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tion ceased. I felt all the horrors of my situa- | riod. These fatal consequences are very commontion; but I forgot my suffering, in order to seek ly the effects of incaution; hay-makers and reapsuccor for a man whom I saw dying. I called him, but he did not reply. His right eye was open and bright; it seemed to me as though a ray of intelligence beamed from it, and I hoped; but the left eye remained closed, and on raising the eyelid, I saw that it was dull. I supposed, however, that there was still sight remaining on the right side, for I endeavored to close the eye on that side; an attempt which I repeated three times. It opened again of itself, and seemed animated. I put my hand on his heart; it no longer beat. I pricked his limbs, body, and lips with a compass; all was immovable: it was death, and I could not believe it. Bodily pain at last drew me from this painful contemplation. My left leg was paralyzed; and I felt a shuddering, an extraordinary movement. I felt, besides, a general trembling and oppression and disordered beatings of the heart. The most sinister reflections took possession of me. Was I going to perish like my unfortunate companion? I thought so from my suffering; however, reason told me that the danger was passed. I gained with the greatest difficulty the village of Alt St. Johann. The instruments had been struck in like manner."

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the hyæna on these festive occasions. It is when | peds than itself. It fears neither the kingly lion,

agitated and irate that he thus lifts up his voice; and those who have watched him, with upraised bristles and exposed fangs, angrily and rapidly pacing up and down his cage, eying with malignant glances his keeper, who holds the tantalizing morsel of raw flesh which is his allotted portion suspended at the top of his iron staff far out of reach, will readily believe that these discordant peals have in them much more of rage and baffled desire than of joyous merriment or gleeful satisfaction.

the wily panther, nor the fierce ounce, whom, either by stealthy attacks, or by the combined power of numbers, it seldom fails to conquer.

Mr. Bruce, the persevering and entertaining Abyssinian traveler, says, "I do not think that there is any one who has hitherto written of this animal who ever saw the thousandth part of them I have. They were a plague in Abyssinia in every situation, both in the city and in the field, and, I think, surpassed the sheep in number. Gondar was full of them from the time it turned dark to the break of day, seeking the different pieces of slaughtered carcasses which this cruel and unclean people expose in the streets without

are Falasha from the neighboring mountains, transformed by magic, and come down to eat human flesh in the dark for safety. One night in Maitsha, being very intent on observation, I heard something pass behind me toward the bed, but upon looking round could perceive nothing. Hav

As for the ancients, they not only believed that the hyæna could laugh, but that it could speak. "These hideous brutes," says Pliny in his "Historia Naturalis," "are wont to repair to the shep-burial, and who firmly believe that these animals herds' huts and imitate the human voice, and even learn some person's name, who, when he answers to the call and comes out, is immediately torn to pieces." Even Aristotle, who may be looked upon as the father of naturalists, and who ought to have known better, has fallen into the popular error of his day; and, besides other apocryphaling finished what I was then about, I went out of charges, has advanced the monstrous proposition, that the neck of the hyæna consisted of but one jointless bone-an assertion which, it is almost needless to add, is to the full as groundless as that this peculiar bone proved of great efficacy in magical invocation; which belief is to this day current among the superstitious Arabs, who, when they slay one of these animals, carefully bury the head, lest it should operate as an avenging charm or spell.

There are two varieties of this animal. The spotted kind is peculiar to the Cape of Good Hope and the southern division of Africa, where it is vulgarly known by the name of the tiger-wolf. It is an object of great fear and abhorrence in this region, though it rarely moves abroad during the day, but passes the hours of light and heat in slothful slumber, concealed in a hole or den of its own excavation, or else hidden from all prying eyes within the depths of some densely-covered bush. Till very lately bands of hyænas were in the habit of paying nightly visits to the streets of Cape Town, where they were tolerated as very useful in carrying away the animal refuse and offal; but, partly from better regulations now existing in the town, and partly from the number of these animals having decreased in the same ratio as the population has increased, this no longer occurs.

