his place on a reserved scat, from whence he seemed to follow with some interest the movements of the dancers. I do not know what impression Abdul Medjid received from this exhibition of handsome ladies and brilliant dresses, but I doubt if that impression was favourable to the emancipation of women in Turkey. After about an hour, he withdrew with the same ceremonial. I had remarked that his attendants kept a respectful distance from his person; on subsequent inquiry, I ascertained that this was not solely out of deference, but on account of the Sultan's antipathy to contact with men, and which may be explained by the remembrance of the disastrous epidemics so common in the

East.

The Sultan at once removes a garment that a man has touched, and never puts it on again. It is well known that he is solely waited upon by the women of his harem. He never speaks to any one in public; once or twice, to the great sur prise of the Mussulmans, he made an exception in favour of General Larchey. He looks at a person for a greater or less length of time, according to the amount of respect which he wishes to show him. There are in this dumb language of the Padishah shades of intimate sentiment that words cannot express. I was enabled to seize them perfectly at the reception given by the Sultan to the high functionaries of the empire, on the day of the foot-kissing ceremony in the Bairam. The reception lasted upwards of an hour; Abdul Medjid did not condescend to look at more than twenty persons. I remarked that there was only a pretence made to kiss the foot, and if at any time the person presented was so ignorant of court etiquette as to touch the Sultan's person, a significant gesture at once testified to the sudden and disagreeable impression which had come to disturb the sovereign's reveries.

The note upon the sanitary state of the Sultan's harem was not obtained by M. Baudens directly, but from one of the chief medical officers attached to the palace. We cannot, therefore, attach precisely the same credit to it that we do to statements authenticated by the writer himself. The doctor's statement, however, was to the effect that the chief affections under which the ladies labour were disordinate jealousy, incessantly aroused by things which would appear to others of the most trifling character. From time to time, for example, they receive small presents, such as a box of sweetmeats. In that case it is absolutely necessary that the three or four hundred boxes should be absolutely alike, or scenes of violence would be enacted which would compromise their health. Almost all of them perish young of consumption. M. Baudens's medical informant said he sometimes transmitted to them secretly a few bottles of claret to prolong their existence !

"Armies," says M. Baudens, in conclusion, "are in want of moral excitements to preserve them from nostalgia and prostration. Religion exalted the troops of Godefroi de Bouillon; the spirit of chivalry animated the French officers at Fontenoy; the certainty of conquering, upheld by a constant succession of victories, sustained the armies of the Empire. It was also a moral power that supported our troops during the trying war in the Crimea; it was the sentiment of duty that animated our soldiers, that never weakened for a single day during the struggle, and was alike glorious when opposed to the enemy or to privations and sufferings of all kinds and descriptions. Other armies may have shown as much heroic ardour, as much impetuous bravery, as the army of the East; none have carried further the principle of stoicism, courage, and contempt of death."

Aug.-VOL. CXIII, NO. CCCCLII.

2 F

THE MINISTER OF TRIGGANESS.

A TALE OF ZETLAND.

BY HACO NORSEMAN.

North, ever north! we sailed by night,
And yet the sky was red with light,
And purple rolled the deep.
When morning came, we saw the tide
Break thundering on the rugged side
Of Sumburgh's awful steep;
And, weary of the wave, at last
In Bressay Sound our anchor cast.

AYTOUN'S Bothwell.

MANY of our readers have doubtless visited, and we presume all of them have heard and read much about that most northerly portion of her Majesty's dominions-the Zetland Islands. A curious spectacle they present to the eyes of the natives of the mainland of Scotland and England! A concourse of islets (in number about one hundred), far out of sight of any morsel of terra firma not belonging to their group; the shores rocky and steep, the interior hilly, brown, and turfy; the whole treeless, and to the eye accustomed to dwell on the rich foliage and hedges of the south, or even on the thick heather-clad hills of the Scottish Highlands, barren and bare. Yet on these close-cropped dots on the expanse of ocean are to be found many spots of unquestionable beauty. The scene of our tale is a place of this description. It is situated on one of the most northerly of the cluster—an island about twenty miles in length, and not more than eight in breadth, separated from the "Mainland" island, and from some of its sister islets by straits inconsiderable in width, but possessed by a fierce and rapid tide, which renders them impassable at times, even in the mildest weather. The creek called Ericsvoe* indents the western coast of this island, which we shall designate as K—; facing the south-west, and being defended by the ness, which forms its western bulwark, it is exceedingly sheltered, and appears to an individual standing at its head-on a spot not elevated -simply a large loch. A good-sized mansion-house stands, and has stood for many a long year, on the brow of a gentle slope, fronting and within a stone's throw of this voe. In front is a large railed flowergarden, containing such floral ornaments and low bushes as the climate and weather will permit; behind, a kitchen-garden, well stocked with vegetables; and beyond, sundry fields of rich clover, corn, turnips, and other farm produce, rising on the eastern side to a considerable elevation, and forming thus a natural barrier between the manor-farm and the farms of the tenantry on the estate. These latter stretch away for a mile or two to the northward, eastward, and south-eastward, small huts with scraps of corn-land and green pasturage attached to them, here a loch and there a burn to vary the scene; and, making a semicircle on the eastern side,

* A "voe" is a creek or small arm of the sea.

