when, on the 10th of May 1775, she was cut off by scarlet fever, before she had reached the age of twentyfour. As has been said, her dying words contained an attestation of her innocence of the charge brought against her, and for which she had been exiled from her family.

THE YEARLY FAIR OF CASHMERE SHAWLS.*

PERHAPS the last idea that would ever enter into the head of a London or Parisian belle, when she is the envied possessor of a rich Cashmere, is the manner in which these costly shawls are transferred to European merchants. I have been witness to the extraordinary scene presented by a fair held for this purpose on the banks of the Volga, and I think the ladies will be interested with its description.

A conflagration which took place on the confines of Europe and Asia, in 1816, burnt down the little village of Makariev. This event, unnoticed in the European journals, was of some consequence in the mercantile annals of the world, since in that miserable village had been held, from time immemorial, every year in the month of July, the fair where all the Cashmeres were sold that were brought by land into Europe. With the village were burnt the warehouses and shops used by the merchants. Ever since that time, this fair has been transferred to Nijnii-Novgorod. The Russian government had long been desirous that such should be the case, on account of the fine commercial situation of that town at the confluence of the Oka and the Volga.

Just at the confluence of these rivers, thousands of temporary shops are constructed with the promptitude for which the Russians are celebrated. We see rise with

• Translated from an article in a French periodical, stated to be derived from the note-book of a traveller.

marvellous celerity taverns, coffee-shops, a theatre, ballrooms, and a crowd of edifices of painted wood, constructed with some taste, all ready for the opening of the July fair. A crowd of people from all corners of the earth assembles to fill these ephemeral streets. Russians, Tatars, and Calmucks are the natural population; these are joined by Greeks, Armenians, Persians, Indians, Poles, Germans, French, English, and even Americans. Notwithstanding the confusion of tongues, the most perfect order reigns among this assembly of many nations. The riches amassed in this place are incalculable. The silks of Lyon and

Asia, the furs of Siberia, the pearls of the East, the wines of France and Greece, and the merchandise of Persia and China, are seen on every side. But among the precious productions of Asia, certainly the shawls of Cashmere bear the first rank.

The sale of these beautiful articles is a sort of contract which never takes place excepting in the presence of witnesses. One of my friends, who dealt in this species of merchandise, requested me to be one of his witnesses. I therefore accompanied him to the fair, and by this means beheld all the proceedings of the negotiation. On our arrival, we were joined by the other witnesses and two Armenian brokers, and my friend led us to a row of stone-houses, without upper storeys; here we were introduced into a sort of cellar. The Indian merchant, who was the seller, sat here, surrounded by immense riches, in the form of fourscore bales of Cashmeres, which were ranged and piled against the wall: he dealt in no other merchandise. The extraordinary part of the business is, that shawls of the greatest value are sold without the buyer ever seeing them opened; they are never unfolded, nor does the buyer even examine a corner; nevertheless, he is perfectly informed of their state by the descriptive catalogues of the brokers, who obtain these catalogues from Cashmere, drawn up with the utmost care and fidelity.

As soon as we entered, we squatted on the ground without speaking a word, and the brokers who conduct

the whole affair proceeded to business. They began by placing the buyer and the seller at diagonal points of the apartment; they then ran perpetually from one party to another, making known the price asked and the price bid, in many mysterious whispers. This negotiation went on with great earnestness, till the prices seemed to approximate nearer, owing to one party lowering his demand, and the other raising his offer. The bale of shawls was then brought out, and placed between the owner and the buyer. The seller vaunted their beauty and value, and the buyer regarded them disdainfully, and hastily compared their number and marks with his catalogue. Then the scene grew more animated; the buyer made a positive offer, declaring it was the highest price he would give. The Indian merchant then rose to quit the warehouse; the brokers cried aloud with a high voice, and seized him by the skirt of the garment, to detain him by force; one hauled him on one side, the other pulled him on the other, and, between them, they raised in a moment the most outrageous uproar. The poor Indian seemed very passive in all this confusion: I expected that the brokers, in their zealous activity, would do him a mischief; and I found that is sometimes the case.

