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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Story of Ida Pfeiffer, by Anonymous
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Story of Ida Pfeiffer
+       and Her Travels in Many Lands
+
+
+Author: Anonymous
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 22, 2006  [eBook #18037]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF IDA PFEIFFER***
+
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was prepared by Les Bowler.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF IDA PFEIFFER
+And Her Travels in Many Lands.
+
+
+[Queen Pomare's Palace, Tahiti: page4.jpg]
+
+"I'll put a girdle round the world."--SHAKESPEARE.
+
+LONDON: THOMAS NELSON AND SONS.
+
+EDINBURGH AND NEW YORK.
+1879.
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+I.  HER BIOGRAPHY.
+
+II.  JOURNEY ROUND THE WORLD.
+
+III. NORTHWARD.
+
+IV.  LAST TRAVELS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.--HER BIOGRAPHY.
+
+
+Ida Pfeiffer, the celebrated traveller, was born in Vienna on the 14th of
+October 1797.  She was the third child of a well-to-do merchant, named
+Reyer; and at an early age gave indications of an original and
+self-possessed character.  The only girl in a family of six children, her
+predilections were favoured by the circumstances which surrounded her.
+She was bold, enterprising, fond of sport and exercise; loved to dress
+like her brothers, and to share in their escapades.  Dolls she
+contemptuously put aside, preferring drums; and a sword or a gun was
+valued at much more than a doll's house.  In some respects her father
+brought her up strictly; she was fed, like her brothers, on a simple and
+even meagre diet, and trained to habits of prompt obedience; but he did
+nothing to discourage her taste for more violent exercises than are
+commonly permitted to young girls.
+
+She was only in her tenth year, however, when he died; and she then
+passed naturally enough under the maternal control.  Between her own
+inclinations and her mother's ideas of maidenly culture a great contest
+immediately arose.  Her mother could not understand why her daughter
+should prefer the violin to the piano, and the masculine trousers to the
+feminine petticoat.  In fact, she did not understand Ida, and it may be
+assumed that Ida did not understand her.
+
+In 1809 Vienna was captured by the French army under Napoleon; a disgrace
+which the brave and spirited Ida felt most keenly.  Some of the
+victorious troops were quartered in the house of her mother, who thought
+it politic to treat them with courtesy; but her daughter neither could
+nor would repress her dislike.  When compelled to be present at a grand
+review which Napoleon held in Schonbrunn, she turned her back as the
+emperor rode past.  For this hazardous manoeuvre she was summarily
+punished; and to prevent her from repeating it when the emperor returned,
+her mother held her by the shoulders.  This was of little avail, however,
+as Ida perseveringly persisted in keeping her eyes shut.
+
+At the age of thirteen she was induced to resume the garb of her sex,
+though it was some time before she could accustom her wild free movements
+to it.  She was then placed in charge of a tutor, who seems to have
+behaved to her with equal skill and delicacy.  "He showed," she says,
+"great patience and perseverance in combating my overstrained and
+misdirected notions.  As I had learned to fear my parents rather than
+love them, and this gentleman was, so to speak, the first human being who
+had displayed any sympathy and affection for me, I clung to him in return
+with enthusiastic attachment, desirous of fulfilling his every wish, and
+never so happy as when he appeared satisfied with my exertions.  He took
+the entire charge of my education, and though it cost me some tears to
+abandon my youthful visions, and engage in pursuits I had hitherto
+regarded with contempt, to all this I submitted out of my affection for
+him.  I even learned many feminine avocations, such as sewing, knitting,
+and cookery.  To him I owed the insight I obtained into the duties and
+true position of my sex; and it was he who transformed me from a romp and
+a hoyden into a modest quiet girl."
+
+Already a great longing for travel had entered into her mind.  She longed
+to see new scenes, new peoples, new manners and customs.  She read
+eagerly every book of travel that fell into her hands; followed with
+profound interest the career of every adventurous explorer, and blamed
+her sex that prevented her from following their heroic examples.  For a
+while a change was effected in the current of her thoughts by a strong
+attachment which sprung up between her and her teacher, who by this time
+had given up his former profession, and had obtained an honourable
+position in the civil service.  It was natural enough that in the close
+intimacy which existed between them such an affection should be
+developed.  Ida's mother, however, regarded it with grave disapproval,
+and exacted from the unfortunate girl a promise that she would neither
+see nor write to her humble suitor again.  The result was a dangerous
+illness: on her recovery from which her mother insisted on her accepting
+for a husband Dr. Pfeiffer, a widower, with a grown-up son, but an
+opulent and distinguished advocate in Lemberg, who was then on a visit to
+Vienna.  Though twenty-four years older than Ida, he was attracted by her
+grace and simplicity, and offered his hand.  Weary of home persecutions,
+Ida accepted it, and the marriage took place on May 1st, 1820.
+
+If she did not love her husband, she respected him, and their married
+life was not unhappy.  In a few months, however, her husband's integrity
+led to a sad change of fortune.  He had fully and fearlessly exposed the
+corruption of the Austrian officials in Galicia, and had thus made many
+enemies.  He was compelled to give up his office as councillor, and,
+deprived of his lucrative practice, to remove to Vienna in search of
+employment.  Through the treachery of a friend, Ida's fortune was lost,
+and the ill-fated couple found themselves reduced to the most painful
+exigencies.  Vienna, Lemberg, Vienna again, Switzerland, everywhere Dr.
+Pfeiffer sought work, and everywhere found himself baffled by some
+malignant influence.  "Heaven only knows," says Madame Pfeiffer in her
+autobiography, "what I suffered during eighteen years of my married life;
+not, indeed, from any ill-treatment on my husband's part, but from
+poverty and want.  I came of a wealthy family, and had been accustomed
+from my earliest youth to order and comfort; and now I frequently knew
+not where I should lay my head, or find a little money to buy the
+commonest necessaries.  I performed household drudgery, and endured cold
+and hunger; I worked secretly for money, and gave lessons in drawing and
+music; and yet, in spite of all my exertions, there were many days when I
+could hardly put anything but dry bread before my poor children for their
+dinner."  These children were two sons, whose education their mother
+entirely undertook, until, after old Madame Reyer's death in 1837, she
+succeeded to an inheritance, which lifted the little family out of the
+slough of poverty, and enabled her to provide her sons with good
+teachers.
+
+[Beirut and mountains of Lebanon: page15.jpg]
+
+As they grew up and engaged successfully in professional pursuits, Madame
+Pfeiffer, who had lost her husband in 1838, found herself once more under
+the spell of her old passion for travel, and in a position to gratify her
+adventurous inclinations.  Her means were somewhat limited, it is true,
+for she had done much for her husband and her children; but economy was
+natural to her, and she retained the simple habits she had acquired in
+her childhood.  She was strong, healthy, courageous, and accomplished;
+and at length, after maturing her plans with anxious consideration, she
+took up her pilgrim's staff, and sallied forth alone.
+
+Her first object was to visit the Holy Land, and tread in the hallowed
+footsteps of our Lord.  For this purpose she left Vienna on the 22nd of
+March 1842, and embarked on board the steamer that was to convey her down
+the Danube to the Black Sea and the city of Constantinople.  Thence she
+repaired to Broussa, Beirut, Jaffa, Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, Nazareth,
+Damascus, Baalbek, the Lebanon, Alexandria, and Cairo; and travelled
+across the sandy Desert to the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea.  From
+Egypt the adventurous lady returned home by way of Sicily and Italy,
+visiting Naples, Rome, and Florence, and arriving in Vienna in December
+1842.  In the following year she published the record of her experiences
+under the title of a "Journey of a Viennese Lady to the Holy Land."  It
+met with a very favourable reception, to which the simplicity of its
+style and the faithfulness of its descriptions fully entitled it.
+
+With the profits of this book to swell her funds, Madame Pfeiffer felt
+emboldened to undertake a new expedition; and this time she resolved on a
+northern pilgrimage, expecting in _Ultima Thule_ to see nature manifested
+on a novel and surprising scale.  She began her journey to Iceland on the
+10th of April 1845, and returned to Vienna on the 4th of October.  Her
+narrative of this second voyage will be found, necessarily much abridged
+and condensed, in the following pages.
+
+What should she do next?  Success had increased her courage and
+strengthened her resolution, and she could think of nothing fit for her
+energies and sufficient for her curiosity but a voyage round the world!
+She argued that greater privations and fatigue than she had endured in
+Syria and Iceland she could scarcely be called upon to encounter.  The
+outlay did not frighten her; for she had learned by experience how little
+is required, if the traveller will but practise the strictest economy and
+resolutely forego many comforts and all superfluities.  Her savings
+amounted to a sum insufficient, perhaps, for such travellers as Prince
+Puckler-Muskau, Chateaubriand, or Lamartine for a fortnight's excursion;
+but for a woman who wanted to see much, but cared for no personal
+indulgence, it seemed enough to last during a journey of two or three
+years.  And so it proved.
+
+The heroic woman set out alone on the 1st of May 1846, and proceeded
+first to Rio Janeiro.  On the 3rd of February 1847, she sailed round Cape
+Horn, and on the 2nd of March landed at Valparaiso.  Thence she traversed
+the broad Pacific to Tahiti, where she was presented to Queen Pomare.  In
+the beginning of July we find her at Macao; afterwards she visited Hong
+Kong and Canton, where the appearance of a white woman produced a
+remarkable and rather disagreeable sensation.  By way of Singapore she
+proceeded to Ceylon, which she carefully explored, making excursions to
+Colombo, Candy, and the famous temple of Dagoba.  Towards the end of
+October she landed at Madras, and thence went on to Calcutta, ascending
+the Ganges to the holy city of Benares, and striking across the country
+to Bombay.  Late in the month of April 1848 she sailed for Persia, and
+from Bushire traversed the interior as far as legend-haunted Bagdad.
+After a pilgrimage to the ruins of Ctesiphon and Babylon, this bold lady
+accompanied a caravan through the dreary desert to Mosul and the vast
+ruins of Nineveh, and afterwards to the salt lake of Urumiyeh and the
+city of Tabreez.  It is certain that no woman ever accomplished a more
+daring exploit!  The mental as well as physical energy required was
+enormous; and only a strong mind and a strong frame could have endured
+the many hardships consequent on her undertaking--the burning heat by
+day, the inconveniences of every kind at night, the perils incidental to
+her sex, meagre fare, a filthy couch, and constant apprehension of attack
+by robber bands.  The English consul at Tabreez, when she introduced
+herself to him, found it hard to believe that a woman could have
+accomplished such an enterprise.
+
+At Tabreez, Madame Pfeiffer was presented to the Viceroy, and obtained
+permission to visit his harem.  On August 11th, 1848, she resumed her
+journey, crossing Armenia, Georgia, and Mingrelia; she touched afterwards
+at Anapa, Kertch, and Sebastopol, landed at Odessa, and returned home by
+way of Constantinople, Greece, the Ionian Islands, and Trieste, arriving
+in Vienna on the 4th of November 1848, just after the city had been
+recaptured from the rebels by the troops of Prince Windischgratz.
+
+[Constantinople: page21.jpg]
+
+Ida Pfeiffer was now a woman of note.  Her name was known in every
+civilized country; and it was not unnatural that great celebrity should
+attach to a female who, alone, and without the protection of rank or
+official recommendation, had travelled 2800 miles by land, and 35,000
+miles by sea.  Hence, her next work, "A Woman's Journey Round the World,"
+was most favourably received, and translated both into French and
+English.  A summary of it is included in our little volume.
+
+The brave adventurer at first, on her return home, spoke of her
+travelling days as over, and, at the age of fifty-four, as desirous of
+peace and rest.  But this tranquil frame of mind was of very brief
+duration.  Her love of action and thirst of novelty could not long be
+repressed; and as she felt herself still strong and healthy, with
+energies as quick and lively as ever, she resolved on a second circuit of
+the globe.  Her funds having been increased by a grant of 1500 florins
+from the Austrian Government, she left Vienna on the 18th of March 1851,
+proceeded to London, and thence to Cape Town, where she arrived on the
+11th of August.  For a while she hesitated between a visit to the
+interior of Africa and a voyage to Australia; but at last she sailed to
+Singapore, and determined to explore the East Indian Archipelago.  At
+Sarawak, the British settlement in Borneo, she was warmly welcomed by Sir
+James Brooke, a man of heroic temper and unusual capacities for command
+and organization.  She adventured among the Dyaks, and journeyed westward
+to Pontianak, and the diamond mines of Landak.  We next meet with her in
+Java, and afterwards in Sumatra, where she boldly trusted herself among
+the cannibal Battas, who had hitherto resented the intrusion of any
+European.  Returning to Java, she saw almost all that it had of natural
+wonders or natural beauties; and then departed on a tour through the
+Sunda Islands and the Moluccas, visiting Banda, Amboyna, Ceram, Ternate,
+and Celebes.
+
+For a second time she traversed the Pacific, but on this occasion in an
+opposite direction.  For two months she saw no land; but on the 27th
+September 1853 she arrived at San Francisco.  At the close of the year
+she sailed for Callao.  Thence she repaired to Lima, with the intention
+of crossing the Andes, and pushing eastward, through the interior of
+South America, to the Brazilian coast.  A revolution in Peru, however,
+compelled her to change her course, and she returned to Ecuador, which
+served as a starting-point for her ascent of the Cordilleras.  After
+having the good fortune to witness an eruption of Cotopaxi, she retraced
+her steps to the west.  In the neighbourhood of Guayaquil she had two
+very narrow escapes: one, by a fall from her mule; and next, by an
+immersion in the River Guaya, which teems with alligators.  Meeting with
+neither courtesy nor help from the Spanish Americans--a superstitious,
+ignorant, and degraded race--she gladly set sail for Panama.
+
+At the end of May she crossed the Isthmus, and sailed to New Orleans.
+Thence she ascended the Mississippi to Napoleon, and the Arkansas to Fort
+Smith.  After suffering from a severe attack of fever, she made her way
+to St. Louis, and then directed her steps northward to St. Paul, the
+Falls of St. Antony, Chicago, and thence to the great Lakes and "mighty
+Niagara."  After an excursion into Canada, she visited New York, Boston,
+and other great cities, crossed the Atlantic, and arrived in England on
+the 21st of November 1854.  Two years later she published a narrative of
+her adventures, entitled "My Second Journey Round the World."
+
+Madame Pfeiffer's last voyage was to Madagascar, and will be found
+described in the closing chapter of this little volume.  In Madagascar
+she contracted a dangerous illness, from which she temporarily recovered;
+but on her return to Europe it was evident that her constitution had
+received a severe blow.  She gradually grew weaker.  Her disease proved
+to be cancer of the liver, and the physicians pronounced it incurable.
+After lingering a few weeks in much pain, she passed away on the night of
+the 27th of October 1858, in the sixty-third year of her age.
+
+* * * * *
+
+This remarkable woman is described as of short stature, thin, and
+slightly bent.  Her movements were deliberate and measured.  She was well-
+knit and of considerable physical energy, and her career proves her to
+have been possessed of no ordinary powers of endurance.  The reader might
+probably suppose that she was what is commonly known as a strong-minded
+woman.  The epithet would suit her if seriously applied, for she had
+undoubtedly a clear, strong intellect, a cool judgment, and a resolute
+purpose; but it would be thoroughly inapplicable in the satirical sense
+in which it is commonly used.  There was nothing masculine about her.  On
+the contrary, she was so reserved and so unassuming that it required an
+intimate knowledge of her to fathom the depths of her acquirements and
+experience.  "In her whole appearance and manner," we are told, "was a
+staidness that seemed to indicate the practical housewife, with no
+thought soaring beyond her domestic concerns."
+
+This quiet, silent woman, travelled nearly 20,000 miles by land and
+150,000 miles by sea; visiting regions which no European had previously
+penetrated, or where the bravest men had found it difficult to make their
+way; undergoing a variety of severe experiences; opening up numerous
+novel and surprising scenes; and doing all this with the scantiest means,
+and unassisted by powerful protection or royal patronage.  We doubt
+whether the entire round of human enterprise presents anything more
+remarkable or more admirable.  And it would be unfair to suppose that she
+was actuated only by a feminine curiosity.  Her leading motive was a
+thirst for knowledge.  At all events, if she had a passion for
+travelling, it must be admitted that her qualifications as a traveller
+were unusual.  Her observation was quick and accurate; her perseverance
+was indefatigable; her courage never faltered; while she possessed a
+peculiar talent for first awakening, and then profiting by, the interest
+and sympathy of those with whom she came in contact.
+
+To assert that her travels were wholly without scientific value would be
+unjust; Humboldt and Carl Ritter were of a different opinion.  She made
+her way into regions which had never before been trodden by European
+foot; and the very fact of her sex was a frequent protection in her most
+dangerous undertakings.  She was allowed to enter many places which would
+have been rigorously barred against male travellers.  Consequently, her
+communications have the merit of embodying many new facts in geography
+and ethnology, and of correcting numerous popular errors.  Science
+derived much benefit also from her valuable collections of plants,
+animals, and minerals.
+
+We conclude with the eulogium pronounced by an anonymous
+biographer:--"Straightforward in character, and endued with high
+principle, she possessed, moreover, a wisdom and a promptitude in action
+seldom equalled among her sex.  Ida Pfeiffer may, indeed, justly be
+classed among those women who richly compensate for the absence of
+outward charms by their remarkable energy and the rare qualities of their
+minds."
+
+[Rio Janeiro: page29.jpg]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.--JOURNEY ROUND THE WORLD.
+
+
+Prompted by a boundless thirst for knowledge and an insatiable desire to
+see new places and new things, Madame Pfeiffer left Vienna on the 1st of
+May 1846, and proceeded to Hamburg, where she embarked on board a Danish
+brig, the _Caroline_, for Rio Janeiro.  As the voyage was divested of
+romantic incidents, we shall land the reader without delay at the great
+sea-port of the Brazilian empire.
+
+The traveller's description of it is not very favourably coloured.  The
+streets are dirty, and the houses, even the public buildings,
+insignificant.  The Imperial Palace has not the slightest architectural
+pretensions.  The finest square is the Largo do Roico, but this would not
+be admitted into Belgravia.  It is impossible to speak in high terms even
+of the churches, the interior of which is not less disappointing than
+their exterior.  And as is the town, so are the inhabitants.  Negroes and
+mulattoes do not make up attractive pictures.  Some of the Brazilian and
+Portuguese women, however, have handsome and expressive countenances.
+
+Most writers indulge in glowing descriptions of the scenery and climate
+of the Brazils; of the cloudless, radiant sky, and the magic of the never-
+ending spring.  Madame Ida Pfeiffer admits that the vegetation is richer,
+and the soil more fruitful, and nature more exuberantly active than in
+any other part of the world; but still, she says, it must not be thought
+that all is good and beautiful, and that there is nothing to weaken the
+powerful effect of the first impression.  The constant blaze of colour
+after a while begins to weary; the eye wants rest; the monotony of the
+verdure oppresses; and we begin to understand that the true loveliness of
+spring is only rightly appreciated when it succeeds the harsher aspects
+of winter.
+
+[Invasion of Ants: page33.jpg]
+
+Europeans suffer much from the climate.  The moisture is very
+considerable, and renders the heat, which in the hot months rises to 99
+degrees in the shade, and 122 degrees in the sun, more difficult to bear.
+Fogs and mists are disagreeably common; and whole tracts of country are
+often veiled by an impenetrable mist.
+
+The Brazils suffer, too, from a plague of insects,--from mosquitoes,
+ants, baraten, and sand-fleas; against the attacks of which the traveller
+finds it difficult to defend himself.  The ants often appear in trains of
+immeasurable length, and pursue their march over every obstacle that
+stands in the way.  Madame Pfeiffer, during her residence at a friend's
+house, beheld the advance of a swarm of this description.  It was really
+interesting to see what a regular line they formed; nothing could make
+them deviate from the direction on which they had first determined.
+Madame Geiger, her friend, told her she was awakened one night by a
+terrible itching: she sprang out of bed immediately, and lo, a swarm of
+ants were passing over it!  There is no remedy for the infliction, except
+to wait, with as much patience as one can muster, for the end of the
+procession, which frequently lasts four to six hours.  It is possible, to
+some extent, to protect provisions against their attacks, by placing the
+legs of the tables in basins filled with water.  Clothes and linen are
+enclosed in tightly-fitting tin canisters.
