permission. I uniformly observed that men and women, when they had gotten any thing in exchange, immediately commenced licking it, to intimate, as I afterwards learned, that it was then their property. While trading with the women, I had an opportunity of observing how far they were from despising all sort of authority; they all appeared attentive to the voice of wisdom, which time and experience had conferred on the aged. It is age which teaches experience, and experience is the only source of knowledge amongst a barbarous people. I remarked that several of the mothers pointed repeatedly to the children's heads, as I supposed for the purpose of selling them; in this, however, I was quite mistaken, as they have for their children the greatest affection, and do not part with them for any consideration. I understood afterwards, that it was merely to recommend them to my notice, in order that I might give them something. The children, most of whom were about nine or ten years old, appeared of very lively dispositions, and many of them were really very well looking. I did not observe that they reprimanded them in any way; indeed, I am told that this is never done. Liberty is their darling passion; it is this which makes life supportable, and to it they are ready to sacrifice every thing; their education is directed, therefore, in such a manner as to cherish this disposition to the utmost. Reason, they say, will guide their children when they come to the use of it, and before that time their faults cannot be very considerable; but blows, by producing a slavish motive to action, might damp their free and martial spirit. A few of the women had young children at the breast. I recollect one in particular, who, while very busy trading, was much annoyed with the crying of her young squaw, about six months old, which she had in the hood of her garment. Unwilling to be at the trouble of holding it to the breast, she went up to the stern of the boat, where * I may here remark, that their breasts, though very long and flaccid, are by no means of sufficient length to throw over their shoulders, as some have asserted. the old woman was sitting, and took out a small bag of blubber, applied the open extremity to the infant's mouth, and pressing it beneath her thumb and forefinger, she in this way forced a quantity of it into the young thing's mouth; the crying immediately ceased, and, in a few minutes the young savage was fast asleep. When the women had disposed of their merchandise, they all cried out, "Twa wi, twa wi ;" and then pointed to the ship, thus intimating their wish that we should leave them. In the evening about sixty of them, men, women, and children, came on board. The women appeared highly delighted with the dancing, and imitated it very closely. We shewed three or four of the men the bears we had taken on the ice. They appeared very much terrified at the sight of them, and uttered something which I could not understand. One of them pointed to his side, where I observed a large scar; he then made a growling kind of noise, and ran away with great speed. I thence concluded that this poor fellow had been bit by a bear some time previous. Tea being announced, we brought several of them down to the cabin, and placed before them wine, rum, sugar, bread, milk, and a variety of other things; but they rejected them all with the greatest disgust; sugar they appeared to dislike particularly. Every one of them, I observed, spit it out, and cleansed their mouths after it. We happened to have for dinner that day some very nice roast pork, and being anxious to see if they would eat of it, I placed a large slice of it on a plate before one of them; I also laid a knife and fork before him. He appeared to like the meat well enough, but his knife and fork he managed very badly; for instead of introducing the piece on the fork into his mouth, the point of it went off to his cheek, while the hand went to his mouth. I was much amused with this singular instance of the strong force of habit. The children behaved themselves remarkably well. We could not, than a few minutes in one position. however, prevail on them to sit more When placed in a chair, they would look down on either side of it, jump up, and run about the cabin. Being anxious to hear what the mother would say in case I attempted chastising one of them, I began to pull the ears of a very fine boy, about twelve years old, who was sitting beside me. The mother immediately stood up, and gave me a very fierce angry look. Observing that she was much displeased, I immediately began to pat him on the head, and gave him a few beads. She instantly recovered her good-humour, and cried out, "Chimo, chimo." There was only one of them attempted to pilfer. Happening to look round rather suddenly, I observed one of them slipping a silver spoon into his boot. I imme diately arrested his hand, took the spoon, and shewed it to his companions. He did not appear at all ashamed of being detected, but laughed very heartily. About ten o'clock they left us; the greater part of them made towards the shore, to which they were directed by the placid