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 132 The stalls kept by the Tyrolese were by far the most interesting. They had gloves of dainty hue and goodly shape that found numerous purchasers. We were attracted to an adjoining stall by the display of some remarkably pretty ornaments of amethystine quartz and garnets. The latter are principally found in the Thuringian mountains, and are manufactured into trinkets at Prague. We have heard that the King of Saxony has a garnet of such size and beauty that it is valued at 8000 gulden. Very pretty but not quite so costly were the ornaments set forth for sale by the Tyrolean stall-keeper. We found that he was a native of Innsbruck, and having just returned from thence in a state of enthusiasm, we hailed him as a kind of friend, and bought several articles of carved wood and ivory. The delicacy of the work, the justness of proportion, and the general beauty of design, observable in many of these things, might really challenge artistic criticism.

The fair is a serious matter of business to the haus-frau, who has "a frugal mind." She comes here twice a year to replace those inevitable breakages which will happen in the best regulated families. She has to purchase linen, calico, and flannel for the family, boots and shoes for the children, and Swiss embroidery for herself. It is an old custom to lay in stocks of things at the fair—" a custom more honoured in the breach than the observance " thinks the young fraulein, who talks just now a good deal about Paris fashion.

Before leaving the fair, it is necessary that you eat waffeln. Formerly, the secret of making these cakes was possessed only by the Dutch women, who regularly attended in their picturesque national costume. But the Germans have discovered the art, and one old woman of Manheim has realised so large a fortune, that she has bought several houses in her native town. The waffeln are a sort of pancake—square, very light, and of a cellular formation. One of them is made at an open fire in about ten seconds. The cooking apparatus is quite sui generis. They are concocted while you stand at the stall, and must be eaten the moment they are off the fire; in short, heat seemed to us the principal element in their composition, and, beyond burning our mouth, we have no remembrance of the taste of waffeln, nor could we positively distinguish the sensation produced from that of inadvertently possessing oneself of a very hot potatoe.

Escaping from where the throng was the thickest—where our ubiquitous friend, Punch, was performing his antics, and where joyous children shrieked with delight on the backs of hobby horses, who galloped in mad circles to the loudest and merriest music—escaping from all this, we encountered several persons who had evidently just purchased the wreaths they carried tenderly in their hands.

These wreaths were composed of the greenest moss, or of ivy, interspersed with bright artificial flowers. It will soon be All Saints' and All Souls' day, and then—and such is the custom—these immortelles will be taken to the cemetery and hung on the numerous crosses which mark the graves of the remembered dead. The whole current of thought was changed by this memento mori; we stood half unconscious of the real world, when a light touch on the arm from our companion, drew us aside, and, without question, we entered an exhibition, at once singular and characteristic. The so called "Cabinet of Art" was part and parcel of the fair. The owner set forth that it contained "moving wax figures, after originals of Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and "Dominichino." The exhibition was, in fact, some thing after the manner of the Mystery Play, recently performed at Ammergau, in the Tyrol. The figures were life-size, representing, though rudely, certain well known pictures of great masters. The object was to portray some of the most prominent events in the life of Christ. First, there was the infant Saviour in the stable at Bethlehem, at the moment of the adoration of the kings. Then Jesus in the Temple, among the scribes and elders; the Marriage at Cana in Galilee ; the Last Supper; and the scene on the Mount of Olives. The figures moved, and the scene shifted, with an attempt to give something like vitality to the picture. To us it appeared a rude and grotesque piece of mechanism, which at the first hearing we should have condemned as shockingly irreverent ; but the people who were looking at the exhibition at the same time, were evidently impressed with a deep feeling of solemnity. These spectators were men in their working dresses ; to them it had a religious significance. If there are those who can ——build the soul a lordly pleasure-house. there are also those, the untutored, who know nothing of the Palace of Art, but are not un moved by even such rude attempts to rouse their sympathies. There was a quaint medi.tval sim plicity about the whole, which at least might teach us something of charity for the prejudices and superstitions of others.

THE BLACK SPOT.

A STORY FROM CHINA.

There was much mirth in Hong Kong. That little rock of an island—a perfect terrestrial paradox, so rich is it, and, at the same time, so unproductive, had lately received a substantial addition to its stock of European inhabitants. A battalion of her Majesty's infantry, two batteries of artillery, a detachment of sappers, and a body of marines, had been landed, while eleven new sail, what with transports and what with steam frigates, were at anchor in the Roads. There was a new attorney-general, too, and several new clerks, secretaries, and aides-de-camp to the governor, for the climate is a trying one, a vapour bath in one wind, a kiln in another, and there is a great consumption of young gentlemen holding official situations at Hong Kong. The governor gave four dinners and a ball, for British hospitality does not grow mildewed in the far east, and the Rifles gave a ball, and so did the 117th Foot, and so did the admiral, and the chief justice followed suit. Then the civilians had their turn. By civilians, in this case, I do not mean civilians in the Anglo-Indian sense of the word, but merely the merchant princes of Hong Kong,——men who have appointed