book. If you had not lost it, we might have done something in the speculative line here, and had the nugget to fall back upon, for I need hardly say I should have expected you to accept an acknowledgment at my hands of so great and important an obligation. But that is all over now.' He lifted his hat, and pushed his thick dark hair off his brow, then ran his fingers through his beard, and threw back his broad shoulders with a gesture familiar to him when he regarded a matter as decided and done with. By this time, they had reached Tremont House. Daly asked Deering to dine with him, but he was not sorry that his invitation was declined. They parted, having made an engagement to meet on the following day; and Daly went into the house, and up to his room, feeling that the events of the day had been rather too much for him. He would need time and solitude to think them out clearly. Deering, too, sought his much humbler quarters, where he had, however, the facilities he required for leading the kind of life he led of choice. He was hampered by no 'respectabilities,' checked by no surveillance of decorum or refinement. And among his reflections was this one whether, if it should prove that there was anything to be made out of Daly-anything, he meant, in the present, apart from the prospective gain, which, with all the means and plans for its acquisition, was already assuming definite shape in his imagination-he would not do well to change those quarters. Daly evidently knew very little of New York, but he was in a fair way of learning. Deering had had an instinctive consciousness that Walter Clint had suspected and distrusted him, but that consciousness had not included Daly, who was much the cleverer man of the two. But Deering knew the difference between the perceptive powers of a man in illness and a man in health, and gave it its full weight. A man rarely dislikes his doctor, if he cures him,' he thought; and certainly there had been no dislike of him in Daly's manner that day. 'I'll see if I can't make him go away just when it suits me he should do so-no sooner, and no later,' Deering said to himself, as he entered a room at once dingy and flashy, whose artistic and literary contents would have furnished the least acute observer with clear indications of his character and pursuits. He carried a chair across the room, placed it in front of a tall, gaunt press, and standing on it, contrived, with some trouble, to pull down a shabby old valise, which had evidently seen much service, and had been pushed well out of sight against the wall at the top of the press. He flung it on the floor, and turned it over with his foot, to rid it of a portion of the encumbering dust; then placed it on a table, and turned out its motley, valueless contents until he found the object of his search. He came upon it in a few minutes; and sweeping the valise and all the scattered rubbish down upon the floor, he lighted a gas jet over the stove, locked the door, and set himself to long, serious study of certain closely written memoranda and roughly drawn lines, dotted with figures, which occupied two pages of a green leather pocket-book. After his study had lasted some time, he smiled slowly, and muttered: 'Yes, that will do; perfectly clear and easy, with my recollection of the place. If that fellow hadn't let out the value of this before he asked me for it, he might have done me out of it easily.' Then he turned to the written paper again, with the reflection: There's no such cursed fool as your perfect gentleman.' TIMUR THE TARTAR AT HOME. THE name of Timur the Tartar, suggestive to modern English ears of nothing more terrible than the truculent tyrant of an Astleyan melodrama, was, five hundred years ago, known far and wide as that of a crippled conqueror who had achieved thirty-five victorious campaigns, won seven-andtwenty crowns, and made Asia, from the Irtish and Volga to the Persian Gulf, from the Ganges to Damascus and the Archipelago, bow beneath his authority. When, at the age of sixty-eight, this indomitable warrior tried conclusions with Bajazet, to the latter's discomfiture and ruin, two Castilian knights saw his Tartar hordes scatter the steelclad mercenaries and elephant-mounted soldiery of their foe before them at Angora, and congratulated the winner of that famous field upon his triumph. In return, Timur gave up to them two Christian ladies belonging to Bajazet's harem, and despatched them homewards with an envoy bearing a complimentary letter from himself to their king. Henry of Castile thereupon determined to send Gomez de Salazar and Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo upon an embassy to Samarcand. The last-named set down all they did and all they saw, and so left the world a record of the manner in which the terror of Asia