+
+The worst plague of all, however, are the sand-fleas, which attach
+themselves to one's toes, underneath the nail, or sometimes to the soles
+of the feet.  When a person feels an irritation in these parts, he must
+immediately look at the place; and if he discern a tiny black point,
+surrounded by a small white ring, the former is the _chigoe_, or sand-
+flea, and the latter the eggs which it has deposited in the flesh.  The
+first thing to be done is to loosen the skin all round as far as the
+white skin is visible; the whole deposit is then extracted, and a little
+snuff strewn in the empty space.  The blacks perform this operation with
+considerable skill.
+
+Rich as the Brazils are in natural productions, they are wanting in many
+articles which Europeans regard as of the first importance.  There are
+sugar and coffee, it is true; but no corn, no potatoes, and none of our
+delightful varieties of fruit.  The flour of manioc, obtained from the
+cassava plant, which forms a staple portion of almost every dish,
+supplies the place of bread, but is far from being so nutritious and
+strengthening; while the different kinds of sweet-tasting roots are far
+inferior in value to our potato.  The only fruit which Madame Pfeiffer
+thought really excellent, were the oranges, bananas, and mangoes.  The
+pine-apples are neither very sweet nor very fragrant.  And with regard to
+two most important articles of consumption, the milk is very watery, and
+the meat very dry.
+
+* * * * *
+
+Our traveller, during her sojourn at Rio Janeiro, made many interesting
+excursions in the neighbourhood.  One was directed to Petropolis, a
+colony founded by Germans in the heart of scenery of the most exquisite
+character.  Accompanied by Count Berchthold, she sailed for Porto
+d'Estrella in one of the regular coasting barks.  Their course carried
+them across a bay remarkable for its picturesque views.  It lies calmly
+in the embrace of richly-wooded hills, and is studded with islands, like
+a silver shield with emerald bosses.  Some of these islands are
+completely overgrown with palms, while others are masses of huge rock,
+with a carpet of green turf.
+
+Their bark was manned by four negroes and a white skipper.  At first they
+ran merrily before a favourable wind, but in two hours the crew were
+compelled to take to the oars, the method of using which was exceedingly
+fatiguing.  At each dip of the oar, the rower mounts upon a bench in
+front of him, and then, during the stroke, throws himself off again, with
+his full force.  In two hours more they passed into the river Geromerino,
+and made their way through a world of beautiful aquatic plants which
+covered the tranquil waters in every direction.  The river banks are
+flat, and fringed with underwood and young trees; the background is
+formed by ranges of low green hills.
+
+At Porto d'Estrella, Madame Pfeiffer and her companion landed, and
+proceeded on foot towards Petropolis.  The first eight miles lay through
+a broad valley, clothed with dense brambles and young trees, and shadowed
+by lofty mountains.  The wild pine-apples by the roadside were very fair
+to see; they were not quite ripe, but tinted of the most delicate red.
+Beautiful humming-birds flashed through the air like "winged jewels," and
+studded the dense foliage with points of many-coloured light.
+
+After passing through the valley, they reached the Sierra, as the
+Brazilians term the practicable mountain-summits.  It was three thousand
+feet in height, and was ascended by a broad paved road, striking through
+the depths of virgin forests.
+
+Madame Pfeiffer had always imagined that the trees in virgin forests had
+very thick and lofty trunks; but such was not the case here; probably
+because the vegetation was too luxuriant, and the larger trunks have the
+life crushed out of them by masses of smaller trees, bushes, creepers,
+and parasites.
+
+Frequent truppas, or teams of ten mules driven by a negro, as well as
+numerous pedestrians, enlivened the path, and prevented our travellers
+from observing that their steps were persistently followed up by a negro.
+When, however, they arrived at a somewhat lonely spot, this negro
+suddenly sprang forward, holding a lasso in one hand and a long knife in
+the other, and with threatening gestures gave them to understand that he
+intended to murder them, and then drag their dead bodies into the forest!
+
+The travellers were without arms, having been told the road was perfectly
+safe; their only weapons were their umbrellas, with the exception of a
+clasp-knife.  This the brave woman drew from her pocket and opened, in
+the calm resolution to sell her life as dearly as possible.  With their
+umbrellas they parried their adversary's blows as long as they could; but
+he caught hold of Madame Ida's, which snapped off, leaving only a piece
+of the handle in her hand.  In the struggle, however, he dropped his
+knife, which rolled a few steps away from him.  Madame Ida immediately
+made a dash at it, and thought she had secured it; but, quicker in his
+movements than she was, he thrust her away with his hands and feet, and
+once more obtained possession of it.  Waving it furiously over his head,
+he slashed her twice in the upper part of the left arm.  All seemed lost;
+but in her extreme peril the brave lady bethought her of her own knife,
+and struck at her adversary, wounding him in the hand.  At the same
+moment Count Berchthold sprang forward, and while he seized the villain
+with both arms, Madame Ida Pfeiffer recovered her feet.  All this took
+place in less than a minute.  The negro was now roused into a condition
+of maniacal fury; he gnashed his teeth like a wild beast, and brandished
+his knife, while uttering fearful threats.  The issue of the contest
+would probably have been disastrous, but for the opportune arrival of
+assistance.  Hearing the tramp of horses' hoofs upon the road, the negro
+desisted from his attack, and sprang into the forest.  A couple of
+horsemen turning the corner of the road, our travellers hurried to meet
+them; and having told their tale, which, indeed, their wounds told
+eloquently enough, they leaped from their horses, and entered the wood in
+pursuit.  A couple of negroes soon afterwards coming up, the villain was
+captured, securely pinioned, and, as he would not walk, severely beaten,
+until, as most of the blows fell upon his head, Madame Ida Pfeiffer
+feared that the wretch's skull would be broken.  Nothing, however, would
+induce him to walk, and the negroes were compelled to carry him bodily,
+to the nearest house.
+
+The colony of Petropolis proved to be situated in the depth of a virgin
+forest, at an elevation of 2500 feet above the sea-level.  At the time of
+Madame Pfeiffer's visit it was about fourteen months old, having been
+founded for the special purpose of providing the capital with fruits and
+vegetables which, in tropical climates, will thrive only in very elevated
+situations.  It was, of course, in a very rudimentary condition, the mere
+embryo of a town; but the country around it was very picturesque.
+
+* * * * *
+
+Madame Pfeiffer's second excursion was into the interior; and it opened
+up to her a variety of interesting scenes,--as, for instance, a manioc-
+fazenda, or plantation.  The manioc plant, it appears, throws off stalks
+from four to six feet in height, with a number of large leaves at their
+upper extremities.  The valuable portion of the plant is its bulbous
+root, which frequently weighs two or three pounds, and supplies the place
+of corn throughout the Brazils.  It is washed, peeled, and held against
+the rough edge of a mill-stone, until it is completely ground into flour.
+This flour is collected in a basket, steeped thoroughly in water, and
+afterwards pressed quite dry by means of a press.  Lastly, it is
+scattered upon large iron plates, and slowly dried over a gentle fire.  At
+this stage it resembles a very coarse kind of flour, and is eaten in two
+ways;--either mixed with hot water, until it forms a kind of porridge; or
+baked in the form of coarse flour, which is handed round at table in
+little baskets.
+
+She also saw a coffee plantation.  The coffee-trees stand in rows upon
+tolerably steep hillocks.  Their height ranges from six feet to twelve;
+and they begin to bear sometimes as early as the second, but in no case
+later than the third year.  They are productive for at least ten years.
+The leaf is long and slightly serrated, and the flower white; while the
+fruit hangs down like a cluster of grapes, and resembles a large cherry,
+which varies from green to red, then to brown, and almost black.  While
+red, the outer shell is soft; but eventually it becomes perfectly hard,
+until it may be compared to a wooden capsule.  Blossoms and ripe fruit
+are found on the same tree at the same time; so that a crop may be
+gathered at almost any season of the year.  After the berries are
+plucked, they are spread out in spacious areas enclosed by a wall about
+twelve feet high, with small drains to carry off the rain-water.  Here
+the coffee is allowed to dry in the heat of the sun, and it is then
+shaken into large stone mortars, where it is lightly pounded with wooden
+hammers, set in motion by water power.  The whole mass falls into wooden
+boxes attached to a long table, at which sit the negro workers, who
+separate the coffee from the husk, and put it into flat copper pans.  In
+these it is carefully and skilfully turned about over a slow fire, until
+desiccation is complete.  On the whole, says Madame Ida Pfeiffer, the
+preparation of the coffee is not laborious, and the harvest much more
+easily gathered than one of corn.  The negro, while plucking the coffee,
+stands erect, and the tree protects him from the heat of the sun.  His
+only danger is from poisonous snakes, and a sting from one of these is a
+very rare occurrence.
+
+Another novelty which much impressed our traveller was the sight of the
+frequent burning forests.  These are set on fire in order to clear the
+ground for cultivation.  In most cases she viewed the tremendous
+spectacle from a distance; but one day she realized it in all its
+details, as her road lay between a wood in flames on the one hand, and
+the brushwood, crackling and seething, on the other.  The space between
+the double rows of fire did not exceed fifty paces in breadth, and was
+completely buried in smoke.  The spluttering and hissing of the fire was
+distinctly audible, and through the dense mass of vapour shot upward
+thick shafts and tongues of flame, while now and then the large trees
+crashed to the ground, with loud reports, like those of artillery.
+
+[A Forest of Fire: page45.jpg]
+
+"On seeing my guide enter this fiery gulf," says our traveller, "I was, I
+must confess, rather frightened;" and her dread was surely very
+excusable.  She plucked up courage, however, when she saw that her guide
+pushed forward.  On the threshold, so to speak, sat two negroes, to
+indicate the safe, and, in truth, the only path.  The guide, in obedience
+to their warning, spurred on his mule, and, followed by Madame Pfeiffer,
+galloped at full speed across the desert of fire.  Flames to the right of
+them, flames to the left of them, onward they dashed, and happily
+effected the passage in safety.
+
+* * * * *
+
+Madame Pfeiffer gives a bright description of the beauties of the road as
+she pushed further into the interior.  Crossing a small waterfall, she
+struck right into the depths of the virgin forest, pursuing a narrow path
+which ran along the bank of a little stream.  Palms, with their lordly
+crests, soared high above the other trees, which, intertwined by
+inextricable boughs, formed the loveliest fairy-bowers imaginable; every
+stem, every branch was luxuriously festooned with fantastic orchids;
+while creepers and ferns glided up the tall, smooth trunks, mingling with
+the boughs, and hanging in every direction waving curtains of flowers, of
+the sweetest odours and the most vivid colours.  With shrill twittering
+cry and rapid wings flashed the humming-bird from bough to bough; the
+pepper-pecker, with glowing plumage, soared timorously upwards; while
+parrots and paroquets, and innumerable birds of beautiful appearance,
+added, by their cries and motions, to the liveliness of the scene.
+
+Madame Pfeiffer visited an Indian village.  It lay deep in the forest
+recesses, and consisted of five huts, or rather sheds, formed of leaves,
+and measuring eighteen feet by twelve feet, erected under lofty trees.
+The frames were formed of four poles stuck in the ground, with another
+reaching across; and the roof was wrought of palm-leaves, by no means
+impervious to the rain.  The sides were open.  In the interior hung a
+hammock or two; and on the earth a few roots, Indian corn, and bananas
+were roasting under a heap of ashes.  In one corner, under the roof, a
+small supply of provisions was hoarded up, and round about were scattered
+a few gourds; these are used by the Puris as substitutes for "crockery."
+Their weapons, the long bows and arrows, leaned against the wall.
+
+Madame Pfeiffer describes the Puri Indians as even uglier than the
+negroes.  Their complexion is a light bronze; they are stunted in
+stature, well-knit, and about the middle size.  Their features are broad
+and somewhat compressed; their hair is thick, long, and of a coal-black
+colour.  The men wear it hanging straight down; the women, in plaits
+fastened to the back of the head, and sometimes falling loosely down
+about their persons.  Their forehead is broad and low, and the nose
+somewhat flattened; the eyes are long and narrow, almost like those of
+the Chinese; and the mouth is large, with rather thick lips.  To enhance
+the effect of these various charms, the countenance bears a peculiar look
+of stupidity, which may be attributed perhaps to the way in which the
+mouth is kept always open.  Women, as well as males, are generally
+tattooed of a reddish or blue colour, round the mouth, moustachio-wise.
+Both sexes are addicted to smoking, and look upon brandy as the _summum
+bonum_ of human life.
+
+The Indians, ugly as they were, gave Madame Pfeiffer a hospitable
+welcome.  After an evening meal, in which roasted monkey and parrot were
+the chief dishes, they performed one of their characteristic dances.  A
+quantity of wood was heaped up into a funeral pile, and set on fire; the
+men then danced around it in a ring.  They threw their bodies from side
+to side with much awkwardness, but always moving the head forward in a
+straight line.  The women then joined in, forming at a short distance
+behind the men, and imitating all their movements.  A horrible noise
+arose; this was intended for a song, the singers at the same time
+distorting their features frightfully.  One of them performed on a kind
+of stringed instrument, made out of the stem of a cabbage-palm, and about
+two feet, or two feet and a half, in length.  A hole was cut in it
+slantwise, and six fibres of the stem were kept up in an elevated
+position at each end, by means of a small bridge.  The fingers played
+upon these as upon a guitar, drawing forth a very low, harsh, and
+disagreeable tone.  The dance, thus pleasingly accompanied, was called
+the Dance of Peace and Joy.
+
+A wilder measure was next undertaken by the men alone.  They first
+equipped themselves with bows, arrows, and stout clubs; then they formed
+a circle, indulged in the most rapid and fantastic movements, and
+brandished their clubs as if dealing death to a hundred foes.  Suddenly
+they broke their ranks, strung their bows, placed their arrows ready, and
+represented all the evolutions of shooting after a flying foe, giving
+utterance to the most piercing cries, which resounded through the forest-
+glades.  Madame Pfeiffer, believing that she was really surrounded by
+enemies, started up in terror, and was heartily glad when the dance
+ended.
+
+[Cape Horn: page51.jpg]
+
+From Rio Janeiro Madame Pfeiffer sailed in an English ship, the _John
+Renwick_, on the 9th of December, bound for Valparaiso in Chili.  She
+kept to the south, touching at Santos, where the voyagers celebrated New-
+Year's Day, and reaching the mouth of the Rio Plata on the 11th of
+January.  In these latitudes the Southern Cross is the most conspicuous
+object in the heavens.  It consists of four stars of much brilliancy,
+arranged in two diagonal rows.  Late in the month the voyagers sighted
+the sterile shores and barren mountains of Patagonia, and next the
+volcanic rocks, wave-worn and wind-worn, of Tierra del Fuego.  Through
+the Strait of Le Maire, which separates the latter from Staten Island,
+they sailed onward to the extreme southern point of the American
+continent, the famous promontory of Cape Horn.  It is the termination of
+the mighty mountain-chain of the Andes, and is formed of a mass of
+colossal basaltic rocks, thrown together in wild disorder, as by a
+Titan's hand.
+
+Rounding Cape Horn they encountered a violent gale, which lasted for
+several days; and soon discovered, like other voyagers, how little the
+great southern ocean deserves its name of the Pacific.  But they reached
+Valparaiso in safety.  Its appearance, however, did not very favourably
+impress Madame Ida Pfeiffer.  It is laid out in two long streets at the
+foot of dreary hills, these hills consisting of a pile of rocks covered
+with thin strata of earth and sand.  Some of them are covered with
+houses; on one of them is the churchyard; the others are bare and
+solitary.  The two chief streets are broad, and much frequented,
+especially by horsemen; for every Chilian is born a horseman, and is
+usually mounted on a steed worthy of a good rider.
+
+Valparaiso houses are European in style, with flat Italian roofs.  Broad
+steps lead up into a lofty entrance-hall on the first floor, from which,
+through large glass doors, the visitor passes into the drawing-room and
+other apartments.  The drawing-room is the pride not only of every
+European settler, but of every native Chilian.  The foot sinks into heavy
+and costly carpets; the walls are emblazoned with rich tapestry; the
+furniture and mirrors are of European make, and sumptuous in the extreme;
+and every table presents the evidence of refined taste in gorgeous
+albums, adorned with the choicest engravings.
+
+As to the lower classes of the population, if we would obtain an idea of
+their manners and customs, we must stroll on a fete-day into one of their
+eating-houses.
+
+In one corner, on the ground, crackles a tremendous fire, surrounded by
+innumerable pots and pans, between which are wooden spits with beef and
+pork, simmering and roasting with appetizing savour.  A rude wooden frame-
+work, with a long broad plank on it, occupies the middle of the room, and
+is covered with a cloth, the original colour of which it is impossible to
+determine.  This is the guest-table.  The dinner is served up in the most
+primitive fashion imaginable, all the viands being heaped up in one dish;
+beans and rice, potatoes and roast beef, onions and paradise apples,
+forming a curious medley.  The appetites of the guests are keen, and no
+time is wasted in talking.  At the end of the repast, a goblet of wine or
+water passes from hand to hand; after which every tongue is loosened.  In
+the evening a guitar strikes up, and dancing becomes general.
+
+A singular custom prevails among the Chilians on the death of a little
+child.  This incident, in most European families, is attended by much
+sorrow: the Chilian parents make it the occasion of a great festival.  The
+deceased _angelito_, or little angel, is adorned in various ways.  Its
+eyes, instead of being closed, are opened as wide as possible; its cheeks
+are painted red; then the cold rigid corpse is dressed in the finest
+clothes, crowned with flowers, and set up in a little chair in a flower-
+garlanded niche.  The relatives and neighbours flock in, to wish the
+parents joy on the possession of such an angel; and, during the first
+night, they all indulge in the most extravagant dances, and feast with
+sounds of wildest merriment before the _angelito_.
+
+Madame Pfeiffer heard from a merchant the following story:--A
+grave-digger, on his way to the churchyard with one of these deceased
+angelitos, tarried at a tavern to refresh himself with a cup of wine.  The
+landlord inquired what he was carrying under his cloak, and on learning
+that it was an angelito, offered him a shilling for it.  A bargain was
+soon struck; the landlord quickly fitted up a flowery niche in the
+drinking-saloon, and then took care that his neighbours should know what
+a treasure he had acquired.  They came; they admired the angelito; they
+drank copiously in its honour.  But the parents hearing of the affair,
+interfered, carried away their dead child, and summoned the landlord
+before the magistrate.  The latter gravely heard the pleadings on both
+sides, and as no such case was mentioned in the statute-book, arranged it
+amicably, to the satisfaction of both parties.
+
+[Scene in Tahiti: page57.jpg]
+
+* * * * *
+
+Wearying of Valparaiso, our restless and adventurous traveller, who was
+bent upon accomplishing a voyage round the world, took her passage for
+China in the Dutch barque _Lootpurt_, Captain Van Wyk Jurianse.
+
+They sailed from Valparaiso on the 18th of March, and on the 26th of
+April came in sight of that gem of the South Seas, Tahiti, the Otaheite
+of Captain Cook, and the largest and most beautiful of the Society group.
+From the days of Bougainville, its discoverer, down to those of "the Earl
+and the Doctor," who recently published a narrative of their visit, it
+has been the theme of admiration for the charms of its scenery.  It lifts
+its lofty summit out of a wealth of luxuriant vegetation, which descends
+to the very margin of a sea as blue as the sky above it.  Cool green
+valleys penetrate into its mountain-recesses, and their slopes are loaded
+with groves of bread-fruit and cocoa-nut trees.  The inhabitants,
+physically speaking, are not unworthy of their island-Eden; they are a
+tall, robust, and well-knit race, and would be comely but for their
+custom of flattening the nose as soon as the child is born.  They have
+fine dark eyes, and thick jet-black hair.  The colour of their skin is a
+copper-brown.  Both sexes are tattooed, generally from the hips half down
+the legs, and frequently over the hands, feet, and other parts of the
+body; the devices being often very fanciful in design, and always
+artistically executed.
+
+The women of Tahiti have always been notorious for their immodesty, and
+the island, notwithstanding the labours of zealous missionaries,
+continues to be the Polynesian Paphos.  The French protectorate from
+which it suffers has not raised the moral standard of the population.
