game: among them famous " blindman's-
buff," " Copenhagen," " hunt the slipper,"
and " stage-coach."

It was long past midnight before we
thought of breaking up and returning home:
our little party from the parsonage were
somewhat chagrined when our good parson-
squire came up and admonished us that
morning had begun some time ago. The
homeward ride was a repetition of the
ride tavern-ward: only jollier, noisier, and
more hilarious. So ended our first country
jollification in winter time. Tom and I
were fain to confess, chuckling, to each
other, that the university " prex" had not
given us so dreadful a punishment after all;
while, from what followed during our
residence with the Reverend Elkanah Pike, I
imagine that Tom thanked the " prex"
from the bottom of his heart, for sending
him straight into the house of his future
wife.

SUPERSTITIONS OF THE
PYRENEES.

No doubt Mr. Lecky hit his mark when
he pointed out the correspondence between
the beliefs of any time and country, and
what he terms the " standard of probability"
then and there existing. In the case of an
ordinarily intelligent and educated Englishman
the conception of law and order in
the Universe takes such firm, though
unconscious, possession of his mind, that he
thinks modern so-called supernatural
manifestations not worth examination. With
our neighbours on the other side of the
Channel it is otherwise. Mrs. Craven's
charming " Récit d'une sœur" well
illustrates the readiness of French persons of
religious temperament to receive as
miraculous any unexpected event. An account
is there given of the sudden conversion of a
young Jew, Monsieur Alphonse Ratisbonne,
who, with his brother, afterwards founded
the order of Notre Dame de Sion. This
Ratisbonne being accidentally in the church of
St. Andrea delle Fratte, at Rome, the Virgin
appeared to him, and as preparations were
then being made for the funeral of the Comte
de la Ferronnays (though the body had not
yet been brought to the church), the miracle
was at once ascribed to the intercession of
that gentleman. Whereupon his family
accepted the whole story, not only with
implicit faith, but with adoring gratitude
and joy, as did also the Abbé Gerbet who
happened to be with them— a really
distinguished man, of whom the Comte de
Montalembert wrote, in 1837, that the eyes
of the Catholic world were turned upon him
as the Defender of the Church against the
attacks of the Abbé de la Mennais.

If they do these things in a green tree,
what shall be done in the dry? Can we be
surprised that in remote and mountainous
districts, where for a great part of the year
the aspect of nature is frowning and severe,
where education is scanty, and credulity
greedy, an abundant harvest of old fancies
should linger, and a plentiful crop of brand-
new miracles should spring up?

Among the contributions of Monsieur A.
Cordier, to the Bulletin Trimestriel de la
Société Ramond," published at Bagnières
de Bigorre, is an article in four parts upon
the superstitions and legends of the
Pyrenees. Some of these are so grotesque, and
others have so much of a kind of
picturesque pathos, that we present a few.

It was in 1854 that Pius the Ninth first
proclaimed the novel doctrine of the
Immaculate Conception, and four years later, a
supernatural confirmation of this dogma
was given by the Virgin in propriâ
personâ, to " la petite Bernadette," a small
thoughtful-faced maiden of the little town
of Lourdes in the Pyrenees. The august
visitor appeared in a grotto, called forth a
healing spring, demanded a chapel, and,
gave, as her own name, the words
Immaculée Conception. Whereupon a solemn
commission was appointed, under the
auspices of Monseigneur the Bishop of Tarbes;
a long and minute inquiry was made;
witnesses were heard on oath; and the
result, in 1862, was a solemn proclamation
to the faithful that they might receive as a
certainty the statement that the
"Immaculate Mary, mother of God, did verily
appear to Bernadette Soubirous, on the
11th of February, 1858, and following
days, eighteen times in all." Lourdes has
ever since enjoyed a reputation for its
healing waters, which is certainly not
unmerited, if we believe in the cure of a
child, who, when half dead, was plunged
into the icy spring, held there for a quarter
of an hour, and withdrawn cured! Says
Monsieur l'Abbé Fourcade, the sapient
secretary to the commission, after telling
this story: " the child's mother sought the
recovery of her son by means condemned
alike by experience and reason; she
nevertheless obtained it immediately." A
picturesque church was erected over the
grotto, and it is to be hoped there will be
no attempt sacrilegiously to remove the