and impressive of all carnivorous animals, the most magnificent in aspect, and powerful in voice-is alluded to in all the stages of its existence, as the whelp, the young adult, and the matured lion or lioness. These stages are described under different names, exhibiting that multiplicity of denomination which always results when some great image is constantly present to the popular mind. Thus we have for a lion's whelp, a very young lion (Gen. xlix. 9; Deut. xxxiii. 20,,etc.); chephir, a young lion when first leaving the protection of the old pair to hunt independently (Ezek. xix. 2, 3; P's. xci. 13, etc.); ari, an adult and vigorous lion (Nahum 11, 12; 2 Sam. xvii. 10, etc.); and sachal, a black lion (Job iv. 10, x. 16; Ps. xci. 13; Prov. xxvi. 13, etc.).

Recent researches have shewn that while the lion, which is generally met with in the jungle of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, is without the shaggy mane of the African species, there does occur a variety of this animal, especially on the river Karun, which has a long black mane. Layard tells us that the inhabitants of the country make a distinction between them and the common maneless lion, the former being described as Kaffirs, or infidels, and the others as Mussulmans. By a proper remonstrance, and at the same time pronouncing a profession of faith, a true believer may induce the maneless lion to spare his life, but the black lion is deaf to all such appeals, and is considered as inexorable.

Mention is also made in the Scriptures, of laish, a lion in a state of fury (Job iv. 2; Prov. xxx. 30, &c.), and also labiah, a lioness (Job iv. 11), where lions' whelps are denominated the sons of Labiah, or of the lioness.

The Scriptures, it has been justly remarked, present many striking pictures of lions, touched with wonderful force and fidelity. Even where the animal is represented as a direct instrument of the Almighty, while true to its mission, it still remains true to its nature. Thus nothing can be more graphic than the record of the man of God (1 Kings xiii. 24), disobedient to his charge, struck down from his ass and lying dead, while the lion stands by him without touching the lifeless body, or even attacking the living animal. Samson's adventure also with the young lion, pictured as coming up from the cover, on the banks of the Jordan, attests a perfect knowledge of the animal and its habits. Finally, the lions in the den with Daniel, miraculously leaving him unmolested, still retains in all respects the real characteristics of the animal.

The lion, as an emblem of power, was symbolical of the tribe of Judah (Gen. xlix. 9). The type recurs in the prophetical visions, and the figure of this animal was among the few which the Hebrews admitted in Scripture, or in cast metal, as exemplified in

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the throne of Solomon. It exists in the sculptures of all the great nations of antiquity, Egyptian, Chaldean, Babylonian, Assyrian, and Persian. The heathen a-sumel the lion as an emblem of the sun, of the God of war, of Ares, Ariel, and Arioth, in all of which the expletive ar, afterwards incorporated in the names of kings and magnates, occurs. It was also the emblem of dominion in general and of valour, and occurs as such in the names and standards of most nations.

The lion was met with by the Euphrates Expedition, as far north as Balis, in the parallel nearly of Aleppo, and it is also, according to Layard, not uncommon on the RiverKhabur, in Central Mesopotamia. The Bedwins and Jeburs, he tells us, frequently find their cubs in the spring season; and while the explorer was at Arban, a Bedwin came to the encampment, who had been attacked by a lion while resting on the banks of the river, and had only escaped by the sacrifice of his mare.

But it is apparently in Chaldæa that they most abound in the present day, in as far as the Sultan's dominions are concerned. Living as they do to more than fifty years, and having an annual litter of from three to five cubs, their numbers is not surprising; and although having less cover than in the jungle of the Tigris and Karûn, they are probably attracted to the open by the facility of obtaining food; for antelopes or the deer tribe are not common in the woods in the lower portion of the great rivers. Layard, alluding to the marshes and jungle of the rivers of Chaldæa, as being the retreats of many kinds of wild animals, writes, "Lions abound. I have seen them frequently, and during the excavations at Niffar; we found fresh traces of their footsteps almost daily, among the ruins. The Maidan, or so-called Arabs, boast of capturing them in the following manner, and trustworthy persons have assured me that they have seen the feat performed. A man having bound his right arm with strips of tamarisk, and holding in his hands a strong piece of the same wood, about a foot or more in length, hardened in the fire, and sharpened at both ends, will advance boldly into the animal's lair. When the lion springs upon him he forces the wood into the animal's extended jaws, which will then be held open, while he can despatch the astonished beast at his leisure with a pistol, which he holds in his left hand." ("Nin. and Babylon," pp. 566, 567.)

Mr. Loftus also testifies to the frequency of lions in Chaldæa. That able and active explorer describes on one occasion his servant, Murad, a negro, originally a slave from Mozambique, as shooting two cubs at one shot, in the ruins of Sinkara. He was immediately dubbed by the Arabs as Abu Sebaïm, "the father of two lions," and retained the name ever afterwards.

The Arabs did not at all relish the multitude of lions, which had taken up their head-quarters at these ruins. When roused from their slumbers by their deep, sepulchral roar, they would draw closer together, shouting "The lion! the lion!" pile brushwood on the fire, grasp their spears, sing their war chaunt, and exhibit other signs of trepidation and alarm.

