roots. The usurper of a throne was lying crushed under the weight of a very cumbrous gold throne. The penalty for horse-stealing might be a hint to the lynch-law vigilante of the Western States. The culprit was put inside the horse, his nose and eyes just visible through a hole in the brute's chest. This is very hard upon the horse, certainly, and he plunges frightfully with his indigestible burden. The sensualist had a Tantalus-like torture in beholding beautiful women lavishing their charms on the desert air, without the condemned being able to catch the odor of a single sigh. Dante's Inferno is not more imaginative than the Chinese infernal-region tableaux. There is, however, one redeeming point about the Chinese hell: that, after passing through ten expiatory stages, the criminal can, after a lapse of time, return to earth and be born anew, though carefully watched over by the authorities from below, like a ticket-of-leave man. The worst fate was of those who had been decapitated on earth. They were in dreadful perplexity how to recover the head, without which they could not be regenerated. Thus, a Chinaman has no objection to being hanged, according to British fashion, but dreads decapitation, and, as an Irish friend assured me, "they would rather be hanged twice than killed once." The friends of the mutilated are eager to possess themselves of the pieces to put them all together, with a practical view to resurrection. No doubt many of the wandering ghosts of his night came to look for their missing heads. One tableau represented a number vho had been unsuccessful in the search and were unable to take advantage of the tentage probation. The most irresistibly fascinating proceedng was a species of improvisatore, who sang or chanted an apparently endless song, lastng for hours without intermission-probably he whole week of the festival. Gutta-percha ings only could suffice to maintain that erpetual ditty and the attendant gesticulaons. He opened his mouth so wide that it as easy to see down his throat and count is teeth, and emitted a continuous volume f noise like a waterfall dashing over rocks. The expression of his face was at the same time so utterly ludicrous that, even without understanding the words of the singer, the European spectators were kept in roars of laughter. For low comedy it surpassed any farce in any country. I do not know if this effect was intended, for the Chinese spectators looked on perfectly grave and unmoved. Asiatics are never given to laughter. Yet I fancied the performer seemed encouraged by our applause and waxed more ferociously funny, clashing his chop-sticks in one hand and vigorously fanning himself with the other. He was accompanied by two musicians, one upon a sort of banjo with two strings, made apparently from a tortoise shell. The range of the tune was four notes, and the variety was effected by the number of times the string was pulled in succession. The other instrument was a kind of saw, which emitted a rasping sound. The religious service that terminated the feast was at once solemn and grotesque, a characteristic special to Eastern and Southern ceremonies. There was a small chamber or sanctuary, similar to the chancel of a church, wondrously wrought in gold and kingfisher with a splendor that literally made the eyes ache for days afterward. Few were admitted into this sanctum sanctorum, and I duly appreciated the honor of being one of the number. I went note-book in hand, for they evinced no fear of the "chiel amang us takin' notes," but seemed interested in my perseverance-all save the high priest, who seemed oblivious of everything but his prayers and was a model of devotion, placing his hands together and continuing a series of reverential bows. He wore a white silk flowing robe with a crimson satin cross-piece falling over his person, much as the Highlander wears his plaid; his shoes or long boots were of white satin, and he spread a carpet or square of white satin bordered with crimson to stand upon, exactly as a special carpet is laid down for the Pontiff at Rome when he officiates at St. Peter's. Occasionally he knelt and prostrated himself. Six other priests stood around and assisted in the service, like the deacons at high mass, and so joss-houses, and temples. The most magnificent come from Canton. far all was solemn and imposing. But as nalia dispersed to their respective homes, an adjunct to the prayers, which were muttered low, like the Catholic Latin service, there was an accompaniment of a very reedy Swiss pipe, which shrieked shrilly enough to set one's teeth on edge, and utterly destroyed any feeling of devotion; and the creature, supposed to be a chorister, who whistled away until the perspiration ran down him, had, like "cutty sark," cast off most of his duds and "loppit at it in his sark." This was a sad come-down from the jeweled, mitre-like head array which lay on the