† Ness-a cape or narrow neck of land stretching into the sea.

from sea-shore to sea-shore, runs the "hill-dyke," marking the boundary of the "toon.”* Without this dyke lies nothing but brown hills-the "scattald," or common pasture land. On certain suitable spots peats are cut for the use of the laird and his tenantry, while over the rest, at all seasons of the year, sheep and cattle, and invalided horses, wander and nibble. Over some miles of this must the traveller trudge ere he reach any other cultivated domain, and the footpath he will find but a sorry one, for it is little used for purposes of import and export, the sea being in Zetland, as in Venice, the grand highway and thoroughfare. Thus Ericsvoe and its laird's residence are well sheltered from rough blasts, excepting to the north-westward, from which quarter in the savage winter-time fierce gusts will sometimes shake the upper stories of the old house, and make its casements rattle. On this side, some half a mile from the manor-house, there lies a small sandybottomed arm of the sea, scarcely sufficiently marked to be called a bay or voe, the shores of which display a long broad beach of the whitest sand, apt, if unchecked, to encroach upon the neighbouring grass-land. It is a wild place in the time of storms, the huge dark waves rolling majestically from the northward past the frowning cliffs, and the precipitous isolated stacks† and holmes burst their white-crested contents upon the strand with a noise like thunder, audible several miles off, where the stranger would conjecture he was listening to the distant discharge of a park of artillery. But how changed is the aspect of this place when the storm has abated, and the wanderer seeks the sandy beach to gather up the beautiful shells and seaweed which the waves have heedlessly left behind them. The deep green ocean lies undisturbed before him, giving forth only the very gentlest murmur, and sweeping to his feet broad shallow floods like cream, with a rushing sound. Overhead float the "maw," or seagull, the red-beaked chalder, and numerous other sea-fowls, shrieking, screaming, now skimming along the air within a few feet of the intruder's head, now dipping into the water. In the distance, to the westward, appear the northern shores of the "Mainland" island, lighted up at sunset with roseate magnificence, as the great planet seems to go down to his bed in the wide Atlantic beyond them, to dance, mayhap, in the Broadway of New York, or the busy streets of Melbourne and Auckland! Far on the northern horizon, in the centre of the landscape, rises the precipitous group of rocks called the "Wirna Stacks," so solitary and secluded, fading away as the dusk gradually descends into sombre obscurity, as though they, too, were departing for a trip to the remote antipodes.

About the middle of the last century the property of Ericsvoe belonged to a Scotch gentleman of the name of Colquhoun. His settlement on the Zetland Islands had been purely the work of accident. The younger son of a Lowland laird, he had studied medicine as his profession, and while still a mere youth had taken a temporary appointment as surgeon of a Peterhead whaler going to Greenland. The ship had put

* In Zetland, as well as on the mainland of Scotland, a few huts lying together are termed "a town."

† Small rocky islets.

in to Lerwick* for an addition to her crew, and Colquhoun, finding his profession but ill-represented in this town, formed the scheme of obtaining his discharge from the vessel on her return from her northern voyage, and settling in Lerwick-at least for a time. This scheme he managed to carry out. Somehow or other, however, he did not thrive in Lerwick. The inhabitants, either from naturally good constitutions, or from a preference to keep their money to themselves rather than invest it in wholesome drugs, would not lay themselves up sufficiently often to allow of the young doctor making a decent livelihood. He was just upon the point of deserting the unpatronising shores of Thule when he fell in with a young orphan heiress at a ball and succeeded in winning her affections. Probably had the young lady possessed any near relatives of sagacity they would have dissuaded her from this rash alliance, for Mr. Colquhoun had nothing wherewithal to "endow" his wife excepting his rather handsome person, and his collection of surgical instruments and apothecaries' drugs; and he had, moreover, begun in Lerwick to develop a not very amiable character, and that spirit of "fastness" which young gentlemen of his calling, even to this day, very frequently display. However, Miss Hoseason, of Ericsvoe, being her own mistress, very properly and sensibly made Mr. Colquhoun master of herself and property.

