adversary, who advances in the same way. This is played by several on a side, and to a stranger appears very complicated. Quoits, played with circular flat stones; and hunt the slipper, played with a cap, are also very common; as are wrestling, and other trials of strength and skill. Fighting quails, cocks, dogs, rams, and even camels, are much admired. During their rutting season, if camels are matched, they fight with such fury that the spectators are obliged to stand out of the way of the beaten camel, who runs off at his utmost speed, and is often pursued by the victor to a distance from the field of battle. All these games are played for some stake, sometimes for money, and sometimes the winner takes the beaten cock, ram, or camel; but the general stake is a dinner.

It would take a great deal of time to describe their gymnastic exercises, or the innumerable postures which wrestlers are taught to assume. Some of the principal we may, however, notice. In one of them the performer places himself on his hands and toes, with his arms stiff and his body horizontal, at a distance from the ground. He then throws his body forward, and at the same time bends his arms, so that his chest and belly almost sweep the ground. When his body is as far thrown forward as possible, he draws it back to the utmost; straightens his arms, and is prepared to repeat the motion. A person unused to this exercise could not perform it ten

times without intermission: but such is the strength it confers when often used, that one English officer was able to go through it six hundred times without stopping, and this operation he repeated twice a day.

Another exercise is whirling a heavy club round the head, in a way that requires the exertion of the whole body. It is either done with an immense club held in both hands, or with one small club in each. A third exercise is to draw a very strong bow, which has a heavy iron chain instead of a ring. It is first drawn with the right hand like a common bow, then thrown over to the right, drawn with the left hand, and afterwards pulled down violently with both, till the head and shoulders appear between the bow and the chain. This last exercise only operates on the arms and the chest, but the others strain every muscle in the frame. There are many other exercises intended to strengthen the whole, or particular parts of the body, which ajudicious master applies accordiag to the defects of his pupil's formation. The degree to which these exercises bring out the muscles, and increase the strength, is not to be believed. Though fatiguing for the first few days, they afterwards occasion a pleasurable feeling, and a sensation of lightness and alacrity which lasts the whole day; and Mr. Elphinstone adds, "I never saw a man who had performed them long, without a large chest, fine limbs and swelling muscles. They are one of

the best inventions which Europe could borrow from the East; and, in fact, they bear a strong resemblance to the gymnastic exercises of ancient Greece." 1

SAGACITY OF THE HEDGE-HOG.

During the summer of 1818, as Mr. Lane, game-keeper to the Earl of Galloway, was passing by the wood of Calscadden, near Garliestown, in Scotland, he fell in with a hedge hog, crossing the road at a small distance before him, carrying on its back six pheasant's eggs, which, upon examination, he found it had pilfered from a pheasant's nest hard by. The ingenuity of the creature was very conspicious, as several of the remaining eggs were holed, which must have been done by it, when in the act of rolling itself over the nest, in order to make as many adhere to its prickles as possible. After watching the motions of the urchin for a short time longer, Mr. Lane saw it deliberately crawl into a furze bush, where its nest was, and where the shells of several eggs were strewed around, which had, at some former period, been conveyed thither in the same manner.

Another instance of the sagacity of the hedge hog is also recorded by Plutarch :-"A citizen of Cyzicus formerly acquired the reputation of a good mathematician, for having learned the property of a hedge-hog. It has its burrows open in divers places, and to several winds; and

foreseeing the change of the wind, stops the hole on that side; which that citizen perceiving, gave the city certain predictions to what corner the wind would shift next."

THE LAP DOG.

By W. Upton.

"Tis little Shock, my lady's dog,

An angry bard expresses;

With curly charms must fill her arms,
And share her fond caresses.

Dear woman! turn your eyes around,
Another Dog implores ye;
Be not so blind, in man you'll find
A creature that adores ye.

Nor spaniel, poodle, shock, or pug,
(However they may grumble ;)
To gain that bliss, from you a kiss,
Were ever yet so humble.

Then ladies, dear ones! kinder grow,
Nor live to teaze and flout him;
́But make your plan that lap dog, Man!
And throw your arms about him.

CURIOUS ACCOUNT OF A TAME SEAL.

In January, 1819, in the neighbourhood of Burntisland, a gentleman completely succeeded in taming a seal; its singularities attracted the curiosity of strangers daily. It appeared to possess all the sagacity of the dog, and lived in its master's house, and eat from his hand. In his fishing excursions, this gentleman generally took it with him, upon which occasions it afford

ed no small entertainment. When thrown into the water, it would follow for miles the track of the boat, and although thrust back by the oars, it never relinquished its purpose. Indeed it struggled so hard to regain its seat, that one would imagine its fondness for its master had entirely overcome the natural predilection of its native element.

THE SCORPION.

From Pananti's Account of Algiers.

The natives frequently amuse themselves by a curious kind of warfare, which is created by shutting up a scorpion and a rat together in a close cage, when a terrible contest ensues, which

has been known to continue sometimes for above an hour; it generally ends by the death of the scorpion; but in a little time after, the rat begins to swell, and in violent convulsions soon shares the fate of his vanquished enemy. It is also a favourite diversion with the Moors, to surround one of these reptiles with a circle of straw, to which fire is applied; after making several attempts to pass the flames, it turns on itself, and thus becomes its own executioner.*

THE CLOWN AND THE GEESE.

In the beginning of July 1818, a gentleman, on his way by water from Westminster at

* In the "Giaour" this singular fact is finely alluded to, by Lord Byron.