Miscellany: Darwin on Expression in Man and Animals. The Tension in Dickens. "The Great Idea." The Angel. A Jewish Wedding in Algiers. The Cry for Protection. [pp. 733-736]

1872.] AlISUELLAWY.
735
My heart beat high, but when I marked the
bierAike afpeanince of the table, aud that there
was a recumbent figure beneath the drapery, I
snatched away my hand, and shrieking out,
"Oh, it is dead, the a~gel is dead!" fell down
on the floor, and lost recollection for a moment
from excessive fright. Presently I saw that
Titus was standing by me, staring in alan~, and
I sat up, shaking, and feeling very cold
"I told you, Miss, that it wasn't alive nor
it wasn't dead," he observed; "how should it
be? Don't be afraid, come and look at it."
I felt sick, and shut my eyes while he led
me to it, and put back the drapery; then I
ventured to open them, and, oh, unutterable
disappointment! it was a wooden angel, and
there were veins of oak upon her win~s
"Now," said Titus, "what were you afraid
on?"
"This is not the sort of angel I meant," I
answered, and added, "I meant an angel that
`lad been in heaven."
Titus, stupid as he was, looked at mc wfth
astonishment on hearing this, and answered
with reverential awe, "Miss, you must not talk
in that fashion. That sort of angel doesn't fly
down here."
"Are you sure?" I inquired.
"Why, of course I am," he answered, sincerely enough, though strangely. "If they
came in snowy weather, they would get their
~ings froze."
"I know they do come," I replied; "God
sends them with messages; Mr. Mompesson
told me He did."
Titus, as I remember, did not clear up this
mystery for me, but he answered: "This is an
ernitetion angel. Father is making two for the
new organ. The man that he borrowed it of
made it."
"Then had he seen an angel?"
"No, sure."
"How did he know, then, what angels were
like?"
That Titus could not tell.
"Where did that man live?"
"He lived at Norwich."
This reply entirely satisfied me. Norwich
I knew was a great way off. It might be a
good deal nearer to heaven than was the place
where I lived. I cannot say that I distinctly
thought it was, but it was remote and utterly
unknown. All things therefore were possible
concerning it. I looked down on the angel's
wings as it lay on the long, low table, and I
believed that it was rightly carved, and that
they knew all about angels at Norwich.-" O~
tke 8ke~~js," by Jean ii~e~ow.
A JtWISff WET)DiY~ I~ AL~IBllS.
Lady Herbeft in a recent English work entitled " Algeria in 1871," gives a description
of a Jewish wedding which possesses features
new, we imagine, to most of our readers:
"We p~used in our sight-seeing to go with
Madame de C- and her beautiful daughter
to sea a Jewish weddi~g, for which she had
kindly obtained us an invitation. We were
received in an alcoved room, where a breakfast
of sweetmeats, cakes, and sweet wines, was
sat out, the bride and her parents being seated
on a divan at one end, dressed in rich Jewish
coatmue. After a short time, we were told to
precede the young lady to the Moorish vaporbath, which is the next part ]of the ceremony.
Such a marvellous scene as there met our eye
I despair of reproducing on paper! About
fifty yonug Jewish girls, from twelve to twenty years of age, whose only clothing was a
scarf of gold or silver gauze round their loins,
with their beautiful dark hair all down their
backs, and their lovely whfte necks and arms,
covered with necklaces and bracelets, were
seen dimly standing in the water through a
cloud of steam and incense, waiting for the
bride, and when she appeared received liar
with loud shrill cries of`Li! Li! Li!`in a
continually - ascending scale. Among these0
girls were hideous negresses equally scantily
clothed, and one or two of them with their
black, woolly hair dyed bright orange-color:
these were the bathing. women. They seized
us by the arm and wanted to force us to undress too, which we stoutly resisted; and took
refuge on the raised marble slab which surrounded the bath, and where the pretty little
bride, with her mother and aunts, was standlug waiting to be unrobed too. They took off
her heavy velvet clothes, and she appeared in
a beautiful gold-figured gauze chemise and
some lovely short red-and-gold drawers; they
then led her, with the same cries, into an inner
room, which was stifling with wet vapor and
steam, and here the poor child, who was only
thirteen, remained for three moftal hours, the
women pouring water on liar head from picturesque-shaped gold jars, and every kind of
cosmetic and sweet scent behig rubbed upon
liar. Being unable to stand the intense heat
and overpowering smell any longer, we escaped for a fime into the open air; but returned
after about an hour to find another bride going
through the same ceremonies. Some of the
bridesmaids were very beautiful; one especially, though a Jewess, had regularly qo7den
hair and blue eyes! And the whole scene was
like a ballet at the opera, or rather a set of
naids or water-nymphs in a picture; not like
any thing in real life! Their glorious hair
floating over their shoulders, with their beautiflilly-modelled arms rounded in graceful curves
as they disported themselves round the bride,
would have driven a sculptor or painter wild
with delight! But I could not get over the
indelicacy of the whole thing; it was a seesie in
t~e nude with a vengeance!
