have been Basque, the language which Noah received from Adam, if we
are to believe the residents of Bayonne. An out-door fair was visited,
upon an open square lying between the hotel and the harbor, where the
gay colors, shooting-booths, hurdy-gurdies, drums, fifes, flags, and
games, together with a wax exhibition, representing a terrible murder
and an assassin committing the deed with a poker painted red hot, all
served to remind us of a similar occasion at Tokio, in far-off Japan.
Striking scenic effects came in here and there, the distant summits of
the Pyrenees being visible beyond the mountains of Navarre.

A drive of five miles from Bayonne took us to Biarritz, situated a
little southwest of the old city, at the lower part of the Bay of
Biscay, being the Newport of southern France. Our postilion was gotten
up after the Basque fashion of his tribe, in a most fantastic short
jacket of scarlet, with little abbreviated tails, silver laced all over,
and with a marvelous complement of hanging buttons. He wore a
stove-pipe hat with a flashing cockade, and flourished a long whip that
would have answered for a Kaffir cattle-driver. The horses--large fine
specimens of the Norman breed--were harnessed three abreast, and
decorated with many bells, while their headstalls were heavy with
scarlet woolen tassels, and ornamented with large silver-plated buckles.
The vehicle was a roomy, old-fashioned barouche, comfortable, but about
as ancient as the cathedral. Altogether we looked with such unfeigned
amazement at the landlord, when this queer outfit drove to the door,
that he, native and to the manner born, could not suppress a broad
smile. It answered our purpose, however, and as the populace was
evidently accustomed to such florid display, we did not anticipate being
mobbed; but during the entire trip that harlequin of a driver, who was
as sober as a mute at a funeral, shared our admiration with the pleasing
and varied scenery. He was a thorough native. It would have been of no
use to attempt to talk with him, for the foreigner who can speak the
Basque tongue has yet to be discovered.

Biarritz, which is in the department of the Basses-Pyrenees, yet a long
way from the mountain range, was unknown to fame until Eugenie, empress
of the French, built a grand villa here, and made it her summer resort;
being, however, over five hundred miles from the French capital, it
never became very popular with the Parisians. The emperor and em