+
+Madame Pfeiffer undertook an excursion to the Lake Vaihiria, assuming for
+the nonce a semi-masculine attire, which any less strong-minded and
+adventurous woman would probably have refused.  She wore, she tells us,
+strong men's shoes, trousers, and a blouse, which was fastened high up
+about the hips.  Thus equipped, she started off with her guide, crossing
+about two-and-thirty brooks before they entered the ravines leading into
+the interior of the island.
+
+She noticed that as they advanced the fruit-trees disappeared, and
+instead, the slopes were covered with plantains, taros, and marantas; the
+last attaining a height of twelve feet, and growing so luxuriantly that
+it is with some difficulty the traveller makes his way through the
+tangle.  The taro, which is carefully cultivated, averages two or three
+feet high, and has fine large leaves and tubers like those of the potato,
+but not so good when roasted.  There is much gracefulness in the
+appearance of the plantain, or banana, which varies from twelve to
+fifteen feet in height, and has leaves like those of the palm, but a
+brittle reed-like stem, about eight inches in diameter.  It attains its
+full growth in the first year, bears fruit in the second, and then dies.
+Thus its life is as brief as it is useful.
+
+Through one bright mountain-stream, which swept along the ravine over a
+stony bed, breaking up into eddies and tiny whirlpools, and in some
+places attaining a depth of three feet, Madame Pfeiffer and her guide
+waded or half-swam two-and-sixty times.  The resolute spirit of the
+woman, however, never failed her; and though the path at every step
+became more difficult and dangerous, she persisted in pressing forward.
+She clambered over rocks and stones; she forced her way through inter-
+tangled bushes; and though severely wounded in her hands and feet, never
+hesitated for a moment.  In two places the ravine narrowed so
+considerably that the entire space was filled by the brawling torrent.  It
+was here that the islanders, during their struggle against French
+occupation, threw up stone walls five feet in height, as a barrier
+against the enemy.
+
+In eight hours the bold traveller and her guide had walked, waded, and
+clambered fully eighteen miles, and had attained an elevation of eighteen
+hundred feet.  The lake itself was not visible until they stood upon its
+shores, as it lies bosomed in a deep hollow, among lofty and precipitous
+mountains which descend with startling abruptness to the very brink of
+its dark, deep waters.  To cross the lake it is necessary to put one's
+trust in one's swimming powers, or in a curiously frail kind of boat,
+which the natives prepare with equal rapidity and skill.  Madame
+Pfeiffer, however, was nothing if not adventurous.  Whatever there was to
+be dared, she immediately dared.  At her request, the guide made the
+usual essay at boat-building.  He tore off some plantain branches, bound
+them together with long tough grass, laid a few leaves upon them,
+launched them in the water, and requested Madame Pfeiffer to embark.  She
+confesses to having felt a little hesitation, but without saying a word,
+she stepped on board.  Then her guide took to the water like a duck, and
+pushed her forward.  The passage across the lake, and back again, was in
+this way accomplished without any accident.
+
+Having satiated herself with admiring the lake and its surrounding
+scenery, she retired to a little nook roofed over with leaves, where her
+guide quickly kindled a good fire in the usual Indian fashion.  He cut a
+small piece of wood to a fine point, and then selecting a second piece,
+grooved it with a narrow and not very deep furrow.  In this he rubbed the
+pointed stick until the fragments detached during the process began to
+smoke.  These he flung into a heap of dry leaves and grass previously
+collected, and swung the whole several times round in the air, until it
+broke out into flames.  The entire process did not occupy above two
+minutes.  Gathering a few plantains, these were roasted for supper; after
+which Madame Pfeiffer withdrew to her solitary couch of dry leaves, to
+sleep as best she might.  It is impossible not to wonder at the
+marvellous physical capability of this adventurous woman, no less than at
+her courage, her resolution, and her perseverance.  How many of her sex
+could bear for a week the fatigue and exposure to which she subjected
+herself year after year?
+
+The next morning she accomplished the return journey in safety.
+
+* * * * *
+
+[Hong-Kong: page65.jpg]
+
+On the 17th of May she left Tahiti, the Dutch vessel in which she had
+embarked being bound via the Philippines.  They passed this rich and
+radiant group of islands on the 1st of July, and the next day entered the
+dangerous China Sea.  A few days afterwards they reached Hong-Kong, which
+has been an English settlement since 1842.  Here Madame Pfeiffer made no
+long stay, for she desired to see China and the Chinese with as little
+intermixture of the European element as possible.  So she ascended the
+Pearl river, the banks of which are covered with immense plantations of
+rice, and studded with quaint little country-houses, of the genuine
+Chinese pattern, with sloping, pointed roofs, and mosaics of variously
+coloured tiles, to Canton, one of the great commercial centres of the
+Flowery Land.  As she approached she surveyed with wonder the animated
+scene before her.  The river was crowded with ships and inhabited boats.
+Junks there were, almost as large as the old Spanish galleons, with poops
+impending far over the water, and covered in with a roof, like a house.
+Men-of-war there were, flat, broad, and long, mounted with twenty or
+thirty guns, and adorned in the usual Chinese fashion, with two large
+painted eyes at the prow, that they may be the better able to find their
+way.  Mandarins' boats she saw, with doors, and sides, and windows gaily
+painted, with carved galleries, and tiny silken flags fluttering from
+every point.  And flower-boats she also saw; their upper galleries decked
+with flowers, garlands, and arabesques, as if these were barks fitted out
+for the service of Titania and her fairy company.  The interior is
+divided into one large apartment and a few cabinets, which are lighted by
+windows of fantastic design.  Mirrors and silk hangings embellish the
+walls, while the enchanting scene is completed with an ample garniture of
+glass chandeliers and coloured paper lanterns, interspersed with lovely
+little baskets of fresh flowers.
+
+It is not necessary to attempt a description of Canton, with its pagodas,
+houses, shops, and European factories.  Let us direct our attention to
+the manners, customs, and peculiarities of its inhabitants.  As to dress
+and appearance, the costume of both sexes, among the lower orders,
+consists of full trousers and long upper garments, and is chiefly
+remarkable for its "excessive filth."  Baths and ablutions have no charm
+for the Chinaman; he scorns to wear a shirt, and he holds by his trousers
+until they drop from his body.  The men's upper garments reach a little
+below the knee, the women's about half way down the calf.  They are made
+of nankeen, or dark blue, brown, or black silk.  During the cold season
+both men and women wear one summer garment over the other, keeping the
+whole together with a girdle; in the extreme heat, however, they suffer
+them to float as free as "Nora Creina's robes" in Moore's pretty ballad.
+
+The men keep their heads shaved, with the exception of a small patch at
+the back, where the hair is carefully cultivated and plaited into a cue.
+The thicker and longer this cue is, the prouder is its owner; false hair
+and black ribbon, therefore, are all deftly worked into it, with the
+result of forming an appendage which often reaches down to the ankles!
+While at work the owner twists it round his neck, but on entering a room
+he lets it down again, as it would be contrary to all the laws of
+etiquette and courtesy for a person to make his appearance with his cue
+twisted up.  The women comb their hair entirely back from their forehead,
+and fasten it to the head in the most artistic plaits.  The process
+occupies a considerable time, but when the hair is once dressed it is not
+retouched for a whole week.  Both men and women frequently go about with
+heads uncovered; but sometimes they wear hats of thin bamboo, three feet
+in diameter.  These are not only an adequate protection against sun and
+rain, but are exceedingly durable.
+
+Large numbers of Chinese live a kind of aquatic life, and make their home
+on board a river-boat.  The husband goes on shore to his work, and his
+wife meantime adds to the income of the family by ferrying persons from
+bank to bank, or letting out the boat to pleasure parties--always
+reserving one half of its accommodation for herself and household.  Room
+is not very abundant, as the whole boat does not exceed twenty-five feet
+in length; but everywhere the greatest order and cleanliness are
+apparent, each separate plank being enthusiastically scrubbed and washed
+every morning.  It is worth notice how each inch of space is turned to
+the best advantage, room being made even for the _lares_ and _penates_.
+All the washing and cooking are done during the day; yet the pleasure
+party is never in the least degree inconvenienced.
+
+Of course our traveller was attracted by the diminutiveness of the feet
+of the Chinese women, and she had an opportunity of examining one of
+these tiny monstrosities _in natura_.  Four of the toes were bent under
+the sole of the foot, to which they were firmly pressed, and
+simultaneously with which they appeared to have grown, if growth it can
+be called; the great toe alone remained in its natural state.  The fore
+part of the foot had been so swathed and compressed by tight bandages,
+that, instead of expanding in length and breadth, it had shot upwards, so
+as to form a large lump at the instep, where it became, so to speak, a
+portion of the leg; the lower part of the foot was scarcely five inches
+long, and an inch and a half broad.  The feet are always encased in white
+linen or silk, with silk bandages over all, and are then stuffed into
+pretty little shoes with very high heels.  "To my astonishment," says
+Madame Pfeiffer, "these deformed beings tripped about, as if in defiance
+of us broad-footed creatures, with tolerable ease, the only difference in
+their gait being that they waddled like geese; they even ran up and down
+stairs without a stick."  She adds, that the value of a bride is reckoned
+by the smallness of her feet.
+
+It was characteristic of Madame Pfeiffer that she found means to see much
+which no European woman had ever seen before.  She obtained access even
+to a Buddhist temple,--that of Houan, reputed to be one of the finest in
+China.  The sacred enclosure is surrounded by a high wall.  The visitor
+enters first a large outer court, at the extremity of which a huge
+gateway opens upon an inner court.  Beneath the arch stand two statues of
+war-gods, each eighteen feet high, with terribly distorted faces and the
+most menacing attitudes; these are supposed to prevent the approach of
+evil genii.  A second portal, of similar construction, under which are
+placed the "four heavenly kings," leads to a third court, surrounding the
+principal temple, a structure one hundred feet in length, and of equal
+breadth.  On rows of wooden pillars is supported a flat roof, from which
+glass lamps, lustres, artificial flowers, and brightly-coloured ribbons
+hang suspended.  All about the area are scattered statues, altars, vases
+of flowers, censers, candelabra, and other accessories.
+
+But the eye is chiefly attracted by the three altars in the foreground,
+with the three coloured statues behind them, of Buddha, seated, as
+emblematic of Past, Present, and Future.  On the occasion of Madame
+Pfeiffer's visit a service was being performed,--a funeral ceremony in
+honour of a mandarin's deceased wife, and at his expense.  Before the
+altars on the right and left stood several priests, in garments strangely
+resembling, as did the ceremonial observances, those of the Roman Church.
+The mandarin himself, attended by two servants armed with large fans,
+prayed before the central altar.  He kissed the ground repeatedly, and
+each time he did so three sweet-scented wax-tapers were put into his
+hand.  After raising them in the air, he handed them to the priests, who
+then stationed them, unlighted, before the Buddha images.  Meantime, the
+temple resounded with the blended strains of three musicians, one of whom
+struck a metal ball, the other scraped a stringed instrument, and the
+third educed shrill notes from a kind of flute.
+
+This principal temple is surrounded by numerous smaller sanctuaries, each
+decorated with images of deities, rudely wrought, but glowing with gilt
+and vivid colours.  Special reverence seems to be accorded to Kwanfootse,
+a demigod of War, and the four-and-twenty gods of Mercy.  These latter
+have four, six, and even eight arms.  In the Temple of Mercy Madame
+Pfeiffer met with an unpleasant adventure.  A Bonze had offered her and
+her companions a couple of wax tapers to light in honour of the god.  They
+were on the point of complying, as a matter of civility, when an American
+missionary, who made one of the party, snatched them roughly from their
+hands, and gave them back to the priests, protesting that such compliance
+was idolatrous.  The Bonze, in high indignation, closed the door, and
+summoned his brethren, who hurried in from all sides, and jostled and
+pushed and pressed, while using the most violent language.  It was not
+without difficulty they forced their way through the crowd, and escaped
+from the temple.
+
+The guide next led the curiosity-hunters to the so-called House of the
+Sacred Swine.  The greatest attention is paid to these porcine treasures,
+and they reside in a spacious stone hall; but not the less is the
+atmosphere heavy with odours that are not exactly those of Araby the
+Blest.  Throughout their sluggish existence the swine are carefully fed
+and cherished, and no cruel knife cuts short the thread of their destiny.
+At the time of Madame Pfeiffer's visit only one pair were enjoying their
+_otium cum dignitate_, and the number rarely exceeds three pairs.
+
+Peeping into the interior of a Bonze's house, the company came upon an
+opium-smoker.  He lay stretched upon a mat, with small tea-cups beside
+him, some fruit, a tiny lamp, and several miniature-headed pipes, from
+one of which he was inhaling the intoxicating smoke.  It is said that
+some of the Chinese opium-smokers consume as much as twenty or thirty
+grains daily.  This poor wretch was not wholly unconscious of the
+presence of visitors; and, laying by his pipe, he raised himself from the
+ground, and dragged his body to a chair.  With deadly pale face and
+fixed, staring eyes, he presented a miserable appearance.
+
+* * * * *
+
+Our traveller also visited a pagoda,--the Half-Way Pagoda; so called by
+the English because it is situated half-way between Canton and Whampoa.
+On a small hillock, in the midst of vast tracts of rice, it raises its
+nine stories to a height of one hundred and seventy feet.  Though
+formerly of great repute, it is now deserted.  The interior has been
+stripped of statues and ornaments, and the floors having been removed,
+the visitor sees to the very summit.  Externally, each stage is indicated
+by a small balcony without railing, access being obtained by steep and
+narrow flights of stairs.  A picturesque effect is produced by these
+projections, as everybody knows who has examined a "willow-pattern"
+plate.  They are built of coloured bricks, which are laid in rows, with
+their points jutting obliquely outwards, and faced with variegated tiles.
+
+Even more interesting was Madame Pfeiffer's peep into the "domestic
+interior" of Mandarin Howqua.
+
+The house was of large size, but only one story high, with wide and
+splendid terraces.  The windows looked into the inner courts.  At the
+entrance were two painted images of gods to ward off evil spirits, like
+the horse-shoe formerly suspended to the cottages and barns of our
+English peasants.
+
+The front part was divided into several reception rooms, without front
+walls; and adjoining these, bloomed bright and gaily-ordered parterres of
+flowers and shrubs.  The magnificent terraces above also bloomed with
+blossom, and commanded a lively view of the crowded river, and of the
+fine scenery that spreads around Canton.  Elegant little cabinets
+surrounded these rooms, being separated by thin partitions, through which
+the eye could easily penetrate, and frequently embellished with gay and
+skilfully-executed paintings.  The material used was chiefly bamboo,
+which was as delicate as gauze, and copiously decorated with painted
+flowers or beautifully-written proverbs.
+
+The chairs and sofas were numerous, and of really artistic workmanship.
+Some of the arm-chairs were cunningly wrought out of a single piece of
+wood.  The seats of others were beautiful marble slabs; of others, again,
+fine coloured tiles or porcelain.  Articles of European manufacture, such
+as handsome mirrors, clocks, vases, and tables of Florentine mosaic or
+variegated marble, were plentiful.  There was also a remarkable
+collection of lamps and lanterns pendent from the ceilings,
+consisting--these lamps and lanterns--of glass, transparent horn, and
+coloured gauze or paper, ornamented with glass beads, fringe, and
+tassels.  And as the walls were also largely supplied with lamps, the
+apartments, when lighted up, assumed a truly fairy-like character.
+
+[Chinese House and Garden: page77.jpg]
+
+The mandarin's pleasure-garden stretched along the river-side.  Its
+cultivation was perfect, but no taste was shown in its arrangement.
+Wherever the visitor turned, kiosks, summer-houses, and bridges
+confronted her.  Every path and open spot were lined with large and small
+flower-pots, in which grew flowers and liliputian fruit-trees of all
+kinds.  In the art of dwarfing trees, if such distortion and crippling of
+Nature deserves to be called an art, the Chinese are certainly most
+accomplished experts; but what can we think of the taste, or want of
+taste, which prefers pigmies three feet high to the lofty and
+far-shadowing trees which embellish our English parks and gardens?  Why
+should a civilized people put Nature in fetters, and delight in checking
+her growth, in limiting her spontaneous energies?
+
+Here are some particulars about the tea-plant:--In the plantations around
+Canton, it is not allowed to grow higher than six feet, and is
+consequently cut at intervals.  Its leaves are considered good from the
+third to the eighth year; and the plant is then cut down, in order that
+it may throw off new shoots, or else it is rooted out.  Three gatherings
+take place in the year; the first in March, the second in April, and the
+third, which lasts for three months, in May.  So fine and delicate are
+the leaves of the first gathering, that they might easily be mistaken for
+the blossom; which undoubtedly has originated the error that the
+so-called "bloom or imperial tea" consists of the flowers and not of the
+leaves of the plant.
+
+When gathered, the leaves are thrown for a few seconds into boiling
+water, and then placed on flat iron plates, inserted slantwise in stone-
+work.  While roasting over a gentle fire, they are continually stirred.
+As soon as they begin to curl a little, they are scattered over large
+planks, and each single leaf is rolled together; a process so rapidly
+accomplished that it requires a person's sole attention to detect that
+only one leaf is rolled up at a time.  This completed, all the leaves are
+again placed in the pans.  Black tea takes some time to roast; and the
+green is frequently coloured with Prussian blue, an exceedingly small
+quantity of which is added during the second roasting.  Last of all, the
+tea is once more shaken out upon the boards, and submitted to a careful
+inspection, the leaves that are not entirely closed being rolled over
+again.
+
+[Singapore: page81.jpg]
+
+Madame Pfeiffer had an opportunity of tasting a cup of tea made after the
+most approved Chinese fashion.  A small quantity was dropped into a
+delicate porcelain cup, boiling water was poured upon it, and a tightly-
+fitting cover then adjusted to the cup.  After a few seconds, the
+infusion was ready for drinking--neither milk, cream, nor sugar being
+added.
+
+* * * * *
+
+But we must tarry no longer within the borders of the Celestial Empire.
+We have to follow Madame Pfeiffer in her wanderings over many seas and
+through many countries,--for in the course of her adventurous career she
+saw more of "men and cities" than even the much-travelling Ulysses,--and
+our limits confine us to brief notices of the most remarkable places she
+visited.
+
+From China she sailed for the East Indies.
+
+On her way she "looked in" at Singapore, a British settlement, where
+gather the traders of many Asiatic nations.  The scenery which stretches
+around it is of a rich and agreeable character, and the island on which
+it is situated excels in fertility of vegetation.  A saunter among the
+plantations of cloves and nutmegs is very pleasant, the air breathing a
+peculiar balsamic fragrance.  The nutmeg-tree is about the size of a good
+apricot-bush, and from top to bottom is a mass of foliage; the branches
+grow very low down the stem, and the leaves glitter as if they were
+varnished.  The fruit closely resembles an apricot, covered with spots of
+yellowish-brown.  It bursts on attaining maturity, and then reveals a
+round kernel, of the size of a nut, embedded in a network, sold as mace,
+of a beautiful red colour.  This network of fibrous material is carefully
+separated from the nutmeg, and dried in the shade,--being frequently
+sprinkled with sea-water, to prevent the colour deepening into black,
+instead of changing into yellow.  The nutmeg is likewise dried, exposed a
+while to the action of smoke, and dipped several times into sea-water
+containing a weak solution of lime, to prevent it from turning mouldy.
+
+The clove-tree is smaller, and less copiously provided with foliage, than
+the nutmeg-tree.  The buds form what are known to us as cloves; and, of
+course, are gathered before they have had time to blossom.  The areca-nut
+palm is also plentiful in Singapore.  It grows in clusters of from ten to
+twenty nuts; is somewhat larger than a nutmeg, and of a bright colour,
+almost resembling gilt.
+
+The Chinese and the natives of the Eastern Islands chew it with betel-
+leaf and calcined mussel-shells.  With a small quantity of the latter
+they strew the leaf; a very small piece of the nut is added, and the
+whole is made into a little packet, which they put into their mouth.
