resisting decay, and able, by the magic pen, to manifest themselves to their surviving human friends. Although an Idealist, the Buddhist has not disdained to seek for light from above in a similar gross way. It is not to be wondered at that protests against forged revelations are rife. How about Confucianism, which is the dominant religion of the Flowery Kingdom? The Confucianist is an “ Ethical Sadducee." Confucius himself is a man, not a god; an example, not a prophet. Yet he has edited, and so authenticated, a large portion of the Chinese Canons of nine books. Only two chapters claim to be of supernatural authority, — each having been brought from the river by a monster, half-dragon, half-horse. These are the mystic tables of the Tortoise and the so-called Great Plan. The latter is a political system. The Book of Odes speaks of a revelation of the Divine Will through wise men, of whom Confucius is highest. He does not doubt that his teaching is from Heaven, albeit by natural channels, instead of supernatural. His writings are therefore holy and unalterable. We are glad that Dr. Cyrus Adler, at this same session, should have unfolded the plan of the Oriental exhibit at the Chicago Fair, and that the society should have unanimously adopted Professor Richard Gottheil's motion: "The American Oriental Society has heard with pleasure that the Committee of the World's Columbian Exposition intends to make an exhibit of Oriental life and history, and cordially offers any scientific assistance in its power." Dr. Adler will visit the

East in person before the Exposition in the West.

Johns Hopkins University, whose financial embarrassment, it is pleasant to know, is a thing of the past, submitted, through Professor Jastrow, advanced sheets of the "Assyrian Glossary," prepared by its Semitic Seminary.

The November number of the "University Circulars" of the same active institution prints President Gilman's fresh and scholarly address at the opening of the Fifteenth Academic Year. He brought, from the land where Moses and Plato studied, ancient gold coins, the gift of the lamented Hon. Eugene Schuyler. He also brought from Carthage a sense of the unity of history, having stood where a successor of Cyprian had just built "a metropolitan church on the height which is at once the Bozrah (Byrsa) of Dido and the hill of Saint Lewis, the spot from which Gaiseric ruled the seas, the spot to which Heraclitus dreamed of transmitting the dominion of the elder and younger Rome."

The name of the famous hero of the Nimrod epic, whose text has been so beautifully published by Professor Paul Haupt, has been deciphered by Theodore Pinches, of the British Museum. Instead of ́Gisdhubar, it is Gilgames. Professor Sayce calls attention to the identity of this name with Gilgamos, described on the page of Ælian. He was the son of the daughter of Sakkhoras, King of the Babylonians. Flung from a tower by his grandfather, who feared to be dethroned by him, he was saved by an eagle in mid-air, and brought up by a gardener. The resemblance between Gilgames and Perseus is striking. Dr. William Hayes Ward confirms the latter identification from a cylinder formerly published by himself, and quoted in the very number of the "Babylonian and Oriental Record" announcing Mr. Pinches' discovery. He says of this and of another cylinder: "Both ... give the representation of a small, naked human figure astride the back of a flying eagle and holding to its neck." The Eastern mythological literature has now yielded the original of the Ganymede myth for which scholars waited. "The per

sonage being borne by the eagle on these two cylinders," evidently archaic and from Southern Babylonia, "is apparently no other than the Gilgamos of Elian, the Gilgames of Mr. Pinches' syllabary, and the Gisdhubar of the famous Babylonian epic." The two dogs are not looking up. That would be un-Babylonian adoration. They are simply baffled of their prey. The man driving the flock is probably the guardian of the child, intrusted with it by the eagle. Recall the legend of Sargon of Accad.

While we are treating of winged personages, we do well to speak of Professor Tylor's article in the "Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology" of last June. The title is, "The Winged Figures of the Assyrian and Other Ancient Monuments." From botany, art, and literature the learned author makes it plain that the sacred tree of the Assyrians is the palm. Then he shows that the winged deities, with cone and bucket, not only approach the sacred palm-tree, but are bringing into contact the male and female inflorescences. Sometimes the sun itself is held over this palm-tree, since a failure of the date crop, even in modern times, is equivalent to famine. The cherubim of Ezekiel, with their four wings and the likeness of the hands of a man, have the two special characteristics belonging to the Assyrian deity figured in Tylor's plates, "majestically striding with the fertilizing cone in his hand." Through the Phoenicians, the Assyrian figures had long before become familiar to the Hebrew mind, as appears when the Tyrian workmen are related to have adorned the Temple of Solomon with "carved figures of cherubim and palm-trees and open flowers." Originally derived from Egypt, these Assyrian winged deities are the predecessors of the winged genii whose graceful forms pervade Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art. When Christianity became the religion of imperial Rome, the genii became the angels of Christian art. The "Revue de l'Histoire des Religions," of September-October, honors itself no less than the author by translating his fascinating article in full.

