distinct specimen of a woman, and a good illustration of the vast amount of littleness to be met with in small-big people.'

"Yes, it is wonderful how tenacious some are about their dignity, which can never suffer but from themselves."

"A platitude, my dear girl, that all are ready to admit, but few to act upon; you must beware of platitudes.'

66

How do you mean?"

"I mean that people have grown so accustomed to the ritual of certain truths that their deep sense is lost in sounds that convey no meaning beyond the acknowledged fact that they have become. platitudes to which we all assent, but never heed."

"Shall we have any dancing at Mrs. Baines's? I am longing for a dance!"

"I fear not; the weak brethren have to be considered in a clergyman's house."

"Weak brethren!" I exclaimed, laughing. "What are they like?"

"I can't say-for I never saw one. Individually most people profess themselves proof against all temptation, but abstain from certain harmless amusements on account of the weak brethren. I am rather curious, therefore, to see one; or to know if the brother exists that ever owned to a weakness that would not yield some self-complacency in owning it," she said, smiling as she rose to leave, making me promise to see her as soon as I could after our party

was over.

At length the day of the twentieth arrived. To my aunt's vexation, Uncle Worthington announced his intention of staying at home that evening. After much expostulation he only said

"If you expect me to go to such balderdash as an At Home, you are very much mistaken. If any one will come and take me as I am ["Heaven forbid !" muttered Dolly], and have a game of whist, I shall be happy to welcome them; but I'll see them at Old Harry's first before I go and dress up to spend an evening to talk bosh, so understand that at once. As long as the girls want to go they can, and you are free to take them; but I mean to stay at home."

"Come only this once," pleaded my aunt, "as it is our first party; what excuse can I make for you? You are in perfect health."

"Say the truth, my dear, that I prefer a chapter out of Swift, Shakespeare, or Sterne, if I want amusement, and to sit at home with my pipe in my comfortable cabin up aloft, to seeing a lot of men and women, dressed and undressed, making fools of themselves, pretending to be very polite and fond of each other, when they are

ready to cut each other's characters, if not throats, at the smallest notice."

As his obstinacy on this point was not to be overcome we were forced to go without him.

Dolly and I were immensely interested in each other's appearance this evening when the ceremony of dressing took place, -she in pink, I in white.

"Truly you are born to carry all before you—you look splendid!" I exclaimed, with a genuine burst of admiration as I finished assisting her.

"Thank you, dear," she said quietly, taking it as her due. "Now let me help you."

After a few finishing touches, she said, "Yes, you will do; "I like your dress extremely; there is a decided air of superiority about it that will carry off the palm. Pe prepared to create a sensation, my child."

"Don't talk nonsense! you make me feel miserable; I never could make friends with people at first."

"I didn't talk about your making friends: I simply said you would create a sensation, a pleasing flutter of hope and surprise." "Don't forget your music," said my aunt to me, at that moment entering the room.

"But my wrist !" I exclaimed, glad to escape the ordeal of a public performance.

"Dolly will accompany you."

"Of course, I will; I wouldn't have you leave your music. behind for worlds. But before we go I wish to remind you, my beloved friends, that if you have occasion to address me in public. this evening, which no doubt you will, that the name I received at my baptism, when I promised to renounce the pomps and vanities of this wicked world-a promise, I am happy to think, no one ever seems, or is expected, to keep, by the way-was Medora, not Dolly, as in tender moments you are wont to call me ;" and she finished off with a low bow. After a hearty laugh at her dramatic action and request we started for Mrs. Baines's At Home.

TURKEY:

ITS NATURAL HISTORY AND RESOURCES

BY THE EDITOR.

PART V.

MAMMALIA.

Ir would, perhaps, have appeared less pedantic to have headed this chapter-quadrupeds-more especially as such are what we have really in view; but as the monkey and bat tribes-the quadrumana and the cheiroptera-cannot precisely be said to be quadrupeds, yet come among the mammals, or mammiferæ, there was no help for it but to adopt the more comprehensive heading.

To begin, then, with the higher organised mammals, the monkeytribe, one species is twice noticed in the Old Testament (1 Kings x, 22; and 2 Chron. ix. 21) under the name of koph, whence the "kupos" of the Septuagint, and "cephus" of the Romans. But as this animal is associated in both cases with thoukiim, rendered 'peacocks' in our version, but, from the prehensile meaning of the word, more probably parrots-it is also most probable that in both cases animals are alluded to which were brought from Ophir, in Southern Africa, by the fleet of Tarshish.

There are, however, traditions of the existence of a large ape or baboon in the jungle of the lower Euphrates or Tigris; and Mr. Rich notices the satyrs of the desert in his "Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon," p. 30; but such an animal was not met with or heard of during the exploration of those two rivers. Supposing it to have been once a tenant of the Mesopotamian wilderness, which is far from unlikely, the untractable and brutal, yet semi-human character of the whole genus would indeed be sufficient to sanction the Arabic name "saadan," and the Hebrew "sadim," indicating satyr of the desert. Mr. Rich says his informants called them "Said" or "Sayyid Assad ;" and he adds, they are found in the woods near Semava, on the lower Euphrates. This is very likely to be the case, for the Arabian ape or baboon (Macacus Arabicus), a species nearly allied to Cynocephalus hamadryas, on the one hand, and to Macacus Silenus on the other-all three, powerful, fierce, and libidinous animals, is said to be met with from the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, through Southern Arabia to the Euphrates and Tigris. It is remarkable that this species is all the less solicitous about the vicinity of trees, as it is armed with powerful canines;

holds its enemy firmly grasped, and fights not singly, but assisted by the whole troop. Hence it frequents jungle and even scrubby ground near water, and would find plenty of suitable cover near the last-mentioned rivers. Colonel Hamilton Smith, believes that this animal will ultimately prove to be a baboon, and the same as Simia Cynomolgus of Haselquist. The so-called Macacus Arabicus is described as having a dog-like nose, the skin of the face of a reddish colour with a large tuft of hair on each side, and this would correspond with the description given of the tartarin or dog-faced baboon, Cynocephalus Hamadryas, also met with in Arabia.

