he saw took an interest in him, than to flatter himself into a belief of recovery, or from any such existing belief; for, shortly after, when I asked him what he would do in Scotland, "A dunna ken wat a mun du," he replied; a canna du ony labouring wark, an' a ha na goten ony trade; but, ye see, sir, we like ay to die whar' wer're born; and my faither, an' my gran' faither afore him forbye, a' my ither kin, an' the mither that bore me, there a' i' the nook o' —— kirk-yaird ; an' than my wife an twa bairnies :"There was a pause in the soldier's voice; he had not learnt the drama of mendicity or sentimentality, but, by! there was a tear in his eye.*I hate a scene as much as Byron did, but I admire a feeling heart, and pity a sorrowful one the tear did not fall. I looked in his face when I heard his voice again; his eye glistened, and the lash was wet, but the tear was gone And there stood I, whose slender body scarcely comprehended one half of the circumference of his muscular frame.-" And the hand of Death is here!" said I; and then I turned my eyes upon myself, and almost wondered how my soul dwelt in so frail a tenement, while his was about to escape from such a seeming fastness of flesh.

After some further conversation, he told me his regiment had at one time been ordered off for Africa against the Ashantees; and sure neyer mortal man regretted counter orders on such grounds as he did those which balked his expectations of a visit to Sierra Leone." A thought," said he, "wur regiment woud ha gien to Aifrica against the Aishantees-an a was in hopes it wud it's a didly climate, an' there was nae money goten out o' the laist fray; but thin-perhaps its jist as well to die in ae place as anitherbut than we canna bring wursels to feel it, tho' we may think it-an' than ye see, sir, as a sid afore, a hae twa bairnies, an gin a'd laid doon wi' the rast, the mither o' them might hae goten the widow's pension for them an' hirsel." The widow's pension! sixpence a-day for a woman and two children and death to the fourth person as the only price of it! Hear this, shade of Lemprière ! Manlius and the Horatii died to save a country, and to purchase earthly immortality by their deaths -but here's a poor fellow willing to give up

བས The ACCUSING SPIRIT flew up to heaven's chancery with the oath, and blushed as he gave it inthe RECORDING ANGEL, as he wrote it down, dropped a tear upon the word, and blotted it out for ever!"S'erne. ED.]

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the ghost, by sword, plague, pestilence or famine, to secure a wife and two children two-pence each, per day!

Look to it, ye three-bottle beasts, or men-as the courtesy of a cringing world calls you--look to it, when ye toast the next lordly victor "with three times three!" -Shout 'till the roof rings, and then think, amid the din of your compeers, of the humble dead-of those who walk silently in the path of the grave, and of the widowed and fatherless. Commanders die for glory, for a funeral procession, or a title, or wealth for those they leave behind; but who speaks of the private, who dies with a wound for every pore?-he rots on the earth; or, with some scores or hundreds of his comrades, a few inches beneath it; and his wife gets-" sixpence a day!"

Poor fellow, thought I, as I looked on my narrator-were I a king-but kings cannot scrape acquaintance with every man in the ranks of their forces-but had I been your officer, I think you should not have wanted your pension for the few days that are to shine on you in this world; and, had you fallen, it should have gone hard with me, but your wife and two children should have had their twopence each per day-and, were I a man of fortune, I would be proud to keep the life in such a heart, as long as God would permit-and so saying, or thinking-and blinking away the dimness of humanity from my eye-I thrust my hand into my pocket, and gave him SIXPENCE.

Reader! smile not; I am but a poor harum scarum headed mortal-'t was all I had," in possession, expectancy, remainder,

or reversion

J. J. K.

Highland Legend.