"At half-past three o'clock the following
morning, we got up and went to the bride's
house for the conclusion of the ceremony. A
great crowd of men and musicians were grouped
in the lower court. Above, the bride was sitting in state, in the deep recess of a handsome
Moresque room, veiled in white gauze, while a
red-and-gold figured scarf hung in graceful
folds behind her head. On either side of her
were two venerable-looking old men with long,
white beards, and in front of her another holdilig a candelabrum with three candles. They
were Rabbis, and chanted psalms alternately
with songs of praise about`the dove with the
beautiful eyes,' etc.; in fact, a sort of canticle.
All this time the minstrels in the quadrangle
below were`making a noise,' while over the
carved gallery above, looking down upon
them, leaned a variety of Jewish women, all
beautifully dressed in brown velvet and satin,
with stomacher and girdles richly brocaded
in gold, and gold-embroidered lappets hanging from the black-silk head-dress which is the
invariable costm~e of their race. This went on
for ~ours, till the poor little bride looked quite
worn out. From time to time spoonfuls of
soup were put into her mouth, ~~~ich she
strove to resist; and then she was conducted
into ilse court below, where the same ceremonies were gone through, except that a species of buffoon danced before her, and was
rewarded by ten-franc bits put into his mouth,
which he kept in his cheek while drawlh~g out
a queer kind of song, which we supposed was
witty, as the audience were in fits of laughter.
Every thing was done, both up-stairs and
down, to make the bride laugh, even to chuck
ing and pulling liar under the chin. But she
remained impassive, it being part of her business to look grave, and to prove by her demureness that she was old enough to be married. All of a sudden, the same unearthly cry
or yell of`Li! Li! Li!' was heard in the outside court, caught up instantly by every one
in and out of the house. I thought of the
words`Behold the bridegroom cometh!` so
exactly were the old traditions preserved. A
very ordinary-looking youth, in a frock-coat
and red fez, accordingly, made his appearance,
and then the women covered their faces with
their gauze handkerchiefs, and the men, who
never ceased eating and dnnkiu~ at intervals
during the whole night, formed themselves
into a procession; while the bride's father (a
venerable-looking old Jew, with a long, white
beard, white turban, and crimson sash) led her
to the carriage which was to take her to the
bridegroom's home, we all following, and the
womens cry of`Li! Li! Li! Li!' resounding through the narrow streets."
TIrE CEY ThE PEOThCTiOiV~
Edmond About has wntten a book on social economy, soon to be reprinted in this country, from which we quote a few characteristic
passages:
"The French do not hate being protected;
they are a people of a monarchical temp erament. But they do not all interpret protection
in the same way.
"`Protect me!` says the agriculturist.`I
have had a good grain-harvest; my neighbors,
less fortunate, have barely doubled their seed.
Before a month is over prices will rise, if the
information in my newspaper be accurate. I
hope to get thirty francs the hectolitre, and
empty my granary under the best conditions in
the world. I shall do this unless, throu~h
culpable weakness, the door is opened to foreign grain! America threatens us, Egypt holds
plenty suspended over our heads like the sword
of Damocles; Odessa, infamous Odessa, thinks
to glut us with her produce. Help! Let the
door be shut! Or, if you permit the hoportstion of foreign grain, have the humanity to tax
it heavily, in order that the cost of purchasing
on the spot, the transport, and the import duty,
should raise the price to thirty francs the beetolitre! If every thing goes on as I should
wish, I count upon proceeding to Switzerland
and bringing back four pairs of oxen.'
`Protect me!' says the grazier.`Shut
the door upon foreign cattle, if you wish me to
earn a livelihood. We are promised a rise in
the price of meat, and I count upon it; but the
admission of Italian, Swiss, German, Belgian,
and English cattle would create plenty for
everybody and be my ruin. Protect me by
prohibiting or by taxing all the products whid~
come into competition wfth me. Let grain
enter; I do not grow any, and I like to buy
bread cheaply. Permit the entry, free of duty,
of the combustibles with which I ~~n1i myself,
the glass out of whidi I drink, the furniture
which I use, the stuffs with whidi I clothe
myself, and all manufactured products in general. Oh, visible providence of citizens, arrange so that I shall not have any competitien
to fear as producer, but that in what I consume
I may enjoy all the benefits of competition!`
`Protect me!` says 2308;1608;2327]the manufacturer.
`Cause all the products which compete wit Ii
mine to be seized at the frontier; or, if you
suffer them to enter, load them with a duty
which will render them unsalable. The interest of the country enjoins upon you to serve
my personal interest. Do you not take pity
upon the national industry doubly menaced by
superior qualities and lower prices? My for