of brandy, some dried fish, and some venison. With a woman, they likewise interred her scissors and needles. All these things were supposed to be useful to the Laplander after death. With the axe, he was believed to clear away the bushes and brambles that might obstruct his path to the next world; with the tinder-box and its appurtenances, be might strike a light, should he find himself in darkness on the day of judgment; upon the provision, he was to subsist during the journey. Certainly nothing could be more considerate. For three years after the burial of a relation, they were accustomed, from time to time, to dig holes by the side of the grave, and place within them such things as were agreeable to the inmate during life, such as tobacco, brandy, and reindeer tongue. They believe that, after death, their souls will enter upon a paradise abundant in all these luxuries; that the reindeer, their zealous servant, will there partake their felicity

And think, admitted to that equal sky,

Their faithful dog will bear them company.

In Italy, the dead are carried to the place of interment dressed in their best attire, and uncovered to the light of day. The rich expend enormous sums on their funeral processions, and with them it is a point of pride to decorate the body of the deceased with the utmost magnificence. When, however, the service has been read, and the ceremony in the cathedral been solemnly performed, the body is carried once more home, stripped of its gorgeous jewels and robes, and then buried privately. Not so the poor and the diseased; for the manner of their burial we will extract the following description from the pages of J. Fenimore Cooper, in his amusing Excursions in Italy-A large proportion of the people of Naples die in the hospitals; and even of those who do not, perhaps half are unable to leave means for their interment. A place has, accordingly, been provided for those who are interred at the public expense.

"The Campo Santo is at a short distance from the city, enclosed by high walls. There is a chapel near the entrance, with a few rooms for the uses of the officials. As I understand the arrangement, the earth was removed from the entire area, when the cavity was walled up into 365 separate vaults. As there is, however, so much of that soft material in this vicinity, I am not certain that the desired number of vaults have been cut in the tufa, the effect being the same in the two cases. Each vault has a large hole in the centre, that is covered by a stone, fitting closely. This stone has a ring in the centre; and a movable lever, with its fulcrum, and all on wheels, is in readiness to remove it. Each night the lever is applied to a new ring, and a stone is removed. At an appointed hour the dead arrive in covered carts. Our guide affirmed that, after the religious service, they were then dumped, to use a New York term, from the cart into the hole; and judging by what I witnessed, I think this probable. The bodies are next

sprinkled with quicklime, and the stone is replaced and closed with cement. At the end of the year, little is found besides bones, which are removed to a bone-house, or vault, kept for that purpose. The hole, however, is not closed for twenty-four hours, the fees paid by the curious being an inducement to keep it in readiness to be opened during that time.

When W- and I presented ourselves, we were received by a cadaverous-looking priest and sexton, on whose appearance this constant communication with the remains of mortality had produced anything but an aspect of devotion. Our wishes being known, after examining the place generally, we were desired to look into an open vault. It was quite empty, and indeed clean. The lever was then applied to the ring of the covering of the vault last filled, and a more revolting and hideous spectacle has seldom been witnessed than the one we saw. Seventeen dead bodies were lying naked beneath the hole, in a way that I can only compare to the manner in which Jack Straws fall! If they had not actually been dropped from the cart, no care had been taken even to lay them side by side; but they were placed just as chance had ordered it. A few rags served as apologies to decency; but whether they were actually brought from the hospitals in this state, I cannot tell you: the guide affirmed that they were; but one cannot confide in the information of guides.'

The funeral customs of Spain resemble those of Italy in most respects. The dead are carried to the grave with their faces uncovered, and preceded by a long line of priests singing the deathchant, and bearing lighted tapers in their hands; and the coffin is followed by a train of mourners and people. The Spanish nobles are dressed in their robes of ceremony, and buried in them; but the plebeians are buried in the costumes of friars and nuns. Young unmarried girls are carried to their graves with chaplets of flowers on their heads, and bouquets in their hands. After the corpse is interred, the priests sprinkle holy-water on the tomb-every drop of which, they protest, will extinguish a part of the purgatorial fire through which every member of their church is condemned to pass. Masses without end must be offered up on the death of any person; and notwithstanding the frequent poverty of the survivors, this expense must be incurred, even though it ruin them altogether. The repose of the living is thus frequently sacrificed to the repose of the dead. The soul of a Spaniard is, by law, liable for the claims of his creditors after death. Their priests appear to have the most accurate information of all the affairs of the other world: indeed, one might suspect them of having, like the leading journals of the present day, 'our own correspondent' in purgatory, for papers may frequently be seen attached to the doors of the churches, bearing this important announcement: 'To-day, a soul is delivered.'

