glancing gay, 
Start back to see my second all untied, 
And blush to mark its lawless disarray 
Reflected there. ‘The wanton zephyrs play 
With each bright tress, whilst she, with pretty 
art 
The breeze will chide, and turn her head away, 
And rest upon some jutting rock, apart, 
To smooth her truant curls, and still her beating 
heart. 
Sure ’tis a pleasant picture thus to see 
That fair young creature cast her eyes around 
Half closed, yet sparkling with a covert glee, 
Scanning the summer treasures which abound 
On the o’er-arching rock—its summit crowned 
By plume of waving fern! whilst hanging there, 
My whole in verdant clusters may be found, 
Scattering all moisture to thirsty air, 
And flinging from its leaf each dew-drop glittering 
fair. 
INTOXICATION IN INDIA. 
BY DR. GIBSON. 

THE EXTENSIVE USE OF OPIUM AND 
RICE ARRACK among the Chinese and 
Malays, is pretty generally known. It is 
also tolerably well known that the Burmese 
and Mughs are extensive consumers of 
spirits. On this side the Ganges, the use of 
alcohol made from Rice -sugar, Palm-juice in 
its various states, from the flower of the 
Bassia, from the bark of Acacia Sundra, is, 
if not equally common, at least widely 
spread. ‘The Rajpoots, too, and the Kolies 
of Western India, are great Opium-eaters ; 
and the employment of this drug in rearing 
children of the most tender age is universal 
among all classes of Indian society. From 
what can be observed, however, there seems 
