magnificent furniture.' Persia? he presume to monarchs might covet?" purchase his books and

What! he, the giaour from offer a price for rarities that

Yes: and moreover, he would his paintings, his vessels of gold and of silver, his wine, his -.' The merchant was in a rage, and drove the Jew from his presence; but he quickly recalled him. 'Slave,' cried Bekfudi, 'I will hold a moment's parley with thee. How much wilt thou give for my topaz cup, and my goblet set with emeralds?' I will not purchase these alone,' said the Jew, but I will purchase thy lands, and thy mosque, and thy silken draperies, and thy woven carpets, and thy golden vessels, and thy jewels, and thy books, and thy pictures, and all that thy palace contains; and here, without, I have twenty dromedaries laden with four hundred thousand sequins, which shall be thine.' Bekfudi was in a rage, but the eloquence of the dromedaries prevailed; and that night the little Jew locked up the mosque with the airs of a master.

The mob from Samarah was soon dispersed; and Bekfudi prepared with many a sigh to leave a palace of which he had so long been the uncontrolled lord. The little Jew haunted him from gallery to gallery, and from the gloom of the sanctuary to the sunlight of the great lantern. With the most provoking malice he dwelt upon the beautiful proportions of this pavilion, and the magnificent furniture of that saloon; and swore that none of the monarchs of the world could rival the great merchant in taste and splendour. And what will you do with this unequalled palace?' said Bekfudi. 'I have bought it for a dealer in sulphur,' replied the Jew. The pride of Bekfudi was ground into the dust; but he was curious to see the rival of his wealth and the inheritor of his possessions. It was agreed that they should meet at dinner.

The hour came, and Bekfudi appeared in the grand saloon, attired in a splendid vest;-the aigrette of his turban was composed of the largest diamonds, and the plume that it bore was from the wing of a bird of paradise,

His delicate hands were washed with the choicest essences, and the perfumes of his garments plunged the senses into a languor which nothing but the excitements of the most exquisite viands could dissipate. He expected to have met, in the dealer in sulphur, a personage whose riches would have procured for him some of the refinements which belonged to the dealer in spices;-but how was le humiliated when a miserable old man presented himse as ugly as a faquir that had been doing penance for fifty years, wrapped round with a wretched robe of dirty cotton. and his head surmounted with a beastly turban, that all the waters of Rocnabad could never purify! The forehead of this captivating personage was covered with knots and wrinkles, his blear eyes twinkled in their little pursed-up sockets, his enormous mouth exhibited three teeth of the most delicious blackness, and his rheum was freel bestowed upon those whom the flavour of his breath die not keep at a respectful distance. Bekfudi shrieked and shouted for his dwarf; but the obsequious Jew called in loud voice for dinner, and the unhappy merchant was eœrstrained by his politeness to take his seat at the bar The new possessor of the mosque was equally attractive in his diet; a ragout of garlic was served up for his especial pleasure; and as he dipped his grimy hands int the golden dish, Bekfudi would have fainted at the odo of the savoury steams, had not his faithful dwarf throw the reviving attar over his forehead, and forced a cup sherbet down his throat. The mouth of the dealer sulphur distended into an audible grin, and he pledged the dainty merchant in execrable brandy. Their conversati at length became interesting. The man of sulphur bads most agreeable collection of oaths; and as he swore Solomon and Eblis, by the sacred camel and the dog of the seven sleepers, the man of spice perceived that he ha a high reverence for the mysteries of theology-8 —and a wonderful sympathy in this particular grew up betwee them. They embraced and parted; but Bekfudi never forgot the garlic.

t

The little Jew soon applied his master's purchase to good account. Within a week the superb merchant began to indulge a wish for the possession of some of his former most splendid baubles; he bethought him that his free habit of expressing his thoughts in the broad margins. of his beautiful manuscripts might one day cause some awkward inquiries; and he was desirous of securing some pictures, of which he thought none but himself knew the peculiar value. He of the dirty hands was as ready to comply with these reasonable wishes, and Bekfudi began to think that his turban and his garlic might in time be endurable. The articles were selected, but the little Jew had yet to name the price. Bekfudi raved and tore his hair when a fourth of his four hundred thousand sequins were demanded for what had cost even him not a tenth of the sum. He raved and tore his hair; but the Jew and the sulphur-merchant were calm. Bekfudi had not yet learned to subject his desires to his circumstances; and two dromedaries marched off with their costly load.

