66 ets; on receiving which, the aga stood on the edge of the royal carpet of promotion, and was elected Viceroy of Kerbela. After a while, it came to pass" that Aga Mohamed found favor in the sight of the king, and he said, "Behold, I give you my daughter in marriage; I am an earthly sovereign, but I rejoice in giving my child to one who will find favor for her with the king of heaven." The khan, thus honored, both in temporal and spiritual things, returned to his province; but disputes still arising, as the result of a kingdom being divided against itself, the khan with his followers, in considerable force, went to Caubul, and when the war broke out, did us good service. He then came to Sindh, purposing settlement there, under British protection; but on its appearing that the Sindhians also held opinions on doctrinal points of the Koran that might render disputes very common between their Syuds and the Koja settlers, Aga Khan was requested to disband his followers and establish himself at Calcutta. The city of palaces, however, had no charms for him, and the prince came to Bombay, hoping eventually to return to Persia, and now seeks that which he is unlikely to obtain; viz., a guarantee for protection from our government to the Persian court. His followers have returned to their lands, but the khan still enjoys a very tolerable provision from the devoted attachment of his sect. Aga Khan affects some knowledge of the black arts, mutters incantations, casts nativities, pretends to second sight, and is strong in many forms of astrology and divination. He foretold, the people say, that the rain would fall this year, exactly at three o'clock by the cathedral church, on the 7th of June; and of course it did so. Then the governor was to pay him a visit of ceremony at the aga's house, in Rampart Row, and a large assembly were collected; but the aga at the time appointed came among them, in his ordinary dress, and said, "The Governor will not come: I have consulted the stars; they are unpropitious; he is ill;" and an hour after this, it is said, a trooper galloped up with an aid-de-camp's note to this purpose, and the people dispersed, every one to his house, pondering on the wisdom of the aga. Ladies seldom accompany their husbands on journeys in the East, and the king's daughter remains at Kerbela; but, as the aga has fortunately found favor in the sight of two other wives who here bask in his smiles, his hearth is not rendered wholly desolate by the etiquette of society. After passing the khan and his "chorus," we strolled on to a celebrated Mohammedan tomb, erected on a pleasant breezy hillock overlooking the sea, and connected with a smaller one, which, when the tide is full, seems floating on the waves. Both these places are objects of pilgrimage, as much by the Hindoos as the Moslems, though the first have no excuse for making it so, but the love of holidays, of wearing fresh attire, chatting, walking, and placing the Kushka (mark on the forehead) more carefully than usual. The tomb at the end of the Valade looked like a bungalow, but on clambering over the rocks to gain it, we found that it had but two small doors, and those firmly closed, with not even a loop-hole whereby to satisfy curiosity; so that it might have been empty for what we knew, a mere falsehood of brick, and the Peer, headstone, coverlet and all, at Mecca, or Kerbela, or heaven knows where, among the thousand mausoleums that no doubt bear his name. It was a most unsatisfactory place altogether; and coming down, wondering at our own folly in having gone up, we met a fellow with a water-vessel on his head, and to try his faith in the unseen, we inquired “whose tomb that was?" on which he grinned from ear to ear, as if we had said a marvellous witty thing that pleased him, and then with little respect of persons roared out, as if training himself with pebbles in his mouth to be a second Demosthenes, "Peer Munjanee, of course, and his sister lies there, buried in the sea." The On my return to the meer's in the evening, I found the servant of Abdullah, the Arab horse merchant, waiting to offer himself as a purchaser of my pony "Ubluck," (or the Piebald,) a strong serviceable native-bred animal, but lately displaying a will of his own, and carrying it out with some success. creature ever reminded me of the reis, or captain of my boat, in going to Thebes, who ascended the river by a series of right angles, that he might dance, and sing, and pipe on a few inches of bulrush, at each village on either side; and when threatened with a Turkish governor's wrath, my dragoman remarked, "Oh! suppose we beat him thousand times; or, if you please, suppose we hang him, he never go straight." Of this character was the determined obstinacy of Ubluck; he did not, it is true, dance at villages, but he loved feasting at home, and would ever seek to return thither, after the first canter that he considered necessary to stimulate appetite, and that by the most ingenious devices. groom had priced the creature at ten pounds; but, to my amusement, Abdullah's man proposed payment in kind, or that I should receive as an equivalent, one hundred rupees' worth of balzarine dresses, all of the same pat My this day and this hour were propitious; wherefore good luck must follow. Everything seemed strangely quiet when the meer had gone. The moonshee took to his books, the delall to his slumbers, Hubbeeb the Beloved. to oiling and dressing his moustache, and the young peon to sitting still and making hideous faces, as was his wont, while Ramjeo, divesting himself of his embroidered ankrika and gold and crimson turban, began to walk loiteringly about in damp places, occasionally experimentalizing on the perfume to be found in weeds, and mounted on a pair of wooden clogs, which, for appearance sake, were studded under the sole of the foot with the heads of large brass nails, so that peripatetics with him bore a strong affinity to a fakir's penance. However, what will not most of us suffer for fashion's sake? and it being the fashion to walk barefooted on the heads of nails, Ramjeo did so calmly.