the youth goes to the father of the girl
he has chosen, and, after some attempts at
politeness—as offering a pipe, or praising the
size of the old gentleman's beard—comes
straight to the point, and proposes himself
as a son-in-law. Few questions are asked,
few conditions made. Unless there be some
important objection, the young lover
receives permission to call his comrades
together, and build a hut during the course of
the night to receive his bride. The very next
day he requests his mother to prepare a full
pot of porridge, and then repairs to the
dwelling—a hole six feet square, or perhaps a
tent of branches—where the maiden of his
choice, dressed in her sheepskin tunic, with a
veil borrowed from a neighbour, is modestly
crouching in a corner. He takes her by the
hand and leads her to where his family is
collected. The oldest man of the tribe is
there by appointment, encouraged by a fee
of a few handfuls of porridge, and hastily
mutters a few words by way of blessing.
This is the whole ceremony, if, indeed, the
great feed that follows be not more worthy of
that name; and thus the Zigans continue
from generation to generation. We are sorry
to be obliged to add that both women and
men are, as a rule, exceedingly debauched.

MR. GULLIVER'S ENTERTAINMENT.

James Gulliver respectfully submits to
the attention of a discerning public the
following detail of facts, upon which he
proposes to found, during the approaching winter
season, a new public entertainment. It is
James Gulliver's firm determination not to
gull the public, and he therefore frankly
states that in obtaining from the conductor
of Household Words an introduction into the
majestic presence of the English people, it is
his hope that he may not only save himself
a large outlay in posters, but receive money
instead of paying it for the insertion, in that
widely circulated journal, of the following
advertisement.

For many years James Gulliver has watched
the growth of popular intelligence and taste
in England and America, and has endeavoured
to keep pace with it. New York and London
are no longer to be amused with the
inexhaustible bottles and mysterious cards
of the professed conjuror. Mysteries must
be real to satisfy the age. To fetch a guinea,
the exhibitor must raise a ghost. To fetch
a crown, it is requisite at least that J. G.
should in sober seriousness produce evidence
of having discovered as much as his
distinguished forefather Lemuel. The ground,
however, being already occupied, so far as
concerns the discovery of a new people
entitled Lilliputians, two of which are now
being exhibited in London, and there being
not much hope for a rival show of
Brobdignagians, James Gulliver has sought in new
directions, and has happily succeeded in
obtaining the distinguished aid of the late
Mr. Lucian, of Samosata, near the Euphrates,
in the production of an exhibition which he
flatters himself will be more surprisingly
agreeable than anything yet seen in London.
Very recently a young man of business
having had occasion to consult the spirit of a
deceased partner on the subject of an error
made by him while living, in the transfer of
some entries from the waste book, was
surprised by the statement of Miss Fraude, the
medium, that an old school-friend desired to
speak with him. It proved to be the Greek
satirist Lucian, who spoke by raps as follows:
"Get a room for me. My time is come again.
I also have travelled." My friend asked,
"What do you mean?"—Answer: "Aztec
Lilliputians."

Question. Did you ever see them?—Answer
by one rap, meaning No.

Q. What do you mean, then?—A. I have
seen stranger things.

Q. You refer to your History of your
Wonderful Travels?—A. Yes.

Q. They have been often imitated, are you
envious of any imitator?—A. Yes.

Q. Of whom, of Munchausen?—A. No.

Q. Of Lemuel Gulliver?—A. No.

Q. Of Velasquez?—A. Yes. Get a room
for me.

Q. You want to exhibit and to tell your
story?— A. Yes.

Q. But you said when living that your tale
was false, and that it was meant as a caricature
of the ridiculous tales palmed upon the
world by Fesias, I think, in his History of
the Indies, and by Sambulus in his account
of the wonders of the ocean; do you mean
now to affirm that it was not invented?—
A. It is true enough, I promise you. Get
a room for me.

Q. But can you produce anything for us to
stare at in corroboration of your story?—
A. Get a room for me.

The young man of business, looking at the
matter very properly in a business point of
view, had a short conversation with Miss
Fraude, and then applied to the above-named
James Gulliver, who has since, in association
with the expert medium, had various
communications with the said spirit of Lucian, under
whose direction he has organised the following
programme of an entertainment, which
will include not only a constant series of the
sounds, but also of the smells proceeding from
spirits, together with a phantom panorama,
and the production of a great number of
amazing things.

The introduction of smells into the
entertainment has been suggested by Lucian
himself, to whom at a recent séance it was pointed
out that, in a book published by the
Chancellor of Killaloe a year or two before spirit
rapping became popular, it was affirmed as a
result of certain reasoning that the souls of
men lie in the gases which escape from their