e ceremonial worship of most Oriental peoples.
Every temple of note in India has attached to it a troop of
nautch-dancers. According to Mr. Sellen, the author of _Annotations of
the Sacred Writing's of the Hindus_ (London, 1865), these young girls
are "early initiated into all the mysteries of their profession. They
are instructed in dancing and vocal and instrumental music, their chief
employment being to chant the sacred hymns and perform nautches before
their god on the recurrence of high festivals." One of the English
papers declared that "witnessing the physical contortions of half-nude
prostitutes" was hardly a commendable amusement in the future sovereign
of Great Britain. But this is hardly just. Vile as the calling of the
nautch-women may be--and one of their duties is to raise funds for the
aggrandizement of the temple to which they are attached by selling
themselves in its courts--it does not degrade like ordinary prostitution
where all society shuns and abhors its votary. In India both priest and
layman respect the calling of the nautch-girls as one advancing the
cause of religion. It is possible, therefore, to see that their moral
nature is, in a sense, sustained by self-respect. "Being always women of
more or less personal attractions, which are enhanced," says the same
author, "by all the seductions of dress, jewels, accomplishments and
art, they frequently receive large sums for the favors they grant, and
fifty, one hundred, and even two hundred, rupees have been known to be
paid to these sirens at one time." Nor is this very much to be wondered
at if it be true that they comprise among their number "some of the
loveliest women in the world."

M. H.

LITERATURE OF THE DAY.

The Two Americas: An Account of Sport and Travel, with Notes
on Men and Manners, in North and South America. By Major Sir
Rose Lambart Price, Bart. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott &
Co.

It would hardly be inferred from such a title that the duodecimo in
large print which assumes to discuss the New World is occupied with the
diary of a tour in a gunboat from Rio de Janeiro through Magellan's
Straits and up the west coast of South America to San Diego, and thence
by stage and railway to San Francisco, Salt Lake and Chicago. An
exploration of this character could not be exhaustive, and the
successors of the gallant major will find an abundance of matter left in
th