How I Spent My Five Weeks' Leave.

dream of the ladder , and received that gracious promise , " In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed . " Well mig ht he cry out on wakening , " How dreadful is this place ; this is none other than the house of God . " Hence the

name Beth-el , afterwards changed by the gross idolatry of Jeroboam into Beth-aven ( House of Idols ) Hosea s . 5 , 8 . Truly the prophecy of Amos has been fulfilled , " Bethel shall come to nought . " ( Amos v . 5 ) .

Rising at four , and breakfasting at five , we are in the saddle before six ; and after a lovely ride through the best cultivated valley we have yet : seen , but which bears an ill name for murders and robberies , we turn off to the right to visit Shiloh ,

where we find a ruined building of which little is standing except the doorway , the upper part of which has some apparently Roman ornamentation of two chaplets with an urn between them . An Arab woman , who is watering * some spinach , is very abusive , and takes up stones to throw at us .

After an hour or two more riding , in which we gather quantities of honeysuckle and other flowers , we reach a magnificent spreading evergreen oak , under which there is abundant shade for ourselves and twelve horses . Here we have morning prayer ,

as it is Sunday , and then lunch . Natives gather round us , and among them we notice one little girl with a heavy string of coins tied on her head , the usual female ornament here . To our suprise we are told that she is married ! We inquire her

age , and are told seven ! I ask how many children she has , but am told that she is a bride ! It appears that here a man may marry as many wives as he can afford to buy , and as female children are sold , a man with a " long family" makes

it pay . Our guide told us a story of a man who marrien ten wives ! At last he got one child with one leg and one eye ! ! We now ride through a long valley of waving corn , the hills on each side being dotted with occasional villages , which here

have to be fortresses too , as they are perpetually at feud with one another . ( To be continued . )

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

NETHEEIATOS 3 T . lt . The Annual Calendar for Netherlands Freemasons for 1869 ( Jaarboekje ) is just out at the Hague . The price is 2 s . — NOTA .

Glagow Cathedral.

GLAGOW CATHEDRAL .

The above emblems are slightly cut upon the stone sill inside of second window on south side of the choir in Glasgow cathedral . Although the date 1556 is given , I am not inclined to believe they were cut then for three reasons : — 1 . That was before Archbishop Beaton had left the

city , consequently few masons would have cared about cutting and carving inside a Eoman Catholic cathedral while its head was still at hand . 2 . It is more likely to be no -older than the first half of the 18 th century , whatever less . 3 . There are a great many initials and names , also

other irrelevant matter cut upon the sills of the adjacent windows , all done , I believe , comparatively recently , many , no doubt , a few years ago , when the cathedral was being " restored . " The modern Masons in this case having very little sympathy with the work of their predecessors , as can easily be seen .

Towards south side of Lady Chapel stands a monument to Archbishop Law , who died in 1632 . There is carved upon it the skull and crossbones , and resting upon the skull is a winged hourglass , and above it again is a weighing beam , with a weight suspended from each end , while on each side of the skull are three stalks of full-eared wheat . The mention of the skull reminds me of those fine lines by Lord Byron , viz .,

—" Is that a temple where a God may dwell ? "Why even Hie worm at last disdains her shatter'd coll ! Look on its broken avch , its min'd wall , Its chambers desolate , and portals foul : Yes , this was once Ambition ' s airy hall , The dome of Thought , the palace of the Soul : Behold through each lack-lustre , eyeless hole , The gay recess of Wisdom and of Wit ,

And Passion's host , that never brook'd control : Can all saint , sage , or sophist ever writ , People this lonely tower , this tenement refit ?" The above is found in Canto II . of " Childe Harold ' s Pilgrimage . " Poor Byron ! highly gifted , but unfortunate , he was . He , of all men , needed the firm anchor of a sure faithbut it seems to have been

con-, tinually slipping from his grasp . Yet who shall judge what was going on in the inmost recesses of his heart ? Peace to his ashes , and shame to the prattling woman who disgraces her sex by soiling her hands with infamy ! Long may the Masonic fraternity keep up the idea" Nor a woman under any pretence whatever . "

, Amongst the gravestones lying around the cathedral , at about twenty yards west by south ot south-west corner of Blackadar's crypt , there is a stone with the effigy of a bishop carved in relievo upon it . It is 6 ft . 5 in . long by 2 ft . 3 ^ in . broad , and Sin . thick . Around