The same number apprises its readers of Dr. Jensen's results in the realm of Babylonian cosmology. With some sharp criticism of theory and statement, M. Halévy hails in the book a rich and useful repertory. The Babylonians had no word for world or universe. They used instead expressions signifying heaven and earth, and the like. Counting downwards, they divided the world into five parts. The first was heaven, “a hollow, or rather tent, pierced with two doors, facing each other, the eastern, from which the sun issues every morning; the western, into which he enters every evening." The planets were early ascribed to special deities. Comets bore the name of "stars of the Raven," and meteors, of "stars bursting on high." To the earth they gave three divisions. The first was the surface, conceived of as mountain, and culminating in the northern mountain of the world. Next yawned the kingdom of the dead, in its interior, walled and gated, with the water of life. Third came the primordial waters of the ocean, around and below. It is curious that the fourth, of Dr. Jensen's zodiacal constellations-"The Star of Prosperity". - should be to him Antares, and to Halévy, Sirius! An astronomical interest invests also the first of the three Babylonian antiquities so lately discovered in the heart of the city of London. The signs of the zodiac are on it, symbolized by fantastic animals. Number two is a diorite door socket. The inscription tells us that it belonged to a building erected by Gudea, the famous ruler of Sirpurla. The third

fragment offers a specimen of the archaic primitive script. This was part of a basin of hard, black stone, square outside, hollowed to a circle It perhaps held holy water for ceremonial purifications, like the elaborate trough at the entrance of the palace at Tel-lo. The Prince Pontiff had relations to it. How should these pre-Semitic monuments of Chaldæa be found under old houses in Knightrider Street? The conjecture is that they were buried under the great fire of London. As Dutch tiles were near these stones of Chaldæa, they may have been brought in the ship of a Dutch merchant. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Dutch East India Company had a trading factory at Bassorah, the port of Bagdad where M. de Sarzec was stationed when he discovered the treasures of Tel-lo. As ballast or as curiosities the stones might have come to the capital of England to be lost and found. Now they are in the British Museum.

Russian America had its prehistoric necropoli. These have been explored, sketched, and classified by J. de Morgan, a delegate of the French Minister of Public Education. One can see the bold, extinct volcano of Selwar, seamed by ravines and surrounded by mines. Here, before the Aryan migrations, dwelt a race enjoying a rich soil and a benign climate, sheltered, as in a niche, from the movements of the more civilized world without. Yet the remains of their fourteen cemeteries are not wholly indigenous. The huge stones, like veritable dolmens, were proto-Armenian, to be sure. So were the dirks with triangular blades. On the other hand, the swords, with a short handle and without a guard, remind us of the weapons of Assyria. These may well be contemporary with the great campaigns of Nineveh which resulted in the fall of Ourartou and the submission of the white Allophyles. The most unique and interesting arm exhumed was the bow. Of this many specimens survive, - for the most part long, curved triply, and sometimes shooting arrows with obsidian tips. Bronze bracelets abound. Numbers of them are of the exact weight of an Assyrian mina. This country of mines seems to have imposed its weights on its unmetallic neighbor and customer. Pins are the most characteristic trinkets which each corpse wore. It is interesting to mark the slender pyramidal shape of the most ancient. Then come those of rounded head, covered with delicate chisellings, or with the swastika and the cross. Latest of all, the head becomes octagonal. These thick and short pins are in contrast to the long and slender ones of the Caucasus. There has been found nothing like them except at Hissarlik, where Schliemann came upon a mould for casting their precise counterparts, mistaken by him, most excusably, for arrowheads. Vases are in the oldest tombs. The most elaborate affect irregular forms and copy animals. Here they show palpable traces of Iranian influence, reminding of the sculptures of Ossethie now in the Museum of Lyons. The conclusions reached are:

(1.) The arts developed originally among the white Allophyles of the Caucasus without trace of foreign influence.

(2.) The people of Selwar were in commercial relations to the Assyrians.

(3.) The Ossethians brought new arts in their migration to Caucasus, tingeing not a little the tendencies of the white Allophyles.

(4.) The latest tombs are subsequent to the arrival of the Ossethians in the eighth or seventh century, and anterior to the Persian Conquest in the fifth century, a conquest which spread the Mazdean religion and

ended the inhumation of the dead.

How doctors can disagree has been vividly shown in the discussions over M. Heuzey's Louvre reliefs. On his green platter he finds warriors of a marked Asiatic character, and a hunting scene of a hare and gazelles, after the vigorous style of Chaldæan art. Professor Maspero detects in the technique of the hair, in the skirt, in the animal skin, and in the arms, a distinctly Egyptian character. Of the two flags, one is Western and the other Eastern Egypt. Budge pronounces similar reliefs in the British Museum to be Mesopotamian. For the lions are like the Assyrian sculptures, the birds are identical with those found on the Babylonian landmarks, and the features of the men are Shemitic. Probably they were made in the sixteenth century B. C., and sent by his Mesopotamian allies to Amenophis III. the Lion-hunter. But giraffes browsing on a palm-tree are an anachronism on a Mesopotamian stone. The giraffe has been restricted to the Ethiopian region during the historical period. The feathered headdress of the huntsmen also is Cushite. These and other considerations lead Professor Sayce to see here a specimen of prehistoric Ethiopian art. He would compare them with the Bushmen paintings on the Rocks of Southern Africa.

