NATURAL HISTORY. (Continued from page 411 of Vol. I.)

We have now completed our survey of animals of the cat kind. In all of them, from the lion down to the domestic puss, we find a similarity of temperament and conformation, with the exception of the chetah, which occupies a middle station between the cat and the dog kinds. The animals of this class, as we have seen, are the lion, the puma or cougar, the tiger, the jaguar, the leopard, the panther, the chetah, the lynx, the caracal or siya-gush, the ounce, the ocelot, the serval, the tiger-cat, the margay, the wild-cat, and the domestic cat.

The whole feline race are the natural enemies of man; and they are the only quadrupeds that make good their ground against him, keeping some portions of the earth in their entire possession. Witness the extensive territories in Africa where the wild beasts are so numerous that the natives are deterred from taking up their residence among them; yielding to the dominant lion and leopard large tracts of country that seem adapted to human convenience.

The animals of this class are distinguished by sharp and formidable claws, which they can extend and close at pleasure. They lead a solitary, ravenous life, uniting neither for mutual defence nor support. Except at certain seasons, they are enemies to each other. They subsist entirely on flesh, and would starve on other food. In their natural state, they are rapacious and cruel, and unfit even for the society of one another, much less for human society, like some domestic animals. It is probable, however, that the fiercest of them could be domesticated. Even the lion himself has been yoked to the conqueror's car, and the tiger taught to guard those herds which in his wild state he destroys. But so great is the trouble of domesticating and subsisting them, that notwithstanding they might be rendered thus serviceable, their service would be obtained at too dear a rate, and consequently they are permitted to roam at large in their native wilds and deserts.

While other kinds of animals are classed with no little difficulty, having but few points of resemblance, and different appetites and dispositions, those of the cat kind, though differing in size and colour, have notwithstanding a near resemblance in the leading traits of their character. All are fierce, rapacious, and artful; all are unchanging in their forms, bearing, even in their domesticated state, the marks of their original wildness. The dog and the cow vary according to circumstance and clime; but the lion, the tiger, the leopard, and the panther, are every where essentially

the same.

We have now done with this ferocious tribe. As a class, it stands pre-eminently conspicuous in the animal kingdom. At its head is the monarch of the forest, the noble and majestic lion. For this reason, we have given this class the first place, contrary to the usual course pursued in natural history. In our next, we shall introduce to the notice of our readers that huge mass of animated matter, the elephant.

LITERATURE. (Continued from page 363 of Vol. I.)

LANGUAGE.

Having copied extensively from the writings of others on the interesting and important subject of language, we will now try our own hand at it, that our readers may at least have something Editorial in this department-whether very literary or otherwise, remains to be seen.

It is supposed by some that man has an innate language, as natural to him as are the various sounds produced by the brute and feathered tribes to them. But if this were the fact, it would evidently predo

minate over artificial language, and the whole earth would have the same dialect. No education, no localities, no circumstances whatever, could eradicate such a language, and substitute another in its place. As soon would the lion's roar or the tiger's yell be changed to the melodious notes of the nightingale. As a further proof of this position, we have only to consider the case of children. These have no language till they learn it of others; and then it is of that kind which they chance to learn. Were they to learn none at all, they would have none at all; as is proved in the case of individuals who have from their infancy been secluded from human society. Peter the Wild Boy, whose biography we gave on page 15 of our 1st. Vol. is a case in point. We have another case in the experiment made by Psamiticus, king of Egypt, and Melabdin Echbar,† in the Indies, who, being desirous of ascertaining the innate or natural language, had some infants brought up without being taught to speak, or permitted to hear any human voice. The result was, that they proved to be little more than mere mutes. The sound which after two years experiment these infants were found to utter, viz. bec, somewhat resembling the Phrygian word for bread, and which Psamiticus therefore supposed to be of Phrygian origin, was a mere sound, void of any signification whatever; such as the dumb, and indeed the veriest infants, sometimes happen to utter.

*

Man, then, has no inherent language. But he has the capacity of acquiring language from another? The inquiry therefore next arises, How came language in the world? How came the first man by language? The conclusion is obvious: It must have been communicated to him by his Creator. There was therefore an original but not an innate language; and this language had a Divine origin.

The next proper inquiry seems to be, What was the nature of this original language? Undoubtedly it was very simple and limited. The longer a language is in use, the more complicated and copious it becomes. Consequently, at its outset it is less so. It has been supposed that language at first had but one part of speech. Without endorsing this opinion, we will give the reasons of its advocates a hearing.