The following poem originates in a legend which is still popular in many parts of the highlands of Scotland: that a female branch of the noble family of Douglas contracted an imprudent marriage with a kerne, or mountain peasant, who was drowned in the Western Islands, where he had escaped for concealment from the persecutions of the offended family of his wife. She survived him eighteen years, and wandered a maniac over the mountains where, as superstition alleges, she is even now to be seen at daybreak. The stanzas are supposed to be the extempore recitations of an old bard to a group of attentive villagers.

entire length of the house, is formed of deal planks laid upon tressels, and covered with a succession of table-cloths, white though coarse. The quantity of the dinner is answerable to the space which it is to cover: it generally consists of barley broth, or cock-a-leeky, boiled fowls, roasted ducks, joints of meat, sheep's heads, oat and barley cakes, butter, and cheese; and in summer, frothed buttermilk, and slam. In the glens where goats are kept, haunches of these animals and roasted kids are also added to the feast. In the olden time, venison and all kinds of game, from the cappercalich to the grouse, were also furnished; but since the breach of the feudal system, and its privileges, the highland lairds have become like other proprietors in the regulation of their game, and have prohibited its slaughter to their tenants upon pain of banishment.

Yet the cheer of the dinner is not so remarkable as the gear of the guests. No stranger who looked along the board could recognise in their "braws" the individuals whom the day before he had seen in the mill, the field, or the "smiddie." The men are generally dressed to the best of their power in the lowland fashion. There are still a few who have the spirit, and who take a pride, to appear in the noble dress of their ancestors. These are always congidered as an honour and an ornament to the day. So far however has habit altered the custom of the people, even against their own approbation, that notwithstanding the convenience and respect attached to the tartans, they are generally laid aside. But though the men are nothing deficient in the disposition to set themselves off in the lowland fashions, from the superior expense of cloth and other materials of a masculine dress, they are by no means so gay as the lasses. Girls, who the yester even were seen bare-headed and bare-footed, lightly dressed in a blue flannel petticoat and dark linen jacket, are now busked in white frocks, riband sashes, cotton stockings on their feet, and artificial flowers on their heads. The "merchant's" and the miller's daughters frequently exhibit the last fashion from Edinburgh, and are beautified and garnished with escalloped trimmings, tabbed sleeves, tucks, lace, gathers, and French frills! As it has been discovered that tartan is nothing esteemed in London, little or none is to be seen, except in the red plaid or broached tunic of some old wife, whose days of gayety are past, but who still Joves that with which she was gay in her youth. It is to be regretted that Dr. Samuel Johnson had not lived to witness

these dawnings of reason and improvement; his philosophical mind might have rejoiced in the symptoms of approaching “civilization" among the highlanders.

The hour of dinner is generally about one o'clock; the guests are assembling for two hours before, and each as he enters is pre sented with a glass of "uisga" by way of welcome. When the company is seated, and the grace has been said, the bottle makes a regular round, and each empties a bumper as it passes. During the meal more than one cirele is completed in the same manner; and, at the conclusion, another revolutionary libation is given as a finale. As soon after dinner as his march will allow, the bridegroom arrives: his approach is announced at a distance by a continual and running discharge of firearms from his party. These signals are answered by the friends of the bride, and when at length they meet, a general but irregular feu-de-joie announces the arrival. The bridegroom and his escort are then regaled with whiskey, and after they have taken some farther refreshment the two par ties combine, and proceed in a loose procession to the "clachan."

Sometimes, and particularly if there happens to be a few old disbanded sergeants among them, the whole "gathering" marches very uniformly in pairs; and there is always a strict regulation in the support of the bride, and the place of the bridegroom and his party. The escort of the former takes precedency in the procession, and the head of the column is generally formed of the most active and best armed of her friends, led by their pipes. Immediately after this advanced guard, come the bride and the females of her party, accompanied by their fathers, brothers, and other friends. The bride is supported on one side by a bridesman, and on the other by a bridesmaid; her arms are linked in theirs, and from the right and left hand of the supporters is held a white scarf or handkerchief, which depends in a festoon across the figure of the bride. The privilege of supporting the bride is indispensably confined to the bridesman and bridesmaid, and it would be an unacceptable piece of politeness for any other persons, however high their rank, to offer to supply their place. The bridegroom and his party, with their piper, form the rear of the procession, and the whole is closed by two young girls, who walk last at the array, bearing in a festoon between them a white scarf, similar to that held before the bride. During the march the pipes generally play the old

