These few suggestive words are quite enough; the verses themselves tell the rest of the tale as far as it should be told. With unsurpassed grace, simplicity and sincerity, they reveal the inmost thought of a pure, impassioned heart, willing, since it is God's will, to renounce every hope of carthly happiness, but not willing to renounce the dearer hope that the loved one shall yet be brought into the light of God's truth, and that the two who are parted on earth shall yet see light in that light together in the Paradise of God. In the very cause of their separation she can discern ground for her immortal hope. My friend [she says] thou didst prefer virtue and truth to me; wilt thou not know at last Who it was thou didst love? The flower opens only to the rays of one sun. If thou didst love the truth more than me, thou didst love Jesus, not knowing Him. Jesus, Thou who, unknown, didst speak to him, conquer his heart! And in a yet higher and more impassioned strain, turning wholly from the human beloved, she pleads with heaven for him in verse almost untranslatable for its fervid simplicity If all is vanity save Thee alone Give Thine ownself to us and make us rich; Withhold then what Thou wilt, we shall have all. We turn from the page on which such words stand printed, feeling halfguilty of intrusion into holy secrets; and yet welcoming the disclosure which teaches us how remote from this pure spirit were ascetic contempt of the legitimate joy of life, and Pharisaic pride in superior saintliness; while it shows how costly was the sacrifice which one so richly endowed, so loving and beloved, laid ungrudgingly on the altar of her Lord. It is noteworthy that, while in her more impersonal work this singer shows herself not scant of strong and hitter words with which to brand the evils of the world or to lay bare its deceits, there is no touch of bitterness in the sweetflowing Italian verses that deal with this momentous experience. The feeling that suffuses them has the deep glow of purifying fire; it is something strong as death, and deathless as the What shall I give Thee, Jesus, my good soul; there is no lamenting over it as a Lord? beautiful vanished illusion, but it is That which I love the most, I give to accepted as a dear lifelong companion, Thee; to be endured and cherished. Accept him for Thine own, my Lord and God, My one and only love, my very heart; It appears to us that, from the period covered by these poems onward, there Take him to Thee, may he be prized of may be traced in Christina Rossetti a Thee, Take him for me, save my beloved one. Remember how upon the bitter cross. Thou saidst in prayer to God, with pitying voice, With palpitating heart, "That which they do, Father, forgive, they know not what it is." He also. Lord, knows not Whom he disdains; He also, Lord, would love Thee, did he know. growing tendency to spend her rare poetic powers on religious themes, and in her devotional poems themselves an increasing vigor, intensity, and depth of thought and feeling; and this with no diminution or disparagement of the airy, childlike gaiety, the joy in simple, natural things, that lend an irresistible charm to her writings specially consecrated to children, and that prove the essential wholesomeness of mental constitution in one who had to suffer so much. It is to the later and not to the earlier If all we see, that does not please Thee, half of her life that we have to refer Lord, the attractive child's book called "Speaking Likenesses," and the dainty rhymes for little ones which their writer called "Sing-song," and which lose none of their gracious quaintness when rendered into Italian, as may be seen by the selections thus translated among the "New Poems;" it is to the same period that we have to assign "Called to be Saints," "Time Flies," and "The Face of the Deep," which furnish to us perhaps the most remarkable assemblage of spiritual songs that our century can show. Unique in their living color, their warm human quality, their masculine strength and simplicity; breathing the very soul of exalted impassioned devotion; these poems are worthy of a place no less high than that occupied by the "De Imitatione Christi" in devotional literature, since they too set forth with surprising power the varying incidents in the life of the soul that follows hard after Christ, and looks longingly for the coming of his kingdom. That life had broadened and deepened wonderfully since the time when, midway in her pilgrimage, the singer disciplined herself against weariness of her own "easy life," and dread of her own "easy-coming death," by dwelling on the life and death of the Divine