tecost. Its original name is Wittentide, the time of choosing the wits, or wise men to the Wittenagemotte. It was consecrated to Hertha, the goddess of peace and fertility; and no quarrels might be maintained, no blood shed, during this truce of the goddess. Each village, in the absence of the baron at the assembly of the nation, enjoyed a kind of saturnalia. The vassals met upon the common green, round the May Pole, where they elected a village lord, or king, as he was called, who chose his queen. He wore an oaken wreath, and she a hawthorn wreath, and together they gave laws to the rustic sports during these sweet days of freedom. The May Pole then is the English tree of liberty! Are they many yet standing?

O YES!

Few persons would suppose, that a crier, when bawling in our courts of justice, or in country towns, "O yes! O yes!" was commanding the talkers to become hearers in the old French phrase Oyez, (listen,) which has been retained by this officer ever since legal pleadings were conducted in that language-this however is the fact.

GREY MARE THE BETTER HORSE.

A gentleman of a certain county in England having married a young lady of considerable fortune, and with many other charms; yet finding, in a very short time, that she was of a high domineering spirit, and always contending to be mistress of him and his family, he was resolved to part with her. Accordingly, he went to her father, and told him, he found his daughter of such a temper, and was so heartily tired of her, that if he would take her home again, he would return every penny of her fortune.

The old gentleman having inquired into the cause of his complaint, asked him, "why he should be more disquieted than any other married man, since it was the common case with them all, and consequently no more than he ought to have expected when he entered into the marriage state?" The young gentleman desired to be excused, if he said he was so far from giving his assent to this assertion, that he thought himself more unhappy than any other man, as his wife had a spirit no way to be quelled; and as most certainly no man, who had a sense of right and wrong, could ever

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submit to be governed by his wife. "Son," said the old man, you are but little acquainted with the world, if you do not know that all women govern their husbands, though not all, indeed, by the same method: however, to end all disputes between us, I will put what I have said on this proof, if you are willing to try it; I have five horses in my stable; you shall harness these to a cart, in which I shall put a basket containing one hundred eggs; and if, in passing through the country, and making a strict inquiry into the truth or falsehood of my assertion, and leaving a horse at the house of every man who is master of his family himself, and an egg only where the wife governs, you will find your eggs gone before your horses, I hope you will then think your own case not uncommon, but will be contented to go home and look upon your wife as no worse than her neighbours. If on the other hand, your horses are gone first, I will take my daughter home again, and you shall keep her fortune."

This proposal was too advantageous to be rejected; our young married man, therefore, set out with great eagerness to get rid, as he thought, of his horses and his wife.

At the first house he came to, he heard a woman, with a shrill and angry voice, call to her husband to go to the door. Here he left an egg, you may be sure, without making any further inquiry; at the next he met with something of the same kind; and at every house, in short, until his eggs were almost gone, when he arrived at the seat of a gentleman of family and figure in the county; he knocked at the door, and inquiring for the master of the house, was told by a servant, that his master was not yet stirring, but if he pleased to walk in, his lady was in the parlour. The lady, with great complaisance, desired him to seat himself, and said, if his business was very urgent, she would wake her husband to let him know it, but had much rather not disturb him. "Why, really, madam," said he, "my business is only to ask a question, which you can resolve as well as your husband, if you will be ingenuous with me; you will, doubtless, think it odd, and it may be deemed impolite for any one, much more a stranger, to ask such a question; but as a very considerable wager depends upon it, and it may be some advantage to yourself, to declare the truth to me, I hope these considerations will plead my excuse. It is, ma

dam, to desire to be informed, whether you govern your husband, or he rules over you?"-" Indeed, sir," replied the lady," this question is somewhat odd; but, as I think no one ought to be ashamed of their duty, I shall make no scruple to say, that I have been always proud to obey my husband in all things; but if a woman's own word is to be suspected in such a case, let him answer for me; for here he comes."

The gentleman at that moment entered the room, and after some apologies, being made acquainted with the business, confirmed every word his obedient wife had reported in her own favour; upon which he was invited to choose which horse in the team he liked best, and to accept of it as a present.

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A black gelding struck the fancy of the gentleman most; but the lady desired he would choose the grey mare, which she thought would be very fit for her side-saddle; her husband gave substantial reasons why the black horse would be most useful to them, but madam still persisted in her claim to the grey mare. What," said she," and will you not take her, then? But I say you shall, for I am sure the grey mare is much the better horse."- "Well, my dear," replied the husband, "if it must be so."-" You must take an egg," replied the gentleman carter, "and I must take all my horses back again, and endeavour to live happy with my wife."