my tent, intending directly to return, which I immediately did, when I perceived large blue eyes glaring at me in the dark. I called upon my servant with a light, and there was the hyæna standing nigh the head of the bed, with two or three large bunches of candles in his mouth. To have fired, I was in danger of breaking my quadrant or other furniture, and he seemed, by keeping the candles steadily in his mouth, to wish for no other prey at that time. As his mouth was full, and he had no claws to tear with, I was not afraid of him, but with a pike struck him as near the heart as I could judge. It was not till then he showed any sign of fierceness; but upon feeling his wound, he let drop the candles and endeavored to run up the shaft of the spear to arrive at me, so that, in self-defense, I was obliged to draw a pistol from my girdle and shoot him, and nearly at the same time my servant cleft his skull with a battle-ax. In a word, the hyæna was the plague of our lives, the terror of our night-walks, the destruction of our mules and asses, which above all others are his favorite food."

Though ready and willing to grapple with a living prey, the hyæna is content to subsist principally on the putrescent remains of such animals as have been killed and only half devoured by the higher order of the carnivora; and though not gregarious on any social principle, these animals Sparrman, who is good authority, speaks of the assemble in troops and follow in the wake of the hyæna as a cruel, mischievous, and formidable Caffre and Hottentot armies of the present epoch, animal, living by depredation and rapine, daring and gorge on the dead bodies of the slain, and too and rapacious in its attacks upon the farmer's often it is to be feared ransack the hasty, ill-made flocks and herds; and, in truth, the numbers, the graves that mark these battle-fields. It is said, nocturnal habits, and the mingled courage and too, that like other and nobler animals, the hyæna obstinacy of these animals, render them in this which has tasted human flesh is but too prone to respect even more destructive than the lion itself. retain a dangerous liking for this fell banquet. The courage of the hyæna, moreover, is equal to Steedman speaks of this in his "Wanderings and its voracity; man himself he seldom ventures to Adventures in the interior of Southern Africa," attack, save and except when driven to despera- and alleges that the hyæna will pass through the tion and in self-defense, and then it will turn fu- herds of calves, &c., which are always secured riously even upon this all-powerful assailant, but close around the Hottentot huts, and, stealing it wages fierce war against much larger quadru- | into the interior, "take the children from under

the mother's kaross, and this in such a gentle and | of a less ferocious temper than his spotted brothcautious manner, that the poor parent has been er, and we can hardly think that this can really unconscious of her loss until the cries of the little innocent have reached her from without, when a close prisoner in the jaws of the monster."

And yet, notwithstanding this ferocity, in the district of Scheufberg, at the Cape, the spotted hyæna is sometimes domesticated in the houses of the peasantry, among whom, we are told, "he is preferred to the dog himself for attachment to his master, for general sagacity, and even, it is said, for his qualifications for the chase."

The striped hyena, of the north of Africa and of Asia, differs in no essential particular, save in the substitution of a barred for a spotted dress, from the above variety-the description of the one, with this single variation, will serve for that of the other. In many particulars the hyæna resembles both the dog and the wolf, the latter especially in disposition and size, yet, in other respects, it is so singular in its conformation that it is impossible to confound this race with any other class of animals. The skull of the hyæna is short, and remarkable for its solidity and thickness; the character of the mouth, too, is peculiar the tuberculous, or small teeth, generally found behind the carnivorous, being utterly wanting, while these last progressively increase in size, as they are placed more and more backward. This formidable array of fangs adorns jaws which are possessed of enormous strength, and adapted for crushing the hardest substances; the muscles which raise the lower jaw are in consequence unusually developed, and appear like enormous masses of flesh on either side of the head. The neck, chest, and shoulders of the hyæna are extremely powerful, while the hind-quarters are disproportionably low, and the hind-legs bent, crouching, and knock-kneed, causing the pace even when rapid to be of a shuffling or dragging character. Indeed, it is a remarkable peculiarity about this animal, that when he is first obliged to run, he always appears lame for a considerable distance, so much so, as in some instances to have induced the belief that one of his legs was broken. After running some time, however, this halting disappears, and he proceeds on his course very swiftly. This is, perhaps, the only quadruped which possesses but four toes on either foot; the claws these are armed with are blunt, stout, and nonretractile, but the dew-claw in the dog and the innermost claw of the feline kind are, strange to say, utterly wanting. The coat is of two different materials, fur or wool in small quantities being intermixed with long, stiff, and silky-looking hair. The general color of the hide is a dirty yellow, or yellowish brown, the oblique stripes, and numerous spots of the respective varieties being of so dark a tint as almost to arrive at a perfect black. A coarse, bristly mane runs down the spine, and terminates in a short and bushy tail, while the ears, which give a good deal of character to the head and face, are nearly destitute of hair, a fact which is the more apparent, as they are large, pointed, and very erect.

