Chess. PROBLEM No. 5.-White to mate in four moves.-(By S. F.) GAME V.-Mr. Withers gives P and two moves to Mr. Rankin. (2) Better take Knight with B, but any way White has the best of the Game. THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE. FEBRUARY, 1858. The Rajpootnee Bride A Tale of lestern Asiatic India. To all moderately inquisitive readers of the ancient history of Asiatic India-to all who, looking back beyond the political and military questions raised by recent events, have found an interest in the older records of a race once highly civilised and intellectually accomplishedthe hereditary pride and traditional valour of the Rajpoots must be familiar. That they were animated by a high-toned feeling of chivalry, even in the better acceptation of the term; that, having been originally the military caste under the old Hindoo system, they have been isolated from other nations and banded together by a feudal system resembling the clanship of Celtic tribes; and, that their history presents many instances of heroic daring, self-devotion, implacability in feud, fidelity in friendship, and love stronger than death; are facts which those ancient chronicles everywhere and abundantly attest. Their pride of birth, however, surviving the substantial claims on which it was formerly based, at length degenerated into a superstition and a vice. It supplied a motive for the unnatural practice of female infanticide; for the Rajpoot, despairing of a matrimonial settlement worthy of his daughter's rank, and desiring to avoid the Oriental reproach of female celibacy, proudly and savagely trampled on and extinguished one of the strongest instincts of human nature. It happened sometimes that the privilege of intermarriage formed a clause in diplomatic treaties even with the Imperial family of Delhi; and that the sanguinary competition of rival suitors was set at rest by the violent death of the fair object of contention. Out of traits and characteristics, such as these, it may be naturally supposed that many a tale of wild, passionate, and tragic romance would arise-many a ballad with which the old bards of Western India flattered the vanity, X deepened the sentiment, and inflamed the passions of their hearers. tales of that character, the following is one of the most remarkable, as illustrating most vividly the cherished peculiarities of the race. In the memorable and prosperous reign of the Emperor Jehanghire, a Rajpoot chief of the Harah tribe, whose zenana had failed to supply him with a son, found himself amply compensated by a daughter, in whom the courage and intellect of the other sex seemed to be happily combined with the beauty and tenderness of her own. Being an only girl and of strong will, the lovely and clever Sooria easily succeeded in so far casting off the conventional restraints of her sex, that she was habitually, though tacitly, admitted to bear a part in the diplomatic counsels of her father, and even in the still less feminine amusement of the chase. The most fiery horse was obedient to her rein; her javelin was the most unerring; and her courage and presence of mind, cool and steady; and yet, her beauty-of that soft and voluptuous tone which Hafiz might have celebrated-brought many lovers, not, as in the west, to kneel before the fair Rajpootnee; but to sigh within view of the latticed windows of the zenana, and to return without a token. At length, on a great hunting excursion, it chanced that the adventurous Princess, separated accidentally from her companions, found herself unexpectedly confronted by a tiger that sprang from a jungle and fastened its claws upon her horse's neck. Keeping her seat firmly while the scared and wounded animal reared and plunged; she drew a dagger from her belt and, with flashing eyes and lips compressed, buried it up to the hilt in the body of her assailant. But the wound, not mortally planted, only awakened all the fury of the beast, and of course aggravated her danger. She was alone, and certain death was before her; the sensations of half a life seemed crowded into a second; the open jaws were closing upon her shoulder; and the hot breath of the monster moistened her face; but, just then, a young hunter whom she had never before seen, came thundering close by upon a flying steed; she saw but the glance of a triumphant eye, the flash of a bright scimitar, and the headless trunk of the tiger rolling to the earth. He came and went like a hurricane, and she was saved. Astonishmentglad surprise-held her motionless a moment; and, when she looked round, her preserver was sweeping away into the distance and urging his horse to its utmost speed. Little as she had seen, however, and short as the view had been; she knew by his features and dress that he was a chief of the Rahtore tribe; and her heart sank at the discovery; for she remembered the unquenchable feud that burned, through generations past, between his ancestors and her own, drawing additional bitterness, as it lengthened, from every successive act of aggression and retaliation. These quickly changing thoughts were still flitting through her mind, when her father approached her. Looking coldly upon the mangled body of the tiger, he made