are industrious at their work, unlike the
Hindus, and set about it in a blithe and
cheerful spirit, which the Hindus never do.
They are indeed generally a cheerful people ;
fond of music and dancing, and less elegant
recreations ; in which the civilised amusement
of cock-fighting has a share. Here, again, the
Santals are distinguished from other eastern
nations. Dancers, among both Hindus and
Mahommedans, are always hired ; and are
generally infamous in other respects. But the
Santals cultivate dancing themselves, for the
fun of the thing, and their jattras, when the
young men are clad in plumes taken from
every description of bird, and the girls
(respectable females) have their heads
uncovered, are described by those who have
witnessed them, to be highly exhilarating
and impressive.

The account of the Santals in the Asiatic
Researches (seventeen hundred and ninety-
nine), describes both men and women as
remarkably bashful, but more recent writers
give to them the good qualities of truth and
cheerfulness. There seems also to be a sentiment
of honour among them; for it is said that
they use poisoned arrows in hunting, but never
against their foes. If this be the case — and
we hear nothing of poisoned arrows in the
recent conflicts, — they are infinitely more
respectable than our civilised enemy, the
Russians, who would most likely consider
such forbearance as foolish, and declare that
it is not war.

So much for the virtues of these people.
These qualities are interesting as matters of
speculation; but most persons in India think
they have received too much consideration
from the government, since a more
savage and ferocious enemy than the Santal
our arms have seldom had to contend with.
Entrenched in their jungles, they are nearly
impregnable; and, from their jungles they
never emerge, except to take us at a
disadvantage. The sepoy regiments are not always
trustworthy; and nobody doubts that the
Bhaugulpore Rangers, the other day,
behaved disgracefully, — so disgracefully, indeed,
that the conduct of their commanding officer
is being made the subject of a court of inquiry.
But not only did we have bad troops on the
spot, but through hundreds of miles of wild
country we had no troops at all. There is no
station on the grand trunk roads between
Burdwan and Benares; and travellers passing
through that desolate and beautiful tract
never fail to be struck with the facility with
which they might be robbed and murdered.
To crown all, notwithstanding the loss of life
and property which has taken place, the
insult to our power, and the injury to our
prestige, martial law has not been
proclaimed, and even those troops which are on
the spot cannot act without the civil authority.
The consequence has been a state of
alarm throughout the empire, which is most
dreaded by those who have the best
experience of the peculiarities of the European
position, and the character of the native
population.

                    ASLEEP.

    AN hour before, she spoke of things
    That memory to the dying brings,
             And kiss'd me all the while ;
    Then, after some sweet parting words,
    She seem'd among her flowers and birds,
             Until she fell asleep.

    'Twas summer then, 'tis autumn now,
    The crimson leaves fall off the bough,
             And strew the gravel sweep.
    I wander down the garden-walk,
    And muse on all the happy talk
             We had beneath the limes ;
    And, resting on the garden-seat,
   Her old Newfoundland at my feet,
             I think of other times :

    Of golden eves, when she and I
    Sat watching here the flushing sky,
             The sunset and the sea;
    Or heard the children in the lanes,
    Following home the harvest wains,
             And shouting in their glee.

    But when the daylight dies away,
    And ships grow dusky in the bay,
             These recollections cease ;
And in the stillness of the night,
Bright thoughts that end in dreams as bright,
             Communicate their peace.

    I wake and see the morning star,
    And hear the breakers on the bar,
              The voices on the shore ;
    And then, with tears, I long to be
    Across a dim unsounded sea,
               With her for evermore.

                  DECIMAL MONEY.

THE word decimal is an English noun and
adjective derived from the Latin decem, ten,
which has made, and is likely still to make,
considerable stir in the commercial world;
for it so happens that, although we have the
liberty of choosing from all the numbers lying
between simple unity, or number one, and
the billions and trillions which are the
milestones that mark the way to infinite multitude,
ten has been the favourite selected as the
foundation on which to build the established
system of decimal arithmetic; or, as it might
with equal propriety be called, Arabic arithmetic.
It is, therefore, agreed, that all the
large collective numerals employed, either
for record or calculation, shall be
multiples of ten; that ten times ten shall make
a hundred, that ten times a hundred shall
constitute a thousand, and that a thousand
times a thousand shall be called a million.
It is true, there are a few exceptions in
popular usage — such as the long hundred,
of a hundred and twelve, of many of the
English counties, for the sale of the minor