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be a fact; we should rather imagine that the placability of either species depends more on the circumstances in which they have been respectively placed than upon natural temperament. Every kind of beast is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind," and we believe the spotted hyena is to the full as susceptible of kindness, and amenable to education, as is the other variety.

IN

A TURKISH REVOLUTION.

N the year 1065 of the Hegira, on the second day of the feasts of Beïram, a large group of Mussulmans was assembled in a circle before the mosque of St. Sophia. Some were standing, and others were sitting cross-legged on mats or carpets spread upon the sand. By degrees the group was increased, as the Moslems issued from the temple, and as passers-by, prompted by curiosity, remained to see what was going on. Every eye was turned toward one point with a look of expectation; but a cloud of bluish smoke slowly rising in the air proved that the gratification of their curiosity was not the only pleasure which these Mussulmans enjoyed.

In the midst of this crowd of smokers, a young man of remarkably handsome features, though somewhat bronzed by an Asiatic sun, was seated before a small table, which was covered with swords and brass balls. He was dressed in a kind of close jacket of green silk, admirably adapted to set off his light and graceful figure; a gir dle of antelope skin, on which some mysterious characters were inscribed in silver, confined a pair of loose trowsers, which were drawn in close at the ankle. This light and attractive dress was completed by a Phrygian cap, from the top of which hung a small musical bell. By this costume, at once graceful and fantastic, it was easy to recognize one of those jugglers whom the feasts of Beïram drew every year to Stamboul, and to whom was erroneously given the name of zingari.

The spectators soon became so numerous, that many found it difficult to get even a glimpse of the juggler's tricks. The brass balls, glittering in the sun, were flying round his head with amazing rapidity, and forming every variety of figure at his pleasure. The ease and grace with which the zingaro performed these wonders gave promise of still greater. At length, allowing the balls to drop one after the other into a resounding vase at his feet, he armed himself with a yataghan. Seizing the brilliant hilt, he drew the blade from its costly scabbard, and dexterously whirling it over his head, made as it were a thousand flashes of lightning sparkle around him. The Mussulmans slowly bowed their heads in token of approbation, much after the manner of those Chinese mandarins, carried about by the Italian boys, that make perpetual salutations to each other.

The zingaro continued his exploits without appearing to notice the admiration he excited. He

It has been asserted that the striped hyena is next took a pigeon's egg from a small moss bask

"the

"Yes," replied the diviner, in a satirical tone, "it is Assarach.”

The bostangi put his finger on the juggler's

lips.

et, and placing it upright on the table, he struck | his voice-"Can you tell me," said he,
it with the edge of his sword, without injuring its name of his favorite wife?"
fragile covering. An incredulous bystander took
the egg to examine it, but the slight pressure of
his fingers served to destroy the frail object which
had resisted the blow of the cimeter. Then tak-
ing off his Phrygian cap the juggler disclosed a
large clear forehead, shaded by locks of jetty
blackness. Placing upon his bare head a pyra-
mid of steel, which he had first submitted to the
circle for inspection, he made the curved weapon
fly around him with such fearful velocity, that he
appeared for a moment to be enveloped within
the luminous circles it described. Presently the
sword appeared to deviate, and grazed the hair
of the intrepid young man. Some Europeans
present turned pale, and closed their eyes against
the dreaded sight; but the juggler's hand was
sure. The yataghan, which had spared the pig-
eon's egg, had severed in two the pyramid of
steel.

"Follow me," said he; and, as he moved to depart, the crowd respectfully opened a passage before him.