Sufferer, as in the pathetic verses "None with Him," now first given up in their original form in the "New Poems." A loftier and more joyful faith is that which poured itself forth in this song of triumph: Tempest and terror below; but Christ the Almighty above. Tho' the depth of the deep overflow, tho' fire run along on the ground, Tho' all billows and flames make a noise, and where is an Ark for the dove? Tho' sorrows rejoice against joys, and death and destruction abound, Yet Jesus abolisheth death, and Jesus who loves us we love; His dead are renewed with a breath, His lost are the sought and the found, Thy wanderers call and recall, Thy dead men lift out of the ground. O Jesus, Who 1. vest us all, stoop low from Thy glory above: Where sin hath abounded make grace to abound and to superabound, Till we gaze on Thee face unto Face, and respond to Thee love unto Love. And no mere sad acquiescence, but a hope full of immortality breathes in the sweet homely verses: It is good to be last not first, It is good to spend and be spent, It is good to watch and to pray: Life and Death make a goodly Lent, So it leads us to Easter Day. Year after year, many hearts were uplifted and made stronger by the musical utterances, fraught always with grander hope and deeper experience, and more thrilling rebuke of sin and unbelief, pouring forth from this nightingale of singers hidden in the shadow and seclusion of her home, where the inner life grew lovelier, even while its society was thinned by encroaching death. A father first, then a sister, then a brother, are seen to pass away, the survivor clinging all the more fondly to "her first love, her mother," and surrounding her with all sweet observances of affection; till the inevitable parting came, and she who was left on earth could but say: Up the high steep, across the golden sill, Up out of shadows into very light, Up out of dwindling life to life aglow, I watch you, my beloved, out of sight; Sight fails me, and my heart is watching still: My heart fails, yet I follow on to know. It remained only for her to cheer with her unwearying devotion the declining days of her mother's dear-loved sister, and when that last task was ended, herself to attain the Land of Rest through many months of patient, cheerful suffering, brightened by the tender devotion of her one surviving brother, and illuminated by the clear shining of the immortal hope expressed in what were almost her last verses: Heaven overarches earth and sea, Earth-sadness and sea-bitterness. Heaven overarches you and me: A little while and we shall be- Heaven overarches you and me, And all earth's gardens and her graves, Look up with me, until we see The day break and the shadows flee. What though to-night wreck you and me, If so to-morrow saves? Out of weakness was this fair soul made strong to strengthen many others, having steadfastly consecrated her powers to the service of God and man. Is it needful further to emphasize the contrast thus offered to that other life we have been considering, to the excellent strength laid low, turned into mere deplorable weakness, and perishing from earth with but a half day's work done, because the soul, originally so rich and strong, being wholly given up to the sedulous and successful carrying out of a much less exalted ideal of achievement, had steadily lost and not gained in the power to leave the evil and cleave only to the good? There are to-day only too many wellendowed spirits that stand in great need of reading and understanding such a lesson clearly. From The Contemporary Review. MY MASTER OF THE WINDS. A NARRATIVE OF TRAVEL IN SUMATRA. In September, 1893, I arrived at Bencoolen for the second time in quest of rare and valuable orchids, intending to explore the mountains Bukit Itam and Bukit Klang, and the Kaba Volcano. Staying in that former capital of the Dutch no longer than was necessary to procure ox-carts and coolies, I set out for Taba Penandjong, the first stage. Thence I proceeded by a desperately bad road over the mountains to Kapajang, whence I eventually reached the village of Sobam Ajam, my base of operations. Here the Bencoolen men left me and returned home. Having written to the Pangeran (prince or chief) at Kasambe for more coolies, I hired a house in which to await their arrival. A description of that densely inhabited residence may be of interest. To begin, there was not a nail in it. Four posts of bamboo set The upright formed the framework. walls were of bamboo, also, and the roof of palm leaves, the whole being tied together with rattans. Two rooms and a verandah which faced the road comprised the building. In the verandah I