-Sharpe's London Magazine. tern, that he had received from Calcutta, and now brought on the head of a coolie. The gross of green spectacles that so distressed the Primrose family was mere bagatelle to this; and the disappointment of the jockey commis voyageur, when he discovered how powerless was the effect of some thirty-five white balzarines with lilac stripes, was at its height when Govind Rao, my groom, confided to his ear both my refusal, and mirth at the proposition. Meer Acbar left us to return to Baroda, he having command of a body of his highness the Guicowar's horse. I was sorry to lose his society, for he wiled away many evening hours with his descriptions of the court amusements at Baroda, the elephant and buffalo fights, the exhibitions of trained birds, the dramatic performances, and various recreations of a similar nature that the Guicowar delights in; for his highness is a very unenlightened personage, and between priests and players, prayers and puppets, birds and bigotry, passes his time. Meer Acbar had been a pleasant shopping companion also; he delighted in seeking for articles of all descriptions, from leaden pipes for his shower-bath, to artificial flowers for his wife; and he was a most shrewd man of business too, always amiable, always liberal, but with the most calculating head I ever knew. No native trader ever succeeded in winning Meer Acbar to pay as a prince for his possessions; whether it were a matter of pence or of lacs, it would be the same thing; the meer paid the absolute and intrinsic value of all he purchased, and he would, if necessary, pass hours and days in deciding this. Every morning, when he returned from the fort, his carriage was laden with bijouterie and articles of fantasie of all kinds, French, Chinese, English, Persian, and these all were packed up in huge chests by Ramjeo, to prepare them for their introduction to the meer's harem at Baroda, where, in a few days, they were probably destroyed or rendered useless, by fair, but untutored hands. The porch was crowded to witness the departure of the meer, and all the people raised their voices to repeat his titles and wish him abounding fortune. Among the servants, the gay little barber stood prominently forth; the meer had just placed largess in his hand, and the eyes of the happy Figaro moved, in rapid glances, from the meer to heaven, then to the five rupees, and then to the meer again;-he was intoxicated with gratitude, that little bar-250-horse power. As the main line of railber! The meer thus drove forth, amid the shouts for good luck that rent the air, but the hakeem, old Budroodeen, still rolled his eyes rather impatiently at the late delay, for he had consulted his books, and had told the meer that A FLOATING RAILROAD.-Our railways have been laid in cuttings and on embankments, through tunnels and over viaducts; and by the genius of a Stephenson they are actually being carried over arms of the sea, where ships in full sail can pass beneath them. While this daring work, however, can be effected where the width, as at the Menai Straits, is only some 500 feet, such great tidal estuaries as the Forth and Tay will not admit of it. As these Friths lie across the route of the great east coast line of railways which will shortly extend from London to Aberdeen, it became extremely desirable that some means should be devised by which those seas might be crossed without the troublesome necessity of passengers and goods changing carriages. A plan has, accordingly, been devised by carrying the trains bodily across the Tay at Broughty Ferry, where it is about a mile and a half broad. Mr. Robert Napier is at present building, in his yard at Govan, a floating railway for the Edinburgh and Northern Company. It is being built of iron, 180 feet in length and 35 in breadth. It is to have three lines of rails on deck, so as to enable it to take on a railway train of 500 feet in length, and is to be propelled by engines of way on each side of the Tay is considerably above the level of the sea, stationary engines on either side of the Frith are to be employed to draw up or lower the trains. This railroad steam-boat is expected to be launched in a few weeks.-Scotch Paper. Translated for the Daguerreotype. THE TRAVELS OF SHEIKH ZAIN EL ABIDIN. Das Buch des Soudan, oder Reisen des Scheich Zain el Abidin Nigritien. Aus dem Türkischen übersetzt von Georg Rosen. Leipzig, 1848. (Travels of Sheikh Zain el Abidin in Nigritia. Translated from the Turkish.) The work of a living Mohammedan writer, translated into one of the European languages, is a new and unexpected phenomenon. We are accustomed to look upon the literature of Mohammedanism as something extinct; wherever Islamism comes in contact with the more advanced civilization of Christianity, it is immediately overshadowed by the more vigorous growth of the latter, and ceases to put forth new shoots. But yet it occupies exactly the same relative position with regard to those nations who stand on a lower grade of civilization, and exhibits a vitality which is scarcely surpassed by the missionary efforts of Christianity. It is rapidly advancing towards the interior of Africa, that hitherto unattained goal of European curiosity, and carrying the first rudiments of civilization to populations which are sunk in Fetishism and idolatry, and thus preparing the way for the introduction, at some future period, of Christianity. The work before us furnishes a convincing proof of this, and supplies us with valuable information respecting regions which have but seldom been visited, and have never been thoroughly examined by European travellers. And who could be