They celebrated twice a year the festival of Pouchaïte, the chief of the devils, who, according to them, lived with his comrades under the lilac bushes. To regale these spirits, they spread tables, loaded with all sorts of viands, in the magazines of grain, the doors of which remained closed during the night. The following morning they entered, and examined the provisions, to see what kind was most nearly consumed; from which they judged of the kind with which the demons would repay the zeal of their worshippers. They believed that these demons were wont to take away the corn of those proprietors whom they disliked, in order to bestow it on those whom they favoured. In Prussia, it was long believed, that the lilac trees were inhabited by demons, whom they styled red men; that they were about an ell high, and appeared by moonlight to mortals, especially to the sick.

One of the principal festivals, was that of Dojinki. In the month of October, after the harvest, the peasants clubbed together to prepare a banquet. On the appointed day, they spread large tables, covered with hay and cloths. At each corner of the tables, they placed jars filled with beer. They then brought to the place of the banquet a pair of each species of domestic animal. When the priest had concluded a prayer, he struck the animals with a club, and commanded each of the company to follow his example. The animals thus knocked down were sacrificed to the god Ziemennik, to whom they addressed the following words: "We thank thee, Ziémennik, our god, that thou hast preserved us in health and prosperity." Finally, when all the flesh was roasted, it was cut in pieces, which were distributed to each corner of their houses, and on hanging them up, they recited this prayer, "Ziémennik, our god, we offer thee a morsel of flesh, which we pray thee to eat." The fête was terminated by dancing and playing on the flute.

In spring they celebrated the festival of the god Pergroubious. Before the peasants began to break up the earth, they brewed a quantity of beer, and all joined with the priest in repeating these words: "Lord, thou drivest away the winter, and coverest the earth with flowers and fruit. We implore thee to give this year an abundant harvest." Then the priest drank a pot of beer in honour of the divinity, and all the rest prostrated themselves. If the year was bad, they attributed the calamity to their sins, and addressed themselves in this case to the god Aouchchlaviss, that he might intercede with the other divinities in their behalf.

(To be continued.)

ORIGINAL POETRY.

A HUSBAND TO HIS WIFE,

ON THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THEIR MARRIAGE.

RISE, Mary, from thy couch, and see
The bright sun beaming gloriously.
"T would seem as if his loveliest ray
He sheds upon our bridal day.
See, joy and gladness, love and mirth
Attend his journey o'er the earth;
No clouds are in the sky, but such
As slake the day-god's withering touch,
So thin, his beams may travel through
To warm the earth, and drink the dew.

Rise, love, it is a morn of bliss,
And thou the richest scenes may'st miss.
The spring-wind with a mellowing speed,
Goes dancing through the wavy mead;
Gay Ariels from the rosebuds talk
To fairies in the woodbine walk.
Up, Mary, love, the tuneful bird
Should never troll his glee unheard;
Nor thou upon this day of days,
E'er lose the thrush's lays of lays.

Has one year gone ? yes, silently
As forms of night flit through the shade;
Passing unheard, unnoticed by,
Even as life's few summers fade,
Since on the altar gladly met
Hands to the seal of wedlock set,
And joined in clasp unbroken yet.
Yes, Mary, if thy bridal oath

To love me have retained its tone;
If yet thy heart believes my troth

An equal barter for thine own,

Then come, misfortune, sickness, want,

And wealth's reproach, and scorn's rude taunt;

For I can brave them, if a smile

Pass kindly o'er thy cheek the while.

Oh let another year but wind
Its course as tranquilly away;

Not they in Eastern seas, who find

One calm, perpetual summer day,

Shall live more blest than thou and I;
No frown, nor tears but such as spring
For others' woes, and not a sigh
That from a thought of self had wing.

J.

LINES

WRITTEN OFF POINT JUDITH LIGHT-HOUSE.

THE skies have rolled their clouds away,
To drink the summer evening breeze;
Night hangs upon the eye of day,
Chiding the idling twilight ray,
Among the leafy trees.

