child, to weep at my departure, or a man
to care for my interests? If a man, rouse
yourself ; if a child, can you ask me to yoke
my life to a child's feebleness ? Listen to
me well, Paul, for much depends now on
you."

"Oh, Magdalen, you know I would give
my life for you! " cried the poor boy,
passionately.

"I know that, but I want only your
self-command. "Write to that friend you have spoken
of to me, the barrister, Horace Rutherford.
Tell him to come to me; if you send a special
messenger, he can be with me by nine o'clock
to-morrow morning, and he can perhaps
arrange for my release. Be calm, be courageous,
and useful, and remember your own faith in
truth. Good-bye! you can do me good only
by your courage and self-control."

She stooped down and again kissed his
forehead; and he, awed rather than calmed, let
her go from the room quietly, without making
any effort further to keep her. But, when
the carriage rolled away from the door and
bore to infamy all that he loved on earth—
while the servants clustered round him terrified
and weeping, and asked what it all
meant — his strength gave way again; and
for long hours he was alternating between
fainting and hysterics. In this way, much
precious time, of inestimable value, was lost
before he remembered Magdalen's request, or
was able to write to his friend and only hope,
Horace Rutherford.

             THE SANTALS.

LOCATED, as I am, in the heart of our
Indian empire, at a station guarded by
several regiments of Queen's and Company's
troops, it seems strange to hear of people
around me becoming anxious on account of
their too close proximity with a peaceful and
primitive people, who are only about five
hundred miles off. Yet it is true that the
Santals, or Sontals, or Santhals, or Sonthals
(nobody agrees in orthography of Indian
names), who are now ravaging the country
in the neighbourhood of Râj-mahal, and
thereabouts, are described as a peaceful
and primitive people; and it cannot be
denied that they have a number of savage
virtues which should render them the most
formidable friends, and which certainly make
them extremely inconvenient foes. These
peaceful and primitive people have lately
been moving about in large masses, numbering
from three thousand to eight thousand each,
to destroy, or loot, occasional villages, indigo
factories, private houses, anything that came
first to hand; murder defenceless travellers;
and carry off everything of value that they
had reason to suppose was honestly obtained.
Among the exploits of this peaceful and
primitive people may be noted, as a model
to mere civilisation, the slaughter of two
European ladies, whose hands and feet they
cut off; and the killing of an European
baby, some of whose blood they
compelled its mother to drink — they themselves
partaking of the refreshment in a friendly
manner.

It is true that, up to the present time, the
Santals have kept their peaceful and primitive
peculiarities to themselves; and travellers
for many years have been in the habit of
passing through their neighbourhood without
molestation — even English ladies, alone, or
accompanied only by a native Ayah. In
the very rare cases where such travellers
have been molested, the Santals have not
been the aggressors, and the murder or
robbery has been merely an act of individual
speculation, and has had no political import
whatever. Indeed, so secure has European
life and property seemed to be, even in the
wildest parts of India, that an admiring
Frenchman is recorded to have exclaimed,
with an irreverence only pardonable for its
Gallic and graphic force, that the government
was comme le bon Dieu; on ne le voyait pas,
mais il était partout (like the good Creator;
one never saw it, but it was everywhere).
It is therefore supposed that some
provocation must have been offered by
somebody, to cause the present departure from
all precedent and primitiveness. It has
been alleged that the people employed on
the railway, with whom the Santals had
pecuniary dealings, paid too much attention
to the ladies of the tribe, and too
little money to their husbands. Next, it
is the exactions of the collectors of revenue
to which the outbreak is attributed.
Presently, we find that some holy places have
been violated, and that the effigy of some
sable goddess has been treated as if she were
an improper character; then, it is made
manifest that the whole proceedings are the
result of a blind belief that the Santal deities
have decreed the end of the British rule, and
mysterious accounts are sent forth of the
Santal chief who is to effect the object — who
is said to be of divine origin, and to have
been born and to have arrived at manhood in
a single night, just like the mango-trees
which the magicians at Madras raise with
such marvellous rapidity for the delectation
of overland griffs.

The whole affair is mysterious; and while
waiting to see how it will end, the reader
might do worse than learn, what few
persons in India really know, who the Santals
are, and how far they are the peaceful and
primitive people, which they have clearly
shown themselves not to be.

An interesting account of the Santals is to
be found in the "Asiatic Researches," volume
four of the quarto edition, reprinted in London
in seventeen hundred and ninety-nine;
and the latest description we have seen
is by the Rev. J. Phillips, an industrious
missionary, published in the "Oriental
Baptist" in July, eighteen hundred and