table before the altar between two red candles and a row of tiny teacups. The smallest of these, as large as a thimble, was to contain the samshu (a spirit much like brandy); the others were for tea. Above, and reaching to the ceiling, were the pictures of the great gods, or "The Three Precious Ones," as they are called. Further down in the center or nave of the building, which was thronged with Chinese, male and female, not worshiping but quietly looking on, just like most Spanish church-goers, there was an enormous figure of the god made of pasteboard or bamboo, which was to be burnt after the ceremonynot as intimating the destruction of the deity, but merely that any object which had served in the sacred precincts could never be polluted by being put to any other purpose. This is a strong blow to the prevalent belief that the Chinese actually worship these figures in reality, and not as symbols. Indeed, it seemed impossible to regard their quiet, intelligent faces and believe that they did. The expense of this celebration was estimated at fifteen thousand dollars, which is raised by subscription. After the ceremonies are ended, the building is taken down, and the gods and altars, banners and parapher -Out of this bewildering scene of dazzling colors, incongruous forms, and deafening sounds, we emerged in the small hours into the pale moonlight under the shadow of the sentinel peak looming darkly above us, while the bay beneath twinkled with its hundreds of lights, backed into our chairs like horses backing into shafts, and returned home, worn out with our sojourn amongst the spirits from limbo. It might suggest a subject for philosophi cal investigation that perambulating pageants seem inherent to humanity, degrees of civilization making little or no difference. Each people laughs at processions or displays which differ from its own. But let an American decide which he considers the most ridicu lous, the London Gog and Magog or the Chinese Kin Loong, or Golden Dragon, and he will say that he guesses a good deal of barbarism still exists amongst the English. Question the Englishman as to how he compares the American political torchlight proces sions of franchised voters bedizened to look like mountebanks with the Venetian carnival of gondolas, and he will laconically classify them both as "idiots." Only a few Puritans and Quakers are to be found in any country to resist these barbaric displays and renounce the system of gorgeous disguising and emblematic demonstration. It is a singular and pertinent fact that in the very newest of worlds, California, and the oldest of worlds, China, I witnessed instances of this same peculiar feature of humanity, the same allegorical procession, the same barbaric pa geant, within a few weeks of each other-St Patrick's Day and the Dragon Feast. Thérèse Yelverton. MOSLEM INFLUENCE ON THE RENAISSANCE. WHEN Mohammed, in loving confidence, first told Cadijah that he felt called upon to restore to his country the pure religion of the founders of his race, even his vivid imagination probably never pictured to himself the vast influence that his preaching would have upon the history of mankind. The Roman Empire had been severed, but in the East till retained something of its former splendor. The Western Empire had lost its magnifience and was in the power of barbarian forigners. The purity of the Latin tongue as corrupted, not only by the introduction f barbarous words and idioms, but gramatical forms were no longer strictly oberved by those who were considered learned. Several main causes contributed to this ecline of learning: (1.) The early Chrisin church regarded with contempt, if not ith absolute aversion, the learning of the igan world, as having fostered the corrupon and degradation that they saw on all des. Hallam quotes as probably true a ssage which states that many of the bishis in the general councils of Ephesus, A. D., and of Chalcedon, twenty ars later, could not write their own names. ) Books were scarce and expensive, so at even the few who may have had some sire for culture were thus barred from this urce of knowledge. Many volumes of the rks of the best writers and numerous ›ductions of classic art had been destroyed the barbarian invasions; and there were ne capable of replacing the lost treasures. ) The barbarians who, having conquered empire, settled there, learned only enough tin to enable them to make themselves inigible to their new neighbors. Theoic, the Goth, one of the best of these eign rulers, though allowing the establishnt of schools for the education of the native ians, used his power and influence to pret his own race from profiting by the iger instruction there offered. But the rising star of the new religion burned with ever-increasing brightness as it mounted above the horizon of the Eastern Empire. Twenty-two years after the first confidential revelation of his mission to