of good-humour with his rigorous regard for Mahometan ceremonialism speedily made him a butt for the tricks of a lively girl among the captives, whose unceasing pleasure it was to touch the old man, and force him to the seven-fold ablutions necessary to purge him from the contamination of contact with a Giaour. It was laughable, the story tells, to see the poor steward dodging about the room, when he visited the captives, in his anxiety to escape the mischievous damsel's hands, and so save himself from the washings which several times a day she at one period contrived to compel him to practise.

The characters of the three wives are clearly and naturally drawn. The eldest, Zaidette, was decidedly passée; and as she was originally married from motives of state rather than from personal regard, she appears never to have had much hold on Schamyl's affections. She held, however, the highest position in the household, was its housekeeper and practical mistress, and seems to have been treated with abundant deference by every one. She was of a cold and petty disposition, and excessively penurious and money-getting; and she contrived to make the position of the captives as little endurable as possible. Her aim was twofold. Partly, she wanted to spend as little as possible on their maintenance; and partly as they supposed-she was most desirous to keep them out of Schamyl's way, lest he should take it into his head to fall in love with some of the younger of the party, and so care for herself even less than at present. Moreover, she thought that a little additional discomfort would add to the urgency of their relatives in obtaining their ransom at any cost, however enormous.

The second wife, Shouanette, was an Armenian by birth, carried away from her home as a child, when too young to retain her Christian faith. Schamyl's chief regards were with her, and she repaid them with the most devoted affection. Her character is remarkably agreeable and feminine, and she was soon on familiar terms with the princesses, and did them all the kindness she could; she herself suffering not a little from the crafty tyranny of Zaidette. She is represented as at times mourning over the dullness of her existence; but as surprising the princesses by one day confessing that the chief thing she lamented in her present position was, that Schamyl would not allow his wives to dress better! the mountain chief being an intense enemy to all show in garments. When the captives were finally set free, Shouanette was dissolved in grief.

The most touching farewell, however, came from Scha

myl's mother-in-law, the mother of his deceased wife and grandmother to the eldest son, now at last about to return to him after so many years' captivity in Russia. This old woman regarded the princesses as the providential instruments of the recovery of her long-lost grandchild, and amiably regarded them with the same gratitude as if they had been the voluntary agents of his restoration. The strength of personal affection, indeed, which exists in those simple races is one of the most striking things in the book. Shouanette is represented as absolutely miserable during Schamyl's absence on a campaign, through her terrors lest he should be wounded or killed. And it is impossible to help admiring the tenacity of fondness with which Schamyl himself had clung to the memory of his eldest son, the emotions with which he looked forward to meeting him once more, and his dread lest his long residence among foreigners should have estranged him from his father and his country.

In one instance, the tenacity of these mountaineers' feelings is illustrated in connection with the wretched results of polygamy. The third wife,-Aminette, a girl, or young woman, of seventeen, and very handsome, was deeply in love with Schamyl's second son, with whom she had been brought up as a playfellow from her childhood, but who had never regarded her otherwise than as a sister. Had her affections been returned by him, it seems probable that Schamyl would have married her to his son, instead of to himself. As it was, the poor girl does not appear to have known the exact nature of her own feelings, but to have taken them for a mere excess of sisterly regard. On one occasion, the young man pays a visit to his father, bringing his wife with him; and Aminette takes the opportunity of working him a handsome pistol-case, which, with provoking coolness, as she afterwards learns,— he values so little, that he hands it over as a present to another person.

This same son's wife furnishes another portrait in the family group. The princesses represent her as a person of a far higher character than Schamyl's own wives; being both higher by birth, and as receiving them, when they paid her a visit of ceremony, with all the polish and good breeding of a lady of rank in the civilised world.

The principal discomforts the princesses endured arose from Zaidette's stinginess and small annoyances, and from the confined nature of the room in which they, with the children and their personal servants, were compelled to live. The latter at length became so disagreeable and exacting-at least so say their mistresses-that they were obliged to beg

to have them sent out of the seraglio; a request at once complied with. They themselves were never allowed to leave the walls, except on one occasion for half an hour. We must do them the justice to add, that they tell the tale of their sufferings with a striking absence of whining and exaggeration, and that there is not a trace of malice or ill-will in the book.

The picture of Schamyl himself is curious and instructive. His mode of life is simple in every respect,-in diet, dress, and habits. There is clearly a considerable amount of fierceness and severity in his character; but nothing in this book leads us to impute to him a love of blood and cruelty, or any of the specially Southern and Oriental falsehood and crime. He threatened the captives with the heaviest punishment if they played him false in their correspondence; but in his rough way he seems to have wished to make them as comfortable as circumstances allowed. His political position is strictly that of a chief, and not of a sovereign; and the religious leadership which we associate with the ruling power in patriarchal times is still found living in his case. So far as we can judge, he was conciliated towards his captives by the courage and spirit which the Princess Chavchavadzey displayed in her brief conversations with him; and there is little doubt that, but for the controlling influence of the "naibs," or local aristocracy, he would readily have accepted a smaller sum than was finally taken-40,000 roubles-for their ransom. One curious incident in this part of the story is his employment of a certain "holy man" to come to Dargi-Vedenno and preach for several days to the people on the sin and evil of excessive love of riches, with a view to get them to abate the extravagant ransom they demanded.

