have held him in; it could not possibly
be otherwise."—"Ah! my lord," replied
the kaïd, good-naturedly; "in my country,
a kaïd's horse never presumes to beat an
aga's."

During the reception of guests, and the
exercise of hospitality, all expression of
private feeling must be repressed in the
sternest manner. An inhabitant of Medeah
named Bou Bekeur, recognised, in an encampment
of nomad Arabs who had installed
themselves close to the town for several days,
the son of one of his friends, by whom he had
been hospitably received on a previous
occasion. " Welcome, O my children! " he said
to the Saharians. "Our country is yours; here
you shall neither hunger nor thirst. No one
shall insult you; no one shall rob you. I will
take upon myself to supply all your wants."
Bou Bekeur's word was as good as his
deed. From that moment every individual
belonging to the little troop was his guest.
He sent to them his slaves laden with bread,
dates, and roasted meats; in the evening he
again supplied them with kouskoussou, milk
and vegetables; he joined the travellers at
their meals, and kept them company. The
same treatment was continued during the
whole of their stay. When the day of their
departure arrived, Bou Bekeur wished to
regale the travellers with a final entertainment,
and he assembled them under his own
roof to sup, and to pass the night there. The
party were very merry; the host's son, a
little boy seven or eight years old, especially
amused them by his grace and vivacity. His
father was distractedly fond of him, and Bou
Bekeur's friend had completely dressed him
in a new suit, consisting of a handsome
burnous embroidered with silk, a red chachia,
and yellow slippers. At night, nevertheless,
he did not appear at supper; and, when they
asked his father to have him brought, he
replied, " He is fast asleep." They did not
press any further.

The repast was plentiful, and the conversation
very animated; they talked much about
Christians, and the war with France. They said
that the French armies were as innumerable
as the flocks of starlings in autumn; that the
soldiers were chained together, and ranged in
rows like the beads on a necklace, and shod
with iron like horses. That each of them
carried a lance at the end of his gun, and a
pack-saddle on his back to hold his
provisions; and that all together they only fired a
single gun-discharge. They praised the
French justice, and fulfilment of their
promises: the chiefs committed no exactions, and
before their kadis the poor man was treated
the same as the rich. But they reproached
them with their want of dignity, their habit
of laughing even when they said Bonjour;
and of entering their own mosques without
pulling off their shoes. They reproached
them with not being a religious people; with
allowing their wives too much liberty; with
drinking wine, with eating hog's flesh; and
with kissing dogs.

After the prayer of break of day, when the
company were about to take leave of Bou
Bekeur, " My friends," he said, " with the help
of Allah, I think I have fulfilled all the duties
which a host owes to his guests: and now, I
lave to beg of you a token of your affection.
When I told you last night that my son was fast
asleep, he had just been killed by falling from
the top of the terrace where he was playing
with his mother. It is the will of Allah;
may he grant him rest! To avoid disturbing
your festive joy, I mastered my own grief,
and I compelled my wife to bear hers in
silence by threatening her with divorce if she
did not. Her lamentations have not reached
your ears. But oblige me with your presence
at my son's funeral, and join your prayers
for him with mine."

The news, together with the display of self-
control, shocked and overwhelmed the
travellers with grief. They manifested their
sympathy in the only way they could, by
religiously assisting at the poor child's burial.

THE WORKMEN OF EUROPE.

M. LE PLAY, " ingénieur en chef des mines,"
and political economist to the French nation
generally, has lately published, as the result
of twenty years' researches, an immense folio,
on the condition of the European workmen:—
Monographie, he calls it, being a savant who
loves classical roots. And in this monographie
M. le Play sets down—much as he would
classify shells or stones—the mode of life
and mode of thought, the domestic habits,
moral culture, receipts, expenses, wardrobes,
and furniture—and what these last are worth,
item by item, to a fraction—the kind of food,
way of cooking it, and the amount
consumed, of every class of workmen in Europe;
taking one family of each class as the type
and exemplar of the whole.

The Bachkirs,* demi-nomads of Eastern
Russia, stand at the head of M. le Play's
atlas, or tabular summary of the European
workman. He takes them as the type of the
most primitive organisation of labour, and of
the most primitive perfection of morals. The
Bachkirs fulfil many of the learned engineer's
conditions of happiness, and are great in
some of his favourite virtues. They are
Mohammedans in religion, shepherds by
profession, patriarchal and polygamist in their
domestic arrangements, illiterate, sleepy, and
lazy. But because the women are kept at
home; because the power of the chief of the
tribe, or head of the house, is absolute;
because the filial sentiment takes disproportionate
dimensions, and the offices of religion
absorb many hours of the working-day, M. le
Play overlooks the ignorance and matrimonial
multiplication which might have staggered

* M. le Play's spelling is preserved throughout.