"Admirer."—The Passion Play, which is celebrated once in ten years in the peasant village of Oberammergau, in the Bavarian Tyrol, is a relic of the ancient Miracle Plays and Mysteries which were so popular among the common people throughout Europe during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The Passion Play represents the closing scenes in the life of Christ, and sometimes includes, as it does this year, tableaux vivants of incidents in the Old Testament. Usually about five hundred performers appear on the stage, although the speaking roles number only a little over two hundred. All the characters are represented by the peasants of the village, the principal ones being selected fully two years previous to the performance, that they may become perfectly drilled in the parts allotted to them, and allow their hair or beards to grow to imitate as nearly as possible the best existing pictures of the various characters they are to represent. The theatre is an immense wooden structure erected for the purpose, capable of containing nine or ten thousand spectators; for, so widespread is the fame of this peasant festival that crowds flock to see it from every part of Germany, and travellers from England and the United States make efforts to be present at this strange performance. You will find a full account of the Passion Play in Harper's Magazine for January, 1871.
PUZZLES FROM YOUNG CONTRIBUTORS.
No. 1.
DIAMOND.
In errand. A poisonous reptile. A flower. A vegetable. In errand.
A. H. E.