This act of dexterity was followed by many others no less perilous. The boldness of the zingaro terrified the usually impassive Turks; and, what was yet more surprising, he even made them smile by the amusing stories he related. Persons of his profession in Asia were generally silent, and their only powers of amusement lay in their fingers' ends; but this man possessed the varied qualities of an Indian juggler and an Arabian storyteller. He paused between almost every trick to continue a tale, again to be interrupted by fresh displays of his power; thus by turns delighting the eyes and the ears of his audience. During the more dangerous of his performances, even the smokers held their breath, and not a sound was to be heard but the quivering of the steel and the tinkling of the bell.

The young man took up his yataghan, and leaving the remainder of his baggage to be carried by a slave, he followed the steps of his guide toward the great door of the palace.

The history of the successors of Mohammed often present little beyond the melancholy spectacle of a throne at the mercy of a lawless soldiery. Mahmoud was not the first of his race who sought to free the seraglio from those formidable guardians. Soliman III. had formed this perilous design before him, but he was put to death by the janissaries, led by Mustapha, his uncle, who came from the Morea for the ostensible purpose of defending the emperor, but in reality to seize upon his throne. The sultan Mustapha, who had commenced his reign in such a tragic manner, experienced all the anxiety and uneasiness which must ever attend the acts of a usurper and a tyrant. Sordid, suspicious, and perfidious, he broke through every promise he had made to the janissaries, whose creature nevertheless he was. stead of doubling their pay, he diminished it; instead of lessening the taxes, he doubled them. He lived buried in the depths of his palace, the care of which he had confided to the Greek soldiery, notwithstanding the murmurs of the legitimate guards. The mutes, dwarfs, and buffoons at the palace could alone obtain access to his presence.

In

One of the most enthusiastic admirers of the At the time the zingaro was amusing the grave zingaro was a man apparently about forty years subjects of his highness, Mustapha was seated of age, whose carpet was placed in the first circle, cross-legged on his divan in an inner apartment and whose dress denoted him to be of superior of the palace, seeking to drive away his ennui in rank. This was the bostangi-bassa, superintend-watching the columns of fragrant smoke as they ent of the gardens, and keeper of the privy purse to the grand signior. The juggler having at length completed his tricks, the people remained to hear the conclusion of the story which had been so often interrupted. He then continued his narration, which was one of the wild fictions of the east, in pronouncing the last words of which, a melancholy expression passed over his counteHe was aroused by the voice of the bos

nance.

slowly rose from the long tube of his narghilé. A slave stood beside him, holding a feathered fan of varied colors. The buffoons of the palace had vainly tried to extort one smile from their master. The impassibility of the grand signior gave them to understand that their time was ill chosen, and that mirth would be dangerous; they had, therefore, one after the other, quitted the apartment, waiting to re-enter at the good pleasure of the tangi. prince. One among them, however, the favor"Since you are such a magician," said the bos-ite dwarf, and the most deformed of all the intangi-bassa, "will you tell me which is the sul-mates of the palace-wished to make another attan's favorite flower?" tempt. He entered noiselessly, and, seating himself near the musing sultan, he took up one of the tubes of the narghilé, and putting it to his lips, he imitated the looks and posture of his master. When the latter perceived that the intention of the buffoon was to parody his sacred person, he gave the unfortunate courtier a most violent push with his foot, and resumed his reverie. The head of the dwarf hit against the marble fountain, and He slowly arose and beckon-blood flowed from the wound. The hapless jested the zingaro to approach him; then loweringer, whose only fault lay in endeavoring to amuse

"The poppy of Aleppo; it is red," replied the juggler, without a moment's hesitation.

"At what time does the sultan sleep?" resumed the bostangi, after a few moments' reflection, expecting to puzzle him by this question.

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Never!" said the juggler.

The bassa started, and looked anxiously around him, fearing lest other ears than his own had heard this answer.

his master, left the apartment with tears glisten- | only possess the secret; I have questioned many ing in his eyes, and soon not a sound was to be fakeers, marabouts, and celebrated dervises, who heard throughout the immense palace but the voice have three times visited the tomb of the prophet, of the muezzin summoning to the duties of the but none of them were able to answer me as mosque. thou hast. I should wish to keep thee in my palace; I will make thee richer than all the merchants of Galata, if thou wilt tell me the year when I must die."

