a variable number of roundish seeds or beans, compressed on the one side, and covered with a thin loose shell of a chestnut color; when roasted, they have very much the flavor of chestnuts; and in a country where edible fruits of indigenous growth are few, they are at least a curiosity.

The various instances of voracity among insects, sink into insignificance, when compared with the terrible devastation produced by the larvæ of the locust the scourge of oriental countries. "A fire devoureth before them, says the prophet Joel, "and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The sound of their wings is as the sound of chariots, of many horses running to battle; on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle-array. Before their faces, the people shall be much pained, all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one in his ways, and

they shall not break their ranks; neither shall one thrust another."-Joel ii. 2. &c.

The intelligent traveller, Dr Shaw, was an eye witness of their devastations in Barbary in 1724, where they first appeared about the end of March, their numbers increasing so much in the beginning of April as literally to darken the sun; but by the middle of May they began to disappear, retiring into the Mettijiah and other adjacent plains to deposit their eggs. "These were no sooner hatched in June," he continues, "than each of the broods collected itself into a compact body, of a furlong or more in square; and marching afterwards directly forwards toward the sea, they let nothing escape them,-they kept their ranks like men of war; climbing over, as they advanced, every tree or wall that was in their way; nay, they entered into our very houses and bed-chambers like so many thieves. The inhabitants, to stop their progress, formed trenchers all over their fields and gardens, which they filled with water. Some placed large quantities of heath, stubble, and other combustible matter, in rows, and set them on fire on the approach of the locusts; but this was all to no purpose, for the trenches were quickly filled up, and the fires put out, by immense swarms that succeeded each other."

Even England has been alarmed by the appearance of locusts, a considerable number having visited that island in 1748; but they happily perished without propagating. Other parts of Europe have not been so fortunate. In 1650 a cloud of locusts were seen to enter Russia in three different places; and they afterwards spread themselves over Poland and Lithuania in such astonishing multitudes, that the air was darkened, and the earth covered with

their numbers. In some places they were seen lying dead, heaped upon each other to the depth of four feet; in others they covered the surface of the ground like a black cloth: the trees bent with their weight, and the damage the country sustained exceeded computation. They have frequently come also from Africa into Italy and Spain. In the year 591 an infinite army of locusts, of a size unusually large, ravaged a considerable part of Italy, and being at last cast into the sea, (as seems for the most part to be their fate,) a pestilence, it is alleged, arose from their stench, which carried off nearly a million of men and beasts. In the Venetian territory, likewise, in 1478, more than thirty thousand persons are said to have perished in a famine chiefly occasioned by the depredations of locusts.

SATURDAY EVENING.

The week is past, the Sabbath-dawn comes on.
Rest-rest in peace-thy daily toil is done;
And standing, as thou standest on the brink
Of a new scene of being, calmly think
Of what is gone, is now, and soon shall be
As one that trembles on Eternity.

For, sure as this now closing week is past,
So sure advancing Time will close my last;
Sure as to-morrow, shall the awful light
Of the eternal morning hail my sight.

Spirit of good! on this week's verge I stand,
Tracing the guiding influence of thy hand;
That hand, which leads me gently, kindly still,
Up life's dark, stony, tiresome, thorny hill;
Thou, thou, in every storm hast sheltered me
Beneath the wing of thy benignity:

A thousand graves my footsteps circumvent,
And I exist-thy mercies' monument!
A thousand writhe upon the bed of pain;

I live-and pleasure flows through every vein.
Want o'er a thousand wretches waves her wand;
I, circled by ten thousand mercies, stand.
How can I praise thee, Father! how express
My debt of reverence and of thankfulness!
A debt that no intelligence can count,

While every moment swells the vast amount.
For the week's duties thou hast given me strength,
And brought me to its peaceful close at length;
And here, my grateful bosom fain would raise,
A fresh memorial to thy glorious praise.-Bowring.

CURIOUS CASE OF DECEPTION.

A very curious case of deception was communicated to me by the son of the lady principally concerned, and tends to show out of what mean materials a venerable apparition may be sometimes formed. In youth, this lady resided with her father, a man of sense and resolution. Their house was situated in the principal street of a town of some size. The back part of the house ran at right angles to an anabaptist chapel, divided from it by a small cabbage-garden. The young lady used sometimes to indulge the romantic love of solitude, by sitting in her own apartment in the evening, till twilight, and even darkness, was approaching.

One evening, while she was thus placed, she was surprised to see a gleamy figure, as of some aërial being, hovering, as it were, against the arched window in the end of the anabaptist chapel. Its head was surrounded by that halo which painters give to the catholic saints; and, while the young lady's attention was fixed on an object so extraordinary, the figure bent gacefully towards her, more than once, as if intimating a sense of her presence, and then disappeared. The seer of this striking

vision descended to her family, so much discomposed as to call her father's attention. He obtained an account of the cause of her disturbance, and expressed his intention to watch in the apartment next night. He sat, accordingly, in his daughter's chamber, where she also attended him. Twilight came, and nothing appeared; but as the gray light faded into darkness, the same female figure was seen hovering on the window; the same shadowy form; the same pale light around the head; the same inclinations, as the evening before. "" 'What do you think of this?" said the daughter to the astonished father. "Any thing, my dear," said the father, "rather than allow that we look upon what is supernatural."

A strict research established a natural cause for the appearance on the window. It was the custom of an old woman, to whom the garden beneath was rented, to go out at night to gather cabbages. The lantern she carried in her hand, threw up the refracted reflection of her form on the chapel window. As she stooped to gather her cabbages, the reflection appeared to bend forward; and that was the whole matter.-Sir Walter Scott's Demonology.