him. Let us then seek for the Holy Spirit to change our wicked hearts and to enable us to copy his example.

THE ESQUIMAUX.

THE Esquimaux are a numerous people, very widely spread over the most northern countries of America. There are several tribes of them, but they all speak one language. They are a race different from the other natives of America, and there are very few Europeans among them, nearly all of whom are missionaries.

The Esquimaux are short in stature, and generally less than five feet in height. They have large heads, full faces, small and flat noses, round and plump cheeks, with wide mouths and thick lips. They have extremely dark eyes, which look small and strange, because the eye-lids are thick and fat. Their ears are far back on the head, and their hair is long, straight, and black as jet. Some of the men pluck out their beards, and others wear them of a size almost sufficient to hide their faces. Their bodies are of a tawny or brown colour, large, square, and robust, the chest being high and the shoulders broad; yet the hands and feet are uncommonly small.

The climate of the regions inhabited by the Esquimaux is intensely cold throughout the whole of the winter, which lasts about nine months. Neither vegetation, nor sheep, nor cattle, are then to be found abroad, but there are mountains of ice and plains of snow; the rivers are frozen and solid as glass, and the ground becomes hard as a stone. All things present an appearance of whiteness, even the skins of wild animals and the feathers of most of the fowls.

The severity of the weather compels the Esqui

maux to wrap themselves up in the beautiful furs of the wolves or the bears, or else in the skins of the seal. Thus the people are well protected, so that there is nothing to be seen of them but part of their faces and of their hands. The dress of the women is similar to that of the men.

Their food consists of bears, wolves, whales, seals, or any flesh they can obtain, and they are very fond of oil and fat. Their appetite for such diet is aided by the cold, which has caused even Englishmen, when exposed to its sharpness, to relish similar provision.

The Esquimaux build their houses in a cluster together, looking outside like hills or mounds of snow, with an entrance so low that you are obliged to crawl in on hands and knees. They have roofs of thick ice, which would also form windows for them were they not covered with filth. A lamp of oil is suspended from the ceiling and always kept burning, and a bench of ice, covered with skins, surrounds the chief apartment.

As soon as the winter is over the men are busy in fixing poles for their tents, and 'the women in sewing skins together to cover them. In these they live during the short and bright summer.

They then employ themselves in taking the seal, in fishing, and fowling, and hunting, that they may lay up a store of victuals against the time when the weather shall again compel them to shut themselves up in their dwellings of snow.

The picture of the Esquimaux woman will bring to mind both her affection for her own offspring and her kindness to the dogs, that assist the family so much in obtaining the necessaries of life; for when this useful animal is sick and helpless, it is the woman that takes care of him, and when the men sometimes beat and threaten him, the woman

speaks kindly to the poor creature, and he shows his gratitude by obeying her always.

The Esquimaux follow, by the aid of their dogs, which are fastened to a sledge, "the track of the reindeer, and so keen is the sense of smell that they discover the seals which lie in their holes under the ice of the lakes, at a great distance, or the bears in their winter retreats, or prowling about the shores of the frozen sea. **Two or three dogs, led on by a man, will fasten upon the largest bear."

Those of our young friends who read the Child's Own Book for 1850 will remember that all the Esquimaux were once considered savage and wicked, but since the missionaries have made known to them the love of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of sinners, many of them have become believers in him, honest and upright, kind and generous.

THE ATONEMENT.

ON the most solemn annual religious festivals of the Jews, the great Day of Atonement, the high priest was dressed, not in his splendid vestments, but in plain linen garments, such as were worn by the ordinary priests.

It was his duty first to offer sacrifices for himself and his family. To make atonement for his own sins and those of his household, he presented a bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. After he had done so, two young goats were brought to him by the people for their sin offering, and the ram for their burnt offering; these he presented before the Lord at the door of the sanctuary, in order that he might make atonement for the sins of the nation. He then cast

lots, to decide which of the two goats should be slain in sacrifice, and which should be the scape goat.

The high priest, after he had killed the bullock as a sacrifice for himself, took a censor or firepan, and filled it with burning coals from off the brazen altar. Having sprinkled sweet incense upon the coals, he went with the censor into the Holy of Holies, and put it just before the ark, that a cloud of rich perfume might cover the mercy-seat.

The tabernacle or tent in which God dwelt among the Israelites was a large room divided into two apartments by a thick and beautifully embroidered veil or curtain. That part of the foom between the door and the curtain was called the holy place, and was without, or outside the veil. The portion of the room farthest from the door and inside the curtain was called the most holy place, or the Holy of Holies. This was said to be within the veil, where the high priest only was permitted to enter. The high priest having placed the censor, then came from behind the veil, through the holy place, into the space, or court, outside the tabernacle, where the people were permitted to be. He then took some of the blood of the bullock, entered a second time into the Holy of Holies, and sprinkled the blood once upon and seven times before the mercy-seat.

After coming again into the court, and killing the goat on which the Lord's lot had fallen, he went a third time into the Holy of Holies with some of the goat's blood. This, also, he sprinkled once on and seven times before the ark and mercyseat.

After this, he mixed together the blood of the bullock, his own sin offering, and the blood of the goat, the people's sin offering, then sprinkled that