OCTOBER 26, 1861.] F TUJ NS. 53


 GREECE,-ITS HUMOUROUS HISTORY.
 BY M'ASSA HOYLE.
 Illustrated with Sketches taken on the Spot.
 CHAPTER THE SIXTH.
 THE social condition of the Greeks in the heroic age is a subject we
cannot pass over in total silence; but we will be humourous about it
and not dry, cut along and cut it short. There were domestic slaves
in the houses of the great, but they were very easy, if not exactly free.
The people were just like great babies, for they were always in arms.
The kingly power was hereditary, save in one or two instances, when
the people thought they might reap some benefit from a change of
heir. Capital punishment was looked upon with disfavour, especially
by prisoners. Stoning to death, hurling off precipices, and burying
alive, were the styles resorted -to in extreme cases,-styles very
seldom got over by the unfortunate wrong-doers. Youths and
maidens made themselves generally useful; the girls made the beds,
and the boys attended to the flocks.
 The conviviality of the Greeks appears to have been of a mild
nature, the wine was always mixed with water, and each guest had
a table to himself; there was plenty of health drinking but no long
speeches; any quantity of pledging, but no spouting whatever. The
minstrel was always invited to "oblige the company," and the stock-


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dancer of the establishment, like the premiere danseuse of an
unprosperous theatre, was always ready to dance to "orders." The
popular ignorance was remarkable, and their sea voyages of the most
limited nature. Their vessels, like ladies at modern parties, were
only half-deck'd. From the earliest times they divided the year into
twelve lunar months, and named the different parts of the day from
the civil occupations belonging to them. Thus, there was the milk
below" period, the "call for orders period, the "wash the steps"
period, the twopenny post" period, "the luncheon" period, and so
on, up to the bread and cheese and bed period, when the Greeks
retired to their attics. The surgeons appear to have limited their
operations to that of taking out arrows; they were generally of good
extraction, and frequently got a great pull out of their patients.
 Poetry and the fine arts were looked upon with reverence, and the
art of writing was, though little known, considered to be a great
accomplishment, and looked upon as the write sort of thing to do. As
to HOMER's poems, it is a question if they were written: at all events
in Greece, unlike France, there was very little literary composition
" put down." People who wrote anything remembered it, as any one
who writes anything unpleasant about the French EMPEROR is in
these days also likely to do.
 The Greek alphabet is generally supposed to be derived from
Phoenicia, and perhaps we had better finish here ourselves.


THE PIous AENEAS INSURES HIS FATHER'S LIFE.


 "SORROW IS DRY."
 A newspaper paragraph informs us that-
 The CARDINAL AnRCHuSHOP oF BODanEAX and some priests of his diocese have
lately sent the PopE a good supply of claret, for the express purpose of' con-
soling him in his present grief.'"
 We have for some time heard that the Papacy is "tottering on its
throne." We trust that too free an indulgence in the consolation
thus offered, will not lead to its "staggering on its pins" as well.
The power of the Holy See may be considerably more than halfway
towards its end, but we should be sorry indeed to have it said of Pio


NoNO that it was a case of half see's over." The Porn has been
advised to disband his army and give up all idea of temporary
sovereignty. But even if compelled to lay down his arms, lot us hope
that he will still be able to keep his legs at any rate.


 M BONNY JEAN.-The KING OF GRAND BONNY, as we gather
from a weekly paper, has arrived safely in his own dominions. We
should think he must suffer from the change of climate, specially as
he returns without his Clothes.


VOL. I.


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