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intoxicating
41(

Aicinsh potion, sang louder than ever, accom-
panied by conch and tam-tam, whilst the chiefs divided
the skulls into small fragments, intended as presents to
all the friendly villages. The distribution was then and
there made, and the ceremony declared at an end. Dane-
lien began. The savages ranged themselves in two
and began t^ shout, howling like furious

rately of

Besides the singular and disgusting orgies de-
scribed in the above extract, the author narrates
other circumstances, which leave no room to doubt
the practice of cannibalism among those degraded
and wretched savages. Their mode of burial is
also delineated with much force. It consists, in
its preparatory stages at least, in slowly drying,
by a sort of roasting process, the body of the
deceased, accompanied by certain rude and un-
couth ceremonies, which we regret want of space
will not allow us further to particularise. The
book, however, contains many interesting facts
relative to the inhabitants of the Philippine
Islands, and their peculiar habits. Those regard
their religious belief, which appears to be a very

loose kind of paganism, fluctuatinc, in the objects
of its adoration, and rude as wellb as ruthless in
its forms of observance. As a whole, though
bordering, as stated at the commencement of this
notice, on the romantic and marvellous, M. Ge-
roniere's book is, nevertheless, one replete with
interesting materials ; and as it is a very cheap
work, forming one number of the series published
under the name of the " Traveller's Library," we
think it can hardly fail to attain an extensive po-
pularity

Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial
Regions of America. By Alexander Von Hum-
boldt and dime Bonpland. Edited by Thomasina

Ross. Vol. 111. London : Henry G. Bohn.
This, which forms the concluding volume of M.
Von Humboldt's personal narrative, is exceedingly
interesting. It abounds in philosophical specula-
tions, is imbued with a fine spirit of truthful en-
quiry, and comes upon the world now, towards the
close of the veteran naturalist's long and useful
labours, as a crowning trophy of his investigations
and his usefulness. At all times having his ob-
servant eye open to the impressions inspired by the
stupendous magnificence of American scenery, he
never permits himself to be made the slave of ex-
cited feeling, nor to be led away by the surpassing
grandeur of the scenes and objects by which he is
surrounded. On the contrary, with a truthful
earnestness 'of thought and manner, he weighs the
realities of the positions and materials amidst
which he is placed, and faithfully imparts these to
his readers, without exaggeration, and with a
felicitous freedom from restraint. The immensity
of space and the variety of reflections which force
themselves upon the observation of an intelligent
traveller as he traverses the vast American plains
are well displayed in Humboldt's description of the

IMMENSE EXTENT OP VIEW IN THE LLANO&
After three days' journey, we began to perceive the chain
of the mountains of Cumuna, which separates the Llanos,
or, as they are often called, " the Great Sea of Verdure," from
the coast of the Caribbean Sea. If the Bergantin be more
than eight hundred toises high, it may be seen, supposing
an ordinary refraction of 1-14th of the arch, at the distance
of 27 nautical leagues ; but the state of the atmosphere
long concealed from us the majestic view of this curtain
of mountains. It appeared at first like a fog-bank, which
hid the stars near the pole at their rising and setting ;
gradually this body of vapour seemed to augment and
condense, to assume a bluish tint, and become bounded
by sinuous and fixed outlines. The same effects which
the mariner observes on approaching a new land present
themselves to the traveller on the border of the Llano.
The horizon began to enlarge in some part, and the vault
of heaven seemed no longer to rest at an equal distance on
the grass-covered soil. A Llanero, or inhabitant ,of the
Llanos, is happy only when, as expressed in the simple
phraseology of the country, "he can see everywhere well
around him." What appears to European eyes a covered
country, slightly undulated by a few scattered hills, is
to him a rugged region bristled with mountains. After
having passed several months in the forests of the Orinoco,
in places where one is accustomed, when at any distance
from the river, to see the stars only in the zenith, as
through the mouth of a well, a jonriasy in the Llanos is
peculiarly agreeable and attractive. The traveller expe-
riences new sensations ; and, like the Llanero, he enjoys
the happiness of "seeing well around him." But this
enjoyment, as we ourselves experienced, is not of long.
duration. There is, doubtless, something solemn and
imposing in the aspect of a boundless horizon, whether
viewed from the summits of the Andes or the highest
Alps, amid the expanse of the ocean, or in the vast plains
of Venezuela and Tucuman. Infinity of space, as poets
in every language say, is reflected within ourselves ; it is
associated with ideas of a superior order ; it elevates the
mind, which delights in the calm of solitary meditation.
It is true also that every view of unbounded spa*. bears a
peculiar character. The prospect enjoyed from a solitary
peak Varies according as the clouds reposing on the plain
extend in layers, are conglomerated in groups, or present
to the astonished eye, through broad openings, the habi-
tations of man, the labour of agriculture, or the verdant
tint of the aerial ocean. An immense sheet of water,
animated by a thousand various beings, even to its utmost
depths, changing perpetually in colour and aspect, move-
able at its surface like the element which agitates
it, all charm the imagination during long voyages by sea ;
but the dusty and crevice(' Llano, throughout a great part
of the rear, has a depressing influence on the mind by its
unchanging monotony. When, after eight or ten days'
journey, the traveller becomes accustomed to .the mirage
and the beautiful verdure of a few tufts of Ilauritia, (the
fan-palm, or sago tree) scattered, from league to league, he
feels the want of more varied impressions. He loves again
to behold the great tropical trees,—the wild rush of tor-
rents,—or hills and valleys cultivated by the hand of the
labourer. If the deserts of Africa, and of the Llanos or
Savannahs of the New Continent filled a still greater
space than they actually occupy, nature would be deprived
of many of the beautiful products peculiar to the torrid
zone. The heaths of the north, the steppes of the Volga,
and the Don, are scarcely poorer in species of plants and