Cadijah, when Mohammed lay dying with his head reposing on the lap of the beautiful Ayesha, his followers numbered thousands and his word governed Arabia. Syria, Palestine, and Egypt were soon afterward conquered by the promulgators of his doctrines. On the banks of the Nile some remains of classic culture were still to be found. Gibbon doubts the story of the destruction of the Alexandrian library by Amru. But even if it be true, and the library perished, a prey to the fanaticism of the Arab, it is no less true that this people very soon came to a realizing sense of the value of knowledge, and began to cultivate the sciences and arts with the same intensity of zeal and the same wonderful success that marked their conquests in arms. Moving west from Egypt, they conquered the whole north shore of Africa to Morocco, and, crossing thence to Spain, soon became masters of the fairest portion of that fertile land. This was early in the eighth century, when France was in the very midnight of ignorance, Italy equally degraded, England in an almost barbarous condition. King Alfred knew not of a single priest south of the Thames (the most flourishing part of England in his day) who was capable of understanding the Latin of the service; and the sermons were compiled by the bishops from the sayings of the church fathers, and placed in the priests' hands for the enlightenment of their flocks. Spain was misgoverned, barbarous and ignorant. It has been asserted that in the time of Charlemagne not one priest out of a thousand in Spain could even address an ordinary letter. All of the little learning of the day was in the church: so the condition of the laity may be presumed to have been one The feudal system, then established in every part of Christian Europe, kept the people in an almost constant state of war. In every quarter the great barons had raised fortified castles, whence they descended on the unprotected fields of the industrious cultivator and carried off the fruits of his labor; or, having a quarrel with a more distant enemy, the lord, with his retainers, invaded a neighboring fief, bearing off all the plunder they could and destroying by fire and sword what they were not able to take away for their own use. Retaliation by the injured one naturally followed. Thus, the noble had no time for self-culture and the peasant no security in cultivating the soil, and no chance of ameliorating his own wretched condition. Under such circumstances there could be no accumulation of wealth, hence no advance in civilization, which so greatly depends on the leisure for higher pursuits that wealth affords. of the grossest ignorance. Charlemagne edge of the Greeks. Universities flourished himself, though displaying a laudable love under the patronage of the rulers, and in all for learning and doing much for the advance matters of science and practical knowledge ment of knowledge, could not write. Fred- they far surpassed any institutions of learnerick Barbarossa, the most powerful ruler of ing among the Christians of that period. his time, was unable to read; St. Louis's Hither resorted men from all the countries son, Philip the Hardy, King of France, was of Christendom, seeking knowledge not at no better off; and as late as the middle of tainable in their own realms. These men, the fourteenth century, John, King of Bohe- returning to their native lands, became, one mia, had no more learning. a Pope (Sylvester II.,, numbers of them bishops, and many more ecclesiastical teachers; thus spreading far and wide the intellectual culture of the Saracen. Thence was introduced into Christian Europe the Arabic numerals; thence came the science of algebra (the rudiments of which they probably received from a work of Diophantos on arithmetic, or possibly from the Hindoos. This science they greatly improved, and taught to Christendom). Thence came the first copy of Euclid the modern world possessed. From the same source were derived the sciences of spherical geometry, which they carried to a high state of perfection; trigonometry, in which we owe to them the use of sines and co-sines; astronomy, of which they had on the whole a true conception, while the Christian church was teaching that the earth is flat, and that around it the sun, planets, and fixed stars revolve in a succession of heavenly spheres. To them we owe the science of medicine, which they improved by the use of experiments, while all Christendom was relying on the miracu lous power of bones of saints, pieces of the true cross, and other holy relics to cure them of the ills to which fl.sh is heir. To their ingenuity we are indebted for many of the inventions to-day so useful, nay, necessary to our daily comfort, whose origin has fre quently been attributed to others, who, it i reasonable to suppose, only introduced them to Western Europe, or at most, made som improvement on the Saracenic device. With the Moorish