lived when at home-which was not often the case, thanks to his acquisitive ambition. After successfully overcoming the difficulties and dangers incident to travelling in the fifteenth century, the Castilians arrived within the territories of Timur Beg, who had sent a military escort to see them safe to Samarcand. When they came to a town or village, shopkeepers shut up shop instanter, and fled to the nearest hiding-place; and the soldiers laying hold of the first man they could catch, made him point out where the chief men of the place were to be found. In default of the needful supplies for the travellers being forthcoming, the said chief men were sent for, taught with sticks and whips what to expect if everything was not ready when ambassadors to the lord' honoured their town by passing through it. By this persuasive method the visitors were at every halting-place supplied with three times as much food, fruit, and fodder as they could use; and guard kept over their property night and day. If, in spite of all precautions, anything was missing, the inhabitants of the place had to make good the loss. By the end of August 1405, the ambassadors found themselves at Kesh, the birthplace of Timur, a large mud-walled city, standing in a flat, wellwatered, well-peopled country, abounding in vineyards, corn-fields, melon-grounds, cotton plantations, and fruit-tree groves. Here they saw and admired two grand mosques in course of erection, and sundry palaces yet unfinished, although twenty years' labour had been expended upon them. Tartarian etiquette enjoining all ambassadors should wait five or six days, at least, before an audience could be granted them-and the more important the envoy, the longer the delay our Castilians had to halt within a league of the capital, and abide patiently, in pleasant quarters, until summoned to appear at court. At last it came; and they rode over a plain dotted with houses, gardens, and markets, till they reached a large palace outside the city, guarded by men armed with maces and half-a-dozen castled elephants. At the gate, the ambassadors dismounted, and gave up the presents they had brought with them. The officers of their escort, holding them by their armpits, then conducted them into an ante-chamber, to do obeisance to an old man, one of Timur's nephews, and to three small boys, his grandsons. One of the latter took charge of the Spanish king's letter and disappeared, returning a few minutes afterwards to say 'the lord' was ready to receive them. Under a portal in front of the palace, and behind a fountain, which threw up the water very high, and in it red apples,' sitting cross-legged among round pillows and embroidered carpets, the ambassadors beheld an old man, whose eyelids fell completely over his eyes, clad in a silken robe, and wearing a tall white hat, crowned with a ruby, pearls, and other precious stones. This was Timur the fortunate, the great wolf, the axis of the faith, the master of time, lord of the grand conjunctions, and conqueror of the world! Touching the ground with one knee, the Spaniards bowed low; having done homage this way thrice, they were released from the hold of their escort; then three meerzas or councillors advanced, took them by the armpits, and led them forward to Timur, who, after looking well at them, asked 'How is my son, the king? Is he in good health?' After compliments had been exchanged, the ambassadors retired, and were conducted into an apartment close by, and shewn to their seats just below that of an envoy sent from Cathay to demand tribute for his master. The moment Timur detected this arrangement, he commanded that the Castilians should take precedence of the Cathayian; and that it should be explained to the latter that the sultan could not permit the ambassadors of his son and friend, the king of Spain, to sit below the envoy of his enemy, a bad man and a thief. This little matter settled, the banquet began. Roasted horses, and boiled and roasted sheep, were brought in, and laid upon large round pieces of stamped leather. At a signal from Timur, the leathern dishes and their burdens were dragged to within twenty paces of the royal seat, the carvers knelt upon the leather, and cut the meat into pieces, and then put them into large cups or basins of gold, silver, glass, porcelain, and earthenware. The most honourable' joint was horse-haunch, with the loin, but without the leg. This, after being carved, was parcelled into ten gold and silver basins; pieces of horse's tripes the size of a man's fist, and whole sheep's heads, were added. Soup was next introduced, sprinkled with salt, and a small quantity put into each basin by way of sauce; then the carvers took some thin corn-cakes, doubled them up four times, and placed one upon the top of each basin. This done, the