runs a small stream called the
Pegnitz, "dividing the town into two nearly equal halves, named after
the two great churches situated within them; the northern being termed
St. Sebald's, and the southern, St. Lawrence side."

In the northern part of the division of St. Sebaldus rises a high hill,
formed, at the summit, of vast rocks, on which is situated the ancient
Reicheveste, or Imperial Castle, whose origin is fairly lost in the dark
old days of Heathenesse. From it the traveller can obtain an admirable
view of the romantic town below. In regarding it, I was irresistibly
reminded of the remarkable resemblance existing between most of its
buildings and the children's toys manufactured by the ingenious artisans
of Nuremberg and its vicinity.

[Footnote 57: A native of Philadelphia, who has resided much abroad, and
pursued a varied literary career; he possesses a familiarity with the
German language and character, which he has turned to good account in
the comic ballads by Hans Breitman.]

* * * * *

=_George William Curtis, 1824-._= (Manual, p. 504.)

From "Nile Notes of a Howadji."

=_243._= UNDER THE PALMS.

Thenceforward, in the land of Egypt, palms are perpetual. They are the
only foliage of the Nile; for we will not harm the modesty of a few
mimosas and sycamores, by foolish claims. They are the shade of the mud
villages, marking their site in the landscape, so that the groups of
palms are the number of villages. They fringe the shore and the horizon.
The sun sets golden behind them, and birds sit swinging upon their
boughs and float gloriously among their trunks; on the ground beneath
are flowers; the sugar-cane is not harmed by the ghostly shade, nor the
tobacco, and the yellow flowers of the cotton-plant star its dusk at
evening. The children play under them; the old men crone and smoke; the
surly bison and the conceited camels repose. The old Bible-pictures
are ceaselessly painted, but with softer, clearer colors, than in the
venerable book.

... But the eye never wearies of palms, more than the ear of
singing-birds. Solitary they stand upon the sand, or upon the level,
fertile land in groups, with a grace and dignity that no tree surpasses.
Very soon the eye beholds in their forms the original type of the
columns which it will afterwards admire in the temples. Almost the first
palm is architecturally suggestive, even in those western gardens--but
to artists living am