The kloer sing, but never write their compositions, relying rather on the memory of their hearers than on the fame which publication might confer, and which would preclude the necessity of their works being learnt by heart.

But when the clerk becomes a priest, he carefully forgets his former act, and professes to hold it in abhorrence; nevertheless they contrive to avail themselves of what they formerly delighted in, and in their addresses to the Deity may be traced the fervour which inspired the profane songs formerly so much admired, and once their pride.

At the celebrated meetings called Pardons, so well known in Britanny, the last evening belongs to the kloer, when they usually sing their newest love-songs, collected in groups beneath the antique trees which grow at the entrance of the cemeteries. In Tréquier and Vannes they often perform sacred dramas, which last several days.

The young clerk of Mezléan appears to have belonged to a class somewhat beyond the usual rank of the kloer of the present day.

L. S. C.

SPECIMENS OF MODERN GERMAN POETS.

TRANSLATED BY MARY HOWITT.

HEINRICH HEINE.

DEAR girl, we two were children,
Two children young and gay,
When we crept into the hen's-house,
And stretched us under the hay.

Then crowed we like to chanticleer,
And people on the road,
Kikerekeh all fancied

It was the cock that crowed!

The chest within the court-yard,
We papered it with care,
And there we dwelt together,
And made a mansion fair.

A neighbour's ancient tabby
Came to us from the roof;
We made her bows and courtesies,
And compliments enough.

We asked of her well-being
Again and yet again;-
We've made the same profession
To many old cats since then!

How often we sate and conversed

Like the old with prudent tongue,
And mourned how things had altered
For worse since we were young.

How love, and truth, and religion
Out of the world were gone;

And how so dear was coffee,
Whilst money there was none !

They are gone the plays of childhood,
They go the hopes of youth;

Money, the world, and time goes,
Religion! love, and truth!

IF any of our lovely countrywomen should meet a Chinese lady, they would deem her lot unblessed-at least, the first idea that would occur to them would be, that they would not stand in her shoes. Notwithstanding what has been said by Pope, the characters of women are very various; but in China, if we may judge them by their hoofs, we shall take the whole sex for a set (excuse the expression) of 'regular little devils,' and that is equivalent to their being women of 'no characters at all.'

The Chinese ladies do not understand 'long measure:' at all events their table is peculiar, as they have but three inches to a foot. A curious fact in their anatomy is that their toes are bent, and twenty in number, being doubled under the sole; thus even though their feet move forward, their toes go backwards.

They are extremely contentious: they cannot meet without scuffling. Their walk is uneasy-they seem to move with pain; and how should it be otherwise when nails are under their feet?

Yet, though feet so diminutive are at present, and have been for many centuries, worn by the celestial ladies, this was not always the case. A French postillion has been described as all boots: the sage Ya-hoo, whom we have quoted at the head of this story, spoke of the softer sex in his time as all slippers; yet it is true that even this expression seems to set them upon a bad footing.

*

Their feet were not always so small. You shall find in Chinese histories that the Emperor Min-Te, who came to the throne in the thirtyfirst year of the sixty-first cycle, had a beautiful Empress, To-To, whose feet in length rejoiced in their complement of exactly twelve inches. Her step, too, was exactly thrice a foot; and therefore whatever his ministers might recommend he would adopt no measures but what she approved.

The Emperor loved his lady with imperial measure of attachment; indeed he regarded her single self with more affection than he entertained besides for any two of his handmaidens: and he would seldom absent himself from her society except when it was necessary for him to give audience,—that is, to smoke a quiet hooka in presence of his ministers, in the celestial council-chamber. The custom of the country rendered it impossible that To-To should attend him there; but when the formal conference was over, he would frequently detain his favourite minister, Hum, in whose character and wisdom he had great confidence, and retiring to a more snug apartment, would invite his Empress to join them in a cosy pipe. On such occasions state business was sometimes a second time discussed; and the decisions of the lesser council often annulled and superseded those of the greater.

Min-Te was a lazy monarch, and was well pleased to have all troublesome questions of policy or justice arranged in a quiet manner, without his intervention: he did not like to be obliged to decide between the conflicting opinions of different ministers; but in these agreeable little after-councils, strange to say, though a lady was allowed a voice in them, there was always unanimity, and seldom a very lavish expenditure of words. No wonder that Min-Te should value a minister whose simple eloquence, and of course great argumentative powers, sufficed at once, upon whatever subject they were exercised, to carry conviction even to an Empress. To testify his great esteem for Hum, he ordered that he should be lodged in the palace, in chambers not far distant from the imperial apartments. He frequently employed him to instil into the lovely To-To a proper sense of all the duties she should aim at fulfilling as a woman and a wife; but above all, as the chosen lady of the Emperor. '

The beautiful Empress received meekly and graciously the lessons of virtue thus imparted to her. Nothing, to her apprehension, could be more agreeable than the councils given by Hum; and she delighted in the low and earnest voice in which they were uttered. The Emperor, looking on at a little distance, was overjoyed at seeing with how much attention she listened to the instructions of so excellent an adviser; and when at other times he heard her discourse of virtue and the duties of wifehood, "This is all Hum,' thought he. more of his affection, and Hum of his esteem;

Thus she gained still and the fame of both

* A. D. 934.

went abroad throughout all the celestial dominions. When Hum appeared abroad in the streets the people flocked about him. 'A Hum! a Hum! they cried, the Emperor's favoured counsellor. Three cheers for a Hum!' Then they shouted aloud, and no sound could be heard except a 'Hum!'

