ters, stood by in sorrowful mockery (if well-meant sympathy deserves so harsh a word) of the burning, restless invalid. They were extremely thankful for the little attentions paid him; and said, as they usually do, that God would repay us.

It is

The games of the Azoreans are not numerous. Children play at peg-tops, and men at cards; but the favourite game in the open air is that of ring ball, which I have understood is still in vogue in some parts of the north of England. very accurately described by Strutt in his book on "British Sports and Pastimes;" and precisely resembles the game played universally through these islands, except that there is no iron arch in addition to the ring, and the handle of the mallett is shorter.

"The game is played," says Strutt, "in a ground or alley appropriated to the purpose, and a ball is to be driven from one end of it to another with a mallett, the handle of which is about three feet three or four inches in length; and so far it resembles pall-mall; but there is the addition of a ring which is not mentioned by Cotgrave; I have, however, been told that

it was sometimes used in the game of mall. This ring is placed at an equal distance from the sides. of the alley, but much nearer to the bottom than the top of the ground, and through this ring it is necessary for the ball to be passed in its progress. The ring is made to turn with great facility upon a swivel, and the two flat sides are distinguished from each other: if the ball passes through the one it is said to be lawful, and the player goes on; but if through the other it is declared to be unlawful, and he is obliged to beat the ball back, and drive it through again, until such time as he causes it to pass on the lawful side this done, he proceeds to the bottom of the ground, where there is an arch of iron, through which it is necessary for the ball to be passed, and then the game is completed. The contest is decided by the blows given to the ball in the performance, and he who executes his task with the smallest number is the victor." I cannot say whether the rules here mentioned are the same as those of the game in vogue at St. Michael's, but the description is singularly accurate. It is played both by men and boys.

The other game common here is played in an alley like the last; two pins, or logs of wood, or

pieces of stone, being set on end, about twelve paces asunder. The object of the players is to knock these down, and each pitches a stone at the pin, and changes from one end of the alley to the other, after each pitch, in the same way as in the game of quoits.

June 10.-A fine warm day, clear and balmy; but towards the evening a change of wind to S. W. with thick fine mountain rain, such as would be called in England a Scotch mist, and in Scotland a London fog.

June 12. While waiting for my bath this morning, Da Costa, an old man who attends at the baths, and who, having spent upwards of eighty years of his life in this valley, is still a riser at four o'clock and green in his old age, gave me some of the gossip of the valley. I forgot to ask him whether he was a branch of the old Portuguese family of that name, the oldest, it is said, in Portugal,-which traces in direct lineal descent from Donna Eva da Costa, who, according to Portuguese heralds and those who quiz them, took her name from Adam's Costa, or side. Da Costa's gossip, or Pepino's, rather, for by reason of a certain prolixity of nose his neighbours have nicknamed him Pepino or Cucumber,

and according to the national love for nicknames, he is more frequently called by that name,-was about his pastors, who seem neither "to take nor point the way to heaven," but to lead, like the rest of their fraternity in the island, immoral lives. The result of old Pepino's experience was, that generally speaking there was not so much marrying in the Furnas as when he was a boy; that as for the priests, each one was a Colebs

in search of a wife, and that the difficulty of finding was not great; that the Padre of the village had one wife; but that the curate, like the woman of Samaria, had had many, and she that he then had was not his wife. He spoke lightly of their habits, as if he was not conscious of any impropriety in the priest following the example of his neighbours; could duly distinguish between the man and the office; and took off his carapuça with all politeness to the brawny curate, who shortly afterwards emerged in heavy cloak and white napkins from his luxurious warm bath, and mounting his ass pricked homeward.

Marriages of convenience seem to be managed in two ways: in one, the parties themselves think it convenient, or are persuaded by their friends that it is so; in the other, those peculiarly interested are not much consulted, but the affair is arranged by their parents. The former is the mode of proceeding in England, whilst the latter, which savours strongly of the old school of implicit obedience, is adopted in countries where the spirit of feudalism (at least in the highest ranks) is not yet extinguished. It is therefore the fashion here. A boy and a girl who are heirs to conveniently adjoining estates, are for that reason,

VOL. II.

. M