light of a full unclouded moon. We gazed after them for a considerable time, until at length they were lost in the shadowy line of land which lay before us. Those who remained about the ship, slept on the ice the entire night, with merely the interposition of a few seal-skins. Before retiring to rest, I observed them take from their canoes some raw seal-flesh and bags of blubber, on which they appeared to feast very sumptuously. I remarked, that one of them kept watch in turn during the entire night; he walked about on the ice with a harpoon in his hand. This I fancy was more from a dread of being attacked by the bears, than from any apprehension they had of being attacked by the Europeans. A few of us remained on deck until a very late hour; at one time watching every motion of our northern friends, at another, gazing with astonishment and delight on the brilliant and impressive scenery with which we were surrounded. While thinking on the miserable condition of the squallid inhabitants of this dreary inhospitable climate, I was forcibly reminded of the following beautiful lines of Cow. per : “Within the enclosure of your rocks Nor herds have ye to boast, nor bleating flɔcks; No fertilizing streams your fields divid, That show, revers'd, the villas on their side: Of their religious opinions I have been able to learn but little. Our imperfect acquaintance with their language; their avidity for traffic, which was so great as to prevent their attending to any enquiries on such matters; these, together with the shortness of our stay among them, rendered it very difficult to ascertain any thing of a satisfactory nature on that subject. Some have very foolishly supposed that they adored a small figure resembling a bear, and made from the tooth of the sea-horse: it is, however, merely intended as a kind of amusement during their long and tedious winter-evenings. From the body, which is perforated with a number of small holes, hangs a slender piece of stick, pointed; and, on this, they endeavour to catch the bear, just in the same way as the cup and ball is used by the boys in this country. The following conversation, which is related by the accurate historian Crantz, to have passed between a converted Greenlander and one of the Moravian missionaries, will probably afford a better idea of their religious sentiments than any account I could give. The missionary having expressed his wonder how they could formerly lead such a senseless life, void of all reflection, one of them answered as follows: "It is true we were ignorant heathens, and knew nothing of a God or a Saviour; and, indeed, who should tell us of him, till you came?-But thou must not imagine, that no Greenlander thinks about these things. I, myself, have of ten thought a kajak (boat), with all its tackle and implements, does not grow into existence of itself; but must be made by the labour and ingenuity of man, and one that does not understand it would directly spoil it. Now, the meanest bird has far more skill displayed in its structure than the best kajak, and no man can make a bird. But there is a still far greater art shown in the formation of a man than of any oth er creature. Who was it that made him? I bethought me, he proceeded from his parents, and they from their parents. But some must have been the first parents: whence did they come ? Common report informs they grew out of the earth. But if so, why does it not still happen that men grow out of the earth? And from whence did this same earth itself, the sea, the sun, the moon, and stars, rise into existence? Certainly there must be some Being who made all these things-a Being that always was, and can never cease to be. He must be inexpressibly more mighty, knowing, and wise, than the wisest man. He must be very good too; because, every thing that he has made is good, useful, and necessary for us. Ah! did I but know him, how would I love him and honour him! But who has seen him? Who has conversed with him?-none of us poor men. Yet there may be men too that know something of him. Oh! could I but speak with such! Therefore, (said he) as soon as ever I heard you speak of this Great Being, I believed it directly with all my heart, because I THE had so long desired it." They all believe in a future state, but differ very much with regard to its nature and situation. In general, they imagine it to be a better state than this temporal life, and that it will never end. As they procure the greater part of their food from the bosom of the sea, therefore many of them place their Elysium in the abysses of the ocean, or bowels of the earth, and think the deep cavities of the rocks are the avenues leading to it. There, they imagine, dwells a Tonjarink and his mother; there a joyous summer is perpetual, and a shining sun obscured by no night; there is the fair limpid stream, and an exuberance of fowls, and their beloved seals, and these are all to be caught without toil; nay, they are even found in a great kettle ready drest. But to these places none must approach, except those that have been dexterous and diligent at their work; that have performed great exploits, have mastered many whales and seals, have undergone great hardships, have been drowned in the sea, or died in childbed. THE COVENANTER'S MARRIAGE DAY. BY THE AUTHOR OF LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF SCOTTISH LIFE.