animals, than are the twenty-eight thousalid square
leagues of Savannahs, extending in a semicirle from north-
east to south-west, from the mouths of the Orinoco to the
banks of the Caqueta and the Putumayo, beneath the
finest sky in the world, and in the land of plantains and
bread-fruit trees. The influence of the equinoctial climate,
everywhere also so vivifying, is not felt in places where the
great associations of gramina almost exclude every other
plant. Judging from the aspect of the soil, we might
have believed ourselves to be in the temperate zone, and
even still further northward, but that a few scattered palms,
and at nightfall the fine constellations of the southern sky
(the Centaur, Canopus, and the innumerable nebulae with
which the ship is resplendent), reminded us that we were
only eight degrees distant from the equator."

The foregoing may be taken as a specimen of
the contemplative and philosophising spirit which
pervades the narrative. The volume, and of course
the work, is wound up by a perspicuous and charm-
ing epitome of the geological structure of the
South American Continent. As a whole, the book
is not only an extensive and valuable addition to
our scientific literature, but so interesting is the
manner inwhich the various topics are treated, that
it cannot fail to be as interesting to the reader of
popular literature, as it is acceptable to the scien-

tific inquirer.
New Songs. London ; Cramer, Beale & Co.
These eminent publishers have lately issued a
number of new and popular songs of a high order,
which will, no doubt, obtain that extensive popu-
larity to which they are entitled. Hatton's song,
" Good bye sweetheart, good bye," is very effective,
and the charming manner in which it has been
sung by Mr. Sims Reeve, has already caused it to
be much spoken of. Silas' song, like all his other
compositions, is of a very high class ; it is a beauti-
ful melody and has a very attractive accompani-
ment. "'Twas on a Sunday morning," and "Let
nobody know," are charming ballads of a very
original character, and have been rendered with
great effect by the admirable singing of Miss
Kathleen Fitzwilliams. " Think on me," and
" Hither come," written by Thomas Blake, the
music by G. Linley, are already established
favourites : the poetry is really good, and the
music elegant and unpretending. They are, with-
out doubt, the best of Gege Linley's compositions,
an d promise a long run inor popular favour.

g W lk' • k
WALECING--TICICS.— a ing-shc_s were first intro-
duced into fashion by the effeminate Henry 11. of France,
but did not become a requisite appendage to the gentle-
men of fashion in England till the year 1655, at which
time they were formed with an indented head, in order
to afford a more easy pressure of the hand which they
supported. Ingenuity, which, in matters of fashion, is
for ever on the alert, now crowned it with -the addition
of the round and hollow top, which sometimes contained
nutmeg or ginger, to warm the stomach of the valetu-
dinarian, and sometimes sugar-candy for the asthmatic ;
but snuff soon after coming into universal use among the
bon ton of society, the cavity was exclusively appropriated.
to its reception, and the meeting of- two Mends was In-
variably marked, after the first by the un-
tiFrafing of the tops of their waWng4tieks.