no inquiry into the circumstances of the encounter; but, in a few, short, severely-spoken words, bade her mount a camel and accompany him home. It occurred to her immediately that he must have seen the Rahtore, and that his face was darkened by the presence of his enemy; and so, they returned together in that proud and unquiet silence that seals the lips of those who know that each is reading the other's thoughts. Still, she found it impossible to forget the youth of the strong hand, who had come and gone so mysteriously; and, as she felt that she was tacitly forbidden to utter his name, he was the more constantly present to her memory and imagination, and lived and moved in her sleeping and waking dreams; that one glance of his eagle eye, the lightning stroke of his tulwar, and his graceful figure, as he vanished away in the haze of the distance, only became more vividly present as the days rolled past. In general, the bolder her resolutions were, the more deliberately and infallibly she executed them, and she now promised to herself faithfully that they should meet again. Jealously watched as she was by her father and warned as well by the prohibition implied in his silence, as by the impatience with which he received any allusion to the affair of the tiger, she sought in vain for an opportunity; but difficulty and delay only lent additional strength to her determination. Her secret messengers, bearing intelligible tokens of her favour, returned disappointed, for the old Harah was keen-eyed as a lynx: the usual expeditions to the jungle seemed to be altogether discontinued; and still, she plotted and hoped on. Accident at length brought to pass what ingenuity had failed to effect. After several weeks of tedious seclusion, she was again in the field, and again separated from her attendants. Attracted by the sound of strange voices and the clashing of steel, she emerged into a broad avenue between the trees, and there once more beheld the object of her long search. He was, however, neither near her nor alone; but at the end of a long vista and surrounded by a gang of dacoits, with whom he was fighting for his life. Spurring her horse towards the scene of action, she sent a javelin into the brain of one of the assailants; and the rest, believing that she was but one of a large rescuing party, took flight, leaving the young Rajpoot with a deep sabre-cut on the head and bleeding to exhaustion. Springing to the ground beside him, she bound, up his wound with a torn turban, and then, commanding her attendants, who shortly after arrived on the spot, to place him in a palanquin which accompanied the expedition for the accommodation of any who may happen to be wounded, conveyed him to her father's palace. In all semi-barbarous nations the necessities and mutual conveniences of society have rendered hospitality a religious observance. In the Korân, it is the charity most emphatically inculcated: and although the Chief of the Harah tribe discharged all the duties, and paid all the attentions so enjoined, to his hereditary enemy, he could not refrain from praying, in the suppressed and aggravated bitterness of his heart, "that his shadow might diminish." Among the attentions, however, which the Rahtore received during his convalescence, there was one that, although not, most probably, contemplated by the prophet, contributed more than any other to his recovery. This was the frequent presence and tender care of Sooria herself; for, during that short sojourn under the same roof, the lovers arrived at a full understanding of their mutual affection. As he lay upon the soft divan of tiger-skins, while two dark, lustrous, starry eyes shone out upon him through the folds of her yashmak, he told her, in that earnest and gently-moving language which love alone can dictate, how he had watched and waited and contrived-often seeing but ever unseen since the first accidental view in which, like unexpected light, she had flashed upon his soul; how he had fought against the strong fascination that clung round him; remembering the legacy of hatred left him by his ancestors, anticipating the insulting scorn with which his advances would be repelled, and seeking in his pride a barrier which was at length and for ever swept away by his passion. Sooria listened without anger or reproof: vows were exchanged, more ardent for being forbidden; and, as he was taking formal leave of his entertainer, the Rahtore frankly solicited the hand of his daughter in marriage, and offered to draw the pen of forgetfulness and forgiveness across all that had ever been written on the pages of memory by each against the other. This gentle offer the Harah rejected with insult and indignation, and reproached his generous guest with having taken advantage of the opportunity presented by a religious ceremony to ensnare the affection of his child. The imputation was repudiated with all the quick resentment and keen sensitiveness to injustice, that distinguish the high spirit of the Rajpoot; and from the loud recrimination that ensued, the two enemies parted, with an additional element of bitterness issued into their quarrel; because personal insult was now added to hereditary jealousy; and in a |