As a book of instruction, we cannot help remarking, that this narrative throws a light on the elasticity of the Mahometan system, which we think has not been sufficiently understood or believed by those who have reflected on the future prospects of that strange portent in the history of religious opinions. We have been accustomed to look upon Mahometanism as one of those vast organisations of principle with practice, which are interwoven so intimately in all their portions that the whole must stand or fall together. With many acute observers, it has been assumed that the entrance of European civilisation into the very body of a Mahometan people must destroy Mahometanism itself, as a living power ruling and guiding that people. In a previous article in our present Number, we have briefly alluded to one of what we conceive to be the popular misconceptions on this subject,

and have called attention to the extent to which the ancient Mosaic system was incorporated into his creed by the Arabian impostor-fanatic. Those remarks were written before we had met with the narrative of these Russian princesses; and we cannot help pointing out the illustration of our ideas. with which it furnishes us. Judaism, we all know, has proved itself an elastic system, since the advent of Christianity, to an extent which would have been thought impossible on a mere à-priori consideration of its spirit, and the details of its legislation. The extent to which the lineal descendants of Abraham have retained a conviction of the truth of their creed, and a certain portion of their ceremonial law, is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable phenomena which the moral world presents for our study. Yet we have been in the habit of arguing that what does exist in the case of the Jews is impossible in the case of Mahometans.

In all our speculations respecting the future fate of Turkey and Egypt, and now again of the Mahometan races in India, we have overlooked the possibility of the adaptation of the creed of the Koran to the ideas and habits of modern civilisation. And we cannot but think that the picture here drawn of Mahometan life in the Caucasus supplies important materials towards the modification of our previous notions. These Russian ladies certainly had no reasons for painting the life of a Caucasian seraglio with brighter colours than belonged to it. They appear to be themselves devout Christians; and they made no scruple of openly practising their religious observances before their Mahometan companions, and of occasionally discussing certain points of morals in which Christianity conflicts with Mahometanism. Yet how different is the picture they draw from the commonly-received ideas of a Turkish harem! Probably, how different it really is from the ordinary life of actual Turkish harems! We would not say any thing which might be misinterpreted; but we cannot help repeating that, setting aside the belief in the Mahometan doctrinal imposture, the scenes which this book presents suggest to us most vividly the details of the lives of the Hebrew patriarchs, especially as recorded in the book of Genesis. And the moral which we draw is, that the effects of men's abstract religious opinions are capable of an extent of modification, under new and varied circumstances, which defies all previous calculations, founded upon mere book-knowledge and plausible theory. It enforces on us with renewed urgency the grand practical truth, that, if we would deal wisely with our contemporaries, of whatever country and creed, our wisdom is to study what men are in fact, and not to conclude before

hand what we imagine they will be and must be. It is a duty which we Catholics are incessantly enforcing upon Protestants, who persist in misconceiving our real characters because they will not look at facts; and if we Catholics would be wise in our generation, we shall practise the same philosophy ourselves, and, whether we have to do with Christians, or infidels, or Jews, or Mahometans, in England, in France, or in India, our first inquiry will be, not what men probably would be, judged by theories, however apparently logical, but what, as a matter of fact, they really are.

CASWALL'S POEMS.

The Masque of Mary, and other Poems. By Edward Caswall, of the Oratory, Birmingham. Burns and Lambert.

MR. CASWALL belongs to the class of meditative poets. Individually, as distinguished from his class, he is remarkable for an abstinence from the use of the sonnet, that perilous instrument of rhyme. Further, though he has none of the fire of the thoroughly Pindaric writer, or the pointed terseness of the Horatian, yet he has cast some of his best thoughts into the form of the irregular ode. And again, we note that, singularly enough, it is in these very odes that his versification is most musical, and that he attains such an animated flow of sound, that the ear scarcely detects the absence of rhyme, and is unconscious of that sensation of poverty of tone which is apt to creep upon it when the hesitating beat of modern rhythm is not assisted by a rhyming termination.

In many respects he reminds us of the poet Cowper; more perhaps in the cast of his mind than in his choice of subjects, or his mode of treatment. He is essentially a thoughtful man, and a man of refined tastes and affectionate character; and moreover he is an eminently sincere writer, and free from the tricks and cant of many a man who ought to be above such means of influencing his readers. It is, indeed, one of the charms of his volume that it bears the impress of ineness throughout, and gives you a pleasant impression of the poet as a man and as a possible friend.

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From Cowper Mr. Caswall differs in his almost entire neglect of such subjects as are supplied by human nature in its daily and hourly action. When not distinctly theological, metaphysical, or spiritual, he turns to the material universe,