infinitely more mischievous in their habits. Writing in the
seventeenth century, Burton, in his _Anatomy of Melancholy_, remarks
that 'Turkey gentlewomen, that are perpetual prisoners, still mewed
up according to the custom of the place, have little else, beside
their household business or to play with their children, to drive
away time but to dally with their cats, which they have _in
delitiis_, as many of our ladies and gentlewomen use monkeys and
little dogs.' It is not the least merit of the cat that it has
banished from our sitting-rooms those frightful mimicries of
humanity--the monkey tribe; and as to the little dogs Tray, Blanch,
and Sweetheart, although we are not insensible to their many virtues
and utilities, we care not to see them sleeping on our hearth-rug,
or reposing beside our work-tables.

* * * * *

[Footnote 5: In the matter of fanaticism, the modern Egyptians, or
rather the inhabitants of Alexandria, seem hardly to have
degenerated from their ethnic 'forbears,' as we read in Mr J.A. St
John's travels the account of a serious insurrection which broke out
some years ago in that city, in consequence of certain Jews having
taken up the butcher's trade, and having slain the meat with a knife
having _three_ instead of _five nails_ in the handle!]




BEGGARS IN THE FAR EAST.