conquest a change appeared on the face of Spain. Beautiful palaces were built for the abode of her new rulers; magnificent mosques were erected, an evidence of the wealth as well as of the taste of the conquerors. To every mosque a school was attached, which diffused knowledge among the populace. Some of the cities supported free public schools, where the children of the poor were educated; and knowledge was not confined to the clergy, but was equally enjoyed by the laity, a condition of affairs unknown at that time in Christian Europe. Public libraries were founded, which placed in the hands of the student the means of learning the results of the investigations, discoveries, and inventions of his time, as well as all the knowl While France was in the depths of ignc rance, and England' was largely a wildernes over which wild beasts roamed at will; whil Germany was almost covered with the pri meval forest, Spain, the country of the Moham medan, was a smiling garden, watered by a extensive and almost perfect system of irrigation. Here were brought from the East and cultivated by the Moors, the palm, peach, apricot, orange, pomegranate, and rice, as well as some of the humble vegetables, spinach, cabbage and the like; also plants used in the arts and manufactures, indigo, mad der, saffron, henna, flax, cotton, papyrus plant, etc. The Moors of Spain paid special attention to the cultivation of the mulberry tree and the silk-worm; they cultivated sugarcane and introduced the use of sugar for sweetening purposes into Europe, honey and a preparation from a plant called silphium having supplied its place. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the case is the fact that they brought the cane from the East and cultivated it at first for purely medicinal Jurposes. The planting of the first palm tree, from which all in Europe are said to have sprung, has been made historical by the lamentation of the Caliph Abderahman Ben Moavia, who rought it with him in his flight from his naIve Mesopotamia and planted it in Spain as constant reminder of the attractions of his arly home. Thou also fair and graceful Palm-tree, thou, > me alone that pain, to me alone e tears of long regret for thy fair sisters coming by Forat's* wave. Yet do the River and the Palms forget m, the lone mourner, who in this strange land, Il clings to their remembrance, my sweet home! hen the stern destinies, and sterner they Le sons of fierce Alabas, drave me forth, w wound my soul around thee, and how hangs en now, my heart on thy beloved soil. Thou Palm, thou, fair and lovely, of that home st take no thought! Ah, well is thee! but I, d mourner, cannot choose but grieve; and thus eep for thee and me, O lovely Palm, inking of our lost home." 1 One very important influence of Islam 1st not be overlooked the refining of Euphrates. Christian manners brought about by mutual intercourse. The Mohammedans set a good example of political faith which their Christian enemies were slow to follow, but which nevertheless had its effect. Though often extremely cruel on the field of battle, when they had once agreed to a treaty they kept it religiously. In a city of Syria they even rebuilt for the use of their Christian subjects a church which had been destroyed during the siege. Through the vast extent of their empire they greeted with kindness and treated with consideration Jew and Christian, ecclesiastic and layman, and intrusted to their care many positions of importance, especially in educational institutions. Indeed, from the prominent part which Jews and Christians took in the Moslem schools, some writers have drawn the conclusion that the culture of their realm was not Mohammedan, and that therefore they should not have the credit of what was accomplished by their civilization and the influence exerted thereby on Western Europe. But this seems to me an argument which would be of weight only to one deeply imbued with a prejudice against a race from which he believed that nothing good could come. Could those teachers have obtained the knowledge they possessed, if the Mohammedan rulers had not collected the vast libraries of ancient lore, which they gathered at great expense and trouble? Or would it have been possible for those teachers to reach and influence the large number of pupils it was their privilege and delight to teach if the Mohammedan rulers had not estabished and endowed with great liberality the universities which became so famous, and from which scholars went to all parts of Europe, spreading abroad the knowledge there obtained? Emphatically no! This being so, to Moslem civilization and religious toleration must be accredited all the influence which Mohammedan universities exercised on Christian Europe. According to some writers Europe owes her age of chivalry, which exercised such important results in breaking the power of ecclesiasticism, to Moslem influence. Tour |