The Jew and his merchant passed the winter very industriously. From his warehouses in Samarah, this active dealer brought all the glittering pledges which the misfortunes of his clients had left unredeemed; and he decorated the mosque, like a grand bazaar, with a great many new curiosities, and a great many rare commodities with fine names from the east and the west, which the artists of Samarah could manufacture as well as those of Persia or China. The little Jew knew where to find expert limners, who could imitate the paintings even of the celebrated Mani, so as to deceive the most critical eyes; clever copyists, that would transcribe the tales and poems of Arabia with a correctness that would enchant the most exquisite connoisseurs; and acute chemists, that would give to the secretly pressed grape-juice of the gardens of Bekfudi himself, the inimitable flavour of the wines of Shiraz or Kismische, The little Jew had, however, not quite so complete a judgment as the builder of the mosque, and he therefore committed a few mistakes with a very enterprising spirit.

Amidst the solemn and subdued splendour of the sanctuary, upon which Bekfudi most prided himself, he hung up an enormous mirror which brought all the varied colours of the neighbouring galleries, and all the garishness of day, into the heart of its former deep and impressive gloom; and in the hall which the spice-merchant had dedicated to the worthies of his country, he stuck up the statue of one of the rebellious princes who had presumed to contend against the justice of the great Haroun al Raschid. But the little Jew was yet a most deserving factor. All Samarah again flocked to the mosque with the great minaret; and all Samarah came this time with money in their vests, to purchase some relic of the magnificent Bekfudi. Every one was pleased, except the unhappy builder of the palace, for every one was agreeably relieved of his sequins at his own free-will. He alone writhed under the mortifications of his pride, and the outrages upon his taste. He stalked one day into the palace of his splendour, now metamorphosed into one large bazaar, and with a yell of fury he overthrew the statue of the foe of the caliph. and shivered into a thousand pieces the mirror which deformed the sanctuary. He then coolly paid the price which the Jew demanded, and retired to a humble dwelling without a minaret, purposing to pass the remainder of his days in composing treatises on temperance and humilitybut ending in building another tower.

THE ETON MONTEM.

AMONGST the 'Memorable Things Lost' is the Eton Montem. Railroads destroyed it: for they made it vulgar. Whitechapel turned out for the last Montem, as it turns out for the Lord Mayor's show-and the aristocratic school would no longer indulge the mob with a cheap holiday. Let me remember Montem, as I last saw it in 1820.

London gave up its Poet of Mayor's Day a century ago. Eton retained its Montem Poet till he went the way of other immortals. The Poet was a more prominent personage in the ceremony of Montem than the Head-master of the college. But the reader must permit me to throw my remembrances into a dialogue between three or four friends, who came to look at the triennial show,-to laugh at it, or to defend it :

Who is that buffoon that travesties the travesty?' inquired Frazer. Who is that old cripple alighted from his donkey-cart, who dispenses doggrel and grimaces in all the glory of plush and printed calico?'

That, my most noble cynic,' said Gerard, 'is a prodigious personage. Shall birthdays and coronations be recorded in immortal odes, and Montem not have its minstrel? He, sir, is Herbertus Stockhore; who first called upon his muse in the good old days of Paul Whitehead,- -run a race with Pye through all the sublimities of lyres and fires,—and is now hobbling to his grave, after having sung fourteen Montems, the only existing example of a legitimate laureate. Ask Paterson about him; he is writing a quarto on his life and genius.'

He ascended his heaven of invention,' said Paterson, 'before the vulgar arts of reading and writing, which are banishing all poetry from the world, could clip his wings.