grass, no turf — only sand, and rocks peeping out This
then, was the end of life's brief drama here : the rude
end of a still ruder Ufe 1 I saw no tombstones worthy
of the name. I asked the old gravedigger when would
he bury the two little coffins ? " Manana" (to-morrow),
he answered ; " but the place is so full, I hardly know
where to scrape a hole,"

Just then I heard the strains of martial music coming
near. A civil funeral came, heralded by its band ; and
as the shades of evening fell one more coffin was
deposited on the rude blocks of stone, to wait until the
morrow's dawn. — From " Spanish Life and Character in
the Interior during the Summer of 1873," in MacmillaTCs
Magazine,

Similar unpleasant scenes may be witnessed
in many of the fairest mountain districts of Europe,
where, notwithstanding thousands of acres of Italy
and Switzerland lying waste around, the bones
are dug up and exposed for no other " reason "
than " want of room " !



THE CEMETERIES OF PARIS.
