BALLADE OF BYGONE DANCES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2319, 11 August 1898, Page 53

BALLADE OF BYGONE DANCES.

With rich attire and jewelled hair, They come not now at our comnrind, In samite, sendal, gold, and vair, The old-world dancers, hand in hand*.' Hushed are the measures quaint and bland, The stately steps are all forgob Of minuet and sarabande, Of galbard and gavotte. The world is cold and cark'd with caro, Seeing no dainty maidens stand In grave chaconne to pace and i?air, With laughing faces ivory- fann'd: Bouree, musette, no fairy's wand May wake, and spell availeth not To bid the faded flowers expand Of galliard and gavotte. Fiom panell'd hall, from green parterre, G-avane is banished, brawl is bann'd, Gay rigadoon and passepy rare None treadeth now by stream or strand : The nymph and shepherd, sunimer-tann'd, No more in meads of melvlot Do move in gigue and allemande, In galliard and gavotte. Princess! in some far fragrant land Of lavender and bergamot Dream shadows glide o'er grey sea sand In galliard and gavotte. —Pall Mall Gazette.

The Ladies' Field.— Mr Sawell, Wise and Co. , Dunedin, sends me a copy of this new claimant for public favour. Ib is a beautifully got up sixpenny weekly, and should prove an excellent companion to the long-established Queen. The illustrations are works of art, the literary matter is varied and interesting, and the whole get up of the paper is everything that can be desired. The name might lead one to suppose that the paper has some connection will out-door sports, but this is really not the case, it being in every respect a paper for women. The "fashion plates have an eminently prictical look about them, and altogether The Ladies' Field should have a good career before it*

— A philologist estimates that of e\ciy 100 rords in Ike I'ieiich language lo me tuper(Suous.

— There are two interesting inr-lnnops of tho effect oi ■water upon the human system. In the Aljik snd the Pyreneei Ihoro is a, laco of people who aie old w«a t.4 la yrr.is of a<je, und -who di<j al 30; thi<; bein;; entirely due +o their drinking lime w.\lcr. The Chinese, on Ihe other hand, drink Holhing but, rain Mater, Hid as a nation their longer iljr is proverbial)