+
+Madame Pfeiffer also inspected a sago manufactory.  The unprepared
+farina, which is the pith of the sago palm, is imported from a
+neighbouring island.  The tree is cut down when it is seven years old,
+split from top to bottom, and the pith extracted from it.  Then it is
+freed from the fibres, pressed in large frames, and dried at the fire or
+in the sun.  At Singapore this pith or meal, which is of a yellowish
+tint, is steeped in water for several days until completely blanched; it
+is then once more dried by the fire or in the sun, passed under a large
+wooden roller, and through a hair sieve.  When it has become white and
+fine, it is placed in a kind of linen winnowing-fan, which is kept damp
+in a peculiar manner.  The workman takes a mouthful of water, and "spirts
+it out like fine rain over the fan;" the meal being alternately shaken
+and moistened until it assumes the character of small globules.  These
+are stirred round in large flat pans, until they are dried.  Then they
+are passed through a second sieve, not quite so fine as the first, and
+the larger globules are separated from the rest.
+
+Pepper and gambir plantations are also among the "sights" of Singapore.
+The pepper-tree is a small bush-like plant, which, when carefully
+trained, springs to a height of eighteen feet.  The pepper-pods grow in
+small clusters, and change from red to green, and then to black.  White
+pepper is nothing more than the black pepper blanched by frequent
+steeping in sea-water.  The gambir does not grow taller than eight feet.
+The leaves, which are used in dyeing, are first stripped from the stalk,
+and then boiled down in large coppers.  The thick juice is placed in
+white wooden vessels, and dried in the sun; then it is divided into slips
+about three inches long, and packed up.
+
+Singapore is an island of _fruits_.  It boasts of the delicious
+mangosteen, which almost melts in the mouth, and delights the palate with
+its exquisite flavour.  It boasts, too, of splendid pine-apples,
+frequently weighing as much as four pounds.  Also of sauersop, as big as
+the biggest pine-apples, green outside, and white or pale yellow inside,
+with a taste and fragrance like that of strawberries.  Nor must the
+gumaloh be forgotten: it is divided, like the orange, into sections, but
+is five times as large, and not quite so sweet.  Finally, we must refer
+to the custard-apple, which is very white (though full of black pips),
+very soft, and very enticing in flavour.
+
+* * * * *
+
+From Singapore we follow Madame Pfeiffer to Point de Galle, in Ceylon.
+The appearance of this fair and fertile island from the sea is the theme
+of every traveller's praise.  "It was one of the most magnificent sights
+I ever beheld," says Madame Pfeiffer, "to see the island soaring
+gradually from the sea, with its mountain-ranges growing more and more
+distinctly defined, their summits lighted by the sun, while the dense
+cocoa-groves, and hills and plains, lay shrouded in shadow."  Above the
+whole towers the purple mass of Adam's Peak; and the eye rests in every
+direction on the most luxuriant foliage, with verdurous glades, and
+slopes carpeted with flowers.
+
+Point de Galle presents a curious mixture of races.  Cingalese,
+Kanditons, Tamils from South India, and Moormen, with crimson caftans and
+shaven crowns, form the bulk of the crowds that throng its streets; but,
+besides these, there are Portuguese, Chinese, Jews, Arabs, Parsees,
+Englishmen, Malays, Dutchmen, and half-caste burghers, and now and then a
+veiled Arabian woman, or a Veddah, one of the aboriginal inhabitants of
+the island.  Sir Charles Dilke speaks of "silent crowds of tall and
+graceful girls, wearing, as we at first supposed, white petticoats and
+bodices; their hair carried off the face with a decorated hoop, and
+caught at the back by a high tortoise-shell comb.  As they drew near,
+moustaches began to show, and I saw that they were men; whilst walking
+with them were women naked to the waist, combless, and far more rough and
+'manly' than their husbands.  Petticoat and chignon are male institutions
+in Ceylon."
+
+* * * * *
+
+Madame Pfeiffer, with unresting energy, visited Colombo and Kandy, the
+chief towns of the island.  At the latter she obtained admission to the
+Temple of Dagoba, which contains a precious relic of the god
+Buddha--namely, one of his teeth.  The sanctuary containing this sacred
+treasure is a small chamber or cell, less than twenty feet in breadth.  It
+is enveloped in darkness, as there are no windows; and the door is
+curtained inside, for the more effectual exclusion of the light.  Rich
+tapestry covers the walls and ceiling.  But the chief object is the
+altar, which glitters with plates of silver, and is incrusted about the
+edges with precious stones.  Upon it stands a bell-shaped case about
+three feet in height, and three feet in diameter at the base.  It is made
+of silver, elaborately gilt, and decorated with a number of costly
+jewels.  A peacock in the middle blazes with jewels.  Six smaller cases,
+reputed to be of gold, are enclosed within the large one, and under the
+last is the tooth of Buddha.  As it is as large as that of a great bull,
+one trembles to think how monstrous must have been the jaw of the Indian
+creed-founder!
+
+[Native boat, Madras: page89.jpg]
+
+* * * * *
+
+Madame Ida Pfeiffer arrived at Madras on the 30th of October.  She
+describes the process of disembarkation; but as her details are few, and
+refer to a comparatively distant date, we propose to rely on the
+narrative of a recent traveller.
+
+From time immemorial, he says, the system of landing and embarking
+passengers and cargo has been by means of native Massulah boats,
+constructed of mango wood, calked with straw, and sewn together with
+cocoa-nut fibre.  The ships drop their anchors in the roads half a mile
+from the shore; the Massulah boat pulls off alongside, receives its cargo
+at the gangway, and is then beached through the surf.  It is no uncommon
+circumstance for the boat alongside, assisted by the rolling of the ship,
+to rise and fall twenty-five feet relatively to the height of the ship's
+deck at each undulation.  Ladies are lashed into chairs, and from the
+ship's yard-arm lowered into the boat.  In 1860 some improvement was
+effected by the construction of an iron pier, about nine hundred feet in
+length, and twenty feet in height.  But a spacious and sheltered harbour
+is now being provided, by means of piers running out from the shore five
+hundred yards north and south respectively of the screw pile pier now
+existing, so as to enclose a rectangular area of one thousand yards in
+length by eight hundred and thirty yards in width, or one hundred and
+seventy acres.  The foundation-stone was laid by the Prince of Wales in
+the course of his Indian progress in 1876.
+
+Madame Pfeiffer stayed but a few hours at Madras, and her notes
+respecting it are of no value.  We will proceed at once to Calcutta, the
+"City of Palaces," as it has been called, and the capital of our Indian
+Empire.
+
+She speaks of the Viceroy's Palace as a magnificent building, and one
+that would ornament any city in the world.  Other noticeable edifices are
+the Town Hall, the Hospital, the Museum, Ochterlony's Monument, the Mint,
+and the Cathedral.  Ochterlony's Monument is a plain stone column, one
+hundred and sixty-five feet high, erected in commemoration of a sagacious
+statesman and an able soldier.  From its summit, to which access is
+obtained by two hundred and twenty-two steps, may be obtained a noble
+view of the city, the broad reaches of the Ganges, and the fertile plains
+of Bengal.
+
+The Cathedral is an imposing pile.  Its architecture is Gothic, and the
+interior produces a very fine effect by the harmony of its proportions
+and the richness of its details.  The ill-famed "Black Hole," in which
+the Rajah Surajah Dowlah confined one hundred and fifty English men and
+women, when he obtained possession of Calcutta in 1756--confining them in
+a narrow and noisome cell, which poisoned them with its malarious
+atmosphere, so that by morning only a few remained alive--is now part of
+a warehouse.  But an obelisk stands at the entrance, inscribed with the
+names of the victims.
+
+The fashionable promenade at Calcutta is the Maidan.  It runs along the
+bank of the Hooghly, and is bounded on the other side by rows of palatial
+mansions.  It commands a good view of the Viceroy's Palace, the
+Cathedral, the Ochterlony Column, the strong defensive works of Fort
+William; and is altogether a very interesting and attractive spot.
+
+Every evening, before sunset, thither wends the fashionable world of
+Calcutta.  The impassive European, with all the proud consciousness of a
+conquering race; the half-Europeanized baboo; the deposed rajah,--all may
+be seen driving to and fro in splendid equipages, drawn by handsome
+steeds, and followed by servants in gay Oriental attire.  The rajahs and
+"nabobs" are usually dressed in gold-embroidered robes of silk, over
+which are thrown the costliest Indian shawls.  Ladies and gentlemen, on
+English horses of the best blood, canter along the road, or its turfen
+borders; while crowds of dusky natives gather in all directions, or
+leisurely move homewards after their day's work.  A bright feature of the
+scene is the animated appearance of the Hooghly: first-class East
+Indiamen are lying at anchor, ships are arriving or preparing for
+departure, the native craft incessantly ply to and fro, and a Babel of
+voices of different nationalities rises on the air.
+
+Here is a picture of the Maidan, drawn by another lady-traveller, Mrs.
+Murray Mitchell:--
+
+[The Maidan, Calcutta: page95.jpg]
+
+It is, she says, a noble expanse, which, about a hundred years ago, was a
+wild swampy jungle, famous only for snipe-shooting.  Strange to say, it
+is not, like most Indian plains, burned up and brown, but, from its
+vicinity to the river, and the frequent showers that visit it, as fresh
+and green as an English park.  It has a few fine tanks, and is sprinkled
+with some leafy trees; these, however, not so numerous as they were
+before the cyclones of 1864 and 1867, which swept away its chief natural
+beauties.  Several broad well-kept drives intersect it, and it is
+ornamented by some graceful gardens and a few handsome columns and
+statues.  Indeed, the Maidan is the centre of all that is grand and
+imposing; the shabby and the unsightly is kept behind, out of view.
+Facing it, along its eastern marge, stand the noble pillared palaces of
+Chowringhee.  At one end stands the handsome new Court House; also the
+Town Hall, and other buildings of less pretence; and, further on, the
+noble pile of Government House, with four handsome entrance gates, and
+surrounded by shrubberies and gardens.  In front spread the Eden Gardens,
+a delightful addition to the beauties both of Government House and the
+Esplanade.  From this point the business part of Calcutta extends in a
+northerly direction, including Dalhousie Square, with its many buildings,
+among which conspicuous stands the domed Post Office--the vista closing
+gracefully with the shapely spire of St. Andrew's Church.  At the further
+extremity, nearly two miles across the verdant expanse, are seen the
+Cathedral, with its noble spire, the General Hospital, and the Jail; and
+still further, the richly-wooded suburbs of Kidderpore and Alipore.  Fort
+William fronts toward the river, and with its ramparts and buildings
+forms a striking object; while the whole is bordered and "beautified" by
+the broad river, with its crowd of masts and flags, its almost
+innumerable boats, its landing-ghats, and all its life and motion.
+
+* * * * *
+
+[Benares: page99.jpg]
+
+From Calcutta, Madame Pfeiffer proceeded to the city of temples, the
+sacred city of Hinduism--Benares.  She visited several temples, but found
+them all agreeing in their leading details.  That of Vishnu has two
+towers connected by colonnades, the summits of which are covered with
+gold plates.  Inside are several images of Vishnu and Siva, wreathed with
+flowers, and strewn over with grains of rice and wheat.  Images in metal
+or stone of the sacred bull are plentiful everywhere; and living bulls
+wander about freely, the object of special care and adoration.  They are
+free to stray where they will, not in the temple precincts only, but also
+in the streets.
+
+Among the other buildings, the one most worthy of notice is the Mosque of
+Aurengzebe, famous on account of its two minarets, which are 150 feet in
+height, and reported to be the slenderest in the world.  They resemble a
+couple of needles, and certainly better deserve the name than that of
+Cleopatra at Alexandria.  Narrow winding staircases in the interior lead
+to the summit, on which a small platform, with a balustrade about a foot
+high, is erected.  From this vantage-point a noble view of the city, it
+is said, may be obtained; but few persons, we should think, have heads
+cool enough to enjoy it.  With all Madame Pfeiffer's adventurousness, she
+did not essay this perilous experiment.
+
+The Observatory, constructed for the great Mohammedan emperor Akbar, is
+also an object of interest.  It is not furnished, like a European
+observatory, with the usual astronomical instruments, telescopes, rain-
+gauges, anemometers, and the like, the handiwork of cunning artificers in
+glass and metal; but everything is of stone--solid, durable stone.  On a
+raised terrace stand circular tables, semicircular and quadratic curves,
+all of stone, and all inscribed with mystic signs and characters.
+
+Benares is celebrated for its bazaars, in which are exhibited some of the
+rarest productions of the East; but its principal attraction is its
+sanctity, and crowds of pilgrims resort to its temples, and cleanse
+themselves of their sins by bathing in the fast-flowing Ganges.  To die
+at Benares is regarded as a passport to heaven; and one of the most
+frequent sights is the burning of a corpse on the river-bank, with
+ceremonies proportioned to the rank and wealth of the deceased--the ashes
+being afterwards committed to the holy waters.  Benares is also famous
+for its palaces.  Of these the most splendid is that which the rajah
+inhabits.  It was visited by Madame Pfeiffer, who appears to have gone
+everywhere and seen everybody at her own sweet will and pleasure, and she
+was even admitted to the rajah's presence.
+
+A handsomely-decorated boat, she says, awaited her and her
+fellow-traveller at the bank of the river.  They crossed; a palanquin was
+ready to receive them.  Soon they arrived at the stately gateway which
+forms the entrance to the palace.  The interior proved to be a labyrinth
+of irregular courts and small unsymmetrical chambers.  In one of the
+courts a hall, surrounded by plain columns, served as a reception-room.
+This was cumbrously loaded with lamps, glass lustres, and European
+furniture; on the walls hung some wretched pictures, framed and glazed.
+Presently the rajah made his appearance, accompanied by his brother, and
+attended by a long train of courtiers.  The two princes were gorgeously
+attired; they wore wide trousers, long under and short over garments, all
+of satin, covered with gold embroidery.  The rajah himself, aged thirty-
+five, wore short silken cuffs, glowing with gold, and trimmed with
+diamonds; several large brilliants shone on his fingers, and rich gold
+embroidery was woven about his shoes.  His brother, a youth of nineteen,
+wore a white turban, with a costly clasp of diamonds and pearls.  Large
+pearls hung from his ears; rich massive bracelets clasped his wrists.
+
+The guests having taken their seats, a large silver basin was brought in,
+with elaborately-wrought narghillies, and they were invited to smoke.
+This honour they declined.  The rajah then smoked in solitary dignity--his
+pipe being changed as soon as he had taken a few whiffs.
+
+A nautchni, or dance by nautches, was next provided for the visitors'
+entertainment.  There were three musicians and two dancers.  The latter
+were dressed in gay gold-woven muslin robes, with wide silk
+gold-broidered trousers, reaching to the ground, and quite covering their
+bare feet.  One of the musicians beat a couple of small drums; the others
+played on four-stringed instruments not unlike a violin.  They stood
+close behind the dancers, and their music was wholly innocent of melody
+or harmony; but to the rhythm, which was strongly accentuated, the
+dancers moved their arms, hands, and fingers in a very animated manner,
+and at intervals their feet, so as to ring the numerous tiny bells that
+cover them.  Their attitudes were not ungraceful.  The performance lasted
+a quarter of an hour, after which they accompanied the dance with what
+was intended for singing, but sounded like shrieking.  Meantime,
+sweetmeats, fruits, and sherbet were handed round.
+
+As a contrast to this gay scene, Madame Pfeiffer describes the
+performance of the wretched fanatics called fakeers.  These men inflict
+upon themselves the most extraordinary tortures.  Thus: they stick an
+iron hook through their flesh, and allow themselves to be suspended by it
+at a height of twenty or five-and-twenty feet. {105}  Or for long hours
+they stand upon one foot in the burning sunshine, with their arms rigidly
+extended in the air.  Or they hold heavy weights in various positions,
+swing round and round for hours together, and tear the flesh from their
+bodies with red-hot pincers.  Madame Pfeiffer saw two of these
+unfortunate victims of a diseased imagination.  One held a heavy axe over
+his head, in the attitude of a workman bent on felling a tree; in this
+position he stood, rigid as a statue.  The other held the point of his
+toe to his nose.
+
+* * * * *
+
+In her tour through India our traveller passed through Allahabad,
+situated at the junction of the Jumna and the Ganges, and the resort of
+many pilgrims; Agra, where she admired, as so many travellers have
+admired, the lovely Taj-Mahal, erected by the Sultan Jehan in memory of
+his favourite wife,--and the Pearl Mosque, with its exquisitely delicate
+carving; Delhi, the ancient capital of the Moguls, which figured so
+conspicuously in the history of the Sepoy rebellion; the cave-temples of
+Ajunta and Ellora; and the great commercial emporium of Bombay.
+
+Quitting the confines of British India, Madame Pfeiffer, ever in quest of
+the new and strange, sailed to Bassora, and ascended the historic Tigris,
+so named from the swiftness of its course, to Bagdad, that quaint, remote
+Oriental city, which is associated with so many wonderful legends and not
+less wonderful "travellers' tales."  This was of old the residence of the
+great caliph, Haroun-al-Raschid, a ruler of no ordinary sagacity, and the
+hero of many a tradition, whom "The Thousand and One Nights" have made
+familiar to every English boy.  It is still a populous and wealthy city;
+many of its houses are surrounded by blooming gardens; its shops are gay
+with the products of the Eastern loom; and it descends in terraces to the
+bank of the river, which flows in the shade of orchards and groves of
+palm.  Over all extends the arch of a glowing sky.
+
+From Bagdad an excursion to the ruins of Babylon is natural enough.  They
+consist of massive fragments of walls and columns, strewn on either side
+of the Euphrates.
+
+[Cave temple at Ellora: page107.jpg]
+
+On the 17th of June our heroic traveller joined a caravan which was bound
+for Mosul, a distance of three hundred miles, occupying from twelve to
+fourteen days.  The journey is one of much difficulty and no little
+danger, across a desert country of the most lifeless character.  We shall
+relate a few of Madame Pfeiffer's experiences.
+
+One day she repaired to a small village in search of food.  After
+wandering from hut to hut, she obtained a small quantity of milk and
+three eggs.  She laid the eggs in hot ashes, and covered them over;
+filled her leathern flask from the Tigris; and, thus loaded, returned to
+the encampment formed by the caravan.  She ate her eggs and drank her
+milk with an appetite for which an epicure would be thankful.
+
+The mode of making butter in vogue at this village was very peculiar.  The
+cream was put into a leathern bottle, and shaken about on the ground
+until the butter consolidated.  It was then put into another bottle
+filled with water, and finally turned out as white as snow.
+
+Next day, when they rested during the heat, the guide of the caravan
+endeavoured to procure her a little shelter from the glare of the
+pitiless sun by laying a small cover over a couple of poles stuck into
+the ground.  But the place shaded was so small, and the tent so frail,
+that she was compelled to sit quietly in one position, as the slightest
+movement would have involved it in ruin.  Shortly afterwards, when she
+wished for some refreshment, nothing could be procured but lukewarm
+water, bread so hard that it could not be eaten until thoroughly soaked,
+and a cucumber without salt or vinegar.
+
+At a village near Kerka the caravan tarried for two days.  On the first
+day Madame Pfeiffer's patience was sorely tried.  All the women of the
+place flocked to examine the stranger.  First they inspected her clothes,
+then wanted to take the turban off her head; and, in fact, proved
+themselves most troublesome intruders.  At last Madame Pfeiffer seized
+one of them by the arm, and turned her out of her tent so quickly that
+she had no time to think of resistance.  By the eloquence of gesture our
+traveller made the others understand that, unless they withdrew at once,
+a similarly abrupt dismissal awaited them.  She then drew a circle round
+her tent, and forbade them to cross it; an injunction which was strictly
+respected.
+
+She had now only to settle with the wife of her guide, who had besieged
+her the whole day, pressing as near as possible, and petitioning for some
+of her "things."  Fortunately her husband came on the scene, and to him
+Madame Pfeiffer preferred her complaint, threatening to leave his house
+and seek shelter elsewhere,--well knowing that the Arabs consider this a
+great disgrace.  He immediately ordered his wife to desist, and the
+traveller was at peace.  "I always succeeded," says Madame Pfeiffer, "in
+obtaining my own will.  I found that energy and boldness influence all
+people, whether Arabs, Persians, Bedaween, or others."  But for this
+strong will, this indomitable resolution, Madame Pfeiffer assuredly could
+not have succeeded in the enterprises she so daringly undertook.  Even
+for a man to have accomplished them would have earned our praise; what
+shall we not say when they were conceived and carried out by a woman?