"All that the first men," says Shuckford, "could have occasion to express to one another," must be a few of the names and qualities and actions of the creatures or things about them; and they might probably endeavour to express these by one and the same word. The Hebrew language has but few adjectives; so that it is easy to see how the invention of a few names of things may express things and their qualities. The name man, joined with the name of some fierce beast, as lion-man, might be the first way of expressing a fierce man. Many instances of the same sort might be named; and it is remarkable that this particular is extremely agreeable to the Hebrew idiom. In the same manner the actions of men or creatures might be described; the adding to a person's name the name of a creature remarkable for some action, might be the first way of expressing a person's doing such an action; our English language will afford one instance, if no more, of this matter. The observing and following of a person wherever he goes is called dogging, from some sort of dogs performing that action with great exactness; and therefore Cain Dog Abel may give the reader some idea of the origi nal method of expressing Cain's seeking an opportunity to kill his brother, when the names of persons and things were used to express the actions which were done, without observing any variation of mood and tense or number or person for verbs, or of case for nouns. For all these were improvements of art and study, and not the first essay and original production. Time and observation taught men to distinguish language into nouns and verbs; and afterwards made adjectives and other parts of speech. Time and con• Herod, lib. ii.

+ Purchas. b. i. c. 8

The following description of the building of Babel and the confusion of tongues is from Josephus.

"Now the sons of Noah were three, Shem, and Japhet. and Ham, born one hundred years before the deluge. These first of all descended from the mountains into the plains, and fixed their habitation there; and persuaded others who were greatly afraid of the lower grounds on account of the flood, and so were very loath to come down from their higher places, to venture to follow their example. Now the plain in which they first dwelt was called Shinar. God also commanded them to send colonies abroad, for the thorough peopling of the earth, that they might not raise seditions among themselves, but might cultivate a great part of the earth, and enjoy its fruits after a plentiful manner. But they were so ill-instructed that they did not obey God; for which reason they fell into calamities, and were made sensible by experience of what sin they had been guilty. For when they flourished with a numerous youth, God admonished them again to send out colonies; but they, imagining that the prosperity they enjoyed was not derived from the favour of God, but supposing that their own power was the proper cause of the plentiful condition they were in, did not obey him. Nay, they added to this their disobedience to the Divine will, the suspicion that they were therefore ordered to send out separate colonies, that being divided asunder, they might the more easily be oppressed.

"Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of diam, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God.

as if it was through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured their happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his own power. He also said, "He would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach; and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers."

Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod, and to esteem it a piece o. cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work. And, by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high sooner than any one could expect; but the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height seemed, upon the view, to be less than it really was. It was built of burned brick, cemented together with mortar made of bitumen, that it might not be liable to admit water. When God saw that they acted so madly, he did not resolve to destroy them utterly, since they were not grown wiser by the destruction of the former sinners, but he caused a tumult among them, by producing in them diverse languages, and causing, that through the multitude of those languages, they should not be able to understand one another. The place wherein they built the tower is now called Babylon, because of the confusion of that language which they readily understood before; for the Hebrews mean by the word Babel. confusion."

an arrow from the unerring bow of Apollo quickly winged its flight to the heart of Anion. The cup of grief of the widowed, childless Niobe was now filled to overflowing. Disgusted with life, she went forth into the wilderness, there in solitude to pour forth her tears. Her melancholy and deplorable fate excited the compassion of the gods themselves, and determined them to put a period to her woes. On a sudden, the once beauteous but now disconsolate Niobe found herself deprived of the power of motion, and gradually stiffening into stone. And there on Mount Sipylus she stands, a statue of solid marble; still, however, shedding tears, as if conscious of her former grief. Pausanias, a Greek writer of the second century, who was not a little fond of the marvellous, tells us that on this mount he saw the wondrous statue. "When you are near it," says he, "it is nothing but a steep rock, bearing no resemblance at all to a woman, much less to one weeping; but when you are at some distance, you might imagine it to be the figure of a female in distress."

The story of Niobe has been a favourite subject for sculptors; and it is probable there were once several groups representing the mother and her children. One of these groups forms the Frontispiece to our first volume. Pliny speaks of one in a temple of Apollo at Rome in his time.