basins were carried round to the company, each one requiring three men, one at each side, and another helping behind, so heavy were the contents. When justice had been done to the roast and boiled, meats dressed in various ways, balls of forced meat, melons, grapes, and nectarines followed in quantities sufficient to appal the most voracious of appetites, even when accompanied with unlimited libations of bosat, a pleasant beverage made with cream and sugar, and potations of more powerful drinks. When the ambassadors returned to their lodgings, they took back enough food to last them six months, as, according to custom, every guest was bound to take home what he could not eat of the provisions set before him. Clavijo and his companions were invited to another feast; but waiting for their interpreter, they arrived so late at the palace that they found dinner done and Timur mighty wroth at their nonappearance; however, he graciously accepted their excuse, and ordered five sheep and two jars of wine to be sent to their lodgings, but warned them in future to wait for no one; while, to impress the importance of punctuality upon the interpreter's mind, he commanded that a hole should be bored through his nose, and a rope passed through it, by which he was to be dragged through the camp-a sentence recalled at the earnest entreaty of his guests. Timur, with an eye perhaps to his Chinese visitor, ordered a grand encampment on the plain near the capital. In three or four days, twenty thousand men were assembled round Samarcand; and things could hardly have been more admirably managed had they possessed a Control Department, for we are told that when the royal tents were pitched, every one else, high or low, knew his place, so that the work of camping-out was done quickly, quietly, and without confusion, while every section of the armed host came provided with everything soldiers could require, even to baths and bathmen. When all the arrangements were completed, the encampment was a sight worth the seeing; whichever way a man turned he beheld beautiful tents, silken walls, and cool white awnings. The banks of the river were lined with them; while besides the long lines of military tents, there were tented streets devoted to sellers of all sorts of commodities for decking the outer and comforting the inner man. Timur took up his quarters in his pavilion, a large square tent three lances high, and a hundred paces in breadth, pitched against twelve gilt and painted poles as large round as a man's chest. From its richly decorated round vaulted ceiling descended silken cloths, so fastened to the poles as to form an arch from one side to the other, stretching across three chambers carpeted in crimson and gold. Outside, the edifice, seen from a distance, looked like a castle, being crowned by a turreted tower of silk, from which rose a stout staff, bearing a copper ball and crescent. The sides of the pavilion were of striped silk, black, white, and yellow, each corner marked by a pole like that springing from the central tower. "Round it ran a silken wall as high as a man on horseback, with an arched gate surmounted by a tower; the space-three hundred paces in width-between pavilion and wall being occupied by several tents, more or less magnificent, intended for the use of members of the royal family, including the sultan's eight wives, Cano, Quinchicano, Dileoltanga, Cholpamalaga, Mundagasa, Vengaraga, Ropa-arbaraga, and Yanguraga. He was Regarding these ladies, Ruy Gonzalez says but little, and that little is not flattering. present at some public games honoured by the appearance of Timur's first wife among the spectators. He calls her Cano, which was rather her title than her proper name, for if Quinchicanothe designation borne by the second wife-meant 'the little lady,' as he says it did, Cano must have signified the lady,' a fitting title for the head spouse of the lord.' Upon the occasion referred to, Cano made her entry in grand style, preceded by a number of eunuchs, and followed by a train of three hundred ladies, fifteen of the latter occupied in holding up the long flowing robe of their mistress, to enable her to walk. This robe was a waistless, sleeveless dress of red silk, trimmed with gold lace, with but three openings in it, one for its wearer's head, and two for her arms. Her face was thickly plastered with white-lead (a practice adopted by all great ladies whenever they ventured out of doors, in order to save their complexions), and was further protected by a thin veil. ~ Her jetblack hair hung down her shoulders, partly hidden by a long streamer depending from a red cloth of gold set with pearls, bearing a miniature castle ornamented by three exceedingly fine rubies, the whole crowned by a plume of white feathers, one of which was allowed