THE DATE TREE.

THE inhabitants of the country over which we hunted are all Arabs. They live, like their brethren in other parts, almost entirely on camels' milk and dates. Their care appears limited to the preservation of the animal and the propagation of the tree, which yield what they account the best of this world's luxuries; and these not only furnish this lively race of men with food, but with almost all the metaphors in which their language abounds. Of this we had an amusing instance: amongst others who accompanied the ambassador on a sporting expedition, was a young officer, who measured six feet seven inches; he, like others, had lain down to take an hour's repose, between our morning and evening hunt. An old Arab who was desired to awake him, smiling, said to his servant, "Entreat your datetree to rise." We had a hearty laugh at our friend, who was not at first quite reconciled to this comparison of his commanding stature to the pride of the desert.-Sketches of Persia.

WATER OF THE NILE. THE water of Egypt, (says the Abbé Mascrier,) is so delicious, that one would not wish the heat should be less, nor to be delivered from the sensation of thirst. The Turks find it so exquisitely charming that they excite themselves to drink of it by eating salt. It is a common saying among them, that if Mohammed had drunk of it, he would have begged God not to have died, that he might always have done it. When the Egyptians undertake the pilgrimage of Mecca, or go out of their country on any other account, they speak of nothing but the pleasure they shall find at their return, in drinking the Nile water. There is nothing to be compared to this

satisfaction; it surpasses in their esteem that of seeing their relations again and their families. All those who have tasted this water, allow that they never met with the like in any other place. When a person drinks of it for the first time, it seems difficult to believe that it is not a water prepared by art. It has something in it so inexpressibly agreeable and pleasing to the taste, that it deserves that rank among waters that Champagne has among wines. But its most valuable quality is that it is exceedingly salutary. It never incommodes, let it be drunk in what quantity it may; this is so true, that it is no uncommon thing to see some persons drink three buckets of it in a day, without inconvenience!

It is right to observe that the water of the Nile is that which is alone intended in these high encomiums. Well-water in Egypt is detestable and unwholesome. Fountains are so rare that they are a kind of prodigy in that country. Rain-water it would be vain to attempt preserving, as scarcely any falls in Egypt.

How peculiarly forcible and expressive are the words of Moses to Pharaoh. "The Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river." That water in which they so much delighted,-that which they preferred to all other water in the world, and to which they had been so long accustomed, should become so hateful, that they would turn away from it in disdain, and instead of it drink well-water, which, in their country, is, of all other kinds of water, the most detestable !

SHEPHERDS OF JUDEA. IN Judea and other eastern countries, where flocks and herds constituted the riches, and the feeding of them the chief employment, of

the principal inhabitants, practices prevailed very diferent from aught that we have been accustomed to see. Instead of a keeper following the sheep, and employing dogs on all occasions to drive them, (for the use of dogs in Judea was to defend the flocks from the wild beasts of the forest and the field, and to give notice of their approach.) the shepherd himself walked before the sheep, whether he led them to pasture, water, or the fold. The shepherd's going before the sheep, and leading them to pure waters and verdant pastures, is a very striking and beautiful representation of God's preventing grace and continual help. SHEPHERD.

THE SACRED BEETLE OF THE EGYPTIANS.

torial representations of this insect The carved figures and the picare very numerous among the antiquities of ancient Egypt. There's at present in the British Muse colossal figure of the Scaries sacer, which was perhaps once the object of veneration to numerous hunai beings, on whom the light of Reve lation had not yet shone; it also oc curs without end as an ornament ú signet-rings, and forming the upps portion of official and other seals

THE singular habits of this beetle' induced the ancient Egyptians to place it among those creatures on which they bestowed divine honours: it is found represented in many of their hieroglyphic paintings and sculptures, and appears to have been a symbol of the creative power; it was also particularly sacred to one of their deities, called Phthah, the lord of truth, and signified the world, or all creation. It was likewise the emblem of the Sun, "from having thirty fingers, equal to the number of days in a month."

SERIOUS POETRY.

Christmas Carol.

The Mariners' Hymn.

A Hymn by Bishop Middleton.

Herrick's Litany.

The Wild Palm.

Field Flowers.

Silence.

The House of God.

Good Lord Deliver us.

Social Worship.

What is Time? Time.

We are but Dust.
Going to Rest.

An Hour-Glass.

The Month of June.
An Evening Walk.
Daily Accounts.

The Economy of Trees.
A Tongue in every Leaf.
The Leaf.

Prayer in Sickness.

Silent Monitors.

The Daisy in India.

On Prayer.

LIGHTER POETRY.

The Squire's Pew.
The Noble Peasant.
The Homes of England.
To a Mummy.

The Mummy's Answer.
The Goose-Quill.

The Bear and Honey-Guide.
The Canary-Bird.

The Linnet and Hawk.

The Ant and Glow-Worm.

The Lion, the Young Birds, and the Jackal.

The Tortoise, the Frog, and the

Duck.

The Crocus's Soliloquy.

The Rich Man and his Goods. The Cataract of Lodore.

My Native Home.