+
+Towards evening, she says, to her great delight a caldron of mutton was
+set on the fire.  For eight days she had eaten nothing but bread,
+cucumbers, and some dates; and therefore had a great desire for a hot and
+more nutritious meal.  But her appetite was greatly diminished when she
+saw their style of cookery.  The old woman (her guide's mother) threw
+several handfuls of small grain, and a large quantity of onions, into a
+panful of water to soften.  In about half an hour she thrust her dirty
+hands into the water, and mixed the whole together, now and then taking a
+mouthful, and after chewing it, spitting it back again into the pan.  Then
+she took a dirty rag, strained through it the delicate mixture, and
+poured it over the meat in the larger vessel.  Madame Pfeiffer had firmly
+resolved not to touch the dish, but when it was ready her longing for
+food was so great, and so savoury was the smell, that she reflected that
+what she had already eaten was probably not a whit cleaner; in short, for
+once she proved false to her resolution.  Eating, she was filled; and the
+viands gave her increased strength.
+
+* * * * *
+
+On the 28th of June the caravan reached Erbil, the ancient Arbela, where
+Alexander the Great defeated Darius and his Persian host.  Next day they
+crossed a broad river, on rafts of inflated skins, fastened together with
+poles, and covered with reeds, canes, and plank.  Rapidly traversing the
+shrubless, herbless plains of Mesopotamia, they reached at length the
+town of Mosul, the point from which travellers proceed to visit the ruins
+of Nineveh.
+
+These have been so carefully explored and ably described by Layard and
+the late George Smith, that it is needless to quote Madame Ida Pfeiffer's
+superficial observations at any length.  According to Strabo, Nineveh was
+the greatest city in the Old World--larger even than Babylon; the
+circumference of its walls was a three days' journey, and those walls
+were defended by fifteen hundred towers.  Now all is covered with earth,
+and the ranges of hills and mounds that stretch across the wide gray
+plain on the bank of the Tigris do but cover the ruins of the vast
+Assyrian capital.  Mr. Layard began his excavations in 1846, and his
+labourers, digging deep into the hills, soon opened up spacious and
+stately apartments, the marble walls of which were embellished from top
+to bottom with sculptures, revealing a complete panorama of Assyrian
+life!  Kings with their crowns and sceptres, gods swooping on broad
+pinions, warriors equipped with their arms and shields, were there; also
+stirring representations of battles and hunting expeditions, of the
+storming of fortresses, of triumphal processions; though, unfortunately
+for artistic effect, neither proportion, perspective, nor correct drawing
+had been observed.  The hills are scarcely three times higher than the
+men; the fields reach to the clouds; the trees are no taller than the
+lotus-flowers; and the heads of men and animals are all alike, and all in
+profile.  Intermingled with these scenes of ancient civilization are
+inscriptions of great interest, in the cuneiform or wedge-shaped
+character.
+
+* * * * *
+
+A caravan starting from Mosul for Tabreez, Madame Ida Pfeiffer determined
+on joining it, though warned that it would traverse a country containing
+not a single European.  But, as we have already had abundant evidence,
+Madame Pfeiffer knew not what fear was.  Nothing could daunt her fixed
+purpose.  She had made up her mind to go to Persia; and to Persia she
+would go.  She started with the caravan on the 8th of July, and next day
+crossed the hills that intervene between Mesopotamia and Kurdistan.  The
+latter country has never enjoyed a good reputation among travellers; and
+Madame Pfeiffer's experience was not calculated to retrieve its
+character.  The caravan was crossing a corn-field which had been recently
+reaped, when half-a-dozen stalwart Kurds, armed with stout cudgels,
+sprang out from their hiding-place among the sheaves, and seizing the
+travellers' bridles, poured out upon them what was unmistakably a volley
+of oaths and threats.  One of the travellers leaped from his steed,
+seized his assailant by the throat, and holding a loaded pistol to his
+head, indicated his determination of blowing out his brains.  The effect
+of this resolute conduct was immediate; the robbers desisted from their
+attack, and were soon engaged in quite an amicable conversation with
+those they had intended to plunder.  At last they pointed out a good
+place for an encampment, receiving in return a trifling _backshish_,
+collected from the whole caravan.
+
+A few days later, the travellers, having started at two in the morning,
+entered a magnificent mountain-valley, which had been cloven through the
+solid rock by the waters of a copious stream.  A narrow stony path
+followed the course of the stream upward.  The moon shone in unclouded
+light; or it would have been difficult even for the well-trained horses
+of the caravan to have kept their footing along the dangerous way,
+encumbered as it was with fallen masses of rock.
+
+Like chamois, however, they scrambled up the steep mountain-side, and
+safely carried their riders round frightful projections and past
+dangerous, dizzy precipices.  So wild, so romantic was the scene, with
+its shifting lights and shadows, its sudden bursts of silvery lustre
+where the valley lay open to the moon, and its depths of darkness in many
+a winding recess, that even Madame Pfeiffer's uncultured companions were
+irresistibly moved by its influence; and as they rode along not a sound
+was heard but the clatter of the horses' hoofs, and the fall of rolling
+stones into the chasm below.  But all at once thick clouds gathered over
+the moon, and the gloom became so intense that the travellers could
+scarcely discern each one his fellow.  The leader continually struck fire
+with a flint, that the sparks might afford some slight indication of the
+proper course.  But this was not enough; and as the horses began to miss
+their footing, the only hope of safety consisted in remaining immovable.
+With the break of day, however, a gray light spread over the scene, and
+the travellers found themselves surrounded by a circle of lofty
+mountains, rising one above the other in magnificent gradation, and
+superbly dominated by one mighty snow-crowned mass.
+
+The journey was resumed.  Soon the travellers became aware of the fact
+that the path was sprinkled with spots of blood.  At last they came to a
+place which was crimsoned by a complete pool; and looking down into the
+ravine, they could see two human bodies, one lying scarcely a hundred
+feet below them, the other, which had rolled further, half hidden by a
+projecting crag.  From this scene of murder they gladly hastened.
+
+* * * * *
+
+At a town called Ravandus Madame Pfeiffer rested for some days, making
+observations on the manners and customs of the Kurds.  She was not
+prepossessed in their favour by what she saw: the women are idle,
+ignorant, and squalid; the men work as little and rob as much as they
+can.  Polygamy is practised; and religion is reduced to the performance
+of a few formalities.  The costume of the wealthier Kurds is purely
+Oriental, that of the common people varies from it a little.  The men
+wear wide linen trousers, and over them a shirt confined by a girdle,
+with a sleeveless woollen jacket, made of stuff of only a hand's-breadth
+wide, and sewed together.  Instead of white trousers, some wear brown,
+which are anything but picturesque, and look like sacks with two holes
+for the insertion of the feet,--the said feet being encased in boots of
+red or yellow leather, with large iron heels; or in shoes of coarse white
+wool, adorned with three tassels.  The turban is the universal
+head-covering.
+
+The women don loose trousers, and red or yellow boots, with iron heels,
+like the men; but over all they wear a long blue garment which, if not
+tucked up under the girdle, would depend some inches below the ankles.  A
+large blue shawl descends below the knee.  Round their heads they twist
+black shawls, turban-wise; or they wear the red fez, with a silk
+handkerchief wound about it; and on the top of this, a kind of wreath
+made of short black fringe, worn like a diadem, but leaving the forehead
+free.  The hair falls in narrow braids over the shoulders, and from the
+turban droops a heavy silver chain.  As a head-dress it is remarkably
+attractive; and it is but just to say that it often sets off really
+handsome faces, with fine features, and glowing eyes.
+
+[Tartar Caravan: page119.jpg]
+
+* * * * *
+
+In her further wanderings through the wild lands of Persia, our traveller
+came to Urumiyeh, on the borders of the salt lake of that name, which in
+several physical features closely resembles the Dead Sea.  Urumiyeh is a
+place of some celebrity, for it gave birth to Zoroaster, the preacher of
+a creed of considerable moral purity, which has spread over a great part
+of Asia.  Entering a more fertile country, she reached Tabreez in safety,
+and was once more within the influence of law and order.  Tabreez, the
+residence of the viceroy, is a handsomely-built town, with numerous silk
+and leather manufactories, and is reputed to be one of the chief seats of
+Asiatic commerce.  Its streets are clean and tolerably broad; in each a
+little rivulet is carried underground, with openings at regular intervals
+for the purpose of dipping out water.  Of the houses the passer-by sees
+no more than is seen in any other Oriental town: lofty walls, windowless,
+with low entrances; and the fronts always looking in upon the open
+courtyards, which bloom with trees and flowers, and usually adjoin a
+pleasant garden.  Inside, the chambers are usually lofty and spacious,
+with rows of windows which seem to form complete walls of glass.
+Buildings of public importance there are none; excepting the bazaar,
+which covers a considerable area, and is laid out with lofty, broad, and
+covered thoroughfares.
+
+The traveller turned her back upon Tabreez on the 11th of August, and in
+a carriage drawn by post-horses, and attended by a single servant, set
+out for Natschivan.  At Arax she crossed the frontier of Asiatic Russia,
+the dominions of the "White Tsar," who, in Asia as in Europe, is ever
+pressing more and more closely on the "unspeakable Turk."  At Natschivan
+she joined a caravan which was bound for Tiflis, and the drivers of which
+were Tartars.  She says of the latter, that they do not live so frugally
+as the Arabs.  Every evening a savoury pillau was made with good-tasting
+fat, frequently with dried grapes or plums.  They also partook largely of
+fruits.
+
+The caravan wound through the fair and fertile valleys which lie at the
+base of Ararat.  Of that famous and majestic mountain, which lifts its
+white glittering crest of snow some sixteen thousand feet above the sea-
+level, our traveller obtained a fine view.  Its summit is cloven into two
+peaks, and in the space between an old tradition affirms that Noah's ark
+landed at the subsidence of the Great Flood.
+
+[Mount Ararat: page123.jpg]
+
+In the neighbourhood of a town called Sidin, Madame Pfeiffer met with a
+singular adventure.  She was returning from a short walk, when, hearing
+the sound of approaching post-horses, she paused for a minute to see the
+travellers, and noticed a Russian, seated in an open car, with a Cossack
+holding a musket by his side.  As soon as the vehicle had passed, she
+resumed her course; when, to her astonishment, it suddenly stopped, and
+almost at the same moment she felt a fierce grasp on her arms.  It was
+the Cossack, who endeavoured to drag her to the car.  She struggled with
+him, and pointing to the caravan, said she belonged to it; but the fellow
+put his hand on her mouth, and flung her into the car, where she was
+firmly seized by the Russian.  Then the Cossack sprang to his seat, and
+away they went at a smart gallop.  The whole affair was the work of a few
+seconds, so that Madame Pfeiffer could scarcely recognize what had
+happened.  As the man still held her tightly, and kept her mouth covered
+up, she was unable to give an alarm.  The brave woman, however, retained
+her composure, and speedily arrived at the conclusion that her "heroic"
+captors had mistaken her for some dangerous spy.  Uncovering her mouth,
+they began to question her closely; and Madame Pfeiffer understood enough
+Russian to tell them her name, native country, and object in travelling.
+This did not satisfy them, and they asked for her passport,--which,
+however, she could not show them, as it was in her portmanteau.
+
+At length they reached the post-house.  Madame Pfeiffer was shown into a
+room, at the door of which the Cossack stationed himself with his musket.
+She was detained all night; but the next morning, having fetched her
+portmanteau, they examined her passport, and were then pleased to dismiss
+her--without, however, offering any apology for their shameful treatment
+of her.  Such are the incivilities to which travellers in the Russian
+dominions are too constantly exposed.  It is surprising that a powerful
+government should condescend to so much petty fear and mean suspicion.
+
+[Odessa: page127.jpg]
+
+From Tiflis our traveller proceeded across Georgia to Redutkali; whence
+she made her way to Kertsch, on the shore of the Sea of Azov; and thence
+to Sebastopol, destined a few years later to become the scene of an
+historic struggle.  She afterwards reached Odessa, one of the great
+granaries of Europe, situated at the mouth of the Dniester and the
+Dnieper.  From Odessa to Constantinople the distance by sea is four
+hundred and twenty miles.  She made but a short stay in the Turkish
+capital; and then proceeded by steamer to Smyrna, passing through the
+maze of the beautiful isles of Greece; and from Smyrna to Athens.  Here
+she trod on hallowed ground.  Every temple, every ruin, recalled to her
+some brave deed of old, or some illustrious name of philosopher, warrior,
+statesman, poet, that the world will not willingly let die.  A rush of
+stirring glorious memories swept over her mind as she gazed on the lofty
+summit of the Acropolis, covered with memorials of the ancient art, and
+associated with the great events of Athenian history.  The Parthenon, or
+Temple of Pallas; the Temple of Theseus; that of Olympian Jove; the Tower
+of the Winds, or so-called Lantern of Demosthenes; and the Choragic
+Monument of Lysicrates,--all these she saw, and wondered at.  But they
+have been so frequently described, that we may pass them here with this
+slight reference.
+
+From Corinth our traveller crossed to Corfu, and from Corfu ascended the
+Adriatic to Trieste.  A day or two afterwards she was received by her
+friends at Vienna,--having accomplished the most extraordinary journey
+ever undertaken by a woman, and made the complete circuit of the world.
+In the most remarkable scenes, and in the most critical positions, she
+had preserved a composure, a calmness of courage, and a simplicity of
+conduct, that must always command our admiration.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.--NORTHWARD.
+
+
+In giving to the world a narrative of her journey to Iceland, and her
+wanderings through Norway and Sweden, Madame Pfeiffer anticipated certain
+objections that would be advanced by the over-refined.  "Another journey
+!" she supposed them to exclaim; "and that to regions far more likely to
+repel than attract the general traveller!  What object could this woman
+have had in visiting them, but a desire to excite our astonishment and
+raise our curiosity?  We might have been induced to pardon her pilgrimage
+to the Holy Land, though it was sufficiently hazardous for a solitary
+woman, because it was prompted, perhaps, by her religious feelings,--and
+incredible things, as we all know, are frequently accomplished under such
+an impulse.  But, for the present expedition, what reasonable motive can
+possibly be suggested?"
+
+Madame Pfeiffer remarks that in all this a great injustice is, or would
+be, done to her; that she was a plain, inoffensive creature, and by no
+means desirous of drawing upon herself the observation of the crowd.  As
+a matter of fact, she was but following the bent of her natural
+disposition.  From her earliest childhood she had yearned to go forth
+into the wide world.  She could never meet a travelling-carriage without
+stopping to watch it, and envying the postilion who drove it or the
+persons it conveyed.  When she was ten or twelve years old, no reading
+had such a charm for her as books of voyages and travels; and then she
+began to repine at the happiness of every great navigator or discoverer,
+whose boldness revealed to him the secrets of lands and seas before
+unknown.
+
+She travelled much with her parents, and afterwards with her husband, and
+thus her natural bias was encouraged.  It was not until her two sons were
+of age to be educated that she remained stationary--on their account.  As
+the business concerns of her husband required his presence alternately in
+Vienna and in Lemberg, he intrusted to his wife the responsible duty of
+superintending their education--feeling assured that, with her
+perseverance and affection, she could supply the place of both parents.
+
+When this duty was discharged, and the education of her sons completed,
+the dreams and fancies of her youth once more revived within her.  She
+thought of the manners and customs of foreign lands, of remote islands
+girdled by the "melancholy main," and dwelt so long on the great joy of
+treading "the blessed acres" trodden by the Saviour's feet, that at last
+she resolved on a pilgrimage thither.  She made the journey to Palestine.
+She visited Jerusalem, and other hallowed scenes, and she returned in
+safety.  She came, therefore, to the conclusion that she was not
+presumptuously tempting the providence of God, or laying herself open to
+the charge of wishing to excite the admiration of her contemporaries, if
+she followed her inward impulse, and once more adventured forth to see
+the world.  She knew that travel could not but broaden her views, elevate
+her thoughts, and inspire her with new sympathies.  Iceland, the next
+object of her desires, was a country where she hoped to see Nature under
+an entirely novel and peculiar aspect.  "I feel," she says, "so
+wonderfully happy, and draw so close to my Maker, while gazing upon such
+scenes, that no difficulties or fatigues can deter me from seeking so
+great a reward."
+
+* * * * *
+
+It was in the year 1845 that Madame Pfeiffer began her northward journey.
+She left Vienna on the 10th of April, and by way of Prague, Dresden, and
+Altona, proceeded to Kiel.  Thence the steamer carried her to Copenhagen,
+a city of which she speaks in favourable terms.  She notices its numerous
+splendid palaces; its large and regular squares; its broad and handsome
+promenades.  At the Museum of Art she was interested by the chair which
+Tycho Brahe, the astronomer, formerly used; and at the Thorvaldsen
+Museum, the colossal lion executed by the great Danish sculptor.  Having
+seen all that was to be seen, she took ship for Iceland, passing
+Helsingborg on the Swedish coast, and Elsinore on the Danish, the latter
+associated with Shakespeare's "Hamlet;" and, through the Sound and the
+Cattegat, entering upon the restless waters of the North Sea.  Iceland
+came in sight on the seventh day of a boisterous voyage, which had tried
+our traveller somewhat severely; and at the close of the eleventh day she
+reached Havenfiord, an excellent harbour, two miles from Reikiavik, the
+capital of Iceland.
+
+Her first impressions of the Icelandic coast, she says, were very
+different from the descriptions she had read in books.  She had conceived
+of a barren desolate waste, shrubless and treeless; and she saw grassy
+hillocks, leafy copses, and even, as she thought, patches of dwarfish
+woods.  But as she drew nearer, and could distinguish the different
+objects more plainly, the hillocks were transformed into human
+habitations, with small doors and windows; and the groups of trees proved
+to be huge lava masses, from ten to fifteen feet in height, entirely
+overgrown with verdure and moss.  Everything was new, was surprising; and
+it was with pleasurable sensations of excitement and curiosity that
+Madame Pfeiffer landed on the shores of Ultima Thule.
+
+[Reikiavik: page135.jpg]
+
+* * * * *
+
+At Reikiavik she found the population inhabiting two very different
+classes of habitations.  The wooden houses of the well-to-do are of a
+single story, she says, with five or six windows in front.  A low flight
+of steps conducts to an entrance in the centre of the building; and this
+entrance opens into a vestibule, where two doors communicate with the
+rooms on the right and left respectively.  In the rear is the kitchen,
+and beyond the courtyard.  Such a house contains four or five rooms on
+the ground-floor, and a few small chambers under the roof.  The domestic
+or household arrangements are entirely European.  The furniture, much of
+which is mahogany, comes from Copenhagen, which also supplies the mirrors
+and cast-iron stoves.  Handsome rugs are spread in front of the sofas;
+neat curtains drop before the windows; English engravings ornament the
+whitewashed walls; and china, silver, and cut-glass, and the like, are
+displayed upon the cabinets or corner-tables.
+
+But the poor live in huts which are decidedly much more Icelandic.  They
+are small and low; built of lava blocks, filled in with earth; and as the
+whole is covered with turf, they might almost be mistaken for natural
+elevations of the ground, if the wooden chimneys, and low doors, and
+almost imperceptible windows, did not betray that they were tenanted by
+human beings.  A dark, narrow passage, not more than four feet high,
+leads on one hand to the living-room, on the other to the store-room,
+where the provisions are kept, and where, in winter, the cows and sheep
+are stabled.  The fireplace is generally at the end of this passage,
+which is purposely built low to keep out the cold.  Neither the walls nor
+floors of these huts are boarded; the dwelling-rooms are scarcely large
+enough for people to sleep in or turn round in; and the whole furniture
+consists of the bedsteads (very poorly supplied with bedding), a small
+table, and a few chests--the latter, as well as the beds, being used for
+seats.  To poles fastened in the walls are suspended clothes, shoes,
+stockings, and other articles; and in each hut is generally found a tiny
+book-shelf supporting a few volumes.  No stoves are needed in these
+rooms, which are sufficiently warmed by the presence of their numerous
+inmates.