better qualified to furnish this information than one, to whom religion, habits, and knowledge of the sacred language give advantages, which no European can possess? We must not, however, raise our expectations too high; the author leaves altogether unnoticed the geographical, physical, and ethnographical questions of which he might have furnished the solution, and describes only what he saw and heard. He did not undertake his journey, like a Frankish adventurer, from love of science, nor to make proselytes to his religion, nor to seek a new location for a colony, but, to learn the art of making gold. And he was successful, though in a different way from what he expected. He understood how to employ, at a usurious rate of interest, the little learning which he possessed, and returned with a rich treasure, in slaves and piastres, to his native town, where he wrote the account of his adventures. The book was originally written in the Arabic language, but Mr. Rosen, who was unable to procure a copy of the original, has translated it from the Turkish. Our traveller was born at Tunis; in what year he does not inform us. As a boy he studied the Koran, and subsequently became || acquainted with several young men who were devoted to the study of Alchemy, the Cabalistic sciences, and treasure-seeking. Through their conversation, the crucible of his reason was overflowed by the water-pot of his imagination; he took an interest in the pursuit, until he had expended upon it all the money of which he was master, when he discontinued the study, and applied himself to that of numbers, and the mysteries of nature." Finding that his own town did not supply sufficient nourishment to satisfy his thirst for knowledge, he set out for Cairo, which is the principal seat of Mohammedan learning, made a pilgrimage to Mecca, and then returned to Cairo, where he pursued his studies during a number of years. Here he received intelligence from various travellers, "which led him to believe that there were in Soudan masters of the secret art," and "set once more in motion the pinions of his hope." Accordingly, he quitted Cairo, and went to Sennaar, a district on the eastern branch of the Nile, where he travelled nine months. "Not far from the boundaries of the white and free men," the inhabitants of a town who professed Islamism begged him to give them instruction; but he ascertained "that he should not be able to inhale the least odor from the blossom of his wishes," and travelled to the Kordofan, on the western arm of the Nile. Here he met with another learned man, the Sheikh Ibrahim el Esardi, who had also come to that region for the purpose of acquiring the cabalistic science, and who had already lived there three years, and by him he was convinced that he must give up his purpose as unattainable. He therefore allowed himself to be persuaded by the king, who at the same time presented him with a beautiful female slave, and other marks of his favor, to devote himself to the business of instruction. But soon the army of the Viceroy of Egypt came and conquered the country, and compelled the inhabitants to deliver up a portion of their sons and daughters and profes sions, although they cried and lamented so loud, "that their howlings might have rent the curtains of the horizon." Our two sheikhs were permitted to go to Darfur, where they were well received by the king, who immediately assigned them a dwelling, and presented them with twenty Spanish dollars. He and gaze at him incessantly. During his us, 66 The naked black natives of Darfur, "an endless mass of negroes, inexhaustible as the "waves of the black sea, are described as "mere animals, wholly devoid of religious feelings or social wants. The learned men of the town, on the contrary, who, until that time, had studied only law and grammar, besought them to give instruction in other sciences, and treated them with the utmost reverence, rising when they both entered the mosque, and not seating themselves, until bid to do so. One of these learned men, with whom our author lodged, wished to give him his daughter as wife, in order to get rid of the trouble which was occasioned by her numerous lovers; for "a handsome maiden receives so many visits from her admirers, who, with or without her consent, gain admittance to the house, one through the door, and another over the wall, that her father can only escape the annoyance by either sending her out of the house, or leaving it himself." Our sheikh however declined the offered treasure, but con- After our traveller had passed some time sented to receive a pretty, well-oiled slave whom at various places, he at last reached Wedai, the king sent to him shortly afterwards."surrounded by smiling gardens, and emerald"Thus he occupied himself in the dissemina- green trees, with streams of water flowing tion of learning," and at the same time, at the through it, and with mosques whose lofty request of the king, gave some instruction to minarets are seen glittering in the sun-shine at The inhabitants were very his Majesty's harem in the art of cookery. a great distance." Upon the death of the slave, he began to long friendly; they did not go naked, but wore to return home; and although the king long shirts. They showed themselves to be offered to give him another, and his scholars very eager in the acquisition of knowledge, and earnestly implored him to remain, he succeeded, appeared sincerely desirous to raise themselves by numerous excuses, in extricating his body in the scale of civilization. The cadi, an old from the talons of their entreaties.' But man with a white beard and in a long white just as he was about to depart, the king died, shirt with wide sleeves, and a turban, received and his successor demanded the restitution of him very kindly into his house, and after the presents which had been made to him, and having questioned him