feet of his intended victim, upon whom he lavished the fondest tokens of joy and affection. Then, turning to the vast assemblage, which had gathered to witness these cruel and wicked sports of a Roman holiday, with looks full of angry reproach he gave forth a roar so tremendous as to make the earth fairly tremble.

13. Androcles, thus suddenly snatched from the very jaws of death, quickly recognized his old friend and companion of the jungles; and his astonishment and joy were certainly not less than those of the lion. The people, who could not account for such strange conduct on the part of the fiercest and most powerful of wild animals, and moved with sympathy for the man whom a hungry lion would not harm, shouted, "Pardon! pardon!"

14. The games were stopped; and, when the story of Androcles was told, the Emperor granted him a full pardon, restored him to liberty, and made him a present of the lion. After that the noble animal, seeming to have lost all his savage nature, followed Androcles about the city, just as a faithful mastiff would follow his master.

15. "This interesting story," the teacher remarked, "is believed to be true,—or, at least, to be founded on fact. It seems to have been first written by the Roman historian Aulus Gel'lius; and it has since been related in various forms by many other writers, to show the wonderful effects sometimes produced by kindness to animals."

III.-Poetic Version of the Story.

1.

Androcles, from his tyrant lord, in dread

Of instant death, to Libya's desert fled.
Tired of his toilsome flight, and parched with heat,
He spied at length a cavern's cool retreat;

But scarce had time to rest his weary frame,
When, hugest of his kind, a lion came.
He roared, approaching; but the savage din
To moanings changed when he arrived within;
And, with expressive looks, his swollen paw
He raised, and aid implored from whom he saw.

2.

The fugitive, affrighted, and unmanned,

Dared not, awhile, reach forth his trembling hand;
But, bolder grown, at length, enclosed he found
A pointed thorn, and drew it from the wound.
The cure was wrought, he wiped away the blood,
And firm, and free from pain, the lion stood.
Again the lion roams, and day by day
Supplies Androcles with the bloody prey.
Welcome the sweet repast, though unprepared,
Spread on the ground, and with a lion shared.

3.

But thus to live, still lost, an exile still,—
Scarce seemed the doom of death a heavier ill!
Home! native home! again its joys to share!
He must-he will-though death attends him there.
He goes,-and, doomed to perish, on the sands
Of the full theatre unpitied stands;

When, lo! the self-same lion, from his cage
Flies to devour him, famished into rage.

4.

He bounds!-he roars!-but, viewing in his prey
The man his healer, pauses on his way,
And, softened by remembrance into sweet -

And kind composure, crouches at his feet.

Mute with astonishment the assembly gaze:

But why, ye Romans? Whence your mute amaze ?
All this is natural. Nature bade him rend

An enemy;—she bids him spare a friend.—Cowper.

CHAPTER XXXIII.—AROUND THE WORLD.-No. 17.

FROM BOMBAY TO CALCUTTA AND RANGOON.

I.-Railroad Journey Across Hindostan.

1. We had all expected to go by sea from Bombay to Calcutta, but, almost at the last moment before our steamer left the harbor, Dr. Edson decided to go by land; and half a dozen of our party, together with Henry and myself, embraced the opportunity to accompany him.

2. So, taking passage on the Great Indian Peninsular Railway, we were rapidly whirled away through the vast territory known on our maps as Hindostan', but called, by our English cousins, British India. This is a British dependency, comprising an area equal to that of one-half of our own United States and their territories, and embracing a population of two hundred millions of people; while our boasted "Universal Yankee Nation," as Dr. Edson says, claims less than one-fourth of that number! Perhaps it is because I am so far away from home,-but, whatever may be the cause, my own country does not seem quite so prominent among the nations as it once did.

3. "Everything, indeed, in this far-off India," says Dr. Edson, "seems to be on so vast a scale, that it is perfectly bewildering to the imagination! The highest mountains in the world are on the northern borders of Hindostan; it is the seat of an ancient civilization, the beginnings of which, like those of Egypt, are unknown; and scattered

all over this land are splendid monuments of a by-gone age,―temples, and palaces, that were built long before the Christian era." But he closed his description of the wonders of this strange land by informing us that there are in India, yearly, some fourteen thousand deaths from the bite of poisonous reptiles; while unknown numbers of persons are destroyed by tigers and other wild animals that infest the jungles and the dense forests!

4. One hundred miles north-east of Bombay we stopped a couple of hours at the town of Nassick, one of the many sacred cities of the Hindoos, who go there, as pilgrims, in great numbers. We saw here numerous Hindoo temples, built of black basalt rock, lining both sides of the river on which Nassick stands.

5. Three hundred and fifty miles farther eastward we came to Nagpore. As we approached what we supposed to be the site of the city, there seemed to be nothing before us but a vast low forest; but we found on our arrival that the great number of trees throughout the city entirely shuts out the view of the buildings.

6. After riding seven hundred miles beyond Nagpore, we reached Calcutta, thus making a journey of about twelve hundred miles by rail. We were carried directly to our lodgings at the Great Eastern Hotel, which stands opposite the Government House, the residence of the Viceroy of India.

7. Six days later, we were joined by Prof. Howard and the rest of our party. On the voyage they had stopped several days at the English island of Ceylon, where they visited the cinnamon plantations, and the banks along the western coasts where the celebrated pearl-fisheries are. It was not the time of year in which the pearl-divers carry on their work; however, Prof. Howard obtained for me a shell containing several small but beautiful pearls, which I intend to place in the Lake-View Museum, so that Mr. Agnew can use it to illustrate a lecture on pearls and pearlfisheries.

8. India, or Hindostan', Dr. Edson tells us, may be said to have three capitals. These are-Delhi, in the north, in which city once reigned the “Great Mogul,” as the Mongol emperor was called, and which is still the centre of the Mohammedan faith ;-Benä'res, also in the north, the "most holy" city of the Hindoos, with its one thousand Hindoo temples still standing;-and Calcutta, the capital of the modern British empire of the East.

II.-Calcutta, As We Saw it.

1. I shall not give you any detailed description of Calcutta, further than to say that it is one hundred miles up the low banks of the Hoogly River, the great western arm of the Ganges; that it is a city of about half a million inhabitants,—mostly Hindoos and Mohammedans, there being only about twelve thousand Europeans; that it has some pleasant suburbs; that just below the city the river approach is defended by the extensive but low fortress of Fort William, which has cost, from first to last, ten millions of dollars; that the water-supply of the city is contained in tanks, and is distributed in bags that are borne about by carriers; that vultures, kites, crows, and storks, are the principal scavengers of the streets by day,—and foxes, jackals, and wild dogs, by night.

2. We learned that the climate is a terrible drawback to a residence in Calcutta, the mercury, in the hot season, often rising to one hundred and fifteen degrees in the shade. Such is the heat that, during half the year, it drives nearly all the government officials out of the city, northward, twelve hundred miles, to the first range of the Himalayas. It is as if the President of the United States and his cabinet should leave Washington on the 1st of May, and transfer the seat of government to some high point in the Rocky Mountains. Fortunately, our visit to Calcutta was in the late autumn and winter season.