* HE marriage party were to meet in a little lonesome dell, well known to all the dwellers round St. Mary's Loch. A range of bright green hills goes southward from its shores, and between them and the high heathery mountains lies a shapeless scene of cliffs, moss, and pasture, partaking both of the beauty and the grandeur between which it so wildly lies. All these cliffs are covered with native birch trees, except a few of the loftiest that shoot up their bare points in many fantastic forms; that moss, full of what the shepherds call "hags," or hollows worn by the weather, or dug out for fuel, waves, when the wind goes by, its high rich-blossomed and fragrant heath; and that pasturage, here and there in circular spots of emerald verdure, affords the sweetest sustenance to the sheep to be found among all that mountainous region. It was in one of these circles of beautiful herbage, called by the Shepherds "The Queen Fairy's Parlour,"that Mark Kerr and Christian Lindsay, who had been long betrothed were now to be made man and wife. It was nearly surrounded by large masses, or ledges of loose rocks, piled to a considerable height upon each other by some strong convulsion, and all adorned with the budding and sweet-breathing birches, while the circle was completed by one overshadowing cliff that sheltered it from the north blast, and on whose airy summit the young hawks were shrilly and wildly crying in their nest. The bridegroom was sitting there with his bride, and her bridesmaid; and by and by, one friend after another appeared below the natural arch that all dropping with wild flowers, formed * See Ath. vol. xi. p. 430. the only entrance into this lonely Tab- pastime-perhaps Covenanters ought ernacle. At last they all stood up in a not to have indulged in promiscuous circle together-shepherds decently ap- dancing-perhaps it may be said to be parelled, shepherdesses all dressed in false that they did so; but the Minister raiment bleached whiter than the snow has gone now to his own hiding-place. in the waters of the mountain-spring, These covenanters were young, and and the grey-headed Minister of God, this occasion was a happy one; and who, driven from his kirk by blood- dance they did, most assuredly, wicked thirsty persecution, prayed and preach- as it may have been, and improper as ed in the wilderness, baptized infants it may be to record such wickedness. with the water of the running brook, The young hawks were not a little and joined in wedlock, the hands of alarmed; and an old ram, who happenthose whose hearts longed to be united ed to put in his twisted horns below in those dark and deadly times. Few the arch, got a fright, that made him words were uttered by the gracious old bound backwards out of the enchanted man; but these few were solemn and circle. The hill blackbird wondered; full of cheer, impressed upon the hearts but he himself joined the dance upon of the wedded pair, by the tremulous the birchen spray-and although no tones of a voice that was not long for great songster, he did his best, and this world, by the sanctity of his long chirped cheerfully his notes in the din white locks unmoved by a breath of of the general happiness. air and by the fatherly and apostolical But as the evening hours were admotion of his uplifted hand, that seemed vancing, the party kept dropping away to conduct down upon them who stood one by one, or in pairs, just as it had in awe before him the blessing of that gathered; and the Fairy Queen had her God who delighteth in an humble heart. Parlour all to herself undisturbed, if she The short ceremony was now closed,-chose at night to hold a court beneath and Mark Kerr and Christian Lindsay the lamp of the Moon. were united, till death should sunder them on earth to reunite them in heaven. Greetings were interchanged, and smiles went round, with rosy blushes, and murmuring and whispering voices of irreproachable mirth. What though the days were dark, and the oppressor strong? Here was a place unknown to his feet; and now was a time to let the clear sparkling fountain of nature's joy well up in all hearts. Sadness and sorrow overshadowed the land; but human life was not yet wholly a waste; and the sweet sunshine that now fell down through a screen of fleecy clouds upon the Queen Fairy's Parlour, was it not to enliven and rejoice all their souls? Was it not to make the fair bride fairer in her husband's eyes-her smile brighter, and the ringlets more yellow as they hung over a forehead that wore its silken snood no longer, but in its changed covering gracefully showed that Christian Lindsay was now a wife? The tabor and the pipe were heard; and footsteps, that left no print on the hard smooth verdant floor, kept time to the merry measures. Perhaps the old man would have frowned on such Where had the young married pair their bridal chamber? Mark Kerr had a shealing on the mountain-side, from