A Wandering Englishwoman.

Otago Witness, Volume 15, Issue 1562, 15 October 1881, Page 28

A Wandering Englishwoman.

Miss Marianne North, an English lady, daughter of the late Frederick North, M.P., and sister-in-law of John Addington Symonds, may be said to have put a garland around the earth, if not a girdle. For the last ten or fifteen years she has been travelling quite alone all over tho world, everywhere painting its rare trees and flowers with a bit of landscape to show their habitat. Bearing credentials from the Secretary of Foreign Affairs in London, the Government houses in all the Colonies have been open to her and every f aoility afforded for the prosecution of her object in tho way of guides, escorts, and provision for her peraonsl comfort. She has climbed mountains, been rowed down strange rivers or floated down, supported by Inflated skins, and been driven through wild places in camel waggons, guarded by an escort of natives. Daring these travels Miss North has made more than 600 studies of. trees and plants (some of which have been before unknown even to the botanist), and each picture containing a bit of landscape showing the habitat of the plant. This valuable collection she has presented to the Kew Gardens, where she has herself bnllt a gallery for them. Miss North has just reached New York, via California, Arizona, New Mexico, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and Borneo. In the last-named island she was the guest of lUjfth Brooke, nephew and. soooeseor of tho

late Bsjah, Sir James Brooke, whose re« markable career forms such a romantic j episode hi history. The Ring and the Demon.— A Spanish Legend. Once upon a time some Spanish girls were playing beside the town fountain. It was a very fine fountain indeed, in the centre of the plaza. The water rushed out of the open mouth of a greet coiled serpent, whose head arose from the full basin ; and behind it three demons, with long ears and peaked chins, stood beckoning with their crooked fingera to those who filled their water jars below.

Now one of these girls who was idling while her anxious mother waited for her to bring home the water jar was just betrothed to a young stonemason, and he had given her a great silver ring in token of their engagement. The ring, being very large, kept slipping off as she played, and fearing to lose it the girl took it off and slipped it on the finger of one of the figures behind the fountain.

'Look!' sheoried. 'See who wears my betrothal ring. Have I not a handsome lover ?'

The other girls looked up, and seeing the ring on the crooked stone finger crossed themselves. - «

* Oh, it's a demon I] said Paquita* ' And there are people in this town who have Been the demons come down and danoe in' the plaza at midnight,' said Nina. ' Drunken old Sebastian, I suppose,' said Lola, the girl to whom the ring belonged, and she went on with her game. But soon there came toddling over the Btones of the plaza a little child, calling in shrill, baby tones : 'Lola, your mother says she must have the water or none of as can have any dinner.'

And Lola at the sound started up, seized her jar, and reached up to take her ring from the atone demon's finger. To her horror she found it impossible. The thumb and finger of the demon were olosed, and there was not a orevloe through which the ring oould be pulled.

The girls were all quite Bare that the finger had always been curled as if to beckon. They had seen it so ever since they were able to toddle over the plaza, and the fingers of the other demons were 90 held. This one had evidently closed his upon the ring after it had been pat on. The unhappy Lola, after vain efforts to drag her lover's gift from the grasp of the stone demon, took the water jar and returned home in tears.

The others, trembling, flew to their own dwellings.

The story spread over the town, and before sunset crowds had come to witness the miracle of Lola's betrothal ring held fast by one of the demonß of the old stone, fountain.

Carlos, the young stone mason who had given Lola the ring, came marching up to the fountain early in the day, and would, if left to himself, have broken the stone demon Into pieces, but the municipal authorities Interfered. They would not have their foun« tain injured for the sake of a silver ring, and the authorities of the ohuroh forbade Carlos to Interfere with a miracle, and tfae young fellow went home and quarrelled with hia sweetheart.

In vain she strove to make him oonfesa that had she not valued his ring she would never have taken suoh oare of it. He was thoroughly frightened as well as angry, and he parted from her with these orael words :

4 Since you have ohoaen to give my ring to a demon, I will never speak another word to yon until he gives it back.' 'Poor Lola wept day and night, and went very often to the fountain to see if the hand had opened, bat it remained as it was.