And look above! how clear and blue
The arch of night,-with one lone cloud
Parting for stars to glimmer through!

The waves are calm, the winds are still,
While the full moon, in glory proud,
Rides like Aurora o'er the hill.

Alas! that aught of grief should lower,
To cloud the bliss of such an hour.

Where yon pale spire is dimly seen.

Enveloped in the moon-beam's light, Glancing its beacon torch between

The blended hues of day and night,I marked a sea-bird, from her bed,

Lighting her pathway through the skies; Lured by its dazzling form, she fled,— And fluttering first in wild surprise, Dashed madly at the vision fair,

Then shrieked, and poured her spirit there!

Oh! what a glowing image, this,
Of man's inconstancy below;

He glides along, nor heeds the bliss

He might, in calm contentment, know;
But, like the sea-bird, charmed away
By Hope's destructive meteor-ray,

He soars above the halcyon wave
Of sweet content,-and hails afar,
Some kindlier joy, his passions crave;
But finds, alas! the glittering star

That lured him to a brighter day, The death-light of a fevered brain; And feels too late that hope decay, Which, blighted, never blooms again!

R. D.

SABBATH EVENING TWILIGHT.

DELIGHTFUL hour of sweet repose,
Of hallowed thoughts, of love, of prayer!
I love thy deep and tranquil close,
For all the Sabbath day is there.
Each pure desire, each high request

That burned before the temple shrine,-
The hopes, the fears, that moved the breast,
All live again in light like thine.

I love thee for the fervid glow

Thou shed'st around the closing day,-
Those golden fires, those wreaths of snow
That light and pave his glorious way!

Through them, I 've sometimes thought, the eye
May pierce the unmeasured deeps of space,
And track the course where spirits fly,

On viewless wings, to realms of bliss.

I love thee for the unbroken calm,
That slumbers on this fading scene,
And throws its kind and soothing charm
O'er all the little world within."

It trances every roving thought,
Yet sets the soaring fancy free,-
Shuts from the soul the present out,
That all is musing memory.

I love those joyous memories,
That rush, with thee, upon the soul,-
Those deep unuttered symphonies,
That o'er the spell-bound spirit roll.
All the bright scenes of love and youth
Revive, as if they had not fled,
And Fancy clothes with seeming truth
The forms she rescues from the dead.

Yet holier is thy peaceful close,
For vows love left recorded there!-
This is the noiseless hour we chose
To consecrate to mutual prayer!

"T was when misfortune's fearful cloud
Was gathering o'er the brow of heaven,
Ere yet despair's eternal shroud
Wrapt every vision hope had given.

When these deep purpling shades came down,
In softened tints, upon the hills,

We swore, that, whether fate should crown
Our future course with joys or ills,-
Whether safe moored in love's retreat,
Or severed wide by mount and sea,
This hour, in spirit, we would meet,
And urge to heaven our mutual plea.

The Biblical Reader; or Interesting Extracts from the Sacred Scriptures; with Practical Observations and Questions for the Examination of Scholars. For the Use of Schools generally, and Sunday Schools in particular; and is also wel calculated for Individuals and Families. By Rev. J. L. BLAKE, A. M. Rector of St Matthew's Church, and Principal of a Literary Seminary, Boston, Mass. Ornamented with Cuts. Boston. 12mo. pp. 472.

THE manner in which the Bible is used in many of our schools seems to be one of those cases, in which we have retained the letter, while we have departed from the spirit of the maxims of our forefathers. Many of the first settlers of this country were deeply tinctured with the spirit so prevalent at that time in the mother country, which considered the Scriptures as the fountain of all knowledge, whether it regarded the concerns of this world or the next; which extracted codes of law from Leviticus, and applied to the affairs of common life in the seventeenth century of the Christian era, maxims which had their origin in the peculiar circumstances of the tribes of Israel in a remote age. The elo