irregularities and squanders his wealth. He at length gets a wife and becomes the father of children. The husk of his rice even he refuses to part with, and his wish is to enjoy them all. He thinks, by living cheaply, by refusing to support charities, or to dispense favors, he is of all men the most happy. His youth now passes away and old age creeps on; his hair gets grey, his teeth drop, his sight fails, his body becomes dry, his back bends, he has recourse to a walking stick and is gazed at by the young with derision. While in this predicament the ministers of Yama* with their shaggy hair and frightful countenance approach him, aud seize and bear away his life in the midst of the screams of his wife and children. His kinsfolk and friends then assemble, talk of his good or evil deeds, convey his body to the burning ground with the sound of tom toms, and commit it to the fire, which consumes and reduces it to a handful of ashes."

28. Pattanattupillei. The popular belief is that this philosopher was by caste a chetty, and lived at Kaveripoompatnam, in the Carnatic. He was possessed of great riches, but imbibing an opinion, that they were merely the illusions of the world, he parted with them all, and passed the remainder of his life, subsisting wholly on alms and esteeming & potsherd and pure gold alike. His sister ashamed of his conduct attempted to poison him, but with out success. He lived to a great age and died in a wood near Tiruválankúda, where a Samáde, or monument was afterwards erected by his kinsfolk to perpetuate his memory. The verses which he ejaculated extempore as he wandered up and down the country have been carefully preserved, and they contain the opinions which he held. He represented man as a puppet whose motion stood only upon the pleasure of God' and therefore he was incapable of doing either good, or evil by himself.

29. Pattilakiri. This philosopher is said to have been originally a king, but of what place is not known. He was a contemporary of Pattanattupillei, and in imitation of him, abandoned his worldly possessions and adopted the life of a Sanniyasi, begging his bread from door to door and enduring the privation of all that could in any way have served to gratify his senses. He has left a number of exclamatory verses, called Pulambel, in one of which he expresses himself as follows:

"When shall the time come that the Shasters shall be burnt, the four Vedas manifested to be a lie, and I be made whole, through the knowledge of the Mystery?" Tam. Dict.

* The god of death.

(To be Continued)

POETICAL SKETCHES of THE INTERIOR OF THE ISLAND

OF CEYLON, BY THE REV, B. BAILEY.—(Continued.)

XXV.

THE MOUNTAIN TARN.

That Tree, shaped like a glittering coronet,
Standing upon the summit of the green
Bare bill, above the Mountain Tarn, between
The loftier mountains,-flowing at my feet
The laughing oya,-this most calm retreat,
This nest among the mountains,-I have seen
With still and deep emotion. Nought of mean,
Or earthly care should now have power to fret,
Or ruffle the smooth waters of the soul.
The winged spirit soars even to the

top

Of the Indian Bird ;* low as the streams that roll
Beneath my heart. The heavenly light of hope,
In such a spot, instructs man how to be
The favored child of immortality.

XXVI.

THE STREAMLET,

Tired with upgazing at the range of hills,
And having viewed the Mountain Peacock's head,
My footsteps, not unwillingly, were led

To one of those sequestered tinkling tills,
Where the clear streamlet runs not as it wills,
But is obstructed in its stony bed,

And, fretted, murmurs that it hath not sped
So smoothly as it would. Life's lesser ills
Are imaged by its waters. When our feet
Stumble at petty obstacles, 'twere well
That our impatient murmurs to a dell
Like this were limited. The spot is blest
With deep seclusiou, and a perfect rest,
Beneath the Peacock Mountain lone and sweet.

The Peacock Mountain.

XXVII.

BLACK FOREST.

The Hartz of Germany I have not seen :
But this contents me, fills my mind with thought.
A deep enjoyment hath this forest wrought
Within me, yet as solemn as the green
Of these tall trees that let small light between
Their thickly studded stems,-a spirit fraught
With fearless melancholy, which hath taught
The mind to muse amid a sombre scene,
Like this dark wood of drear monotony,
And twilight dim, and shadowy solitude.
I've rarely seen trees grow so straight and high,
In dells so deep, and dark, and vast, and rude.
A bird's note startles; and the insects' cry
Rings a shrill chorus through this gloomy wood.

XXVHI.

BREAK IN THE FOREST.

As on the lonely traveller through the night
Comes the fair dawn of daylight,-is this Break
In the dark shadowy forest. The tall peak
Of the near Peacock Mountain on the right,
The distant mountains covered with dim light,
Relieve the eye, and altogether make
A lovely bay of ether, and awake
The busy fancy to assist the sight,

And revel in the distance. Hills are blended
With the deep valleys in one sea of blue:
And now before the mind's eye is extended
The billowy ocean foaming in the gale;
As voyagers around Hope's Cape oft view
A swollen sea of mountain and of vale.

XXIX.

OPEN COUNTRY.

I breathe more freely in this open space,
The shadowy forest and its gloom are o'er ;
I love these wilds, and hills, and plains the more ;
They come upon me with a freer grace.
The view is vast and limitless. I trace
The outline only of the mass before,

And all around me. Now let fancy soar,

Nor stoop her wing, save in some pleasant place;
Such as may rivet any mortal eye,

And captivate the not unwilling mind
With beauty and with mountain majesty:
Yet though such spots our admiration bind,
Unfetter fancy; let her wild wings fly,
Like Ariel, free as freest mountain wind.

XXX.

CASTELLATED ROCK.

Upon a mountain summit stands a Rock:
Its sides are stained by weather, or by time;
Its steep and lofty walls no foot can climb;
It seems a Castle that hath stood the shock
Of elements and war. It hath a look
Of fearless terror, confidence sublime;
A carelessness of courage and of crime.
At sublunary things it seems to mock.
It looks with dark disdain on all beneath;
The clouds that rested on it fade way;
"Tis the abode of danger and of death;
It frowns impatient of this lovely day :
And as I slowly ride beneath the wall,
Methinks I hear the warder's hoarse loud call.

XXXI.

AFTER SUNSET.

If in the orbs that glimmer from afar
In the blue concave of the sky above,—
If glory, beauty, and transcendant love
Speak silent in " each bright particular star;"
Not with less glory, though in shadow, are
Apparelled these din passes, and each cove
Cut in the mountain's rocky sides. I move
Fearless of danger, and untouched by care
Of sublunary things; yet feeling deep
The Omnipresence of the mighty GOD,
Who called up worlds from the chaotic sleep,-
Unconscious worlds, yet glorious, the abode
Of thinking spirits, who for ever keep
Their watch where less than angels never stood.

Poetical Sketches, &c. &c.

XXVII.

The Black Forest is appropriately named. It is a dark, lonely, melancholy place. A solitary bird now and then sends up his clear voice from the low deep dells, darkened with tall perpendicular trees,-the height and depth of which are imperceptible. He is answered by innumerable insects, like a chorus of crickets, ringing their shrill and tuneless cries in changes, like a set of bells, though without their melody, and sometimes answering each other's cries from remoter parts of this most gloomy wood. The cry is discordant and painful. This insect is doubtless the Cicada. We meet with it in the South of Europe,In every part of this island,—and in all warm climates. But in this wood they are more numerous, and their cry is more loud and discordant, yet with a certain kind