+
+Speaking of the better classes of the inhabitants of the Icelandic
+capital, our traveller says: "Nothing struck me so much as the great
+dignity of carriage at which the Icelandic ladies aim, and which is so
+apt to degenerate into stiffness when it is not perfectly natural, or has
+not become a second nature by habit.  They incline their head very coolly
+when you meet them, with less civility than we should use towards an
+inferior or a stranger.  The lady of the house never accompanies her
+guests beyond the door of the room, after a call; if the husband is
+present, he goes a little further; but when this is not the case, you are
+often at a loss which way to turn, as there is no servant on the spot to
+open the street door for you, unless it may happen to be in the house of
+the Stiftsamtmann, the first dignitary of the island."
+
+The church at Reikiavik is capable of accommodating about one hundred and
+fifty persons; it is built of stone, with a wooden roof, under which is
+kept a library of several thousand volumes.  It possesses an artistic
+treasure of no ordinary value in a font by Thorvaldsen, whose parents
+were natives of Iceland, though he himself was born in Denmark.  Captain
+Burton describes it as the ancient classical altar, with basso-relievos
+on all four sides--subjects of course evangelical; on the top an alto-
+relievo of symbolical flowers, roses, and passiflorae is cut to support
+the normal "Dobefal," or baptismal basin.  In the sacristy are preserved
+some handsome priestly robes--especially the velvet vestment sent by Pope
+Julius II. to the last Roman Catholic bishop in the early part of the
+sixteenth century, and still worn by the chief Protestant dignitary at
+ordinations.
+
+The climate at Reikiavik would be considered severe by an Englishman.  The
+thermometer sometimes sinks as low as 13 degrees below zero, and the sea
+is covered with ice for several feet from the shore.  The storms and snow-
+drifts are of the most terrible character, and at times even the boldest
+Icelander dares not cross his threshold.  Daylight does not last more
+than four or five hours; but the long night is illuminated by the
+splendid coruscations of the aurora, filling the firmament with
+many-coloured flame.  From the middle until the end of June, however,
+there is no night.  The sun sinks for a short time below the hills, but
+twilight blends with the dawn, and before the last rays of evening have
+faded from the sky the morning light streams forth with renewed
+brilliancy.
+
+* * * * *
+
+Then, as to the people, Madame Pfeiffer speaks of them as of medium
+height and strength.  Their hair is light, and frequently has a reddish
+tint; their eyes are blue.  The women are more prepossessing in
+appearance than the men; and pleasing faces are not uncommon among the
+young girls.  They wear long skirts of coarse black woollen stuff, with
+spencers, and coloured aprons.  They cover their heads with a man's cap
+of the same material as their petticoats, ending in a drooping point, to
+which hangs a woollen or silken tassel, falling as low as the shoulders.
+This simple head-dress is not inelegant.  All the women have an abundance
+of hair hanging picturesquely about their face and neck; they wear it
+loose and short, and it is sometimes curled.
+
+The men appear to dress very much like the German peasants.  They wear
+pantaloons, jackets, and vests of dark cloth, with a felt hat or fur cap,
+and the feet wrapped in pieces of skin, either seal, sheep, or calf.
+
+* * * * *
+
+Here, as a corrective, and for the sake of comparison, let us refer to
+Captain Burton's description.  The men dress, he says, like sailors, in
+breeches, jackets serving as coats, and vests of good broadcloth, with
+four to six rows of buttons, always metal, either copper or silver.  The
+fishermen wear overcoats, coarse smooth waistcoats, large paletots, made
+waterproof by grease or fish-liver oil; leather overalls, stockings, and
+native shoes.  The women attire themselves in jackets and gowns,
+petticoats and aprons of woollen frieze; over which is thrown a "hempa,"
+or wide black robe, like a Jesuit frock, trimmed with velvet binding.  The
+wealthy add silver ornaments down the length of the dress, and braid the
+other articles with silk ribbons, galloon, or velvets of various colours.
+The ruff forms a stiff collar, from three to four inches broad, of very
+fine stuff, embroidered with gold or silver.  The conical head-dress,
+resembling a fool's-cap or sugar-loaf, measures two or three feet high,
+and is kept in its place by a coarse cloth, and covered with a finer
+kerchief.  The soleless shoes of ox-hide or sheepskin, made by the women
+out of a single piece, are strapped to the instep.
+
+* * * * *
+
+Having made herself generally acquainted with the Icelanders and their
+mode of living, Madame Pfeiffer began to visit the most romantic and
+interesting spots in the island accessible to an adventurous woman.  At
+first she confined herself to the neighbourhood of Reikiavik.  She
+journeyed, for instance, to the island of Vidoe, the cliffs of which are
+frequented by the eider-duck.  Its tameness while brooding is very
+remarkable.  "I had always looked," she says, "on the wonderful stories I
+had heard on this subject as fabulous, and should do still had I not been
+an eye-witness to the fact.  I approached and laid my hands on the birds
+while they were sitting; yes, I could even caress them without their
+attempting to move from their nests; or, if they left them for a moment,
+it was only to walk off for a few steps, and remain quietly waiting till
+I withdrew, when they immediately returned to their station.  Those whose
+young were already hatched, however, would beat their wings with
+violence, and snap at me with their bills when I came near them, rather
+allowing themselves to be seized than to desert their broods.  In size
+they resemble our common duck; their eggs are of a greenish-gray, rather
+larger than hens' eggs, and of an excellent flavour.  Each bird lays
+about eleven eggs.  The finest down is that with which they line their
+nests at first; it is of a dark gray, and is regularly carried off by the
+islanders with the first eggs.  The poor bird then robs itself of a
+second portion of its down, and lays a few more eggs, which are also
+seized; and it is not till the nest has been felted for the third time
+that the ducks are left unmolested to bring up their brood.  The down of
+the second, and particularly that of the third hatching, is much lighter
+than the first, and of an inferior quality."
+
+The salmon-fishery at the Larsalf next engaged our traveller's attention.
+It is conducted after a primitively simple fashion.  When the fish at
+spawning-time seek the quiet waters of the inland stream, their way back
+to the sea is blocked up by an embankment of loose stones, about three
+feet high.  In front of this wall is extended a net; and several similar
+barriers are erected at intervals of eighty to a hundred paces, to
+prevent the fish which have slipped over one of them from finally
+accomplishing their escape.  A day is appointed for a grand _battue_.  The
+water is then let off as much as possible; and the ensnared fish, feeling
+it grow shallower, dart hither and thither in frantic confusion, and
+eventually gather together in such a mass that the fishermen have only to
+thrust in their hands and seize their prey.
+
+Yet _some_ degree of skill is necessary, for, as everybody knows, the
+salmon is full of vivacity, and both strong and swift.  So the fisher
+takes his victim dexterously by head and tail, and throws it ashore
+immediately.  It is caught up by persons who are specially appointed to
+this duty, and flung to a still greater distance from the stream.  Were
+not this done, and done quickly, many a fine fellow would escape.  It is
+strange to see the fish turn round in the hands of their captors, and
+leap into the air, so that if the fishermen were not provided with
+woollen mittens, they could not keep their hold of the slippery creatures
+at all.  In these wholesale razzias, from five hundred to a thousand fish
+are generally taken at a time, each one weighing from five to fifteen
+pounds.
+
+[Salmon-fishing in Iceland: page145.jpg]
+
+* * * * *
+
+Iceland may, with little exaggeration, be described as nothing more than
+a stratum of snow and ice overlying a mass of fire and vapour and boiling
+water.  Nowhere else do we see the two elements of frost and fire in such
+immediate contiguity.  The icy plains are furrowed by lower currents, and
+in the midst of wastes of snow rise the seething ebullitions of hot
+springs.  Several of the snow-shrouded mountains of Iceland are volcanic.
+In the neighbourhood of Kriservick Madame Pfeiffer saw a long, wide
+valley, traversed by a current of lava, half a mile in length; a current
+consisting not merely of isolated blocks and stones, but of large masses
+of porous rock, ten or twelve feet high, frequently broken up by fissures
+a foot wide.
+
+Six miles further, and our traveller entered another valley, where, from
+the sulphur-springs and hills, rose numerous columns of smoke.  Ascending
+the neighbouring hills, she saw a truly remarkable scene: basins filled
+with bubbling waters, and vaporous shafts leaping up from the fissures in
+the hills and plains.  By keeping to windward, she was able to approach
+very near these phenomenal objects; the ground was lukewarm in a few
+places, and she could hold her hand for several minutes at a time over
+the cracks whence the vapour escaped.  No water was visible.  The roar
+and hiss of the steam, combined with the violence of the wind, made a
+noise so deafening that she was glad to quit the scene, and feel a safer
+soil beneath her feet.  It seemed to her excited fancy as if the entire
+mountain were converted into a boiling caldron.
+
+Descending into the plain, she found there much to interest her.  Here a
+basin was filled with boiling mud; there, from another basin, burst forth
+a column of steam with fearful violence.  Several hot springs bubbled and
+bubbled around.  "These spots," says our traveller, "were far more
+dangerous than any on the hills; in spite of the utmost caution, we often
+sank in above our ankles, and drew back our feet in dread, covered with
+the damp exhalations, which, with steam or boiling water, also escaped
+from the opening.  I allowed my guide to feel his way in front of me with
+a stick; but, notwithstanding his precaution, he went through in one
+place half-way to his knee--though he was so used to the danger that he
+treated it very lightly, and stopped quite phlegmatically at the next
+spring to cleanse himself from the mud.  Being also covered with it to
+the ankles, I followed his example."
+
+* * * * *
+
+We must now accompany our traveller on some longer excursions.
+
+And first, to Thingvalla, the place where, of old, the Althing or island-
+parliament was annually held.  One side of the great valley of council is
+bounded by the sea, the other by a fine range of peaks, always more or
+less covered with snow.  Through the pass of the Almannagja we descend
+upon the Thingvallavatn lake, an expanse of placid blue, about thirty
+miles in circuit.  While our attention is rivetted on the lake and the
+dark brown hills which encircle it, a chasm suddenly, and as if by
+enchantment, opens at our feet, separating us from the valleys beyond.  It
+varies from thirty to forty feet in width, is several hundred feet in
+depth, and four miles in length.
+
+"We were compelled," says Madame Pfeiffer, "to descend its steep and
+dangerous sides by a narrow path leading over fragments of lava.  My
+uneasiness increased as we went down, and could see the colossal masses,
+in the shape of pillars or columns tottering loosely on the brink of the
+precipice above our heads, threatening death and desolation at any
+moment.  Mute and anxious, we crept along in breathless haste, scarcely
+venturing to raise our eyes, much less to give vent to the least
+expression of alarm, for fear of starting the avalanche of stone, of the
+impetuous force of which we could form some idea by the shattered rocks
+around us.  The echo is very remarkable, and gives back the faintest
+whisper with perfect distinctness."
+
+* * * * *
+
+Every traveller to Iceland feels bound to visit its Geysirs, and Madame
+Pfeiffer did as others did.  From Thingvalla she rode for some distance
+along the side of the lakes, and then struck through a rocky pass of a
+very difficult character, into a series of valleys of widely different
+aspect.  At last she came to a stream which flowed over a bed of lava,
+and between banks of lava, with great rapidity and a rushing, roaring
+sound.  At one point the river-bed was cleft through its centre, to the
+depth of eighteen or twenty feet, by a chasm from fifteen to eighteen
+feet wide, into which the waters pour with considerable violence.  A
+bridge in the middle of the river spans this rift, and the stranger who
+reaches the banks feels unable to account for its appearance among the
+cloud of spray which entirely conceals the chasm in the bed of the
+stream.
+
+Into her description of the passage of the river it is to be feared that
+Madame Pfeiffer introduces a little exaggeration.  The waters roar, she
+says, with the utmost violence, and dashing wildly into the cavity, they
+form falls on both sides of it, or shiver themselves to spray against the
+projecting cliffs; at the extremity of the chasm, which is not far from
+the bridge, the stream is precipitated in its whole breadth over rocks
+from thirty to forty feet in height.  "Our horses began to tremble, and
+struggled to escape when we drew near the most furious part of the
+torrent, where the noise was really deafening; and it was not without the
+greatest difficulty we succeeded in making them obey the reins, and bear
+us through the foaming waves by which the bridge was washed."  Either the
+scene has greatly altered since Madame Pfeiffer's visit, or her
+imagination has considerably over-coloured its principal features.  That
+is, if we accept the accounts of recent travellers, and especially that
+of Captain Burton, who has laboured so successfully to reduce the romance
+of Icelandic travel to plain matter of fact.
+
+[Great Geysir: page153.jpg]
+
+The Geysirs lie within a comparatively limited area, and consist of
+various specimens, differing considerably in magnitude.  The basin of the
+Great Geysir lies on a gentle elevation, about ten feet above the plain;
+it measures about one hundred and fifty feet in diameter, while that of
+the seething caldron is ten feet.  Both caldron and basin, on the
+occasion of Madame Pfeiffer's visit, were full to the brim with crystal-
+clear water in a state of slight ebullition.  At irregular intervals a
+column of water is shot perpendicularly upwards from the centre of the
+caldron, the explosion being always preceded by a low rumbling; but she
+was not so fortunate as to witness one of these eruptions.  Lord
+Dufferin, however, after three days' watch, was rewarded for his
+patience.  The usual underground thunder having been heard, he and his
+friends rushed to the spot.  A violent agitation was convulsing the
+centre of the pool.  Suddenly a crystal dome lifted itself up to the
+height of eight or ten feet, and then fell; immediately after which, a
+shining liquid column, or rather a sheaf of columns, wreathed in robes of
+vapour, sprang into the air, and in a succession of jerking leaps, each
+higher than its predecessor, flung their silver crests against the sky.
+For a few minutes the fountain held its own, then all at once appeared to
+lose its ascending power.  The unstable waters faltered, drooped, fell,
+"like a broken purpose," back upon themselves, and were immediately
+absorbed in the depths of the subterranean shaft.
+
+About one hundred and forty yards distant is the Strokkr, or "churn,"
+with a basin about seven feet wide in its outer, and eighteen feet in its
+inner diameter.  A funnel or inverted cone in shape, whereas the Great
+Geysir is a mound and a cylinder, it gives the popular idea of a crater.
+Its surface is "an ugly area of spluttering and ever boiling water."  It
+frequently "erupts," and throws a spout into the air, sometimes as high
+as forty or fifty feet, the outbursts lasting from ten to thirty minutes.
+Madame Pfeiffer had not the luck to see it in its grandest moods; the
+highest eruption she saw did not rise above thirty feet, nor last more
+than fifteen minutes.  An eruption can be produced by throwing into the
+caldron a sufficient quantity of turf or stones.
+
+Two remarkable springs lie directly above the Geysirs, in openings
+separated by a barrier of rock--which, however, rise nowhere above the
+level of the ground.  Their waters boil very gently, with an equable and
+almost rhythmic flow.  The charm of these springs lies in their wonderful
+transparency and clearness.  All the prominent points and corners, the
+varied outlines of the cavities, and the different recesses, can be
+distinguished far within the depths, until the eye is lost in the
+darkness of the abyss; and the luminous effects upon the rocks lend an
+additional beauty to the scene, which has all the magic of the poet's
+fairy-land.  It is illumined by a radiance of a soft pale blue and green,
+which reaches only a few inches from the rocky barrier, leaving the
+waters beyond in colourless transparency.  The light, to all appearance,
+seems reflected from the rock, but is really owing to atmospheric causes.
+
+* * * * *
+
+From the Geysirs, Madame Pfeiffer proceeded towards Hekla; and at the
+village of Thorfustadir, on the route, had an opportunity of seeing an
+Icelandic funeral.  On entering the church she found the mourners
+consoling themselves with a dram of brandy.  On the arrival of the
+priest, a psalm or prayer was screamed, under his direction, by a chosen
+number of the congregation; each shouting his loudest, until he was
+completely out of breath.  The priest, standing by the coffin, which, for
+lack of better accommodation, was resting on one of the seats, read in a
+loud voice a prayer of more than half an hour's duration.  The body was
+then borne to the grave, which was one of remarkable depth; and the
+coffin being duly lowered, the priest threw earth upon it thrice, thus
+terminating the ceremony.
+
+At the little village of Skalholt, where the first Icelandic bishopric
+was established in 1095, Madame Pfeiffer was invited to visit the church,
+and inspect its treasures.  She was shown the grave of the first bishop,
+Thorlakur, whose memory is cherished as that of a saint; an old
+embroidered robe, and a plain gold chalice, both of which probably
+belonged to him; and, in an antique chest, some dusty books in the
+Iceland dialect, besides three ponderous folios in German, containing the
+letters, epistles, and treatises of Martin Luther.
+
+Continuing her journey, she arrived at the little village of Salsun,
+which lies at the foot of Mount Hekla.  Here she secured the services of
+a guide, and made preparations for the ascent of the famous volcano.
+These included the purchase of a store of bread and cheese, and the
+supply of a bottle of water for herself, and one of brandy for the guide,
+besides long sticks, shod with iron, to steady the adventurers'
+footsteps.
+
+The day fixed for the expedition opened brightly and warmly.  At first
+the road led through fields of tolerable fertility, covered with a rich
+green herbage, soft as velvet; and then traversed patches of black sand,
+surrounded by hills, and blocks, and currents of lava.  By degrees it
+grew more difficult, and was so encumbered with lava as greatly to impede
+the progress of the travellers.  Around and behind them rolled the dark
+congealed lava; and it was needful to be constantly on the watch, to
+prevent themselves from stumbling, or to avoid rude contact with the
+rolling rocks.  Greater still was the danger in the rifts and gorges
+filled with snow moistening already in the summer heat; here they
+frequently broke through the deceptive crust, or at every step slipped
+backwards almost as far as they had advanced.
+
+[Mount Hekla: page159.jpg]
+
+At length they reached a point where it became necessary to leave behind
+the horses, and trust entirely to their own strength.  Laboriously, but
+undauntedly, Madame Pfeiffer pressed upward.  Yet, as she looked around
+on the sterile scene, which seemed to have been swept by a blast of fire,
+and on the drear expanse of black lava that surrounded her, Madame
+Pfeiffer could scarcely repress a sensation of pain and terror.
+
+They had still, she says, three heights to climb; the last of which was
+also the most dangerous.  The path clambered up the rocks which covered
+the entire area of the mountain-summit.  Frequent were our traveller's
+falls; her hands were sadly wounded by the sharp jagged projections of
+the lava; and her eyes suffered severely from the dazzling brilliancy of
+the snow that filled every gorge and ravine.
+
+But every obstacle gives way to the resolute; and at last Madame Pfeiffer
+stood on the topmost peak of Hekla.  Here she made a discovery: in books
+of travel she had read of the crater of Mount Hekla, but a careful survey
+convinced her that none existed.  There was neither opening, crevasse,
+nor sunken wall; in fact, no sign of a crater.  Lower down on the
+mountain-side she detected some wide fissures; and from these, not from
+any crater, must have rolled the lava-rivers.  The height of the mountain
+is computed at 5110 feet.
+
+During the last hour of the ascent the sun had been veiled in mists, and
+from the neighbouring glaciers dense clouds now poured down upon them,
+obscuring or concealing the entire prospect.  Fortunately, they gradually
+dissolved into snow, which spread a carpet, white and soft and
+glittering, over the dreary lava.  The thermometer stood at 29.75 degrees
+F.
+
+The snow-storm passed, and the sun once more gladdened earth, and filled
+with light the clear blue arch of the firmament.  On her elevated
+watchtower stood the adventurous traveller, till the clouds, passing
+away, opened up to her wondering gaze the glorious view--glorious, yet
+terrible!  It seemed as if the ruins of a burned-up world lay all around:
+the wastes were strewn with masses of lava; of life not a sign was
+visible; blocks of barren lava were piled upon one another in chaotic
+confusion; and vast streams of indurated volcanic matter choked up every
+valley.