on the subject of laws upon his remonstrating, confiscated all his and duties, implored him to instruct his two property. He was therefore prevented from sons in the sciences with which they were as undertaking his homeward journey, but his yet unacquainted. He then led his guest to friend Ibrahim made him a present of seven the king, who was seated upon a sofa, and dollars, and advised him to go to the king of who received him with much dignity, and Wedai, who, he assured him, was a wise man, made him give an account of Egypt, of which and would receive him with hospitality. he had heard as the seat of the sciences, and of Tunis, of which he had never heard, and then dismissed him with a rich present of provisions, money, and "a female slave of a rosy (?) complexion, handsome figure, and well-painted eyes;" and in addition to all this, caused a house to be built for him, which was completed in four days. As often as the king rose from his sofa, an enormous quantity of As Wedai is at a distance of a month's journey from Darfur, and no caravans pass between the two places, the sheikh was obliged to join companies of the country-people travelling No harm was from one village to another. ever done to him, but he suffered the greatest inconvenience from their childish curiosity; they would surround him for days together, drums of every possible size, some of them so mountains where these are kept, in order to large that one man was unable to lift them, learn their customs and religion. An expediwere beaten "in such a manner as to deprive | tion which the king annually made into the one of hearing and seeing. The sheikh felt territory of his neighbors, in order to obtain disposed to hint to the king that this eternal plunder and slaves, gave the sheikh an oppordrumming was exceedingly unpleasant, but he tunity of explaining the advantages of fireremembered what a fondness all these nations arms, which were as yet unknown; and he have for that instrument, and prudently held induced the king to send one of the cadi's his peace. sons to Tripolis, with a large number of slaves, in order to fetch a supply of muskets and ammunition. Before the expiration of a year, the young man returned with four camel-loads of gunpowder, a hundred muskets, and other valuable articles. The king heard with astonishment the description of the sea, the ships, the cannons, and the mode of life of those northern nations, and resolved to make his brother his viceroy for a time, in order that he might, with his own eyes, contemplate these wonders. Not far from Wedai the sheikh had observed the very extensive ruins of an ancient city. With the assistance of a large number of men, placed at his disposal by the king, he now undertook to excavate these, and although he found no treasures, but only walls and stones, these sufficiently indicated that a mighty and civilized nation must once have dwelt there. Walls of a very regular architecture, buildings made of bricks and tiles, wells, marble sarcophagi, each of which contained an idol of stone in human form executed with extraordinary skill, and a copper plate with an inscription, a number of very elegant columns, two portals, and a great many stone figures, were brought to light by the exertions used during two weeks. The king, upon seeing these wonders, exclaimed: "Surely these are the Surely these are the works which the genii executed for Solomon, the son of David." The sheikh remarks, that "however much the inhabitants of Wedai excel those of Darfur in civilization, they are far from being capable of erecting such buildings;" and he came to the conclusion that this town must have flourished before the deluge, and afterwards have been destroyed by the wild negro tribes. God, however, knows best." The sheikh was rewarded by large presents of slaves, and made an excursion into the But his wishes were not fulfilled. When the sheikh had been three years in Wedai, the good king fell sick, and died in a few days, deeply lamented by his subjects. He was succeeded by his brother, who deposed the cadi, and deprived the sheikh of his salary. The latter collected, therefore, the riches and numérous slaves which he had received from his patron, and joined a caravan which was on its way to Fez. As he left the town, "the whole population, with his scholars, came out to bid him farewell, so that the crowd was as great as when the king took the field against the wild negro tribes." From Fez he trav elled to Tunis, where he sold his male and female slaves. The money which he received for them, and the gold-dust which he had brought with him, made him a rich man.Blätter für Literarische Unterhaltung. NOTES ON MEN AND THINGS IN THE NEW WORLD OF AUSTRALIA. A second "New World" is fast arising into importance the British plantations in Australia; whose early story is adorned by no romantic adventures like those of a Raleigh, nor dignified by the pious patriotism of another race of Pilgrim Fathers, but which were simply discovered seventy years ago by stout old Captain Cook, of the Royal Navy, and were until very recently stigmatized as "Botany Bay." Yet they now occupy no mean position in the politics and commerce of the mother country. I am, therefore, led to think that a few pages of the New Monthly, devoted to some account of those settlements, may find favor and acceptance. It must be understood that I propose, not to impose upon my readers one of those very useful narrations, by which the trade, the population, and the morals of British Colonies are arithmetically developed, to the complete satisfaction of the commercial or religious statist; nor do I aim at the historical or the geographical, the botanical or the geological; but leaving those severer topics to other pens, be it mine to offer the mere impressions of the tourist on men and manners, and only so much of external nature as may form |