The last indefatigable explorer, decipherer, and archæologist has given us, in the December "Contemporary Review," a sample from the Tel-elAmarna Tablets. This time Jerusalem is read upon them. The monarch is more than an Egyptian official, he is a feudal lord. He derives his au

thority from the oracle of the Mighty King. No doubt Melchizedek is suggested, who was King of Salem and Priest of the Most High God. This mighty king was Marru (Lord), and is the same with the Babylonian deity Uras. An oracle of the God of Jerusalem reads: "So long as a ship crosses the sea, this is the oracle of the Mighty King, so long shall the conquests continue of Nahrima and the Babylonians." Now Nahrima is the Aram-Naharaim of the Old Testament. Hence a new light on the story in Judges of the occupation of South Palestine. Chushan Rishathaim is a successor of the princes whose conquests were proclaimed by the oracle on Moriah. It was an anticipation of the career which Balaam predicted for the star of Jacob.

"The Destruction of Egyptian Monuments" is the sad refrain of Henry Wallis in the November number of the "Nineteenth Century." The four great causes are, native greed and fanaticism, unchecked ardor of the votaries of science, natural decay of buildings, and periodic inundations. The vandalism of the tourist is not to be named beside the apathy of the government. A great petition to Lord Salisbury for the appointment of an English inspector of these imperiled relics has been signed by men of all ranks and creeds. When orders are issued to dismantle the Pyramids for building purposes, it is time surely to awake. The director of the Cairo Museum cannot always be present to arrest such scandalous blows. Fortunately, the Archæological Survey of the Egypt Exploration Fund, which has already begun under the harmonious cooperation of French and English influences, will tend to restrain the extent and minimize the mischief of demolition.

Miss Amelia B. Edwards, whose prolonged illness has pained and alarmed her friends, calls attention to one feature of the objects found in the workmen's town of the twelfth dynasty by Mr. Petrie. A panic seems to have struck it. "The women left not only their wheels and spindles, of which a large number were found, but also a store of dyed wool not yet spun; the net-makers left their netting-needles, their netting,

and balls of twine which were not yet made up; the weaver left his beam and the flat sticks with which he beat up his weft; and in the shop of a metal-caster were found not only a fine bronze hatchet, ready for sale, but his whole stock in trade, in the shape of moulds for casting chisels, knives, and hatchets." One is reminded of Pompeii. Remains of peas, beans, cucumbers, and radishes strewed the ruins of the oldest houses of the same wonderful town. The Mimusops Schimperi now only occurs in Central Africa and Abyssinia. Its fruit and leaves were found at Kahun. Possibly Mr. Newberry is right in identifying it with the Perseatree, which occurs so frequently in Egyptian wall-paintings, but has never as yet been satisfactorily identified.

"The Egypticity of the Pentateuch: an Argument for its Traditional Authority," is the attractive title of a paper by Dr. A. H. Kellogg in the "Presbyterian and Reformed Review" of October last. With much learning, acumen, and vigor the author presents four considerations favoring the Mosaic origin of Deuteronomy and the Scriptures before it. The first is the Hebrew term for Egypt, which is not a singular, Kham, but Mizraim, a dual, that is, the two M-zors, or fortresses, as the Egyptians were wont to speak of the two lands. The second is the correspondence of the Hebrew and Egyptian traditions respecting the origin of the Egyptians and their ethnic and linguistic affinities. Third, the Hebrew cosmogony itself, which is more closely allied to the Egyptian than to the Babylonian. Fourth, the story of the Exodus from Egypt argues a writer as competent and accurate as Moses, who knew Egypt at first hand.

This leads us to the priestly character of the early Egyptian civilization. To glance at the inscriptions is to observe that almost every person who has left a name had among his titles at least one of an unmistakably sacerdotal stamp. Besides recognized hierarchichal titles, are others which can be proven to be similar. Such were the suteniu. The word is derived from the verb seten, meaning to slaughter. The slaughterer is not, however, a butcher, but a minister of the gods. Older still than the priestly lists of Dendera and Edfu are the funeral rites, which run back to immemorial antiquity, and among the officiating priests are the erpa and the smer. The latter is not a friend but a functionary. By virtue of his religious office he participates in religious ceremonies. The smer might be a woman. The queen of Chafra, or Chephren, builder of the second Pyramid, whose cartouche has just been discovered in red paint, was the smerit of Horus. The erpa was the sacred title, not the secular, of the great monarchs of the twelfth dynasty, some of whom, as Maspero tells us, were chiefs of the hierarchy of Thoth. In short, as Renouf has made clear in the "Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology," from which the foregoing facts are drawn, almost every noble and wealthy personage employed in the administration of the different departments of the state belonged to one or more of the many priesthoods of the country."

The past season Palestine and not Egypt has claimed Petrie. The July and October statements of the Palestine Exploration Fund give his own account of his explorations. A vizerial permit was granted early in February. It did not reach Mr. Petrie in Jerusalem till the last of March. His three weeks' delay were utilized in discussing masonry and measuring tombs. "Far the commonest cubit is of 22.6 inches, which is evidently the Phoenician cubit of 22.3 at Carthage." A little before