A PARADOXICAL RACE. 
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chivalrous in their lives, and their reverence for the 
dead is great and enduring. They delight in flower- 
gardens, and their love of natural scenery amounts 
almost to a passion. 
Instead of shoeing their horses with iron, they 
protect theii- hoofs with sandals of straw. They do 
not engrave their crests upon their plate, or stamp 
them on their envelopes, but bear them about on 
the back of their outer garment. The keys of their 
locks are turned in a direction opposite to ours. 
Their courtiers, instead of donning knee-breeches 
like our own, trail the lengthened legs of their 
trowsers more than a yard upon the ground. 
Their nobles, when disgraced, rip themselves up, 
and their delinquent priests do penance with their 
heads concealed in huge bee-hive hats. They wrap 
up their noses in the cold season, and walk bare- 
headed in the streets. They tattoo their nude 
bodies, and almost dispense with clothing, or deck 
themselves out in most prejiosterous habiliments. 
Such is their ingenuity, that they can dwarf trees 
and variegate leaves, can cause gold-fish to flomish 