Now comes the third act of this odd farce. If a fair price has been bid, the brokers endeavour to force the Indian merchant to give the buyer his hand, who holds it open, and repeats his offer in a loud voice. This is the most amusing part of the business, for the brokers seize the poor Indian, and try to get hold of his hand. The Indian defends himself, resists, escapes to the other end of the warehouse, enveloping his hand in the large sleeve of his robe, all the time whining out his first price in the most dolorous tone of voice. At last they catch him, and in spite of his resistance, and even his cries, place his hand in that of the buyer.

Complete tranquillity succeeds this scene. The brokers congratulate the buyer. The Indian sighs piteously, and complains in a doleful tone of the violence and ill

behaviour of the brokers. The brokers seat themselves, and prepare the bill of sale as the last act of the ceremony. All that has passed is pure acting, and considered indispensable to the etiquette of the sellers of Cashmere shawls; for if the Indian merchant has not been sufficiently pinched, and pulled, and pushed from side to side, and his head and arms bruised with the ardour of the sale, he will fancy he has parted with his goods too readily, and repent of the sale before the next July fair brings him to Nijnii again. The whole affair rested on this important difference: the Indian merchant asked 230,000 rubles for his bale, and the buyer gave him but 180,000-of which the brokers receive two rubles out of every hundred.

The whole company-buyer, seller, witnesses, and brokers-then seated themselves cross-legged on a carpet with deep fringes. We were handed ice, served in vases of China porcelain. Instead of spoons, we had little spatulas of mother-of-pearl, whose silver handles were ornamented with a ruby or an emerald, or some other precious stone. When these refreshments were taken, the shawls were delivered. All the marks and descriptions were found perfectly right, the goods being precisely as the brokers had declared. The time of payment caused another contest; and when that was adjusted, all the parties concerned were expected to say a private prayer. I did as the others did; but I fear I was more employed in reflecting on the variety of religions that had met together on the business. There was the Indian adorer of Brama and other idols; two Tatars, who submitted their destinies to the regulation of Mohammed; two Parsees, worshippers of fire; a Calmuck officer, who, I verily believe, had a reverential regard for the Grand Lama; and three Christians, of different communions-an Armenian, a Georgian, and, meaning myself, a Lutheran. One of the company told me he had prayed that the ladies of Europe might abate their extravagant desire of possessing Cashmere shawls. As he was, like me, only one of the witnesses, I may venture

to conclude, that he did not draw any profit from this article of luxury, or he would never have put up so perverse a prayer at the grand fair of Nijnii-Novgorod.

INSECTS IN THE STOMACH.

In the country parts of Scotland, we often hear stories related of people swallowing, by accident or unwittingly, small reptiles or insects, which live and breed in the stomach, and put the unhappy person who has received them to great pain. There is reason to believe that these stories are in general fabrications, or that they are greatly exaggerated. It is found that, except in rare cases, no animal can live in the stomach, from its heat, and from the juices which prevail in it. Worms of a certain description, however, can exist with perfect security in the stomach and intestines. We are informed that 1200 species of these intestinal worms have been discovered, and that sixteen of these have been found in the human body. Some of these worms are thin, flat, like pieces of tape; and others are round, or consist of a sort of elongated cartilage in joints. That insects were, in some rare cases,' says the author of Insect Transformations, introduced into the human stomach, has been more than once proved; though the greater number of the accounts of such facts in medical books are too inaccurate to be trusted. But one extraordinary case has been completely authenticated, both by medical men and competent naturalists, and is published in the Dublin Transactions, by Dr Pickells of Cork. "Mary Riordan, aged twenty-eight years, had been much affected by the death of her mother, and at one of her many visits to the grave, seems to have partially lost her senses, having been found lying there on the morning of a winter day, and having been exposed to heavy rain during the night. When she was about fifteen, two popular Catholic priests