So the weeks glided on, and the months wore away. The day that had been fixed for Lola's wedding day approaohed. The date had been engraven on the ring. On the night before Lola lay awake upon her pillow as the clock Btruok twelve, when suddenly she saw standing before her a figure like that ot the stone demon at the fountain, save that it had life and motion and great fiery eyes. It lifted its finger and showed her the ring upon it.

'Arise, Lola,' it oaid, 'the day approaches. Come with me to the ohuroh. As the next hour begins you must be wed to me. The priest is ready, the banquet prepared. Come.'

Lola, almost dead with terror as she was, dared not disobey. She arose, dressed her* self, and the dark being seizing her hand, led her through the silent streets to the church, *

It was lighted, but not by lamps or oandles. Demons stood about the altar, and from their glaring eyeballs fell a hideous and lurid light. Satan himself stood before the altar. All turned and nointed at her.

'I am lost !' she sighed, but just then she glanced up. A beautiful picture hung upon the wall— a Madonna by Murlllo. A strange sweetness was in its smile, and suddenly a thought shot Into the girl's heart.

She lifted the demon's hand to her lips as though to kias it, and suddenly set her sharp, young teeth upon it. Tho demon straggled, but Lola's life and soal were both at stake. The teeth met — she had bitten the finger off and held it in her mouth.

With a horrible yell the demon rushed away, shrieking,

•Lost! lost! lost!'

The other demons followed him. Satan was gone. Lola was alone in the churoh. The pale light of the candles that burned perpetually before certain shrines lit the great edifioe but dimly, but by it she saw the sweet face of the Madonna smiling down upon her. Before the picture she knelt down. At its feet she placed the demon finger with the ring upon it, uttered a thanksgiving, and hurried home.

At dawn, those who went to draw water at the fountain found that the stone demon who had clutched Lola's ring had lost his fore finger, and already the finger that Lola had bitten from the demon's hand had turned to stone on the altar of Our Lady. The ohuroh preserves it in proof of the miracle, and Lola and Carlos were married long ago. This Is the story that the people of the oity tell any stranger who inquires of them how one of the stone demons «t the fonntula lost A fiflgor,

Speaking In the British Parliament.

When Richard Steele first rose -to speak he was greeted by orles of • Tattler ! tattler 1' and he heard men saying around him, He fanoieß beoause be oan scribble he oan speak in this Houße.' The fastidious Addison was aware of the intolerance of the assembly, and though he roße to be Seoretary of State —aware, perhaps, that he would be greeted possibly with similar Insolence— he wisely cat aa a silent member. One cannot but wonder what sort of a figure Dr Johnßon (who in all societies he entered spoke as an Imperial dictator) would have made In that assembly. There is an order of mind, and that of the highest, which Is unfitted to ehlne or to command a distinguished place there. Maoaulay prepared and elaborated his speeches as carefully, as his essays, and they contained passages of rhetoric as glowIng and finished, but they made little impresßion on the House ; and the fame of the orator bears no proportion to the fame of the essayist and the historian. Recent times have produced few men who could more completely captivate and carry away an audience upon, a ' torrent of eloquent apeech tftan George Thompson. We onoe heard Lord Brougham, in a crowded assembly In Exeter Hall, pronounoe upon Him » moat glowing' euloglum. He was borne into the Houße for the Tower Hamlets, lb was said, by the mightiest majority that ever mtarnol'*, member, yet as a speaker he Jailed there utterly, and almost Ignomlnioublv For this reason it was supposed that when John Bright entered, his mastery over nopular harangue would exhibit as complete r failure- but by a wise modification of his ■tvle and the practical adaptation of it to the more grave discussion of great questions, he almost at onoe took his place as perhaps the greatest speaker of the House. Neither Erakine nor Macintosh, unquestionably magnlfioent as they were as orators— and some think the first the greatest orator of modern times— impressed themselves on the Commons—Erßklne especially, whose wonderful attributes of speech could command a court, and so often succeeded in overcoming the prejudices of a jury, is said to have been quite unequal to anything like the same power in the Commons. And, in fact, the eloquence which tells In the House of Oommonß li neither that of the platform, the pulpit, nor the bar,— ' Leisure Hour.'