which was just visible one bay of St. Mary's Loch. The walls were built of turf, and the roof of heather-and surrounded as it was on all sides by large stones, wooded cliffs, knowes, and uneven eminences, it was almost as likely to escape notice as the nest of a bird, or the lair of a roe. Thither he took his bride. Her little bridesmaid had a small covert of her own, distant only a few roods, and the friends could see each other standing at the door of each shealing, through the intercepting foliage of the waving birches that hung down their thin and ineffectual veil till it swept the blooming heather. On a small seat, framed of the roots of decayed trees, Mark Kerr was now sitting with his own sweet Christian ; when he gently raised her head from his bosom, and told her to go into the shealing, for he saw people on the hillside, whose appearance, even at that distance, he did not like. Before a quarter of an hour had elapsed a party of soldiers were at hand. Mark knew. that he had been observed for some time; and to attempt escape with his bride was impossible. So he rose up at their approach, and met them with a steady countenance, though there were both fear and sorrow in his heart. Christian had obeyed him, and the shealing was silent. "Is your name Mark Kerr?" "Yes -that is my name." "Were you at Yarrow-Ford when a prisoner was rescued and a soldier murdered?" "I was-but did all I could to save that soldier's life." "You wolf, you mangled his throat with your own bloody fangs-but we have traced you to your den, and the Ghost of Hugh Gemmel, who was as pleasant either with lad or lass as any body that ever emptied a cup or had a fall upon a heather, will shake hands with you by moonlight by and by. You may meet either in the churchyard, down by the Loch, where your Canting Covenanters will bury you, or down at Yarrow-Kirk, where Hugh was put to bed with the worms, in his red coat, like a soldier as he was. By the Holy God of Israel-(is not that a lump of your own slang?)—this bayonet shall drink a stoup of your heart's blood." Mark Kerr knew, in a moment, that there was no hope of life. He had confessed being present on the occasion charged against him; and a sentence of death, which an angel's intercession could not have got reversed, was glaring in the eyes of all the soldiers. Each man seemed to kindle into fiercer fury as he caught the fiery eyes around him. Their oaths and execrations exasperated them all into frenzy; and a wild perturbed sense of justice demanding expiation of their murdered comrade's blood, made them deaf and blind to every thing but the suggestions of their own irritated and inflamed hearts. A horrid sympathy possessed them all; and they were as implacable as a herd of wolves famished and in sight of their prey. There was no mercy in any one face there, else Mark Kerr would have appealed to that man, for his life was now sweet and precious, and it was a hard thing to die. "I know his face. He is the very man that stabbed Hugh when he was down with his own bayonet. How do you like that, sirrah?"-and one of the soldiers thrust his long bayonet through Mark's shoulder, till the point was seen at his back, and then drew it out smeared with blood, and returned it to its sheath, with a grin of half-glutted vengeance. The wounded man staggered at the blow and sat down, nearly fainting, upon the seat where a few minutes before his bride had leant her head upon his bosom. But he uttered not a word, and kept his eyes fixed, not reproachfully, but somewhat sadly and with a faint expression of hope, on the men who seemed determined to be his executioners. The pain, the sickness, the sudden blasting of all his hopes, almost unmanned his resolute heart; and Mark Kerr would have now done much to save his life,—and something, perhaps, even at the expense of Conscience and Faith. But that weak mood was of short duration,—and the good and brave man braced up his heart to receive the doom of death. Meanwhile one of the soldiers had entered the shealing, and brought out Christian in his grasp. A loud shout of laughter, and scornful exultation followed. "Ho-ho-my Heath-Cock, you have got your bonny hen?—Catch a Covenanter without his comfort.-Is your name Grace, my bonny bairn ?” Christian looked around, and saw Mark sitting pale and speechless, with his breast covered with clotted blood. She made no outcry, for grief, and pity, and consternation, struck her dumb. She could not move for the soldier held her in his arms. But she looked in the ruffian's face with such an imploring countenance, that unconsciously he let her go, and then she went up tottering to poor Mark, and with her white bridal gown wiped off the gore from his breast, and kissed his clayey and quivering lips. She then ran to the spring that lay sparkling among its cresses, within a few yards of the shealing, and brought a handful of cold water, which she sprinkled tenderly over his face. The human soul is a wild and terrible thing when inflamed with cruelty and revenge. The soldiers saw little mor in all this than a subject for loathsom scurrility and ferocious merriment ; and |