Shortly afterward the hangings opposite the divan were gently raised, and a man stood in a respectful attitude before Mustapha.

"What would'st thou ?" said the sultan. The bostangi-bassa, for it was he, replied briefly, according to the custom of the seraglio: "A juggler stands without; he might perchance amuse your highness."

The sultan made a sign in the negative. "This man," continued the bostangi," knows strange things; he can read the future."

66 Let him come in!"

Mehallé then approached the emperor, and taking his hand, he appeared to study the lines of it with deep attention. Having finished his examination, he went to the window, and fixed his eyes for some time upon the heavens. "The fires of Beïram are lighting up the cupola of the grand mosque," said he, slowly; "night is at hand."

Mustapha anxiously awaited the answer of the astrologer. The latter continued in a mysterious manner: "The declining day still eclipses the light of the constellations. I will answer you,

The bostangi bowed profoundly and retired. Black slaves, armed with drawn and glistening cimeters, surrounded the imperial sofa when the zingaro was introduced. After a slight salu-signior, when the evening star appears." tation, the young man leaned gracefully upon his yataghan, awaiting the orders of the emperor. Thy name?" demanded Mustapha.

"Mehallé."

"Thy country?"

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The sultan made a movement of impatience; anger was depicted in his countenance, and the look which he darted on the mutes showed the zingaro that he had incurred his highness's displeasure. Curiosity, however, doubtless prevailed over every other feeling of the prince's mind; for, turning to Mehallé, he said: "I am little

"I was five years old when you first girded on accustomed to wait; I will do so, however, if the sword of Ottoman."

"Whence comest thou?"

66

From the Morea, signior," replied the zingaro, pronouncing the words with emphasis.

The sultan remained silent for a moment, but soon added, gayly: "Since you can read the future, I will put your knowledge to the proof. When people know the future, they ought to know the past!"

"You say right, signior; he who sees the evening star rise in the horizon has but to turn his head to view the last rays of the setting sun." "Well! tell me how I made my ablutions yesterday."

"The first with Canary wine, the second with wine of Cyprus, and the third with that of Chios." The "chief of the believers" smiled and stroked his beard; he was indeed in the habit of derogating in this respect, as in many others, from the prescriptions of the Koran.

thou canst amuse me until the propitious hour arrives."

"Would your highness like to see some feats of juggling?" said Mehallé, drawing his sabre from the scabbard.

"No! no!" exclaimed the sultan, making the circle of slaves close in about him. "Leave thine arms."

"Would you prefer a story, signior?"

"Stories that lull an Arab to sleep under his tent? No, I must have something new. Of all known games, there is but one I care for; I used to play it formerly; but now, there is not a single person within my empire who understands a chess-board."

The zingaro smiled, and taking an ebony box from a velvet bag, he presented it to the sultan, whose wish he understood.

The words of Mustapha will require some explanation for the reader. The sultan was passionately fond of the game of chess. At the commencement of his reign he easily found adver

"Knowest thou," replied the sultan, whom the zingaro's answer had put into a pleasant humor -"knowest thou that I could have thee behead-saries, and played for considerable sums. He ed?"

"Doubtless," said the juggler, undauntedly, "as you did the Spanish merchant, who watered his wine before he sold it to you."

Mustapha applauded the knowledge of the zingaro. He hesitated, nevertheless, before he ventured to put the dreaded question that tyrants, who are ever superstitious, never fail to demand of astrologers-"How long have I to live?"

The grand signior assumed a persuasive tone, and even condescended to flatter the organ of destiny, in hopes of obtaining a favorable answer.

"Thou art a wonderful youth," said he; "thou knowest things of which, beside thyself, the mutes

possessed the secret of keeping fortune always at his side: when he lost, the happy conqueror was strangled. Those of his adherents whom he admitted to the honor of his imperial company, were compelled to submit either to their ruin, or, if they preferred it, to their death. In a short time, not a person could be found within the whole extent of the empire who knew any thing of the game of chess. Mehallé was not ignorant of these circumstances; nevertheless, it was a chess-board that he offered to the sultan. The stern countenance of the prince relaxed at the sight, and the board was immediately placed on the bowed back of a slave. Before commencing

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