passed most of the time, watching the people. Having lived in far worse houses, I might have made myself very comfortable, but for mosquitoes and rats. The lizards, which also swarmed, did not annoy me. Looking back I am unable to say which of the three were most numerous. The rats, huge fellows as big as a goodsized kitten, were legion. Day and night they roamed about the house in couples that followed couples and preceded couples—an everlasting circus. To kill them all would have been a task for Hercules. I did not attempt it. But I locked up everything eatable in boxes, which were carried away by the Kasambe coolies before they were quite devoured. My excellent friends the lizards kept out of sight during the day, but at night they seemed to be everywhere on the walls, the rafters, and even in my bed. I never turned them out, for they were sudden death to mosquitoes. When a lizard catches sight of one of these pests he goes for it like a flash of lightning, halting suddenly when within about two inches of the doomed insect "to give it time to say its prayers," as the Malays declare; then the lizard's tongue shoots out, and that mosquito will never bite again. At first they used to give me an uncanny feeling, especially when they tumbled from the roof and scurried away, leaving their tails behind them on the floor; but I soon recognized in the brisk little creatures my most energetic allies. The loss of its tail did not ap pear to inconvenience a lizard in the least; if it retired from public view at all it was only for a very short time, for another tail began to sprout at once, and doubtless the creature was soon running about again with its fellows, climbing the walls and smacking its lips as vigorously as ever. Sobam Ajam is the site of an extensive coffee plantation, and very handsome the shrubs looked with their graceful foliage arranged in pyramidal form. The European overseers told me that they were often visited by tigers; indeed, there was a tiger trap not far from my house, but while I remained it was never set. That elephants were pretty numerous in the woods was proved by the great destruction of telegraph poles. Both natives and Europeans declared that whenever a wild elephant catches sight of a telegraph pole he runs amok at it straightway and knocks it down; but I am inclined to believe that the elephants use them as rubbing posts, and break them down accidentally, so to say. old Lio and half-a-dozen of his fellows to cut a path to Bukit Klang and build a camp. They were absent forty-eight hours, and when they did come, all, except Lio, wanted to go home at once. It was too cold on the mountain, they said; but from the way they glanced at the old man, standing apart with his hands clasped, I suspected that he had ruffled them in some manner. Later on I was pretty sure that the superstitious fellows were afraid to remain in his company. There was no help for it, so I let them go, and sent Lio to the Pangeran with another letter asking for men to take their place. These arrived the same day, to my great surprise. Considerably relieved, I accompanied my European acquaintances to a native main-main, or dance, which took place in the cattle-shed. The ball was opened by a Javanese couple dressed in their best. The girl wore a waistbelt of pure gold set with precious stones. But all the natives had decked themselves with jewellery, which, with their gaily colored sarongs and head-handkerchiefs, made a brave show. The band comprised big tomtoms, cylinders of wood closed at each end with goat-skin, little tom-toms ar ranged in a row, and a kind of harmonica made of loose pieces of iron of different lengths and thickness. music could be heard a mile off. After an hour's suffering I contrived to escape; but I got no sleep, for the dancing went on all night, and the band never ceased to play. The Returning from a visit to the coffee nursery on the fourth day after my arrival I found the men from kasambe awaiting me. They were grouped round my house, and as I approached each salaamed, raising his hands above his head, palms outwards, as is the graceful Malay fashion. Their spokesman, an old fellow, interested me from the first. Some inches taller than the average Malay, his face differed considerably in type. Not that Lio was more handsome. On the contrary, features more like those of an ancient brown-faced sheep I never saw on a Soon after dawn we left Sobam Ajam human being. He wore the usual short for Bukit Klang, which is a small cotton trousers, sarong, a sort of bag- mountain about four thousand feet shaped sash, and head-handkerchief, above the sea. Following the main and