to droop over her eyes. This head-piece must have been rather awkwardly contrived, for when Cano took her seat, it required the constant efforts of three lady attendants to prevent it falling upon one side. Hausada, the fair and fat wife of Timur's eldest son, gave an entertainment one day to her friends, to which the ambassadors were invited. Upon arriving, they found Hausada and her ladies seated at the entrance of a large tent, within the royal enclosure, surrounded by jars of bosat and wine, and soon had an opportunity of seeing how the ladies liquored up, a performance necessitating a deal of ceremony. Taking up a number of small gold cups, the wine-pourers filled them with wine from the jars, and placed them upon flat golden plates. Then the servers, holding white napkins in their hands, advanced towards the tent, the pourers following a few steps behind, all stopping once to touch the ground with their knees. When near enough to the expectant dames, the servers, receiving the cups from the pourers, and so disposing the napkins as to prevent their fingers touching them, knelt down and presented the wine to the fair ones who desired to drink; while the pourers, who had retired backwards some little distance, waited on their knees for the signal to take the empty cups away. 'You must not think,' says the honest Spaniard, that this drinking is of short duration, for it lasts a very long time, without any eating. Sometimes the ladies would command the servers to drink themselves, which they did kneeling, turning their cups upside down as they emptied them, and then amusing the ladies by boasting of their prowess as imbibers, the fun being often carried on until the boasters were fairly beaten, and lay helplessly drunk at the feet of the delighted dames. This sort of thing was thought the height of joviality, for they think there can be no pleasure without drunken men.' When it came to eating, ceremony seems to have vanished altogether, the ladies tearing pieces of meat from one another, and making much game over their food. While the festivities of the camp were in full swing, a vast addition was made to the numbers congregated therein, by Timur commanding the inhabitants of Samarcand to turn out of the city and pitch tents on the plain; at the same time ordering each trade in turn to devise a game for the entertainment of the camp. He himself provided a very lugubrious entertainment, setting up a number of gibbets, not for ornament, but use, as several victims to their stern ruler's notions of justice found to their cost. The sufferer of greatest note was one Dina, whom Timur had left in authority at Samarcand during his absence; his administration of affairs having given dissatisfaction, he was hanged, as a warning to others; his fate being shared by a faithful friend, who had the temerity to intercede on his behalf. Justice was also executed' upon divers traders for selling meat for more than it was worth. Such humble offenders were beheaded, the rope being reserved for greater folks. It is plain old age had wrought little change in Timur's character. He was still the same man as when he piled up the heads of his beaten foes by thousands, massacred a hundred thousand prisoners, and built up a triumphal tower by cementing two thousand living men together like so many bricks. When least expecting such a thing, our ambassadors suddenly received notice to make their way out of the country as quickly as possible. Having no message to convey to their sovereign, they tried to obtain a parting interview with Timur, but in vain; the lord was dying.' He was near doing so ; but the old lion's time had not yet come; he was to die as he had lived, at the head of his army. The Spaniards, seeing there was no choice for them, took their departure with all speed, and had reason to be thankful they did so, for, ere they were out of his dominions, news reached them that Timur Beg was really dead; and although those who anxiously hoped the news was true-mindful that their terrible master had twice before spread reports of his death, in order to see who would rise in rebellion, that he might crush them. chary of acting upon it, the travellers found their homeward far less pleasant than their outward journey, and were glad enough when they arrived safely home again, to recount all they had seen and heard at the court of the once terrible Timur. STANZA S. were BARE is the land and brown, so brown and bare; The storm-vexed woods sway sighing in the gale; Keen frosts, frosts that repeat themselves so oft, Clamp the cold ground, and bough and blade retard; The long-fallen leaves rot in the fields and lanes; And yet, amid this torpor and decay, I hear in dreams a spring-tide throstle sing, Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON, and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH. Also