There is now extant a very large number of short Greek pieces in verse, commonly called epigrams, though not in our sense of the word. Several of these epigrams refer to some figure or figures representing Niobe, or Niobe and her children. One of them, in two lines, runs thus:

"The Gods turned me while living into stone, but out of stone Praxiteles has restored me to life."

This was undoubtedly intended to express the writer's admiration of some statue of Praxiteles.

There is a longer inscription than the foregoing. is couched in the following terms.

It

"Daughter of Tantalus, Niobe, hear my words which are the messengers of wo; listen to the piteous tale of our sorrows. Loose the bindings of thy hair, mother of a race of youths who have fallen beneath the deadly arrows of Phoebus. Thy sons no longer live. But what is this? I see something more. The blood of thy daughters too is streaming around. One lies at her mother's knees; another in her lap; a third on the earth; and one clings to the breast: one gazes stupified at the coming blow, and one crouches down to avoid the arrow, while another still lives. But the mother, whose tongue once knew no restraint, stands like a statue, hardened into stone."

MOUNTAIN SCENE NEAR THE CEDARS OF
LEBANON.

Our way up the side of Lebanon was steep, and in many parts difficult; but we were repaid by the delightful freshness of the air as we mounted, and the grandeur of the views on every side.

It was about noon when we reached a small stream flowing down from the mountain, on the banks of which we halted to refresh ourselves, and soon after reached the village of Sibbeehel above it. We saw here some ancient sepulchres in the rocks, and a new church just finished, the inhabitants being all Christians of the Greek communion. There was an appearance of fresher health and vigour in the men than is seen in the plains, and the women were fairer than their lowland neighbours. The former were dressed in the usual costume of the peasantry of the country; but the latter wore a horn of metal, differing in shape and position from any that I had yet seen. It was placed on the crown of the head pointing rather backward, like a small diadem; and being flat at the top, and larger there than at the bottom, it looked exactly like one of the small boiling kettles of the country reversed. There is a fine spring, in an arched well, just over Sibbeehel, over which is a cross, and at which we drank. The population of the place might amount to 200 persons; and the state of their grounds spoke favourably of their industry.

In about an hour from hence we passed under another Christian village on the summit of a high hill on our left. This was called Aytou, and though small, had several large and well-built dwellings in it. The road became here so fatiguing to our horses, as to require occasional halts. It was in many places dangerous too, as it presented only a bed of smooth stones, on which the foot could take no hold. The layers of rock having exactly the same form as the surface of the soil and shape of the mountain, presented in masses a steep smooth side, over which it was necessary to lead our animals, and to use great caution ourselves. This same cause renders many parts of the road along the coast disagreeable.

It was fully another hour before we reached the summit of the mountain, this part of which is called Jebel Arrneto. The whole body of this is white limestone rock of different qualities, and here the stone has streaks, or layers of red, as if coloured by the oxide of iron, or some other metal. There was, at this moment, snow still remaining here, though the heat of the sun was nearly equal to that of an English summer. Flocks of large white long-haired goats were browsing on the rocks, under the care of boys and their faithful dogs; and pines and young cedars of a smaller size were abundant. The view from hence, on looking westward, commands an unbounded horizon at sea, with the whole of the coast from Ras-el-Shukkah to the extreme northern point of land seen from Tarabolus. The port and island of that town bore from us about N. by W. W. perhaps fifteen miles; but the town itself was not visible, from the intervention of the hill which overhangs it. The whole of the plain below, with the deep valleys which intersect it, looked beautiful from hence, presenting corn lands of the freshest green, bare patches of ploughed land, showing a deep red soil, and olive trees, and streams of water in abundance. The bluff point of Ras-el-Shukkah, which had been called, according to Strabo, the Face of God, from an idea of its being the end of Lebanon, looked from hence quite insignificant, from being so much lower than our own level; and the white hills and valleys, over which we had crossed with much fatigue, now looked like the little eminences raised by ants, and resembled very much the white hills on the banks of the Jordan, as seen in that valley from the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem. We descended over the eastern side of this Jebel Arrneto, and opened a narrow but exceedingly deep valley, called Wadi Khezheyap. The descent down the perpendicular cliffs of the eastern part of this hill was by winding steps, cut originally in the rock in some places, and formed by stones and earth in others, over which it was necessary to lead our horses with great caution. The valley was watered by a fine stream, running through it, and presented on