Looking at the semi-human form of this animal it must be admitted that it was peculiarly adapted to the purposes of idolatry in its grossest and most debasing aspect, as is still met with in India, in the instance of the Macacus Sinicus, and when Mr. Rich's informants called it Said or Sayyid, they must have looked upon it as an almost sacred animal. The Hebrew people, already familiar with a similiar worship in Egypt, may have copied the native tribes in the wilderness, and have thus drawn upon themselves the remonstrance in Levit. xvii. 7, where the allusion to these animals is very distinct, as also in Isa. xiii. 21; and again xxxiv. 14; where the image is perfect, when we picture to ourselves the sayrim or "hairy ones," lurking in the tamarisk groves of the river Euphrates. The most ancient form of the Arabian Urolalt was that of a baboon, the name having some reference to red and to the Indian monkeyworship. Four different species of quadrumana, all, however, apparently foreign, are represented on the obelisk of Nimrud. One is conjectured to represent an ape; another the hunuman, venerated by the Indians; a third the bruh, the largest of the Indian monkey tribe, and a fourth, the wanderoo, or maned ape of India.

The Rev. Wm. Houghton, in a paper on the mammalia of the Assyrian sculptures, read before the Society of Biblical Archæology, admits, with Layard, that the monkey with a white face like that of a man, and with a fringe of whiskers neatly trimmed round it, is the Presbyter entellus, or hunuman of India, and he also advocates the presence of Macacus Silenus. It is remarkable that the Assyrian word for monkey was "u-du-mu," or a-da-ma," the same as the Hebrew and Arabic word "a-dam,” a man. This, at all events, attests to the antiquity of an hypothesis erroneously supposed to belong to our own times.

Species of the bat tribe, most plentifully represented in the East, are alluded to in the Old Testament under the name of Atalleph, as unclean animals. They are the "wedji kushi" of the Turks, "slepi mish" of the Slaves, "litigak" of the Dacians, and "nykteriza" or nykterida" of the Greeks. The common bat is so abundant that in some towns they issue forth at twilight

in myriads, and where there are no windows penetrate into the rooms, where they are of great use in destroying musquitoes. They congregate in especial numbers in caves and ruins. Long-eared bats of a lighter colour, are also seen, but more rarely. An attempt was made to explore a staircase in the deserted castle of Al Mamum, on the river Euphrates, called from that Khalif's devotion to astronomy, Kalah en Nesjm or the "castle of stars," in the search of a tunnel traditionally said to have existed at that place (more probably, however, at Zenobia); but as, after driving away the bats, a work of no small labour, the excavation had to be carried on through their dung-the accumulation of years-it bad after a time to be per force given up, from the suffocating odour, the finer particles penetrating everywhere.

Mr. Layard describes a visit made to a cave on the side of Kukab, the "Star" mountain of central Mesopotamia, when an avalanche of loose stones being set in motion, disturbed swarms of bats that hung to the sides and ceiling of the cavern. Flying towards the light, these noisome beasts almost compelled the party to retreat. They clung to their clothes, and their han ls could scarcely prevent their settling on their faces. The nestling of their wings he describes, as being like the noise of a great wind, and an abominable stench arose from the recesses of the cave.

The first tribe of these animals, distinguished as being without tails, is not at present known either in Egypt or Arabia; but of the second, having tails, a large species was discovered by Geoffrey St. Hilaire, in the Pyramids, and a very large one is figured on the oldest monuments. Mr. Tristram has since discovered large foxheaded bats (Xantharpyra Egyptiaca), in the rocks at Kalat-alKurn, above the plain of Acre, in Syria.

Among the insect-eating quadrupeds, most of which are valuable fur-bearing animals, we have the common hedge-hog ("kipri" er "kirpi" of the Turks, "skantzoc-hoiros" of the Greeks, and "kunfred" of the Arabs). The flesh of this animal is esteemed by the Arabs as strengthening. A long-eared species is met with in the south, which seems either to be Erinaceus auritus of Pallas, or E. Egyptus of St. Hilaire; but Mr. Tristram says a hedge-hog was brought to him which was identical with the European species.

Two species of shrew-mice ("keustebek" of the Turks, "chamoragus" of the Greeks) are met with in the fields, one of which appears to correspond to Sorex pusillus of Gmelin. Mr. Tristram met with some peculiar field mice in Palestine. One was a curious little sand mouse of a pale, tawny colour, and its back covered with spines instead of hair (Acomys dimidiatus), and another little porcupine-mouse, Acanthomys Cahirinus. Both were found in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea.