er
piaster was doled out to him, and forward we moved till we were fairly
within cry of the ship, when I called out for assistance, and they
pushed us directly alongside, behind the paddle-box. Here again they
detained the luggage, and demanded more buckshish; but I laid hold of
the rope hanging down from the rails of the steamer, and crying to my
companion to sit still and watch our property, I ran up the side of
the ship and called for the master, knowing that the captain was on
shore. Looking down upon them, he threatened to sink them in the ocean
if they did not bring everything on deck in a minute. When I saw the
portmanteaus brought up, and my friend and I safely on board, I
thought that all was well enough, although we had got a ducking in the
surf; but in a little, my friend found that he had been robbed of his
purse, containing two sovereigns and some small money; but nobody
could tell whether this had been done in the crowd on the pier, or
when he was in the boat, or when helped up the side of the ship. The
anchor was weighed about midnight, and we steamed along the coast of
Samaria, towards the once famous city and seaport of Herod.'

Having taken the liberty to be jocular on the doctor's oddities of
expression, we beg to say, that notwithstanding these and other
eccentricities, the work he has produced is well worthy of perusal,
and of finding a place in all respectable libraries.

FOOTNOTES:

[8] _The Lands of the Messiah, Mahomet, and the Pope, as Visited in
1851_. By John Aiton, D.D., Minister of Dolphinton. Fullarton & Co.
1852.

GLEANING IN SCOTLAND.

BY A PRACTITIONER.

Like most other ubiquitous customs, corn-gleaning has been frequently
described by the painter and the poet, yet I much question whether in
any case the picture is true to nature. A certain amount of idealism
is infused into all the sketches--indeed, in the experience of numbers
of readers, this is the sole feature in most of them. Such a defect is
easily accounted for. Those who have depicted the custom were
practically unacquainted with its details, and invariably made the
sacred story the model of their picture, without taking into
consideration the changes induced by time or local peculiarity. Even
the beautiful and glowing description of English corn-gleaning given
by Thomson, is felt by practical observers to be greatly too much of
the Oriental hue, too redolent of the fragrance of a fanciful Arcadia.
It is a pi