of gold; but was it less by Divine guidance that the Mede, as he struggled out of anarchy, encompassed his king with the sevenfold burning of the battlements of Ecbatana ?—of which one circle was golden like the sun, and another silver like the moon; and then came the great sacred chord of colour, blue, purple, and scarlet; and then a circle white, like the day, and another dark, like night; so that the city rose like a great mural rainbow, a sign of peace amidst the contending of lawless races, and guarded with colour and shadow that seemed to symbolise the great order which rules over Day, and Night, and Time--the first organisation of the mighty statutes, the law of the Medes and Persians, that altereth not.

"Let us not dream that it is owing to the accidents of tradition or education that those races possess the supremacy over colour which has always been felt, though but lately acknowledged among men. However their dominion might be broken, their virtue extinguished, or their religion defiled, they retained alike the instinct and the power; the instinct which made even their idolatry more glorious than that of others, bursting forth in fire-worship from pyramid, cave, and mountain, taking the stars for the rulers of its fortune, and the sun for the god of its life; the power which so dazzled and subdued the rough Crusader into forgetfulness of sorrow and of shame, that Europe put on the splendour which she had learnt of the Saracen, as her sackcloth of mourning for what she suffered from his sword; the power which she confesses to this day, in the utmost thoughtlessness of her pride, or her beauty, as it treads the costly carpet, or veils itself with the variegated Cachemire, and in the emulation of the concourse of her workmen, who, but a few months back, perceived, or at least admitted, for the first time, the pre-eminence which has been determined from the birth of mankind, and on whose charter Nature herself has set a mysterious seal, granting to the Western races, descended from that son of Noah whose name was Extension, the treasures of the sullen rock, and stubborn ore, and gnarled forest, which were to accomplish their destiny across all distance of earth and depth of sea, while she matured the jewel in the sand, and rounded the pearl in the shell, to adorn the diadem of him whose name was Splendour."-Vol. ii. p. 146.

J. W.

THE ZOOLOGY OF THE BIBLE,

No. I.

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS (Hippopotamus amphibius).

CLEAR as it now is to any one who reads the fortieth chapter of Job, with the hippopotamus before him, that behemoth is the creature so well depicted in verses 15-24, our ancestors were not so certain of it. The translators of the Bible in King James's time add the following marginal note to the word: "This beast is thought to bee the elephant, or some other which is unnowen;" while the sagacious and worthy Matthew Henry, in his commentary, notwithstanding the learning of Bochart, has the following note:

"Behemoth signifies beasts in general, but must here be meant of some one particular species. Some understand it of the bull; others of an amphibious animal, well known (they say) in Egypt, called the river-horse (hippopotamus), living among the fish in the river Nile, but coming out to feed upon the earth. But I confess I see no reason to depart from the ancient and most generally received opinion, that it is the elephant that is here described, which is a very strong, stately creature, of very large stature, above any other, and of wonderful sagacity, and of so great a reputation in the animal kingdom, that among so many fourfooted beasts as we have had the natural history of (ch. 38 and 39), we can scarcely suppose this should be omitted."

There were no museums or zoological gardens in Matthew Henry's days, and the hippopotamus was only known by rude engravings. Linnæus was quite satisfied that the hippopotamus is the creature to which the sacred writer refers. In the "Systema Natura" his concise description ends, "Behemot Jobi."

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On the mosaic pavement at Præneste, in which so many of the animals and plants of Egypt and Ethiopia are figured, there is a passable representation of the creature among water plants,* about to plunge into the river; and a little behind, a very recognisable head, evidently drawn by the artist from the living animal, is represented projecting from the water, just over the back of a crocodile. The chase of the hippopotamus was a favourite sport in ancient Egypt. The mode of attacking and securing it, as represented on the sculptures of Thebes, appears to have been similar to that now followed in Sennaar; where, like the ancient Egyptians, they prefer chasing it in the river, to an open attack on shore and the modern Ethiopians are contented to frighten it from the corn-fields by the sound of drums and other noisy instruments. It was entangled by a running noose, at the extremity of a long rope wound upon a reel, at the same time that it was struck by a spear. This weapon consisted of a broad flat blade, furnished with a deep tooth or barb, at the side having a strong line of considerable length attached to its upper end, and running over the notched summit of a wooden shaft, which was inserted into the head or blade, like a common javelin. It was thrown in the same manner; but, on striking, the shaft fell, and the iron head alone remained in the body of the animal; which, on receiving a wound, plunged into deep water, the line having been immediately let out." The attendants of a sportsman, when the creature was fatigued by exertion, dragged it to the boat, when it was again wounded and entangled by other nooses, till it was finally subdued, a procedure somewhat reminding us of the capture of that behemoth of the Polar Sea, the whalebone whale. Some

"He lieth- under the covert of the reed and fens. The willows of the brook compass him about.”—Job, xl. 21, 22.

Wilkinson's "Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians," i. p. 239.