ing of the Bairam,[2] a ceremony among the Turks, attended
with more than ordinary magnificence; the Sultan, accompanied by the
Grand Signior and all the principal officers of state, goes to exhibit
himself to the people in a kiosk, or tent near the seraglio point,
seated on a sofa of silver, brought out for the occasion. It is a very
large, wooden couch covered with thick plates of massive silver, highly
burnished, and there is little doubt from the form of it, and the style
in which it is ornamented that it constituted part of the treasury of
the Greek emperors when Constantinople was taken by the Turks.

INA.

[2] The Bairam of the Turks answers to our Easter, as their Ramadan
does to our Lent.

* * * * *

THE SKETCH-BOOK

* * * * *

EL BORRACHO.[3]

[3] The Drunkard; the Spanish origin of this title is endeavoured to
to be recognised in its title.

Not long since, a couple resided in the suburbs of Madrid, named Perez
and Juana Donilla; and a happy couple they might have been, had not
Perez contracted a sad habit of drinking, which became more and more
confirmed after every draught of good wine; and such draughts were
certainly more frequent than his finances were in a state to allow.
Night after night was spent at the tavern; fairly might he be said to
_swallow_ all that he earned by his daily labour; and Juana and himself
(fortunately they had no children to maintain) must have been reduced
to absolute mendicity, but for the exemplary conduct of the former, who
contrived to support her spouse and herself upon the scanty produce of
her unwearied industry. If ever a sentiment of gratitude for undeserved
favours animated the bosom of Perez Donilla, he took, it must be
confessed, a strange method of declaring it; not only would he, upon his
return from his lawless carousals, grumble over that humble fare, the
possession of which at all he ought to have considered as scarce less
than a miracle, but, in his madness, unmerciful strappings were sure to
be the portion of his miserable wife. Poor Juana bore these cruelties
with a patience that ought to have canonized her under the title of St.
Grizzle: she could not, indeed, forbear crying out, under these frequent
and severe castigations; nor could she refrain from soliciting the aid
of three or four favourite gentlemen saints, who, little to the credit
of their gallantry and good