Scots air, "Fye, lets a' to the Bridal," and the parties of the bride and bridegroom endeavour to emulate each other in the discharge of their fire-arms. In this order the bridal company reaches the church, and each pipe as it passes the gate of the surrounding cemetry becomes silent. In the old time the pipers played round the outside of the clachan during the performance of the service, but of later years this custom has been discontinued. The ritual of the marriage is very simple: a prayer for the happiness and guidance of the young couple who are about to enter upon the troubled tide of life; a short exhortation upon the duties of the station which they are to undertake, and a benediction by the imposition of the hands of the minister, is all the ceremonial of the union, and announces to them that they are "no longer two, but one flesh."

:

In the short days of winter, and when the bridegroom has to come from a distance, it is very frequent that the ceremony is not performed until night. The different circumstances of the occasion are then doubly picturesque and affecting while the cavalcade is yet at a distance, the plaintive pealing of the pipes approaching upon the stillness of the night, the fire-arms flashing upon the darkness, and their reports redoubled by the solitary echoes of the mountains, and when, at length, the train draws near, the mingled tread of hasty feet, the full clamour of the pipes, the mixed and confused visionry of the white figures of the girls, and the dark shadows of the men, with here and there the waving of a plaid and the glinting of a dirk, must be striking to a stranger, but wake inexpressible emotions in the bosom of a Gaël, who loves the people and the customs of his land.

The scene is still more impressive at the clachan. I have yet before me the groups of the last wedding at which I was present in the highlands. The church was dimly lighted for the occasion; beneath the pulpit stood the minister, upon whose head eightyfive winters had left their trace: his thinned hair, bleached like the "cana," hung in ringlets on his neck; and the light falling feebly from above, shed a silvery gleam across his lofty forehead and pale features, as he lifted his look towards heaven, and stretched his hands above the betrothed pair who stood before him. The bridegroom, a hardy young highlander, the foxhunter of the district, was dressed in the full tartans; and the bride, the daughter of a neighbouring shepherd, was simply attired in white, with a bunch of white roses

in her hair. The dark cheek and keen eye of the hunter deepened its hue and its light as he held the hand which had been placed in his, while the downcast face of the bride scarcely showed distinctly more than her fair forehead and temples, and seemed, as the light shone obliquely upon them, almost as pale as the roses which she wore; her slim form bent upon the supporting arm of the bridesmaid the white frill about her neck throbbing with a light and quick vibration.

After the ceremony of the marriage is concluded, it is the privilege of the bridesman to salute the bride. As the party leave the church, the pipes again strike up, and the whole company adjourns to the next inn, or to the house of some relation of the bride's; for it is considered “unlucky" for her own to be the first which she enters. Before she crosses the threshold, an oaten cake is broken over her head by the bridesman and bridesmaid, and distributed to the company, and a glass of whiskey passes round. The whole party then enter the house, and two or three friends of the bridegroom, who act as masters of the ceremonies, pass through the room with a bottle of whiskey, and pour out to each individual a glass to the health of the bride, the bridegroom, and their clans. Dancing then commences to the music of the pipes, and the new-married couple lead off the first reel. It is a customary compliment for the person of highest rank in the room to accompany her in the next. During the dancing the whiskeybottle makes a revolution at intervals; and after the reels and strathspeys have been kept up for some time, the company retires to supper. The fare of the supper differs little from that of the dinner; and the rotation of the whiskey-bottle is as regular as the sun which it follows.

[At highland festivals the bottle is always circulated sun-ways, an observance which had its rise in the Druidical "deas'oil," and once regulated almost every action of the Celts.]

