that is easily satisfied; he requires very little food on a journey, and can live for eight or ten days on dry and thorny plants, though afterwards he will require more nourishment. Now, what do you think they give the camel to eat? Perhaps you have seen dates in the grocers' windows, if you have never had any of them to eat. These are the fruit of trees which grow in very dry places, and the camel likes to eat them very much; and they are very good food for him. Perhaps you may wonder how he can get water in his journey. There is but little water in these dry deserts; and what water-pools there are lie a long way apart from each other. But the camel has a stomach so formed, that he can keep the water he drinks on one day for several days afterwards; and as the camel can smell water at a great distance off, he is very useful in guiding thirsty travellers to places where they may drink and refresh themselves-only he is in such a hurry often to get to the water, that he sometimes runs away from his drivers that he may drink first. Although the camel is very useful, we can hardly say that he is very handsome, for he has great humps upon his back, and a long, crooked neck. His height from the top of the hump to the ground is about six feet; but there are different kinds of camels, just as there are different kinds of horses in our country. To the Arabs of the desert, the camel supplies a large part of their food, for the flesh of the young ones is their greatest luxury, and their milk forms a principal part of an Arab's subsistence. This milk is very rich and thick, but rather strong tasted. Of their skins are made tents, saddles, and many other articles; and the hair with which they are covered is woven into various kinds of cloth. MUNGO PARK, THE AFRICAN TRAVELLER. It was on the 2d of December, in the year 1795, that Park started on his journey into the interior of Africa. He took with him a negro, named Johnson, who was born in this part of Africa, but had been taken, when young, as a slave to Jamaica, and, after being made free, had spent some time in England, and then returned to his native land. He also took a negro boy, named Demba, and he bought a small but hardy horse for his own use, while his negro attendants were each furnished with an ass. His first day's journey ended at Jindey; and in the evening, he walked out to see another village that was near, where the people gave him supper, and told him the following strange story. "Many years ago," they said, "the people of a village, not far off, were much annoyed by a lion, that came every night and took away some of their cattle. He did so much mischief, and they were at length so much enraged, that a large party made up their minds to go out and hunt the monster. They went together to search for their common enemy, and found him hid in a thicket. They fired at him, and were lucky enough to wound him, so that when he was just going to spring from the thicket towards the people, he fell down among the grass, and was unable to rise. But he was only hurt, and no one was bold enough to go within reach of him. They thought, too, that if they could catch him alive, they could take him down to the town upon the coast, and sell him for a large sum of money to the Europeans, who came there to trade. So some proposed one plan, and some another; and at last an old man advised them to strip the thatch off the roof of one of their houses (which are very small, and made of bamboo, which is very light), and then to carry with them the bamboo-frame of the house, and put it over the lion; and should the lion, he added, threaten to spring upon them, they had only to let down this roof at once over themselves, and to fire at the lion between the rafters. This plan pleased them so much that a number of them determined to try it. The thatch was taken from the roof of a hut, and the lion-hunters carried the framework, and marched bravely to the field of action, each of them carrying a gun in one hand, and supporting his share of the roof upon the opposite shoulder. By the time they arrived, the beast had recovered his strength, and he looked so fiercely at them, that they thought it prudent to stop, and secure their own safety, by covering themselves with the roof. But the lion was too nimble for them, and making á spring, just as they were letting the house down, both he and the men were covered by the roof, so that they were all caught in the same cage, and the lion devoured them one by one at his leisure." On the banks of a river, a branch of the Senegal, our traveller saw the mode of fishing practised by the natives. The larger kinds of fish were caught in long baskets made of split cane, and placed in a rapid stream, running between walls of stone built across the river, with certain places left open, through which the water rushed with great force. Some of these baskets were more than twenty feet long, and when once a fish had gone in, the force of the stream prevented it from returning. The small fish were caught in great numbers in hand-nets, which the natives wove of cotton, and used with great dexterity. These fish were about the size of sprats, and prepared for sale in different ways; the most common was by pounding them, just as they come from the stream, in a wooden mortar, and exposing them to dry in the sun, in large lumps like sugar loaves. On the 21st December, about noon, Park entered the capital of Bondou. As there are no hotels in Africa, it is the custom for strangers to stand at some place of public resort, till they are invited to a lodging by some one of the inhabitants. Our traveller followed the usual course, and soon received an invitation. But an hour afterwards, a messenger came from the King of the place, who wished to see him directly, if he was not too much fatigued. "I took my interpreter with me," says Park, "and followed the messenger, till we got quite out of the town, and crossed some corn-fields; when, thinking it was some trick, I stopped, and asked the guide where he was going to; upon which he pointed to a man sitting under a tree at some little distance, and told me that the King often gave audience in that retired manner, in order to avoid a crowd of people, and that nobody but myself and my interpreter might approach him. When I advanced, the King desired me to come and sit by him on the mat; and after hearing my story, he asked me if I wished to purchase any slaves or gold, and desired me to come to him again in the evening, that he might give me some provisions. In the evening, I repaired to the King's dwelling. At the entrance I saw a man standing with a musket on his shoulder. Both my guide and my interpreter, according to custom, took off their sandals, and the former pronounced the King's name aloud, and repeated it till we were answered from within. We found the monarch sitting on a mat, and two attendants with him. When I delivered my presents he seemed well pleased, and was particularly delighted with the umbrella, which he repeatedly opened and closed, to his own great wonder and astonishment, and that of his two attendants, who could not for some time understand the use of this wonderful piece of mechanism." As soon as he entered On the following day, Park paid another visit to the King, and was then requested to visit the King's wives, who were very anxious to see him. their court, all the ladies surrounded him in a body, some asking for medicine, and some for amber. They were ten or twelve in number, and most of them were young and handsome, and wore on their heads ornaments of gold and beads of amber. "They were much amused," says Park, "with the whiteness of my skin, and the length of my nose; and would not believe that they were real and natural. They said my white colour was caused by my being dipped daily in milk, when I was a baby; and that the length of my nose was owing to its having been pinched every day while I was young." THE SPIDER AND THE FLY. " WILL you walk into my parlour} Said the spider to the fly; ""Tis the prettiest little parlour That ever you did spy. "The way into my parlour Is up a winding stair; To show when you are there." "Oh no, no," said the little fly; For who goes up your winding stair 1 |