from being pitched in underwood jungles, it is usual to keep a good fire during the night, I doubt not but such a measure, added to other precautions, proves occasionally serviceable; but knowing, as I do, that it has frequently happened during a succession of many nights, that the persons conveying the posts have been carried away in spite of the flambeaux, and of the continual beating of the drums, by which they are ever accompanied at night, my opinion has long since been made

up very completely on the subject; and some strange alteration must take place in the conduct of tigers in general before I can bring myself to believe, that one half-famished can be deterred by any means from making an attack. That tigers are often very capricious, I will admit, and, indeed, that, in some instances, their conduct appears unaccountable; but I must assert, that where hunger is the motive, they are, at least, as consistent, and as persevering, as any other animals.

THE sanguinary wars of eastern princes are carried on in such a uniform manner, and have so little variety to amuse in the narration, even by so animated a writer as Mr. Maurice, that for the account of those that took place in this reign we shall refer the reader to the volume itself, and present them with his more entertaining account of the peacock imperial throne, afterwards seized upon by Nadir Shah, in his invasion of India, and other instances of the magnificence of this vainglorious monarch.

"Shah Jehan had, from his early youth, a taste for splendour and magnificence. The sumptuous throne which he caused to be built in the former reign, when contending for the empire, out of the spoils of plundered provinces, ornamented with a profusion of the richest jewels, evinced that to be one of his ruling passions. He now began a more superb one, the famous Tukt Taous, or peacock throne, of which the body was formed of solid gold, incrusted over with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. This throne, in finishing, and the expense of the jewels alone amounted to twelve hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling! It was called the VOL. III.

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peacock throne, from having the figure of two peacocks standing behind it, with their tails expanded, which were studded with various jewels to represent the life. Between the peacocks stood a parrot of the ordinary size, cut out of one emerald. The finest jewel was a ruby, which had fallen into the hands of Timur when he plundered Delhi in the year 1398.

"Independently of the innate love of regal pomp, Shah Jehan thought that a publick display of magnificence raised awe in his subjects, and gave weight to his authority. With this view he selected a hundred youths from among the sons of the nobility who were of the most distinguished merit, and made them omrahs in one day. He gave to each a golden mace, and they always attended the presence. They were all uniformly dressed in clothes richly embroidered, with golden helmets, swords inlaid with precious stones, and shields studded with gold. When the emperour went abroad these constantly attended him with drawn sabres, all mounted on the fleetest Arabian horses, and from these he chose his officers of state. His vanity, however, was principally gratified in the splendour of

his haram. Early in his reign he had the misfortune to lose, in childbed, his favourite sultana, Taje Mahel, the daughter of the vizier, and mother of all his surviving children. For a time he was inconsolable, and raised at Agra a magnificent tomb to her memory, which

cost, in building, no less a sum than 750,000l. sterling. While she survived he was very constant to her; but, after her decease, he indulged his licentious passions to great excess, and his seraglio was crowded with the finest women of Asia.”

AMONG the various natural curiosities of Carniola, this lake, beyond all contradiction, merits one of the first places, particularly in consequence of the singular phenomena that it presents. First, with respect to its position. It is about six miles from the town of Layback. It is bounded on the north by a pile of rocks of the most wild and terrifick aspect, which are commanded by the Yavoring, a lofty mountain covered with a thick forest of firs, and other trees. These rocks and this forest impart the appearance of a frightful desert to the whole country, and at the first view inspire the traveller with the sensation of fear. However, averting his looks from the northward, he perceives a change in the nature of the country: the soil, in general, is well cultivated; villages are scattered here and there, and in the midst of fertile fields they offer a most agreeable view. This smiling picture, with the immense expanse of the lake, shaded by the mountains on the opposite side, form a tout ensemble altogether picturesque.