But even when all the parties to an arrangement have firmly decided that it is a wise and proper one, the event not unfrequently gives them the lie. Mr. and Mrs. Colquhoun by-and-by began to think they had better not have been joined together in the holy bonds of matrimony. Of course it was too late to untie the knot, so they made up for the unpleasantness of being obliged to live together until "death them did part" by making one another as miserable as possible as long as life and health permitted. At last, Mrs. Colquhoun died, leaving two children behind her a boy and a girl-the only survivors of a rather large family. These had both attained majority at the time when our story commences, which was some years after the death of the mother.

The kirk and manse of the parish were situated some five or six miles to the southward, and were separated from Ericsvoe by hills of pasturage and peat-banks. During Mrs. Colquhoun's lifetime the minister was a Mr. Fraser, a worthy and conscientious man, who had done much to try and reform his unruly neighbours, and, it was said, with good result latterly in Mrs. Colquhoun's case, though he would never permit his wife and daughter to visit at "Erics Ha'." The Colquhouns were, however, always welcome guests at the manse of Trigganess, for Mr. and Mrs. Colquhoun of course were always "on their proprieties" when there. It was seldom, indeed, that the heads of the family availed themselves of the minister's invitations, but the children were frequently to be found at the manse with their little playfellow, Marion Fraser, and the slight education they could boast of had been picked up there. Mr. Fraser was much older than Colquhoun, and latterly, on account of his years and failing health, he had obtained the consent of the presbytery to his getting an assistant. The assistant came-a Mr. Norman Mackintosh, a young Highlander, fresh from college and newly licensed. He was pronounced soon by almost

*The chief town of Zetland, situated on "Bressay Sound."

every one in K—to be an excellent fellow. Stout and stalwart, and of stentorian lungs, he could preach, shoot, run, ride, and boat equally well. Mackintosh was even a favourite of Colquhoun's, and when, a few years after his arrival, Mr. Fraser died, Colquhoun added his recommendation, as principal laird of the parish, to the application of Mackintosh through some influential friends in the "south country," and obtained his appointment as Mr. Fraser's successor. Soon after this Mrs. Fraser and her daughter quitted the manse, and Mackintosh did not press them to stay, though he would fain they had done so. They took up their abode in a little cottage between their former home and Ericsvoe, which Mrs. Fraser purchased from the proprietor, a small laird. Many were the visits which Norman Mackintosh paid to this cottage, for the darkhaired Marion Fraser had already made sad work with his heart. Mr. Mackintosh had already informed some of his Highland friends, through the medium of the post, that Marion was the most beautiful creature on the face of the earth. She had the softest brown eyes, the most glossy raven hair, the most graceful little figure ever met with in modern times! Mr. Mackintosh was desperately jealous, as all true lovers have ever been and should ever be, and when he beheld young Hosea Colquhoun in tête-à-tête discourse with the object of his affections, he was in the habit of wishing that young gentleman at the deuce in a manner quite inconsistent with the ministerial character. Truth to tell, there was little reason for this jealousy. The young laird of Ericsvoe was not at all prepossessing, either bodily or mentally. He was a squat young fellow, with a shock head of sandy hair, and features entirely devoid of expression. His education had scarcely extended beyond the simplest branches of learning, and each year that rolled over his head he lost something he had learned in boyhood, from sheer indolence and want of practice. The only feat he could perform with credit was seal shooting; this amusement, together with the smoking of Dutch tobacco, and the imbibing of a little of the real " Hollands," and occasional trips to Lerwick to smuggle these articles of luxury from the Dutch fishermen, made up the business of his life. With the management of the estate he did not much bother his head, although he was really the proprietor now of the greater part of it, with the exception of a few marks left to his sister Charlotte. The whole property had, however, been burdened with a large life annuity to Mr. Colquhoun at the time of his marriage. Still the old gentleman had as little liking for business as his son, and the entire estate would doubtless have gone to ruin had they not been fortunate enough to find others to do their work for them.

Most Zetland lairds have a factotum, and this was even more common in old times than now. A man named Garthson, foster-brother to Mrs. Colquhoun, had always lived at Ericsvoe in this capacity. A smart fellow, and able to read, write, and keep accounts, Garthson had speedily managed to get Mr. Colquhoun under his thumb. He was soon employed to superintend the whole business of the deep-sea fishing of the tenantry and the collecting of the rents, repairing of the houses, management of the farm, &c., getting a fair remuneration for his services; and a new house, with plenty of land attached to it, was erected for him on the outskirts of the Ha' farm, near the sandy beach we have described.