The funeral ceremonies of modern Greece resemble those of Italy and Spain in the leading features of the solemnity. As soon

as a death occurs, the nearest female relatives of the deceased weep and cry unceasingly, and, indeed, refuse both rest and sleep until they can exist no longer without them. The procession is accompanied by priests and friars of the Greek Church, and by the friends of the departed, who utter long and dismal cries, and wear their hair dishevelled and hanging upon their shoulders. If the body be that of a young girl, it is dressed in white, and the head is crowned with flowers. The women cast roses, and scatter scented waters on the bier as it is carried through the streets. The interment is succeeded by the funeral-feast, which is provided by the nearest relation of the deceased; and with this entertainment the burial ceremonies are terminated.

CARCELY had the roar of the cannon ceased after the great day of Leipsic, or the shouts of victory died away which had everywhere throughout Germany greeted the triumphal procession of the great hero of the Thirty Years' War, when there reached Stockholm, borne as it were on the wings of the wind, the news of another glorious victory at Lützen, filling up the measure of the national joy and exultation. The people shouted on, regardless of certain muffled sounds of wo which kept slowly approaching ever nearer and nearer, till at length every voice was still, and every ear could hear that the great Gustavus Adolphus-the Lion of the North-the mightiest of all the champions of the Protestant cause-the victor of many a hard-fought field, had met at Lützen a hero's death. So sudden was the revulsion, so deep the general depression, that it seemed

for a time as if Sweden herself was about to pass away with her great monarch. She was hurled at once from the very summit of her greatness. In the person of Gustavus, she had been the leader of a great work, which was still far from its completion. The Protestants, never famous for unanimity, and displaying in this war fully the usual amount of petty jealousy and mistrust, had been kept together by him who could both think and do, who united strength of will and strength of arm; and wherever they might now turn for a leader, it could not be to Sweden, who must henceforth, as the nation then feared, be of small account in the Protestant League, the total rupture of which seemed not improbable.

The war had now lasted for twenty-three years; the resources of Sweden were miserably exhausted; in many parts of the kingdom, loud discontents prevailed, rendering new exactions dangerous; the heir to the throne was a child, a girl of six years; the widowed queen, Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, was a beauty with a weak mind; on one side Denmark, spurred by former jealousies, looked threateningly on; the king of Poland, on the other, like another Sigismund, was on the eve of reviving the slumbering claim to the ancient inheritance of his house; while in Sweden itself a considerable party clamoured for a republic. In this crisis, the promptitude and energy of the men to whom Gustavus had confided the government on his departure the famous Chancellor Oxenstiern being the chief-saved the kingdom. They hastened to acknowledge and do homage to his daughter, and to proclaim her everywhere as queen.

Christina, queen of Sweden, so celebrated for her talents and eccentricities, was born at Stockholm on the 18th of December 1626. Two children had already been carried to the grave, and when the hopes of the parents were a third time revived, they were flattered and fretted with all manner of prognostications. The child was to be a prince-that was certain, the astrologers declared, by every sign, including mysterious dreams that had visited the parents. His birth, however, was to be fatal either to the king, the queen, or himself; but if he outlived the first twenty-four hours, he would rise to great celebrity; for at the birth, as at that of Gustavus, appeared the rare combination of the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Mars. When the moment arrived, and the child was ushered into the world, its head covered with hair as with a helmet, and having a strong and harsh voice, the general hope was thought fulfilled, and the news flew even to Gustavus that a prince was born. When his sister, trembling to undeceive him, approached with the infant, he mildly said: I am content, dear sister, and pray God may preserve her to me;' ordered Te Deum to be sung, and all the usual rejoicings as for a prince, and also smilingly remarked: 'She will be clever, for she has tricked us all.' Thus was every prophecy falsified.

According to Christina's own account, her life and health in her