+
+"Here, on the topmost peak of Hekla," writes Madame Pfeiffer, "I could
+look down far and wide upon the uninhabited land, the image of a torpid
+nature, passionless, inanimate, and yet sublime,--an image which, once
+seen, can never be forgotten, and the remembrance of which will
+compensate me amply for all the toils and difficulties I have endured.  A
+whole world of glaciers, lava-peaks, fields of snow and ice, rivers and
+miniature lakes, were comprehended in that magnificent prospect; and the
+foot of man had never yet ventured within these regions of gloom and
+solitude.  How terrible must have been the resistless fury of the element
+which has produced all these changes!  And is its rage now silenced for
+ever?  Will it be satisfied with the ruin it has wrought?  Or does it
+slumber only to break forth again with renewed strength, and lay waste
+those few cultivated spots which are scattered so sparingly throughout
+the land?  I thank God that he has allowed me to see this chaos of his
+creation; and I doubly thank him that my lot was cast in these fair
+plains where the sun does more than divide the day from the night; where
+it warms and animates plant-life and animal-life; where it awakens in the
+heart of man the deepest feelings of gratitude towards his Maker."
+
+On her way down our traveller discovered that the snow had not melted for
+the first five or six hundred feet.  Below that distance the mountain-
+sides were enveloped in a shroud of vapour.  That glossy, coal-black,
+shining lava, which is never porous, can be found only at Hekla and in
+its immediate vicinity; but the other varieties, jagged, porous, and
+vitrified, are also met with, though they are invariably black, as is the
+sand which covers the side of the mountain.  As the distance from the
+volcano increases, the lava loses its jet-black colour, and fades into an
+iron-gray.
+
+After an absence of twelve hours, Madame Pfeiffer reached Salsun in
+safety.
+
+Six-and-twenty eruptions of Hekla have been recorded,--the last having
+occurred in 1845-46.  One was prolonged for a period of six years,
+spreading desolation over a country which had formerly been the seat of a
+prosperous settlement, and burying the cultivated fields beneath a flood
+of lava, scoriae, and ashes.  During the eruption of 1845-46, three new
+crater-vents were formed, from which sprang columns of fire and smoke to
+the height of 14,000 feet.  The lava accumulated in formidable masses,
+and fragments of scoriae and pumice-stone weighing two hundredweight were
+thrown to a distance of a league and a half; while the ice and snow which
+had lain on the mountain for centuries were liquefied, and rolled in
+devastating torrents over the plains.
+
+Hekla is not the only volcanic mountain of Iceland.  Mounts Leirhnukr and
+Krabla, in the northeast, are very formidable; and one of the most
+terrible eruptions recorded in the island annals was that of the Skapta
+Jokul in 1783.
+
+We have now completed our summary of Madame Pfeiffer's Icelandic
+excursions.  From the country we may pass to its inhabitants, and
+ascertain the deliberate opinion she had formed of them after an
+experience extending over several weeks, and under conditions which
+enabled so shrewd an observer as she was to judge them impartially.  Her
+estimate of their character is decidedly less favourable than that of her
+predecessors; but it is to be noted that in almost every particular it is
+confirmed by the latest authority, Captain Burton.  And the evidence goes
+to show that they are not the simple, generous, primitive, guileless
+Arcadians which it had pleased some fanciful minds to portray.
+
+Their principal occupation consists in the fisheries, which are pursued
+with the greatest activity during the months of February, March, and
+April.  The people from the interior then stream into the different
+harbours, and bargain with the coast-population, the fishermen proper, to
+help them for a share of the profits.  On the other hand, in July and
+August many of the coast-population penetrate inland, and lend their
+services in the hay-harvest, for which they are paid in butter, wool, and
+salted lamb.  Others resort to the mountains in search of Iceland moss,
+which they mix with milk, and use as an article of food; or grind it into
+meal, and make cakes with it, as a substitute for bread.  The labours of
+the women consist in preparing the fish for drying, smoking, or salting;
+in tending the cattle, in knitting, and gathering moss.  During the
+winter season both men and women knit uninterruptedly.
+
+Madame Pfeiffer thinks their hospitality has been overrated, and gives
+them credit for the ability to make a good bargain.  In fact, she saw
+nothing of that disinterestedness which Dr. Henderson and other
+travellers have ascribed to them.  They are intolerably addicted to
+brandy-drinking,--indeed, their circumstances would greatly improve if
+they drank less and worked more.  They are scarcely less passionately
+addicted to snuff-taking, as well as to tobacco-chewing.  Their mode of
+taking snuff is peculiar, and certainly not one to be imitated.  Most of
+the peasants, and even many of the priests, have no snuff-boxes, but make
+use instead of a piece of bone, turned in the shape of a little powder-
+horn.  When desirous of indulging in a little titillation, they throw
+back their heads, and putting the point of the horn to their nostril,
+empty in the snuff.  So little fastidious are these devotees, that they
+frequently pass on a horn from nose to nose, without the needless
+formality of cleaning it.  The mention of this practice leads Madame
+Pfeiffer to comment very severely on the want of cleanliness among the
+Icelanders, who are as dirty in their houses as in their persons.
+
+They are also remarkable for their laziness.  There are many ample
+stretches of meadow-land at a short distance from the coast, completely
+covered with bog, and passable only with great precautions, which the
+construction of a few ditches would thoroughly drain.  Capital grass
+would then spring up in abundant crops.  It is well known that such will
+grow in Iceland, for the hillocks which rise above the swamps are
+luxuriantly overgrown with herbage and wild clover.  The best soil is
+found, it is said, on the north side of the island, where potatoes grow
+very well, and also a few trees--which, however, do not exceed seven or
+eight feet in height.  The chief occupation of the northerners is cattle-
+breeding, particularly in the interior, where some of the farmers own
+three or four hundred sheep, ten or fifteen cows, and a dozen horses.
+These, it is true, are exceptional cases; but, as a rule, the population
+here are in much better circumstances than the wretched coast-population,
+who chiefly rely on the products of their fisheries.
+
+* * * * *
+
+From Iceland Madame Pfeiffer embarked for Copenhagen on the 29th of July,
+in the sloop _Haabet_ (the "Hope"), which proved by no means a vessel of
+luxurious accommodation.  Our resolute voyager gives an amusing account
+of her trials.  The fare, for instance, was better adapted for a hermit
+than for a lady of gentle nurture; but it was sublimely impartial, being
+exactly the same for captain, mate, crew, and passengers.  For breakfast
+they had wretched tea,--or rather, dirty tea-coloured water,--which the
+common hands drank without any sugar.  The officers made use of a small
+lump of candy, holding it in their mouths, where it melted slowly, while
+they swallowed cup after cup to moisten the hard ship-biscuit and rancid
+butter.
+
+The dinners, however, showed a daily variation.  First, a piece of salted
+meat, which, having been soaked and boiled in sea-water, was so
+intolerably hard, tough, and salt that it required the digestion of an
+ostrich to overtake it.  Instead of soup, vegetables, or dessert, barley
+grits were served up, plainly boiled, without salt or butter, and eaten
+with syrup and vinegar.  On the second day, the _piece de resistance_ was
+a lump of bacon, boiled in salt water; this was followed by the barley
+grits.  On the third day, cod-fish and pease; on the fourth, the same
+bill of fare as on the first; and so on,--a cup of coffee, without milk,
+closing the noonday meal.  The evening's repast resembled that of the
+morning, consisting of tea-water and ship-biscuit.
+
+So much for the fare.  As to the "table appointments," they were
+miserably meagre.  The cloth was a piece of an old sail, so soiled and
+dirty that it effectually deprived Madame Pfeiffer and her
+fellow-passengers of any small appetite with which they might have sat
+down to dinner.  Madame Pfeiffer began to think that it would be better
+to have no cloth at all.  She was mistaken!  One day she saw the steward
+belabouring a piece of sailcloth, which was stretched on the deck under
+his feet, to receive a good sweeping from the ship's broom.  The numerous
+spots of dirt and grease showed plainly that it was the table-cloth; and
+that same evening the table was bare.  The consequence was, that the
+teapot had no sooner been placed upon it than it began to slide; and
+nothing but the captain's adroitness prevented the entire "bill of fare"
+from being poured into the laps of the guests.  It then became evident
+that
+
+   A table-cloth all foul and stained
+      Is better far than none at all!
+
+The _Hope_ was twenty days at sea, and for twelve days out of sight of
+land.  She was wind-driven to the westward, so that her passengers saw
+but few of the monsters of the Northern Seas.  They caught sight of the
+spout of a single whale in the distance; it rose in the air exactly like
+a fountain-jet, but the animal itself was too far off for its huge
+outlines to be discernible.  One shark had the gallantry to swim round
+them for a few minutes, affording them an opportunity of observing it
+closely.  It appeared to be from sixteen to eighteen feet in length.
+
+* * * * *
+
+The "unresting" traveller reached Copenhagen on the 19th of August, and
+on the very same day embarked again for Sweden and Norway.
+
+Let us accompany her to Christiania.  This town and its suburbs, the
+fortress, the royal castle, the freemasons' lodge, and other buildings,
+surmount the noble harbour in a stately semicircle; which, in its turn,
+is enclosed by meadows, and woods, and green hills.  As if loath to leave
+a scene so charming, the blue sea winds in among the fields and vales to
+some distance behind the town.
+
+The best part of Christiania is, not unnaturally, the latest built, where
+the streets are broad and long, and the houses, both of brick and stone,
+substantial.  In the suburbs, most of the houses are of timber.  Some of
+the public edifices are architecturally conspicuous, particularly the new
+castle and the fortress, which are finely situated on a commanding
+elevation, and enjoy a prospect of great extent and splendid variety.
+
+Madame Pfeiffer was much struck by the diverseness of the conveyances
+that dash through the pleasant, breezy streets of this picturesque city.
+The most common, but the least convenient, are called _carriols_.  They
+consist of a very long, narrow, and uncovered box, strung between two
+enormously high wheels, and provided with a very small seat, into which
+the passenger must squeeze himself, with outstretched feet, and a
+leathern apron drawn over his legs; nor can he, nor dare he, move, from
+the moment he gets in until he gets out again.  A place behind is
+provided for the coachman, in case the occupant of the _carriol_ is
+disinclined to drive; but as it is unpleasant to have the reins shaken
+about one's head, and the whip constantly flourishing in one's ears, the
+services of a driver are seldom in requisition.  Besides these unshapely
+vehicles, there are phaetons, droschkis, chariots, and similar light
+conveyances; but no covered carriages.
+
+* * * * *
+
+From Christiania to Stockholm.
+
+At Gothenburg Madame Pfeiffer embarked on board the steamer which plies
+on the Gotha Canal, the great water-way, linking streams and lakes, which
+affords access to the Swedish capital.  She found herself before long on
+the River Gotha, and at Lilla Edet came to the first of the five locks
+which occur there.  While the boat was passing through them she had an
+opportunity of seeing the Gotha Falls, which, though of no great height,
+pour down a considerable volume of water.
+
+Through fir woods, brown with shadows, the canal winds onward to the
+magnificent locks of Trollhatten--an engineering achievement of which any
+nation might be justly proud.  They are eleven in number, and rise by
+gradations to a height of 112 feet in a distance of 3550 feet.  The wide,
+deep channel excavated in the rock is literally paved with flagstones;
+and these locks mount one above the other like the solitary steps of a
+majestic stairway, and almost lay claim to be ranked among the world's
+wonders.
+
+While the steamer passes through the successive barriers the passengers
+have time to make an excursion to the falls of Trollhatten, which are
+less remarkable for their elevation than for their flood of waters and
+the picturesqueness of the surrounding scenery.
+
+Beyond Trollhatten the stream expands to the proportions of a lake, while
+a number of green and wooded islands divide it into several channels.
+Thence it traverses the Lake of Wenner, which is ten or twelve miles
+long, and proceeds onward through a country of no great interest, until
+at Sjotorp it passes into the river again.  A few miles further, and it
+crosses the Vilkensoc, which, like all the other Swedish lakes, is
+charmingly studded with islands.  It lies three hundred and six feet
+above the level of the North Sea, and is the culminating point of the
+canal, which thence descends through about seventy locks, traversing the
+Bottensee and Lake Wetter.
+
+After a tedious journey of five days, Madame Pfeiffer reached the shores
+of the Baltic, which are finely indented by bays and rivers, with long
+stretches of lofty cliff, and, inland, dense masses of fir woods.  Leaving
+the sea again, a short canal conducts the voyager into Lake Malar,
+celebrated for its cluster of islands.  The lake at first resembles a
+broad river, but soon widens to a great extent; the beauty of the scenery
+never fails to excite the traveller's admiration.  It is said that a
+thousand isles besprinkle its surface; they are crowded together in the
+most picturesque and varied groups, forming streams, and bays, and a
+chain of smaller lakes, and continually revealing some new and attractive
+feature.
+
+Not less charming the shores: sometimes the hills and mountains pass
+close to the water, and their steep and rocky sides frown like thunder-
+smitten ramparts; but generally the eye is delighted by a constant and
+brightly-coloured panorama of meadows, woods, and valleys, villages, and
+sequestered farmhouses.  On the summit of a steep declivity a high pole
+is erected, to which hangs suspended the hat of the unfortunate King
+Erik.  It is said of him, that having fled from the field of battle, he
+was here overtaken by one of his soldiers, whose stern reproaches so
+stung him to the heart that he drove his spurs into his horse's sides,
+and clearing the precipice with a bound, sank for ever beneath the waters
+of the lake.  His hat, which fell from his head as he made the plunge, is
+preserved as a memorial of a king's remorse.
+
+* * * * *
+
+On arriving at Stockholm, several stalwart women offer us their services
+as porters.  They are Dalecarlians, who earn a livelihood by carrying
+luggage or water, by rowing boats, and by resorting to other occupations
+generally reserved for the stronger sex.  Honest, industrious, capable of
+immense fatigue, they never lack employment.  They wear short black
+petticoats, red bodices, white chemises with long sleeves, short and
+narrow aprons of two colours, red stockings, and shoes with thick wooden
+soles.  Around their heads they generally bind a handkerchief, or else
+wear a very small black cap, which just covers the back of their hair.
+
+Stockholm proves, on examination, to be a handsome city, situated at the
+junction of the Baltic with the Lake Malar; or, more strictly speaking,
+on the banks of a short canal which unites the two.  One of its most
+conspicuous buildings is the stately Ritterholm Church, which Madame
+Pfeiffer describes as resembling rather a vault and an armoury than a
+religious edifice.  In the side chapels are enshrined the monuments of
+dead Swedish kings, whose bones lie in the royal sepulchres below.  On
+both sides of the nave are ranged the equestrian statues of armed
+knights; while from every vantage-point hang flags and standards.  The
+keys of captured towns and fortresses are suspended in the side chapels,
+and drums and kettle-drums piled upon the floor--trophies won from the
+enemies of Sweden in the days when she was a great European power.  The
+chapels also contain, enclosed in glass-cases, parts of the dress and
+armour of some of the Swedish monarchs.  We notice, with keen interest,
+the uniform worn by Charles XII.--he
+
+   "Who left a name at which the world grew pale,
+   To point a moral or adorn a tale"--
+
+at the time of his death, and the hat penetrated by the fatal shot that
+slew the fiery warrior.  A remarkable contrast is afforded by the rich
+dress and plumed hat of Bernadotte, the French soldier of fortune, who
+founded the present royal house.
+
+The royal palace is a stately structure, and its interior is enriched
+with the costliest decoration.  The Ritter-house, the Museum of Ancient
+Art, the Crown-Prince's palace, the theatre, the bank, the mint, are all
+deserving of inspection.  In the vicinity a trip may be made to the
+beautiful and diversified scenery of the Royal Park, or the military
+school at Karlberg, or to the ancient royal castle of Gripsholm on the
+Lake of Malar.
+
+But our last excursion must be directed, by way of Upsala, to the iron-
+mines of Danemora.
+
+The little village of Danemora is embosomed in woods.  It contains a
+small church and a few scattered houses of various dimensions.  The
+neighbourhood abounds in the usual indications of a mining locality.
+Madame Pfeiffer arrived in what is called "the nick of time," and just
+opportunely, to witness the blasting of the ore.  From the wide opening
+of the largest mine it is possible to see what passes below; and a
+strange and wonderful sight it is to peer down into the abyss, four
+hundred and eighty feet deep, and observe the colossal entrances to the
+various pits, the rocky bridges, the projections, arches, and caverns
+excavated in the solid rock.  The miners appear so many puppets; their
+movements can hardly be distinguished, until the eye has grown accustomed
+to the darkness and to their diminutive size.
+
+At the given moment a match was applied to four trains of gunpowder.  The
+man who lighted them immediately sprang back, and hid himself behind a
+wall of rock.  In a minute or two came the flash; a few stones were
+hurled into the air; and immediately afterwards was heard a loud
+detonation, and the shattered mass fell in fragments all around.  Echo
+caught up the tremendous explosion, and carried it to the furthest
+recesses of the mine; while, to enhance the terror of the scene, one rock
+was hardly shivered before another crash was heard, and then a third, and
+immediately afterwards a fourth.
+
+[Iron-mine of Danemora: page179.jpg]
+
+The other pits are still deeper, one of them being six hundred feet
+beneath the ground; but as they are smaller in their openings, and as the
+shafts are not always perpendicular, the gaze is soon lost in the
+obscurity, which produces a dismal effect upon the spectator.  The iron
+obtained from the Swedish mines is of excellent quality, and large
+quantities are annually exported.
+
+* * * * *
+
+Madame Pfeiffer now began her homeward journey, and, by way of Hamburg
+and Berlin, proceeded to Dresden.  Thence she returned to Vienna on the
+6th of October, after an absence of six months.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.--LAST TRAVELS.
+
+
+Madame Pfeiffer set out on what proved to be her final expedition, on the
+21st of May 1856.  She proceeded to Berlin, thence to Amsterdam, Leyden,
+Rotterdam; visited London and Paris; and afterwards undertook the voyage
+to the Cape of Good Hope.  Here she hesitated for a while in what
+direction she should turn her adventurous steps before she pushed forward
+to the goal of her hopes--Madagascar.  At length she decided on a visit
+to the Mauritius; and it is at this part of her journey that we propose
+to take up her record.
+
+[Port Louis, Mauritius: page183.jpg]
+
+She saw much scenery in this rich and beautiful little island that moved
+her to admiration.  The volcanic mountains assume the boldest and most
+romantic outlines.  The vegetation is of the most luxuriant character.
+Each deep gorge or mountain-valley blooms with foliage; and the slopes
+are clothed with stately trees, graceful shrubs, and climbing plants;
+while shining streams fall from crag to crag in miniature cascades.  Of
+course Madame Pfeiffer visited the sugar-cane plantations, which cover
+the broad and fertile plains of Pamplemousse.  She learned that the sugar-
+cane is not raised from seed, but that pieces of cane are planted.  The
+first cane requires eighteen months to ripen; but as, meanwhile, the
+chief stem throws out shoots, each of the following harvests can be
+gathered in at intervals of twelve months; hence four crops can be
+obtained in four years and a half.  After the fourth harvest, the field
+must be cleared completely of the cane.  If the land be virgin soil, on
+which no former crop has been raised, fresh slips of cane may be planted
+immediately, and thus eight crops secured in nine years.  But if such is
+not the case, "ambrezades" must be planted--that is, a leafy plant,
+growing to the height of eight or nine feet, the leaves of which,
+continually falling, decay and fertilize the soil.  After two years the
+plants are rooted out, and the ground is once more occupied by a sugar
+plantation.
+
+When the canes are ripe and the harvest begins, every day as many canes
+are cut down as can be pressed and boiled at once.  The cane is
+introduced between two rollers, set in motion by steam-power, and pressed
+until it is quite flat and dry: in this state it is used for fuel.  The
+juice is strained successively into six pans, of which the first is
+exposed to the greatest heat--the force of the fire being diminished
+gradually under each of the others.  In the last pan the sugar is found
+half crystallized.  It is then deposited on great wooden tables to cool,
+and granulate into complete crystals of about the size of a pin's head.
+Lastly, it is poured into wooden colanders, to filter it thoroughly of
+the molasses it still contains.  The whole process occupies eight or ten
+days.  Before the sugar is packed, it is spread out on the open terraces
+to dry for some hours in the sun.
