And lastly, the Jesuit Menestrier, in the preface to his "Treatise on Ballets", published in 1682, says, that he had himself seen the canons of some churches take the singing boys by the hand on Easter day, and dance in the choir, singing hymns of rejoicing. What has been said in the article on "Calends," of the extravagant dances of the feast of fools, exhibits a part of the abuses which have caused dancing to be discontinued in the ceremonies of the mass, which, the greater their gravity, are the better calculated to impose on the simple. MASSACRES. It is perhaps as difficult as it is useless to ascertain whether "_mazzacrium,_" a word of the low Latin, is the root of "massacre," or whether "massacre" is the root of "_mazzacrium._" A massacre signifies a number of men killed. There was yesterday a great massacre near Warsaw--near Cracow. We never say: "There has been a massacre of a man; yet we do say": "A man has been massacred": in that case it is understood that he has been killed barbarously by many blows. Poetry makes use of the word massacred for killed, assassinated: "_Que par ses propres mains son père massacré._"--Cinna. An Englishman has made a compilation of all the massacres perpetrated on account of religion since the first centuries of our vulgar era. I have been very much tempted to write against the English author; but his memoir not appearing to be exaggerated, I have restrained myself. For the future I hope there will be no more such calculations to make. But to whom shall we be indebted for that? MASTER. SECTION I. "How unfortunate am I to have been born!" said Ardassan Ougli, a young _icoglan_ of the grand sultan of the Turks. Yet if I depended only on the sultan--but I am also subject to the chief of my _oda,_ to the _cassigi bachi_; and when I receive my pay, I must prostrate myself before a clerk of the _teftardar,_ who keeps back half of it. I was not seven years old, when, in spite of myself, I was circumcised with great ceremony, and was ill for a fortnight after it. The dervish who prays to us is also my master; an _iman_ is still more my master, and the _mullah_ still more so than the _iman._ The _cadi_ is another master, the _kadeslesker_ a greater; the _mufti_ a greater than all these together. The _kiaia_ of the grand vizier with one word could cause me to be thrown into the canal; and finally, the grand vizier could have me beheaded, and the skin of my head stripped off, without any person caring about the matter.