The Emperor was a sound sleeper; that is to say, he could sleep in spite of a sound. It is strange that a sound sleeper and a quiet sleeper should be nearly synonymous expressions; not quite, indeed, for one who snores may be a sound sleeper. The Empress was a sound sleeper also; a very determined sleeper; for she was addicted to somnambulism, and somnambulists must be very determined sleepers.

From being himself such a decided somnulist it was some time before the Emperor became aware of his lady's peculiarity. A little whisper, however no bigger than a musquito, which had for several days been fluttering about the palace, and buzzing into people's ears, one morning came dancing about his; and having awhile piped into it in a very small voice, gave it a sting which caused considerable irritation, then flew out at the window, and in short time had treated every mother's son, and no less father's daughter, throughout the celestial dominions, in nearly the same way.

That little provoking noise kept ringing in his imperial music-box, and the smart continued, so that his majesty at night was quite unable to sleep; but, in the hope, no doubt, of bringing the customary drowsy influence upon him, he lay quite still (by his lady's side,) and breathed hard, as though he had been in slumber. Unquestionably it must have been very trying to his feelings as a husband to know that his wife was all the while very comfortably reposing in the arms,―nay, don't be frightened-in the arms of Morpheus.

He fell, however, into a sort of half-doze, a dreamy mood, in which the little tune of the small whisper seemed to split into two parts; the one consisted of a number of minikin figures made up of queer bars very strangely put together, which kept dancing about his closed eyes; the other still sounded in his ear, but its members assumed an articulate character, and the sounds and the figures mutualiy interpreted each other: whilst the tune was still discernible in the words, and the motions of the characters kept time to it. This was the song:

Min-Te, Min-Te, Min-Te,
Oh Emperor, bold and free;
Do as I bid,

Open your lid,

You'd better be wise and see.

With a chee, chee, chee, chee, chee, chee, chee.

Lest it betide (chee, chee,)

That your wife should creep (chee, chee,)*
Away from your side, (chee, chee,)

For she walks in her sleep (chee, chee.)

With a chee, chee, chee, chee, cheeee, cheee, chee,

And a chee, chee, cheeee, cheee, cheee, chee, cheeeeeeee.

* I believe it is either Captain Marryatt or Captain Basil Hall who has given a

specimen of the Mosquito language very closely resembling this.

Min-Te, Min-Te, Min-Te,

Lend the loan of your lug to me!
I'd have you be wise,

And open your eyes,

And see what you shall see.

With a chee, chee, chee, chee, cheee, cheee, chee.
There's Hum in his bed (chee, chee,)
At the end of the gallery, (chee,)
Best cut off his head, (chee, chee,)
Or at least his salary (chee).

With a cheee, chee, chee, chee, cheee, cheee, chee,
And a cheee, chee, chee, chee, cheee, cheee, cheeeeee.

And so the song was proceeding, like the moon, all made of cheese, when his imperial majesty (who lay dos-à-dos with his wife, for the greater convenience of dozing a doze,) was suddenly aroused to full consciousness by a gentle pull of the silken coverlet. He lay quite quiet, (though a gnat at the moment settled on his nose,) and soon perceived that the Empress was getting out of bed in her sleep, and evidently taking the greatest possible care not to awaken herself in so doing. Having no doubt at all-none whatever-not the slightest in the world -not the least possible--that she was altogether unconscious of what she was about, he thought, like a kind Emperor, that it would be right she should be looked to, lest she should break her neck down the stairs or out of the window, the palace being two stories high; and as he discovered that she moved towards the door, he rose from bed as quietly as she had done, and followed; she all the while treading as noiselessly as though she were a fly, and he as though he were a spider.

She proceeded along the gallery, and passed the stairs without accident; and she had arrived almost at the bottom of the corridor, when the Emperor, alarmed lest she might make a false step (a fox's paw, as the French express it,) seized her by throwing his left arm round her waist, at the same moment placing his right hand over her mouth, to prevent that natural utterance of alarm which might be expected from a lady suddenly awakened under such circumstances. Startled she

was, and she certainly would have screamed had it not been for his precaution. Being quite in the dark, both as to where she was, and as to who had laid such violent hands upon her, you may imagine how greatly she was frightened. She struggled to get loose, though still without making much noise; for, upon a moment's reflection, it occurred to her that it would be unpleasant to rouse the whole house from their slumbers at that hour of night; and indeed it would not be amiss if she could get back to her chamber as quietly as she came thence. But this was not to be; for the prime minister Hum, who, with what truth I cannot pretend to say, had the reputation of being at all times wide awake, was not asleep upon the present occasion; and hearing with his pair of very acute ears a little scuffling in the gallery, he opened the door of his apartment, which was close to the scene of action. He had apparently been deeply engaged in study; for he held in his hand. a lighted lantern, the light of which he now directed upon the pair in the corridor. The instant he saw them, however, it dropped from his hand; and closing and fastening the door with all possible celerity, he jumped upon his bed, coiled himself into a circle less than his waist in diameter, drew the clothes over him in a heap, and lay without moving,