This lake is about two leagues in its extent from the east to the west; and about one in breadth from its northern extremity to that of the south. Its depth is not equal in every place, varying from one to four fathoms. Three islands rise from its bosom. The first, called Vornek, is sufficiently large to con

tain a village and a church. The highly cultivated grounds, the meadows, and the orchards, render this island a most delightful residence. The other two islands are smaller, and both bear the name of Goritza, the one with the surname of Velka, and the other with that of Mala, two words, which, in the dialect of that country, signify great and little. There is besides a tongue of land, called Dornoschek, which runs pretty far into the lake, and forms a kind of peninsula, which is separated from Vornek only by a very narrow strait. Eight rivulets pay the tribute of their streams to this lake, but without increasing its waters, as will presently appear. Those of Cirknitz and the Oberg are the most considerable. The first runs through the village of that name, situated about half a league from the source of this rivulet. From this village the lake derived its name, because the ancients knew it by the name of Lac Lugens: but not including Cirknitz and Ottok, in the isle of Vornek. There are seven other villages, some of them a small distance from the lake, but most of them upon its borders.

As the waters in this vast basin have no outlet, they retire through two cavities, made by the hand of nature through the solid rock; and as they form a species of canals or aqueducts, they convey them through the centre of the mountain,

and eject them on the other side, near the grotto of St. Cautien. These two cavities are level with the lake, and are called by the names of great and little Karlouza. But besides these outlets, there are eighteen others at the bottom of the lake, through which the whole of the waters are sometimes drawn off by such unaccountable gradations, that the bottom is clearly distinguishable in the course of twenty five days.

The bottom now being left completely dry, instead of a sheet of water, presents a portion of soil, fertile and ready for cultivation in the highest degree. Accordingly the inhabitants immediately commence with sowing, and a superabundance of vegetation in a very short time covers the whole extent; in three months after, hay is cut and millet is ready for use; even game is sometimes hunted, where but a short time before fish were the only living beings. At the expiration of four months the lake generally refills spontaneously, in the same manner as it disappears. The first sign of the return of the waters is taken from the motion of this element in some of the neighbouring caverns; but though the basin of the lake requires twentyfive days to discharge itself, four and twenty hours are quite sufficient for the basin to refill.

But with respect to the absence of the waters of this lake, the time is by no means regular. There are instances of its appearing and disappearing three times in the course of a year; and then again whole years have passed without its withdrawing at all. But when it has withdrawn, its absence was never known to exceed four months. It most frequently retires about the end of June or in the middle of July.

The moment of its departure is a signal of joy to the inhabitants of the environs, in consequence of the plenty of fish it produces them. As soon as the waters of the lake are ob

served to have decreased to a certain degree, all the inhabitants of the surrounding villages are apprized of it by the ringing of a bell. From that instant young and old, men and women, may be seen all running together, each of them provided with a net, attached to a long pole, for the purpose of dragging the lake and the caverns at the bottom. One reason for their haste on this occasion is, that during the rest of the year no person is permitted to fish in the lake; and besides this, it is evident that the delay only of a few hours would be a serious loss; as on this occasion the inhabitants know by experience, that the fish, following the rapidity of the current, are not to be found by the time the waters have subsided within the depth of two fathoms. However, those who fish first pay for the privilege; and when these people are served, the poor and the most adventurous will undertake to grope in the mud, and often take very large fish by this mode of searching for them; and some fishermen will even undertake to descend into the caverns, and remain there sometimes till the biting of the crabs and blood-suckers, which come in shoals to attack their legs, compels them to desist and return. Among the fish of this lake the pike is the most numerous. They are of ten, twenty, thirty, and forty pounds weight, and sometimes more.

About the middle of the seventeenth century, this lake contained a pike of an aspect so imposing and of such weight, that whenever he was hooked, it was always thought prudent to let him go again. But when, as M. Valvasor observes, the ecclesiasticks of the Chartreux purchased the right of fishing in this lake, this king of fishes could no longer obtain any favour on account of his superiour size. They made no scruple in having him served up at their own table, when he there received the homage of the Ichthyophagi, a clear proof that these religi

onists were greater gluttons, and not so generous as the emperour Frederick II. who, being in possession of a very fine pike, put him into a pond belonging to the palace of Kaiserslautern, after having decorated him with a gold ring, which, being elastick, admitted of his future growth, and bore the following inscription in Greek: "I am the first fish put into this pond by the hands of the emperour Frederick II. Oct. 5, 1230." This pike, after having passed 267 years in the pond, was taken with his ring, in 1497, and transmitted to Heidelberg, to decorate the table of the elector Philip. He was then, it is said, nine feet long, and weighed 350 pounds. Afterwards a monumental representation was made of this pike as large as life, with an inscription adapted to the circumstance.

