* * * * *

LOVE’S KERCHIEF.

(For the Mirror.)

It was a custom in my time to look through a handkerchief at the new year’s moon, and as many moons as ye saw (multiplied by the handkerchief,) so many years would ye be before ye were wed.

  When sunset and moon-rise
    Chill and burn at once on the earth—­
  When love-tears and love-sighs
    Tickle up boisterous mirth—­
  When fate-stars are shooting,
    Sparks of love to the maid
        To fill her funeral eye with light,
  And owlets are hooting
    Her sire’s ghost, which she’s unlaid
        With vexation, down backward in night;
  Then the lover may spin from that light of her eye,
  (As through his sigh it glances silkily,)
  With the wheel of a dead witch’s fancy,
  The thread of his after destiny—­
        All hidden things to prove. 
  Then make a warp and a woof of that thread of sight,
  And weave it with loom of a fairy sprite,
  As she works by the lamp of the glow-worm’s light,
  While it lays drunk with the dew-drop of night,
        And ye’ll have the kerchief of love: 
  Then peep through it at the waning moon,
  And ye shall read your fate—­anon.

* * * * *

A SKETCH OF SINGAPORE.[1]

Near the village of Kampong Glam[2] I observed a poor-looking bungalow, surrounded by high walls, exhibiting effects of age and climate.  Over the large gateway which opened into the inclosure surrounding this dwelling were watch-towers.  On inquiry, I found this was the residence of the Rajah of Johore, who includes Sincapore also in his dominions.  The island was purchased of him by the British Government, who now allow him an annual pension.  He is considered to have been formerly a leader of pirates; and when we saw a brig he was building, it naturally occurred to our minds whether he was about to resort to his old practices.  We proposed visiting this personage; and on arriving at the gateway were met by a peon, who, after delivering our message to the Rajah, requested us to wait a few minutes, until his Highness was ready.  We did not wait long, for the Rajah soon appeared, and took his seat, in lieu of a throne, upon the highest step of those which led to his dwelling.  His appearance was remarkable:  he appeared a man of about forty years of age—­teeth perfect, but quite black, from the custom of chewing the betel constantly.  His head was large; and his shaven cranium afforded an interesting phrenological treat.  He was deformed; not more than five feet in height, of large body, and short, thick, and deformed legs, scarcely able to support the ponderous trunk.  His neck was thick and short, and his head habitually stooped; his face bloated, with the lower lip projecting, and large eyes protruding, one of them having a cataractal appearance.  He was dressed in a short pair of cotton drawers, a sarong of cotton cloth came across the shoulders in the form of a scarf, and with tarnished, embroidered slippers, and handkerchief around the head (having the upper part exposed) after the Malay fashion, completed the attire of this singular creature.