Sir Everard. "What should there be to
fear?"

Another half hour went by, an hour—and
still he did not appear. A servant was
despatched to the boat-house to see if he was
returned, and as he was absent until
midnight, the household went to rest, Lady
Maxwell having suggested that he had gone
down the river to a place ten miles off, where
the fishing was good, and where he had
before remained all night without giving
notice of his intentions. Not the slightest
uneasiness was raised in any mind apparently,
by his prolonged absence; but Valentine
Unwin, recollecting the young man's excited
air when he left the house, after his cousin's
refusal to accompany him, felt several
anxieties creeping over him; and after a
restless night he was just about to set off on
a second walk down by the river, when he
saw a group of labouring men approaching
the house. Before they spoke he guessed
their tidings. The Abbey boat had been
found upset near the mill, and a little way
below the drowned body of Rosa's cousin.
It was conjectured, that, returning in the
dark, he had struck against some over-
stretching bough of a tree and upset the
light boat, and had been drowned by getting
entangled amongst the swift eddies of the
river, where the mill stream rushed into it
over the weir.

Old Sir Everard took his wife away from
the Abbey immediately the funeral was over,
and went abroad with her and little May.
It was three years before Valentine Unwin
saw them again. They met in Rorne, whither
he and Mary had gone at last on the proceeds
of a royal commission for a picture which
established his high repute aud directed a
stream of popular patronage, and ultimately
popular money into his hands. He is a great
painter now, one of the greatest of living
painters; Mary's dreams and ambition for
him are fulfilled. It was at Rome that he
painted the fine picture of Lady Maxwell
and her daughter, which now hangs in the
gallery at Burnham Abbey; it was at Rome
also that he met the beautiful girl who
succeeded in eclipsing the lingering memory of
his First Love, and afterwards became his
wife, Mary lives with them; and through
the fine, generous adaptability of her
character, is a treasure to their house — an
especial treasure to their children. Valentine
Unwin has no friend more stedfast than Sir
Everard Maxwell, except Mary; whose love
had stood by him From First to Last.

BRITISH FIRE-WORSHIP.

PAGANISM is, in all places, a worship of
natural forces. The sun, fire, thunder, hoar-
frost, wind, have been the universal gods of
primitive heathenism. The similarity of rites
has also been as striking as the identity
of the objects of worship. The same cruel
and savage ritual has everywhere prevailed.
Pliny correctly remarked, that there was so
great a resemblance between the religious
ceremonies of the Persians and the Druids,
that one might be induced to believe that
Magia, or Magism, had passed from Britain
into Persia. The Garrow Highlanders—a
remnant of the aboriginal inhabitants of
India, who have in their mountain retreats
survived the successive tides of Hindoo,
Mahomedan, and English conquest are
to this day primitive heathens, although
they have imperfectly adopted some of the
rites of their Hindoo neighbours. Upon the
whole, they may be still described as
uncorrupted worshippers of the sun, the moon, and
the elements. Their temple is the open
air. The chief place of their assembling
for sacrifice and for religious worship is
a mountain-pass, called Bannjaun. Like
true worshippers of Baal— as were our own
Druidical forefathers they look to the hills
for Divine assistance, believing that God's
earthly dwelling is on the high places. Their
mode of swearing is peculiarly solemn, and
indicates the earnestness and primitive
character of their belief. " The oath," says
Mr. Elliot,* "is taken upon a stone, which
they first salute; then, with their hands
joined and uplifted, their eyes steadfastly
fixed on the hills, they call upon Mahadeva
in the most solemn manner, telling him to
witness what they declare, as he only
knows whether they speak true or false.
They then again touch the stone with all the
appearance of the utmost fear, and bow their
heads to it, calling again upon Mahadeva.
During their relation, they look steadfastly
to the hills, and keep their right hand on the
stone." Mr. Elliot states that his moherrir,
or clerk, was so much affected by the
solemnity of the proceeding, that for some
time he could not sufficiently command his
emotions so as to enable him to write down
the evidence given: and Mr. Elliot was
himself "struck with awe and reverence," when
the first person swore before him to the
truth of his statements. There is something
profoundly touching in being thus confronted
in our own age with the rude honesty of primitive
Nature-worship. Though it is only Pagan
ignorance, it is, we must admit, the offspring
of natural religious sentiment, capable of
bearing some wholesome fruit. The interest
in these reflections is heightened, when we
remember that it was this very Nature-
worship which preceded Christianity in
Great Britain, and which has still left in
our language traditions, observances, and

* In September, seventeen hundred and eighty-eight,
Mr. John Elliot was deputed by the Government of the
East India Company to investigate the duties collected on
the Garrow Hills (which bound the north-eastern parts of
Bengal,), and to conciliate the good-will of their inhabitants.
We quote from Mr. Elliot's official report on an
interesting people, who up to the date of his mission had
had no intercourse with Europeans.