But though the lake of Cirknitz does not contain fish of this magnitude at present, there are very large ones in great number, especially when the waters of the lake remain longer than ordinary without retiring. In 1656, when the lake disappeared for the first time, after remaining at rest five years, the cavern of Keschetto alone supplied the first fishermen with twenty-one loads of fish, seventeen the second turn, and nine at the last. The greatest misfortune attending this lake is, that the lightning often falls upon it and kills a great number of the inhabitants. Some, however, who are struck, are frequently recovered by an instantaneous immersion in fresh water. Wild ducks have frequently been found in the bellies of the pikes in lake Cirknitz; and sometimes on the approach of a storm, these wild ducks are seen issuing from the fissures of the rocks in great numbers, from whence, distributing themselves over the face of the country, they fall an easy prey to the peasantry. The peasants who then watch for them as near as possible to the caverns, often knock them down with sticks, no

thing being more easy; as emerging from these darksome retreats all at once into open day, they for a time lose the use of their sight. They are generally very fat, and their flesh is black; and it is evident that these birds are bred in some other lakes in the interiour of these rocks, especially as herbs and small fish have been found in their crops, a circumstance which throws considerable light upon the phenomena of the lake. In fact, the vast chain of mountains which, under the appellation of the Alps of Carniola, traverse the whole country from Dalmatia to Carinthia, is nothing more than an enormous ridge of rock, perforated here and there by an immense number of grottos. In many of the caverns, the rain and the melting of the snow form vast reservoirs of water, which are transmitted into other caverns by the usual canals of communication. There is, therefore, every appearance that the five great caverns before mentioned, at the bottom of the lake of Cirknitz, communicate with five other lakes or reservoirs of water in the interiour of the mountain; for from the moment that the water begins to sink to any degree into these subterranean caverns, the canals which connect them with the lake of Cirknitz, act as siphons, passing the waters into other caverns of the rocks. So when the rains, or the melting of snows, cause the waters to collect in abundance, these siphons force the mass of water to return with impetuosity, and to precipitate itself into the lake.

Superstition, which is the fruit of ignorance, can see nothing in this natural phenomenon but an object of fear; hence the people, in the environs of the lake, tell travellers a thousand stories, one exceeding another in extravagance. They have even given one of these caverns, on the borders of the lake, the name of the Sorcerer's Cave, because, in former ages, they seriously imagined that these conjurers met there to

keep their sabbaths! Hence M. Valvasor observed: "This country was richly provided with sorcerers;" but he added: "Sometimes, when these persons have been taken in the fact, more of them have been burnt in one year, in the environs of Cirknitz, than would have died naturally during a whole generation Very happily at this time of day, sorcerers are no longer sought for in these mountains; but very proba

bly the hunters seek among them for an excellent species of the wild pigeon, with as much ardour as ever their forefathers sought for magicians. During the cold season these pigeons seek refuge in great numbers in the rocks. This sport, in general, is very productive and attractive in the mountains of Carniola, where the fissures and rocky cavities are distinguished by the name of Taubenlocher, or " pigeon holes."

ODE TO THE POPPY.*

[By Mrs. O'Neil.]

Unless, perchance, the attributes of grief,

The cypress bud, and willow leaf, Their pale, funereal foliage, blend with thine.

Hail, lovely blossom! thou can'st ease The wretched victims of disease; Can'st close those weary eyes, in gentle sleep,

Which never open but to weep:
For, oh! thy potent charm,

Can agonizing pain disarm;
Expel imperious Memory from her seat,
And bid the throbbing heart forget to beat,

Soul-soothing plant!—that can such blessings give,

By thee the mourner bears to live!
By thee the hopeless die!
Oh ever "friendly to despair,"
Might sorrow's palid votary dare,
Without a crime, that remedy implore,
Which bids the spirit from its bon-
dage fly,

I'd court thy palliative aid no more;
No more I'd sue, that thou shouldst
spread

Thy spell around my aching head,
But would conjure thee to impart,
Thy balsam for a broken heart;
And by thy sof t Lethean power,
(Inestimable flower)

Burst these terrestial bonds, and other regions try.