sold by all Booksellers. e CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL No. 434. POPULAR LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART. CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS. SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1872. DRAWING-ROOM GAMES. THERE are many outdoor amusements for all seasons that may be called really good, and which require more or less of intelligence to pursue them with success. It is not, indeed, our own belief that the best cricket-player at school or college is also likely to be among the most distinguished in letters; rather the reverse: but, at all events, some degree of judgment and skill are requisite to make a first-rate 'bat' or 'bowler.' Even at croquet there is scope for sagacity, and there is something more than alacrity and pluck required at foot-ball. But almost all our indoor games, independent of cards and chessmen, are lamentably deficient in any interest arising from the exercise of intelligence. In a few, as in beaux rimés, where wit and rhyme are both required, the tax on brains is, on the other hand, too great for ordinary capacities, and the few players that shine in them only make the efforts of the rest more dull and feeble by comparison. Proverbs, again, demands not only a knowledge of many proverbs, but an exceptional facility in bringing in difficult words into an answer without their being lugged in by head and shoulders; while How, when, and where is chiefly remarkable for the synonymous character of the three forms of reply. Considering the vast amount of leisure that some persons have the good or ill fortune to enjoy, and their fondness for any pursuit that will kill time, it is indeed remarkable that drawing-room games are so few and so unsatisfactory. Even the few good ones that are known are played without much spirit, and it is a great relief to most of us at Christmas-time when the door opens with the announcement that Mr Wearied Out's carriage has arrived, and we are released from the festive scene. We propose, therefore, as an act of charity, to suggest to Materfamilias, or others who may have young people to entertain, and who find their time and her own alike hang heavy on her hands, one or two drawing-room games, not new, indeed, but that PRICE 11d. may not be generally known, and which have at least sense and fun to recommend them. A very good, but also a highflying game (as having some connection with the fine arts) is Historical Pictures. Let every guest be provided with a sheet of paper and pencil, and let him or her endeavour to represent upon it some well-known incident in history. Perhaps it may not be necessary to add that these attempts need not be very life-like; but the less they are so (within limits), and the more ambitious is their aim, the better. To excite laughter is at least as much the object of these performances as to extort admiration, and therefore nobody need fear to make himself ridiculous. In the majority of cases, indeed, it is a positive feather in the artist's cap if he can produce a picture which, upon being held up to the general view, can be pronounced by anybody to be the thing it is intended for-a meed of success that has never yet (he must confess) been accorded to the present writer. Still, let each do his best, with Alfred in the Swineherd's Cottage,' or 'Canute reproving his Courtiers,' or 'The Stage Scene from Hamlet,' or 'The Surrender of Calais,' or what you will; and it is quite surprising what fun and frolic may be got out of this general exhibition of incompetency. If you are a rich man, you may even incite the imagination of the younger branches of the company by promising gifts to whosoever shall solve your own pictorial enigma; and perhaps the discovery will not be made even then, and you will have to suffer the humiliation of disclosing your own secret. A dozen pencils, a few sheets of paper, and an audacity in executing great conceptions, are all that are required for this amusement. Another excellent game, especially adapted for young gentlemen about to enter into the legal profession, and as superior to the ancient Cross Questions and Crooked Answers as billiards is to skittles, is the entertainment called Yes and No. The object of this game is to find out what any person in the company may happen to be thinking about, in twenty questions, to all which he replies nothing save the monosyllabic affirmative or negative. This game gives very great scope for ingenuity and skill. The cross-examination should always be either intrusted to the coolest head of the company, or conducted by him after deliberation with them as their mouthpiece, otherwise questions will be certain to be thrown away, through haste or carelessness. The