A DISINTERESTED BISHOP.

The very ingenious and amiable bishop Berkeley, of Cloyne in Ireland, was so entirely contented with the income of that diocese, that when offered by the literary earl of Chesterfield (then lord lieutenant) a bishoprick much more beneficial than that he possessed, he declined it with these words; I love my neighbours, and they love me; why then should I begin in my old days to form new connections, and tear myself from those friends, whose kindness is to me the greatest happiness I can enjoy?' Acting in this instance like the celebrated Plutarch, who, being asked, why he resided in his native city, so obscure and so little! I stay,' said he, lest it should grow less.'

1

THE LOVES OF CLITOPHON AND LEUCIPPE.-A ROMANCE: From the Greek of Achilles Tatius. (Resumed from page 296.)

IN pursuance of our plan, Satyrus mixed a sleeping potion in Panthia's goblet, as he had before done in that of Canope, and with the same effect. When all were fast asleep, Leucippe, Satyrus, Clinias, two servants of Clinias, and myself, got into the chariot, which was in waiting, and set out for Sidon, where we arrived about the middle of the night. Thence we went to Berytus, expecting to find some ship ready to sail, nor were we disappointed in that hope, for we had no sooner entered the harbour than we found a ship, that was going to sea on the instant. Without waiting to know its intended course, we immediately went a-board, and then, for the first time, learnt that it was bound for Alexandria. While on our voyage, we got acquainted with a young man, called Menelaus, and the time passed very agreeably until the third day, when a violent storm arose. The ship tossed to and fro, and her timbers groaned as if they were about to fall in pieces by the beating of the waters. The goods were ordered to be thrown overboard, but all was in vain; and the pilot at last became weary of a struggle that was so evidently fruitless. In despair, he gave up the vessel to the direction of the waves, and then ordered the seanien to construct a raft. He himself was the first to descend, and the rest began to follow, till those who were already on the raft, fearing it would sink beneath their numbers, cut the rope that held it to the ship. They, on the other hand, who were thus left to perish, endeavoured to leap among their comrades: a battle arose in consequence; the one party defending itself with swords and axes, and the other attacking with oars, and whatever fragments lay upon the deck. Thus the greatness of the danger dissolved all ties of fellowship or friendship.

During this dispute, the ship was dashed against a rock and broken. Our good genius had placed Leucippe and myself on the highest part of the deck, and we were driven about at the mercy of the winds and waves, while our less fortunate companions had to struggle in the ocean. Menelaus and his companions were carried by the tide to a part of Egypt said to be the abode of robbers, but we were happy enough to reach Pelarium by the evening.

VOL. I.]

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[No. VI.

Here we remained two days to refresh ourselves after the fatigues of our shipwreck, when we took a passage to Alexandria, for I had fortunately kept some gold about my person. Our idea was to write to our friends from that place; but, while the vessel was passing a certain town, a sudden clamour arose, and the pilot, crying out that we were lost, stopped our course. The shore was filled with robbers, four of whom boarded the ship, and, having put us all into fetters, took us off to their king, for so they called their chief. He, however, happened to be absent, as I learnt from those about me.

The night was passed in tears and lamentations. When the morning dawned a messenger came from the robber king, who said, "if there be any virgin amongst you captives, I must take her with me, as an expiatory sacrifice to our Gods."-Upon this the guards seized upon Leucippe and bore her off, while we followed in our fetters.

We had scarcely got two stadia from the village, when we heard shouts, mingled with the clamour of the trumpet, and saw a small army drawn out in array of battle. The robbers, who were the greater number, placed us in their rear, and were not slow to meet the attack of their enemies; but, notwithstanding their valour, they were completely routed by the Ægyptians, to whose leader we were then conducted. Charmides, for such was the general's name, inquired by what chance we had fallen into the power of the robbers. Being informed, he ordered us to follow him, and promised to give us arms, for he had resolved to attack the strong hold of the robbers, as soon as the troops that he expected should arrive. But all this time, Leucippe remained in the power of the banditti.

The next day Charmides ordered his troops to fill up the ditch which divided us from the enemy. We were then so near to them that we could plainly see their actions; they had formed a temporary altar of clay, and near it, a sepulchre, towards which two men were leading a maiden, with her hands bound behind her back. The men we could not recognize, as they were covered with armour, but I soon saw that the victim was Leucippe. After they had poured libations on her head, all retired from the altar except one young man, who having bound her to a stake, plunged his sword into her body in such a way that the bowels were instantly protruded; these were laid upon the altar, and di