It blows with a rustle of palms And a sound of the laurel and bay, Far voices and clapping of hands, Like applause at the end of a play: It strengthens the poet like wine, And clothes him from head unto feet In the power and glory of life. Oh, the South wind, the song-wind is sweet! It lifts the gold hair of a girl Till it shines in the sun like a flame, It flows through the locks of a man Toiling hard at his song and his fame; It is heavy with music of birds; It has whispers no lips can repeat: The angels float by on its tide. Oh, the South wind, the song-wind is sweet! Ah, world! while the South wind prevails-- With flowers and rushes and streams, Intrude not a sound of thy wheels, But leave me alone with my dreams-- My reveries born of this breeze; And my life, though lowly it be, Will be happier far than a king's If the South wind, the song-wind kiss me! JAMES MAURICE THOMPSON. NORTHWARD TO HIGH ASIA. From Calcutta my route was northward to Thibet, to reach, if possible, its capital city of Lhassa, residence of the Grand Lama of the Booddhists--the pontifical sovereign of Eastern Asia. My journey thither was planned by the way of Sikkim, and thence through the Cholah Pass in the Himalaya range. I was most anxious to reach a city so interestingly described by the Abbe Huc nearly thirty years ago, and to learn something further about the present condition and prospects of the "Snowy Region of the North" and the lofty table-lands of Central Asia, so seldom visited by European travelers. The cars of the East Indian Railway carry one in a single night 220 miles to the town of Sahibgunge and the banks of the Ganges. The first sight of the sacred river excited in me but little enthusiasm. It was about a mile in width, shallow and very muddy, with a swift current and dreary sandy banks, where huge crocodiles were basking in the sun. Its religious character among the Hindoos is well known. Though highly esteemed from its source to its mouth, there are some particular places more eminently sacred than others--as Benares, Allahabad and Hurdwar--and to these pilgrims resort from great distances to perform their ablutions and carry off water to be used in future ceremonies. The Ganges water is also valued for its supposed medicinal properties, and in the British courts of justice witnesses of the Brahmanical faith are sworn upon it.