Tichborne case would not have been characterised by such recklessness of cross-examination, had it been confined (as some of us wish it had been) to a reasonable amount of queries. It must be understood that the subject to be guessed must be well known, by hearsay, books, or otherwise, to every person present, such as Cinderella's Glass Slipper, Prince Bismark, or the Mont Cenis Tunnel, but there is no other limitation. Let us give an example that occurred last Christmas-time, and which gave an agreeable lift to what had threatened to be a dull evening. The present writer was asked to select a subject, and did so: his examiner was a wellknown Queen's Counsel, accustomed to torment witnesses, and make the most honest of his fellowcreatures appear like a rogue; and though his genius was somewhat hampered by the necessities of the case, and he was obviously at a disadvantage, through not being able to address me with, Now on your oath, sir,' yet he did his business excellently well. He was assisted also by the united wits of the company-every interrogation being weighed, and pondered before put, lest it should be a waste of a question-while I on my part, in consideration of the great gun brought to bear against me, was allowed the assistance of a certain learned Divine. The following were the queries. (1.) Is it a fact? 'Alas, yes!' interpolated the divine before I could stop him. "Why, alas?' retorted the Q.C. quickly. 'Is that a question?' returned I. No; it was not a question. (9.) Is it connected with any particular person; or is it public property? was the ninth query. That is two questions,' remonstrated I, 'but nevertheless I will waive that it is public property, and belongs to us all.' [My answer should have been only 'Yes,' of course; but the Q.C. was insidious.] 'Depend upon it, it is the Crown Jewels,' ejaculated the same irrepressible youth who had been certain it was the Sword of Damocles. 'The crown fiddlesticks,' roared the Q.C. Why should the parson have said "Alas," if it were the crown jewels?' 'Because, being a clergyman, he felt that all wealth, whether in gold or trinkets, was injurious to the human mind,' contended the other. I insist, at all events, upon it being asked whether the thing is valuable.' 6 (10.) Well, is it valuable?' asked the Q.C. grudgingly. No. 'Of course not,' muttered the inquirer; 'about as valuable as that young gentleman's suggestion.' (11.) Is it of any use? No. (12.) Is it a natural product? Here the divine and I had a private altercation. We rather differed upon the nature of the reply that ought to be given; so the question was altered to: Is it a manufactured article? 'Well, then, it must be mineral,' said one of the ners by the information that the thing in question party with an air of confidence. Hold your tongue, sir,' roared the Q. C. "Is "Is it mineral?" a question?' inquired the clergyman. Here our examiners held council together. Most of them were of opinion, that if it was neither animal nor vegetable, it must be mineral, and that to make that inquiry would, therefore, be superfluous. (4.) Is it spoken of in books? Yes. (7.) Is it one thing of its kind; that is, as distinguished from one out of a number? [This, bythe-bye, should always be the case with a subject.] Yes. 'Let us collate our facts,' observed the Q.C. 'In seven questions we have obtained the information that the subject thought of is presumably a mineral, is not a fiction, but yet mentioned in both prose and poetry, and that it is one thing of its kind.' Such as the Sword of Damocles?' interpolated the same eager youth as had before spoken, to be as before promptly frowned down into silence by his legal adviser. (8.) Does the thing in question exist in England? had existed since the creation of the world. (14.) Had any of the company ever seen it? To this we answered: To the best of our knowledge, no;' adding, however (again compassionating our querists, who were evidently greatly puzzled), this rider,' that if it had been seen by any of those present, it was most likely to have been so by the Q.C. himself. This put them into greater perplexity than ever. Perhaps it was the Sword of Justice carried by the Recorder, or the Mace that is borne before the highest legal Dignitary in the land. But, then, it was not a manufactured article. From that moment, the queries, instead of narrowing about the subject, as they should have done, grew wilder. (15.) Is it an ornament ? No. (16.) Is it tangible? No. (17.) Is it celebrated for any one thing in particular? No. Upon my word,' said the Q.C., 'these witnesses are intolerable. They are a mere brace of negatives, who, nevertheless, do not make an affirma tive. I believe we are on an utterly wrong tack. I now ask (meo periculo, as the Attorney-general says): (18.) Is it mineral? |