+
+* * * * *
+
+An excursion was made to Mount Orgueil, in order to obtain a panoramic
+view of the island-scenery.  On one side the lofty ridge of the Morne
+Brabant, connected with the mainland only by a narrow neck of earth,
+stretches far out into the sapphire sea; near at hand rises the Piton de
+la Riviere Noire, the loftiest summit in the island, two thousand five
+hundred and sixty-four feet.  In another direction are visible the green
+tops of the Tamarin and the Rempart; and in a fourth, the three-headed
+mountain called the Trois Mamelles.  Contiguous to these opens a deep
+caldron, two of the sides of which have broken down in ruin, while the
+others remain erect and steep.  Besides these mountains, the traveller
+sees the Corps de Garde du Port Loris de Mocca; Le Pouce, with its narrow
+peak projecting above the plateau like a thumb; and the precipitous Peter
+Botte.
+
+The last-named mountain recalls the memory of the daring Hollander who
+first reached its summit, long regarded as impracticable.  He succeeded
+in what seemed a hopeless effort by shooting an arrow, to which a strong
+cord was attached, over the top.  The arrow fell on the other side of the
+mountain, at a point which could be attained without much difficulty.  A
+stout rope was then fastened to the cord, drawn over the mountain, and
+secured on both sides; and Peter Botte hauled himself up by it to the
+topmost crest, and thus immortalized his name.  The ascent has since been
+accomplished by English travellers.
+
+A trip was also undertaken to the Trou de Cerf, or "Stag's Hole," a
+crater of perfectly regular formation, brimful of bloom and foliage.  As
+no sign or mark betrays its whereabouts, the traveller is seized with
+astonishment on suddenly reaching its brink.  His astonishment soon wears
+off, and he feels an intense delight in contemplating the view before
+him.  It comprises three-fourths of the island: majestic mountains
+clothed in virgin forests almost to their very crests; wide-spreading
+plains, green with the leafiness of the sugar-cane plantations; cool
+verdurous valleys, where the drowsy shadows softly rest; and beyond and
+around the blue sea with a fringe of snow-white foam marking the
+indentations of the coast.
+
+* * * * *
+
+On the 25th of April 1857 Madame Pfeiffer sailed for Madagascar, and
+after a six-days' voyage reached the harbour of Tamatave.
+
+Madagascar, the reader may be reminded, is, next to Borneo, the largest
+island in the world.  It is separated from the African mainland by the
+Mozambique Channel, only seventy-five miles wide.  It stretches from lat.
+12 to 25 degrees S., and long. 40 to 48 degrees E.  Its area is about ten
+thousand geographical square miles.
+
+[The Traveller's Tree: page189.jpg]
+
+Madagascar contains forests of immense extent, far-reaching plains and
+valleys, rivers, lakes, and great chains of mountains, which raise their
+summits to an elevation of ten or twelve thousand feet.  The climate is
+tropical, the vegetation remarkable for abundance and variety.  The chief
+products are gums and odoriferous balsams, sugar, tobacco, maize, indigo,
+silk, spices.  The woods yield many valuable kinds of timber, and almost
+every fruit of the Torrid Zone, besides the curious and useful
+Traveller's Tree.  Palms are found in dense and beautiful groves; and
+among them is the exquisite water-palm, or lattice leaf-plant.  In the
+animal kingdom Madagascar possesses some remarkable forms; as, for
+instance, the makis, or half-ape, and the black parrot.  The population
+consists of four distinct races: the Kaffirs, who inhabit the south; the
+Negroes, who dwell in the west; the Arabs in the east; and in the
+interior the Malays, among whom the Hovas are the most numerous and the
+most civilized.
+
+* * * * *
+
+Tamatave, when visited by Madame Pfeiffer looked like a poor but very
+large village, with between four and five thousand inhabitants.  Of late
+years, however, it has grown into a place of much commercial importance.
+There are some decent houses; but the natives live chiefly in small huts,
+which are scattered over a wide area, with scarcely any attempt at
+regularity of arrangement.  These huts are supported on piles from six to
+ten feet high.  They are built of wood or of bamboo, thatched with long
+grass or palm-leaves; and they contain only one room, of which the
+fireplace occupies a disproportionate share.  Windows are wanting, but
+light and air are admitted through two opposite doors.
+
+The bazaar is situated in the middle of the village, on an irregular
+piece of ground, and is distinguished alike by its dirt and poverty.  The
+articles exposed for sale are only a supply of beef, some sugar-cane,
+rice, and a few fruits; and the whole stock of one of the dealers would
+be dear at a couple of shillings.  The oxen are slaughtered on the spot,
+and their flesh sold in thick hunches, with the skin, which is esteemed a
+great delicacy.  Meat is not bought according to weight, but the size of
+each piece is measured by the eye.
+
+The Tamatavians are principally Malagasys; and, physically, their
+appearance does not recommend them.  They have wide mouths, with thick
+lips; their noses are broad and flat; their chins protrude; their cheek-
+bones are disagreeably prominent.  Their complexion may be any shade of a
+muddy brown.  Generally, their teeth are regular, and very white; but
+against this redeeming trait must be put their hideous hair, which is
+coal-black, very long, very woolly, and very coarse.  When worn in all
+its natural amplitude, its effect is curiously disagreeable.  The face
+seems lost in a "boundless convexity" of thick frizzled hair, which
+stands out in every direction.  But, usually, the men cut their hair
+quite short at the back of the head, leaving only a length of six or
+eight inches in front, which stands upright, like a hedge of wool.  Much
+pride is felt in their "head of hair" by the women, and even by some of
+the men; and, unwilling to shorten so ornamental an appendage, they plait
+it into numerous little tails.  Some coquettishly allow these tails to
+droop all about their head; others twist them together into a band or
+bunch, covering the top of the head like a cap.  No wonder that much time
+is spent in the preparation of so complex a head-gear; but then, on the
+other hand, when once made up it will last for several days.
+
+Now as to the costume of these interesting semi-savages.  Their articles
+of clothing are two in number--the _sadik_ and the _simbre_.  The former,
+which by many natives is considered quite sufficient, is a strip of cloth
+worn round the loins.  The simbre is a piece of white stuff, about four
+yards long and three broad, which is worn much like a toga.  As it is
+constantly coming loose, and every minute needing adjustment, it is an
+exceedingly troublesome though not ungraceful garment, keeping one hand
+of the wearer almost constantly employed.
+
+Males and females wear the same attire, except that the latter indulge in
+a little more drapery, and often add a third article--a short tight
+jacket, called _kanezu_.
+
+Simple as is the clothing of the Malagasy, their food is not less simple.
+At every meal, rice and anana are the principal or only dishes.  Anana is
+a vegetable very much like spinach, of a by no means disagreeable flavour
+in itself, but not savoury when cooked with rancid fat.  Fish is
+sometimes eaten, but not often--for indolence is a great Malagasy
+quality--by those who dwell on the borders of rivers or on the sea-shore;
+meat and poultry, though both are cheap, are eaten only on special
+occasions.  The natives partake of two meals--one in the morning, the
+other in the evening.
+
+The rice and anana are washed down with _ranugang_, or rice-water, thus
+prepared: Rice is boiled in a vessel, and purposely burned, until a crust
+forms at the bottom.  The water is poured on, and allowed to boil.  The
+water in colour resembles pale coffee, and in taste is abominable to a
+European palate.  The natives, however, esteem it highly, and not only
+drink the water, but eat the crust.
+
+* * * * *
+
+One of the great ceremonies of Madagascar, the royal bath-feast, is
+described by Madame Pfeiffer.  It is celebrated on the Malagasy
+New-Year's Day, and has some curious features.  On the eve, all the high
+officers, nobles, and chiefs are invited to court; and assembling in a
+great hall, partake of a dish of rice, which is handed round to each
+guest with much solemnity that he may take a pinch with his fingers and
+eat.  Next day, all reassemble in the same place; and the queen steps
+behind a curtain, which hangs in a corner of the room, undresses, and
+submits to copious ablutions.  Assuming her clothes, she comes forward,
+holding in her hand an ox-horn that has been filled with water from her
+bath; and this she sprinkles over the assembled company--reserving a
+portion for the soldiers drawn up on parade beneath her window.
+
+Throughout the country this day is an occasion of festivity, and dancing,
+singing, and feasting are kept up till a late hour.  Nor does the revel
+end then; it is prolonged for eight days.  The people on the first day
+are accustomed to kill as many oxen as will supply them with meat for the
+whole period; and no man who possesses a herd, however small, fails to
+kill at least one for this annual celebration.  The poor exchange rice,
+and tobacco, and several potatoes, for pieces of meat.  These pieces are
+long thin strips; and being salted, and laid one upon another, they keep
+tolerably well until the eighth day.
+
+Madame Pfeiffer had an opportunity of witnessing the dances, but did not
+find them very interesting.
+
+Some girls beat a little stick with all their might against a thick stem
+of bamboo; while others sang, or rather howled, at their highest and
+loudest pitch.  Then two of the ebony beauties stepped forward, and began
+to move slowly to and fro on a small space of ground, half lifting their
+arms, and turning their hands, first outwards, and then towards their
+sides.  Next, one of the men made his _debut_.  He tripped about much in
+the same style as the dusky _danseuses_, only with greater energy; and
+each time he approached any of the women or girls, he made gestures
+expressive of his love and admiration.
+
+* * * * *
+
+Our traveller obtained permission to enter into the interior of the
+island, and to visit Antananarivo, {197} the capital.  As she approached
+it, she could see it picturesquely planted on a high hill that rose out
+of the broad and fertile inland plain; and after a pleasant journey
+through rich and beautiful scenery, she came upon the suburbs, which
+enclose it on all sides.
+
+The suburbs at first were villages; but they have gradually expanded
+until they have been formed into a compact aggregate.  Most of the houses
+are built of earth or clay; but those belonging to the city must, by
+royal decree, be constructed of planks, or at least of bamboo.  They are
+all of a larger size than the dwellings of the villagers; are much
+cleaner, and kept in better condition.  The roofs are very high and
+steep, with long poles reared at each end by way of ornament.  Many
+houses, and sometimes groups of three or four houses, are surrounded by
+low ramparts of earth, apparently for no other purpose than to separate
+the courtyards from the neighbouring tenements.  The streets and squares
+are all very irregularly built: the houses are not placed in rows, but in
+clusters,--some at the foot of the hill, others on its slopes.  The royal
+palace crowns the summit.
+
+Madame Pfeiffer expressing her surprise at the number of
+lightning-conductors that everywhere appeared, was informed that perhaps
+in no other part of the world were thunderstorms so frequent or so fatal.
+She was told that, at Antananarivo, about three hundred people were
+killed by lightning every year.
+
+The interior of the town was in appearance exactly like one of the
+suburbs, except that the houses were built of planks or of bamboo.
+
+At the time of Madame Pfeiffer's visit, the sovereign of Madagascar was
+Queen Ranavala, memorable for her sanguinary propensities, her hatred of
+Europeans, and her persecution of the Christian converts.  It proves the
+extraordinary power of fascination which our traveller possessed, that
+she obtained from this feminine despot so many concessions--being allowed
+to travel about the island with comparative freedom, and being even
+admitted to the royal presence.  The latter incident is thus described:--
+
+Towards four o'clock in the afternoon her bearers carried Madame Pfeiffer
+to the palace, over the door of which a great gilded eagle expands its
+wings.  According to rule, in stepping across the threshold the visitor
+put her right foot foremost; and this ceremony she also observed on
+entering, through a second gateway, the spacious courtyard in front of
+the palace.  Here the queen was visible, being seated on a balcony on the
+first story, and Madame Pfeiffer and her attendants were directed to
+stand in a row in the courtyard opposite to her.  Under the balcony some
+soldiers were going through divers evolutions, which concluded, comically
+enough, by suddenly lifting up the right foot as if it had been stung by
+a wasp.
+
+The queen was attired in a wide silk simbre, and wore on her head a large
+golden crown.  Though she sat in the shade, a very ample umbrella of
+crimson silk--throughout the East a sign of royal dignity--was held over
+her head.  She was of rather dark complexion, strongly and even sturdily
+built, and, though seventy-five years of age, remarkably healthy and
+active.  On her right stood her son, Prince Rakoto; and on her left, her
+adopted son, Prince Ramboasalama.  Behind her were gathered nephews,
+nieces, and other relatives, and the dignitaries and grandees of her
+kingdom.
+
+The minister who had conducted Madame Pfeiffer and her companion--M.
+Lambert, a French adventurer, who played a conspicuous part in the
+affairs of Madagascar--addressed a short speech to the queen; after which
+the visitors had to bow thrice, and to repeat the words, "Esaratsara
+tombokoc" (We salute you cordially); to which she replied, "Esaratsara"
+(We salute you).  They then turned to the left to salute King Radama's
+tomb, which was close at hand, with three similar bows; afterwards
+returning to their former position in front of the balcony, and making
+three more.  M. Lambert next held up a gold piece of eighty francs value,
+and placed it in the hands of the minister who had introduced them.  This
+gift, which is expected from every stranger when first presented, is
+called "Monosina."  The queen then asked M. Lambert if he wished to put
+any question to her, or if he needed anything, and also addressed a
+remark or two to Madame Pfeiffer.  The bowings and greetings were then
+resumed; obeisance was paid to King Radama's monument; and the visitors,
+as they retired, were again cautioned not to put the left foot first over
+the threshold.
+
+The royal palace is (or was) a very large timber building, consisting of
+a ground-floor and two stories, surmounted by a singularly high-pitched
+roof.  Each story is surrounded by a broad gallery.  The roof is
+supported on wooden pillars, eighty feet high, and rises forty feet above
+them, resting in the centre on a pillar not less than a hundred and
+twenty feet in height.  All these columns are fashioned each from a
+single trunk; and when it is considered, says our authority, that the
+forests containing trees of sufficient size for this purpose lie fifty or
+sixty miles from the capital, that the roads are nowhere paved, and in
+some places are quite impassable, and that all the pillars are dragged to
+the capital without the help of a beast of burden or any single machine,
+and are afterwards wrought and set up with the simplest tools, the
+erection of this palace may justly be called a gigantic undertaking, and
+the palace itself ranked among the wonders of the world.
+
+The government of Madagascar has always been Draconian in its severity,
+and the penalty exacted for almost every offence is blood.  Some of the
+unfortunates are burned; others are hurled over a high rock; others
+buried alive; others scalded to death with boiling water; others killed
+with the spear; others sewn up alive in mats, and left to perish of
+hunger and corruption; and others beheaded.  Recourse is not unfrequently
+had to poison, which is used as a kind of ordeal or test.  This is
+applicable to all classes; and as any one may accuse another, on
+depositing a certain sum of money,--and as, moreover, no accused person
+is allowed to defend himself,--the ordeal does not fall into disrepute
+for want of use.  If the accused endures it without perishing, a third
+part of the deposit is awarded to him, a third part goes to the court,
+and the remainder is returned to the accuser.  But if the accused die,
+his guilt is considered to have been established, and the accuser
+receives back the whole of his money.
+
+The poisoning process takes place as follows:--
+
+The material employed is obtained from the kernel of a fruit as large as
+a peach, called the _Tanghinia venenifera_.  The lampi-tanghini, or
+person who administers the poison, announces to the accused the day on
+which the perilous dose is to be swallowed.  For eight-and-forty hours
+before the prescribed time he is allowed to eat very little, and for the
+last twenty-four hours nothing at all.  His friends accompany him to the
+poisoner's house.  There he undresses, and takes oath that he has had no
+recourse to magic.  The lampi-tanghini then scrapes away as much powder
+from the kernel with a knife as he judges necessary for the trial.  Before
+administering the dose, he asks the accused if he confesses his crime;
+which the accused never does, because under any circumstances he would
+have to swallow the poison.  The said poison is spread upon three little
+pieces of skin, each about an inch in size, cut from the back of a plump
+fowl.  These he rolls together, and administers to the supposed culprit.
+
+"In former days," says Madame Pfeiffer, "almost every person who was
+subjected to this ordeal died in great agony; but for the last ten years
+any one not condemned by the queen herself to take the tanghin, is
+allowed to make use of the following antidote.  As soon as he has taken
+the poison, his friends make him drink rice-water in such quantities that
+his whole body sometimes swells visibly, and quick and violent vomiting
+is brought on.  If the poisoned man be fortunate enough to get rid not
+only of the poison, but of the three little skins (which latter must be
+returned uninjured), he is declared innocent, and his relations carry him
+home in triumph, with songs and rejoicings.  But if one of the pieces of
+skin should fail to reappear, or if it be at all injured, his life is
+forfeited, and he is executed with the spear, or by some other means."
+{204}
+
+* * * * *
+
+During Madame Pfeiffer's stay at Antananarivo a conspiracy broke out,
+provoked by the queen's cruelty.  It failed, however, in its object; and
+those concerned in it were mercilessly punished.  The Christians became
+anew exposed to the suspicions and wrath of Ranavala; and Madame Pfeiffer
+and her companions found themselves in a position of great peril.  The
+royal council debated vehemently the question, Whether they should be put
+to death? and this being answered in the affirmative, What death they
+should die?  Happily, Prince Rakoto interfered, pointing out that the
+murder of Europeans would not be allowed to pass unavenged, but would
+bring down upon Madagascar the fleets and armies of the great European
+powers.  This argument finally prevailed; and Madame Pfeiffer and the
+other Europeans, six in all, then in Antananarivo, were ordered to quit
+it immediately.  They were only too thankful to escape with their lives,
+and within an hour were on their way to Tamatave, escorted by seventy
+Malagasy soldiers.  They had good cause to congratulate themselves on
+their escape, for on the very morning of their departure ten Christians
+had been put to death with the most terrible tortures.
+
+The journey to Tamatave was not without its dangers and difficulties, and
+Madame Pfeiffer, who had been attacked with fever, suffered severely.  The
+escort purposely delayed them on the road; so that, instead of reaching
+the coast in eight days, the time actually occupied was three-and-fifty.
+This was the more serious, because the road ran through low-lying and
+malarious districts.  In the most unhealthy spots, moreover, the
+travellers were left in wretched huts for a whole week, or even two
+weeks; and frequently, when Madame Pfeiffer was groaning in a violent
+excess of fever, the brutal soldiers dragged her from her miserable
+couch, and compelled her to continue her journey.
+
+At length, on the 12th of September, she arrived at Tamatave; broken-down
+and unutterably weary and worn, but still alive.  Ill as she was, she
+gladly embarked on board a ship which was about to sail for the
+Mauritius; and reaching that pleasant island on the 22nd, met with a
+hearty welcome from her friends--to whom, indeed, she was as one who had
+been dead and was alive again.
+
+The mental and physical sufferings she had undergone, combined with the
+peculiar effects of the fever, now brought on an illness of so serious a
+character that for long the doctors doubted whether her recovery was
+possible.  On her sixtieth birthday, the 14th of October, they pronounced
+the brave lady out of danger; but, in fact, her constitution had received
+a fatal shock.  The fever became intermittent in its attacks, but it
+never wholly left her; though she continued, with unabated energy and
+liveliness, to lay down plans for fresh expeditions.  She had made all
+her preparations for a voyage to Australia, when a return of her disease,
+in February 1858, compelled her to renounce her intention, and to direct
+her steps homeward.
+
+Early in the month of June she arrived in London, where she remained for
+a few weeks.  Thence she repaired to Berlin.
+
+Her strength was now declining day by day, though at first she seemed to
+regard her illness as only temporary, and against the increasing physical
+weakness her mind struggled with its usual activity.  About September,
+she evinced a keen anxiety to behold her home once more,--evidently
+having arrived at a conviction that her end was near.  She was carefully
+conveyed to Vienna, and received into the house of her brother, Charles
+Reyer; where, at first, the influence of her native air had an
+invigorating effect.  This gave way after a week or two, and her illness
+returned with augmented force.  During the last days of her life, opiates
+were administered to relieve her sufferings; and in the night between the
+27th and 28th of October she passed away peacefully, and apparently
+without pain,--leaving behind her the memory of a woman of matchless
+intrepidity, surprising energy, and heroic fixity of purpose.
+
+
+
+
+NOTES.
+
+
+{105} Since Madame Pfeiffer's time this mode of self-torture has been
+prohibited by the British Government.
+
+{197} That is, the "City of a Thousand Towns."
+
+{204} We give Madame Pfeiffer's account, as an illustration of the old
+ways of Madagascar society.  But the poison-ordeal has of late been
+abandoned, owing to Christian influence.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF IDA PFEIFFER***
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