! O love-laden soul!
A thrill in the rushes there is,
And the sea breaks into loud song
That throbs with the pulse of the breeze;
And singers, remembering thee,
Cast their crowns and their lyres at their feet,
For the South wind rewakens thy song.
Oh, the South wind, the song-wind is sweet!

It blows with a rustle of palms
And a sound of the laurel and bay,
Far voices and clapping of hands,
Like applause at the end of a play:
It strengthens the poet like wine,
And clothes him from head unto feet
In the power and glory of life.
Oh, the South wind, the song-wind is sweet!

It lifts the gold hair of a girl
Till it shines in the sun like a flame,
It flows through the locks of a man
Toiling hard at his song and his fame;
It is heavy with music of birds;
It has whispers no lips can repeat:
The angels float by on its tide.
Oh, the South wind, the song-wind is sweet!

Ah, world! while the South wind prevails--
With flowers and rushes and streams,
Intrude not a sound of thy wheels,
But leave me alone with my dreams--
My reveries born of this breeze;
And my life, though lowly it be,
Will be happier far than a king's
If the South wind, the song-wind kiss me!

JAMES MAURICE THOMPSON.

NORTHWARD TO HIGH ASIA.

From Calcutta my route was northward to Thibet, to reach, if possible,
its capital city of Lhassa, residence of the Grand Lama of the
Booddhists--the pontifical sovereign of Eastern Asia. My journey thither
was planned by the way of Sikkim, and thence through the Cholah Pass in
the Himalaya range. I was most anxious to reach a city so interestingly
described by the Abbe Huc nearly thirty years ago, and to learn
something further about the present condition and prospects of the
"Snowy Region of the North" and the lofty table-lands of Central Asia,
so seldom visited by European travelers.

The cars of the East Indian Railway carry one in a single night 220
miles to the town of Sahibgunge and the banks of the Ganges. The first
sight of the sacred river excited in me but little enthusiasm. It was
about a mile in width, shallow and very muddy, with a swift current and
dreary sandy banks, where huge crocodiles were basking in the sun. Its
religious character among the Hindoos is well known. Though highly
esteemed from its source to its mouth, there