appeared to be as good, or bad, a road for a mile and a half we presently Moslem as his companions. But I have struck the narrow jungle path cut by reason to believe that the old man. was my first lot of Kasambe men. of another race-perhaps a Battock coolies, all little fellows except Lio, had from the interior who had adopted the hewn out a passage to fit themselves. Malay customs, or possibly a Bugis, or a It was a vegetable burrow, which I was Dyak from Borneo. Little did I think compelled to traverse in a stooping posiwhen serving out the rations what an tion, for the creepers overhead formed angel I was entertaining unawares. an archway no higher than my shoulAngel is not quite the word; but let that ders. Leeches swarmed, but we left them behind as we mounted higher. pass. Early the next morning I despatched On arriving at the first camp I was de The lighted to find that Lio had got dinner black rings. It greatly resembled ready. So far I had seen a few common orchids and pitcher plants (nepenthes), but nothing worth carrying away. In the afternoon of the next day, after a stiff climb, we reached the summit of the mountain. It was not promising. Wet moss, a foot deep, covered the ground and every trunk and log. The coolies were paralyzed with cold, and instead of bustling about to keep themselves warm, which Asiatics seldom think of doing, they stood in attitudes of despair, with chattering teeth and shaking knees. Lio alone was alert; nothing seemed to affect him. He had built my pondok (hut) between two trees; the walls were constructed of fern fronds, the roof of wild banana leaves. When I came up he was endeavoring to light a fire, with damp moss sprinkled with paraffin for fuel-an almost hopeless task. But the view compensated for many annoyances, of which no dinner was not the worst. Before us stretched the Palembang Province, with the Dempo Volcano in the distance. More interesting, however, was the Kaba Volcano five miles away, the summit of which appeared to be a barren plateau heaped with boulders overhung by a dense cloud of smoke. We remained at Bukit Klang till the next morning. Rain fell the whole of the night, and every few minutes I was obliged to get up and repair the roof. It was during the return journey to Sobam Ajam by another route that old Lio gave us the first exhibition of his powers. We had struck an elephant track, and were sliding and floundering down the mountain, when some of the Malays in advance, who had reached level ground, suddenly set up a shout, flung down their burdens, and scattered in every direction. "Ular-ular! (snake)," they cried, in great alarm. Lio did not run. Trudging on as steadily as the wretched road permitted, he halted within three feet of the serpent, which was hooded like a cobra, but of a greenish color, with white and Hamadryad elaps, the Ophiophagus, or snake-eater, the most venomous reptile that I am acquainted with. "Kill it!" I shouted, aware that the Ophiophagus will attack man on the slightest provocation, or, indeed, without any, and that its bite is always fatal. An elephant died in three hours after being bitten by one. Lio showed his glistening teeth in a hideous grin and waved his hands over the snake, or so it appeared to me. Instantly the serpent coiled and raised its head, with the hood expanded. Its forked tongue shot out, and it moved its head from side to side, following the motion of the old man's hands. My blood ran cold. "It will strike you!" I yelled. "No, Tuan Bonga," he answered, without removing his eyes from the serpent's, and stooping quickly he seized it by the neck and held it up. It coiled round his arm on the instant, hissing spitefully. The wicked eyes were not a foot from his face. "You fool!" I cried. "Do you want to give us the trouble of burying you? Kill it with your kris. Cut off its head!" For answer Lio calmly stroked the reptile's neck, then placing it on the ground, he pointed to a patch of jungle a short distance off. "Go away, quick, little father," he said. "The Tuan putih (white lord) does not like you; he does not like to see you here." Immediately the serpent lowered its head, and crawling to the jungle indicated it disappeared. I, a seasoned traveller, not easily surprised. stood speechless in amazement. The coolies came back whispering and casting sidelong glances at the ol! man, who stood in his favorite attitude, with his hands crossed on his breast "He is Rajah of the Snakes," they said. "They are his servants. See how he is obeyed." Evidently Lio's power was as much a revelation to them as to me. Afterwards I learned that he had dwelt in Kasambe but a very short time. I |