Mr. Loftus remarks that the lion appears, from the tablets found at Sukara, to have been indigenous to the Chaldæ in marshes from the earliest times. During his stay at that place, the lioness mother of the cubs destroyed all the dogs, some half-dozen in number, that the Arabs had with them. Her nocturnal wail in search of her cubs is also described as being very affecting, and struck terror into the hearts of the nearly naked Arabs. Mr. Loftus also describes lions as abounding at the ruins of Susa. He, however, expresses himself as disappointed in the quality of the roar of the Chaldæan and Susitanian lion. The sound which it utters, is, he says, at times like the squall of a child in pain, or the first cry of the jackal at sunset, but infinitely louder, clearer, and more prolonged.

The lion has been found represented on the pictorial tablets in clay found in Chaldæa ("Travels and Researches in Chaldaea, &c.," by W. K. Loftus, p. 258), as also on the Assyrian sculptures, in which the triumphs of the king over that noble animal are deemed no less worthy of record than his victories over his enemies. The bones of a lion have also been discovered by Dr. Roth, in gravel, near the Jordan, showing that the lion, as well as Bos primigenius, or Bison priscus, or some other species of once formidable ox, as also elk, and a large red deer or stag, once dwelt in Syria and Palestine.

EAST INDIAN LIFE.

BY LIEUTENANT-COLONEL COPINGER.

There was then an officer at Cawnpoor whose career was more celebrated than that of Conolly, and whose fate was more fortunate than to perish by the cruel fiat of a "barbaric king." It was the heroic Havelock, who was then only a subaltern in a marching regiment, but you could find scarcely any officer in the cantonment there, who was (whether his rank was high or low) not aware of Havelock's abilities. The man who struggles through want and adverse circumstances, and "the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes," is really in his calamitous circumstances, greater than when, in after-life, he achieves greatness. The lengthened ordeal of suffering, which is nobly borne, makes one reverence the afflictions of a good man. Havelock was equally remarkable as a good Christian and as an oriental scholar, and, when the fierce breath of war blew in his ears he showed himself the man to lead the Anayandron who had been ridden over by the contemptible rules which decreed that one in possession of coin should supersede any competitor, however meritorious he should be. And just at this time, also, Charles Kane and his bride returned from the hills to Cawnpoor.

The round of gaiety and the reckless pursuit of pleasure was as much the prevailing character of the cantonment as it was when Charles was a single man; but, happily now he had no temptation to lure him from home. India to a married couple who are truly attached to one another, and wholly undesirous of other pursuits than those which a contented home affords, has its advantages. But how few are the married people who are completely absorbed in home! Rouchefaucauld says 'there are few marriages that are even of an average happiness, and none that are completely happy!"

But the French cynic was not cognisant of the influence which a spirit of true Christianity may effect. And, indeed, we may hope that there are many households which under its benign banner are in the enjoyment of true peace. But there were certainly numerous instances of those who were inconstant couples, and one couple was there also that made a short visit to Cawnpore on their way from the hills to Calcutta. The lady was that far-famed

fair one whose beauty was of a transcendant order. Not in romance but in sober reality, a king afterwards renounced his crown to obtain possession of her charms and to make her his consort. When she entered a ball-room at Cawnpore such was the sensation she caused that she was immediately surrounded by several officers who, fascinated as it were by her appearance, appeared"dazzled and drunk with the beauty" they were gazing at. To describe such a well-known figure and face I will not attempt, but four officers kept near her every dance, to be ready to claim her hand by turns as the dances ended, and when she went away from the room before the fourth had had his turn for dancing with her, so exasperated was he that he insulted the officer who had been her partner at the time of her leaving the room, and it was with great difficulty that their mutual friends hindered them from fighting a duel. She was (if ever any being was), endowed with the fatal gift of beauty. Soon after this time she became her own mistress (having deserted her husband) and ran through her brilliant but feverish career of celebrity, so well-known that few have not heard of the charms and fame of Lola Montes.

There were also two others whose history is given in a sketch of Cawnpoor life, called "The Rival Beauties," which was published in Bentley's Miscellany for October and November, 1861.

But I would now speak of acts which were much more characteristic of gentle ladies, and more admirable than any of those which made those fair ones so remarkable. Sophia, in the work of doing good to her fellow.creatures, of visiting the sick and reading to them, in assisting to educate the soldiers' children, and inducing the natives to accept copies of the New Testament in their own language, was, heart and soul, engaged. And by the bedside of soldiers in hospital, also, she often took her place.

Even those who offer the incense of flattery to the conqueror who has waded through slaughter to pre-eminence, and who join the vulgar herd in beaping applause on him who has achieved success, are fain to render their meed of praise to disinterested benevolence, or to gratuitous charity. Who will not acknowledge the excellence of those

"Who copy Shaftesbury's most noble part,

To ease the oppress'd, and raise the sinking heart ?"

Let his mansions for the helpless poor; or the assemblages of dwellings for workmen, showing Peabody's munificence for the same cause, stand as monuments more endeared to every Briton and every generous man of any other country, and more illustrious than any of the arches or columns which have been erected to