When the supper is announced, each man leads his partner or some female friend to the table, and seating himself at her side, takes upon himself her particular charge during the meal; and upon such occasions, as the means of the bride and bridegroom do not permit them to bear the expenses of the supper, he is expected to pay her share of the reckoning as well as his own. After supper the dancing again commences, and is occasionally inspired by the beforenoticed circumvolutions of the "Uisga na

Baidh." The bride and bridegroom, and such as choose repose rather than merriment, retire to take a couple of hours' rest before dawn; but the majority keep up the ancing till day. Towards morning many of the company begin to disperse; and when it is well light, breakfast is given to all who remain. Tea, multitudes of eggs, cold meat, a profusion of oat cakes, barley it scones," and sometimes wheat bread, brought, perhaps, a distance of thirty miles, constitute the good cheer of this meal. When it is concluded, the bride takes leave of the majority of her friends, and accompanied only by her particular intimates and relations, sets off with the bridegroom and his party for her future residence. She is accompanied by her neighbours to the march of her father, or the tacksman under whom he lives, and at the burn-side (for such is generally the boundary) they dance a parting reel when it is concluded, the oride kisses her friends, they return to their dwellings, and she departs for her new home. When, however, the circumstances of the bridegroom will permit, all those who were present at the house of the bride, are generally invited to accompany her on her way, and a renewal of the preceding festivities takes place at the dwelling of the bridegroom.

Upon these occasions it is incredible the fatigue which the youngest girls will undergo of this one instance will give a sufficient proof. At a wedding which hap pened at Cladich by Loch Awe side, there were present as bridesmaids, two girls, not above fourteen years of age, who had walked to the bridal from Inbherara, a distance of nine miles. They attended the bride to the clachan of Inishail, and back to her father's house, which is four miles farther. During the night none were more blithe in the dance, and in the morning after breakfast they accompanied the rest of the party to the house of the bridegroom at Tighndrum; the distance of this place is eighteen miles: and thus, when they had finished their journey, the two young bridesmaids had walked, without rest, and under the fatigue of dancing, a distance of thirtyone miles.

Such is the general outline of a highland wedding. In some districts, a few other of the ancient customs are yet retained: the throwing of the stocking is sometimes practised; but the blessing of the bridal couch disappeared with the religion of the popes.

Note to the Bridal of Caölchairn, by J. H. Allan,
Esc.

FLINGING THE STOCKING. Mr. Brand collects a variety of par ticulars respecting this wedding custom. A curious little book, entitled "The West-country Clothier undone by a Peacock," says, "The sack-posset must be first hit the bridegroom on the nose." Miseaten and the stocking flung, to see who can son, a traveller in England at the begin ning of the last century, relates, concerning this usage, that the young men took the bridegroom; each of whom, sitting at the bride's stocking, and the girls those of the foot of the bed, threw the stocking over their heads, endeavouring to make it fall upon that of the bride, or her spouse: if the bridegroom's stockings, thrown by the girls, fell upon the bridegroom's head, it was a sign that they themselves would soon be married and a similar prognostic was taken from the falling of the bride's stockThe usage ing, thrown by the young men.

is related to the same effect in a work entitled "Hymen," &c. (8vo. 1760.) "The men take the bride's stockings, and the women those of the bridegroom: they then seat themselves at the bed's feet, and throw the stockings over their heads, and whenlooked upon as an omen that the person ever any one hits the owner of them, it is will be married in a short time: and though this ceremony is looked upon as mere play and foolery, new marriages are often occa sioned by such accidents. Meantime the posset is got ready and given to the married couple. When they awake in the morning, a sack-posset is also given them." A century before this, in a "A Sing-Song on Clarinda's Wedding," in R. Fletcher's "Translations and Poems, 1656," is the following stanza :—

"This clutter ore, Clarinda lay
Half-bedded, like the peeping day
Behind Olimpus' cap;

Whiles at her head each twitt'ring girle
The fatal stocking quick did whirle
To know the lucky hap."

And the "Progress of Matrimony, in "The Palace Miscellany," 1733, says,

"Then come all the younger folk in,
With ceremony throw the stocking;
Backward, o'er head, in turn they toss'd it,
Till in sack-posset they had lost it.
Th' intent of Ainging thus the hose,
Is to hit him or her o' th' nose:
Who hits the mark, thus, o'er left shoulder

Must married be, ere twelve months older."

This adventuring against the most pro minent feature of the face is further men