We immediately prepare action; obeying fell in with a drove of gnus, or horned horses-there implicitly the directions the boors; they being were certainly not less than one thousand in numexperienced hunters 1ng great caution, we approached to within abos two hundred yards of a small bush, and there, partly screened by it, we beheld an immense lion, in an attitude of repose. We immediately dismounted and tied our horses together (a custom generally pursued on these occasions to keep them from running) and then proceeded forty or fifty yards nearer. The noble animal lay perfectly quiet, surveying our motions very composedly and apparently wholly unconscious of our hostile intentions. "Having reached to within about one hundred and fifty yards of him, two of our company stepped to the front and fired together, the rest reserving the fire to be ready in case of accident. The lion wounded severely, but not killed, immediately rushed towards us with inconceivable fury and rapidity -he covered a space of thirty feet, as we afterward perceived at one bound. We suffered him to get within ten or twelve feet of us, and then as he was about to make his last leap, poured upon him the contents of all our pieces. He staggered, fell, and in about a quarter of an hour expired. He was the largest and the most magnificent creature of the kind I ever saw, full grown and with a mane black as jet reaching most to the ground. "We stripped him of his skin and then proceeded homeward. After travelling for about an hour, on a route different from that we came, we ber. We put our guns in order, and were soon in the midst of them. They are the most beautiful animals, running at large on their native plains, the eye ever beheld. No adequate idea can be formed of their appearance from what one sees of them in a domesticated state. We killed two full grown, and caught three young ones, of about a month old cach. The usual method of hunting them is by riding directly into the herd: the old ones take flight, leaving their young in the rear, which then fall an easy prey. After being captured two or three hours, they become so tame that they will follow the horse of the hunter. When the latter reaches his domicil, he places them with his goats, and they speedily become domesticated. We reached the house of one of these boors about sunset, with our lion's skin, and our guns, much pleased with our excursion, and without having suffered any mishap. It is rare that a day's sport of this kind terminates so happily." AN INDIAN COUNCIL. IN the autumn of 1830, the writer was present at a council of Indian chiefs, held in the gardens of Government House, at Toronto, the capital of Upper Canada. It had been convoked by the lieutenant-governour of the province, (Sir J. Colborne,) for the purpose of ascertaining the sentiments of the tribes with respect to a contemplated allotment of land in certain fixed portions to families among them, with the view of inuring them to settled modes of life. Early in was a frequent allusion. One only was the reprethe morning, the chieftains of the forest were seen sentative of an unconverted tribe. Among the anomwending their way, in full attire, towards the govern- alies in the group, were to be seen an excessively ment-house. A double circle of seats had been corpulent Indian, (a very rare sight,) another with arranged in the open air before the entry, and here spectacles; another with an umbrella. One was the chiefs, to the number of forty, were seated; on named " Echo," from the sweetness of his voice; the landing to the flight of steps leading to the entry another, "Twenty-Canoes." On the interpreter's was placed a table, behind which stood his excel- delivering any sentiment of his excellency which lency surrounded by his staff in full uniform; at the particularly pleased them, they expressed their table a secretary was sitting; and around, beyond the approbation by their honest laconick "hu!" breathed circle of seats, was drawn up a guard of honour, of the out ab imo pectore-equivalent, doubtless, to our seventy-first highlanders, in their national dress."hear! hear! hear!" Notwithstanding the idea of The attire of the chiefs, for the most part, was fan-pithy brevity, which is usually attached to Indian tastick in the highest degree, that is, according to our speeches, the English language expresses in half notion, for we may be sure that the sedateness and a dozen words what seems to take them a hundred, sobriety which really characterize them, would by the cause of which is, their words are so immeasno means have us consider them ridiculous A very urably long-sesquipedalia verba, with a vengeance. prevalent head-dress was a gaudy handkerchief I heard an old chief, who once roundly taxed his lapped turbanwise, to which, behind, was appended interpreter with not delivering one half of what he a plume of hawk or turkey feathers, while ponderous had expressed. At the time of the council we are clusters of silver ornaments (large crosses in many now speaking of, Brandt, the famous Indian chief, instances) dragged down the rims of their ears, was in the city, but dangerously ill. Allusion was which, in their infancy had been slit entirely round made to him by one of his brother chiefs, evidently for the purpose. For this sort of decoration they with no very kindly feeling; by many of them, have a peculiar liking: they exult in an exuberant doubtless, his refinement was deemed either degendisplay of tinsel trappings attached to every possible eracy or arrogance. When the council had ended, part of their person. Some, however, wore the long tables, covered with every variety of refreshordinary modern beaver, which becomes them when ments, were spread upon the lawn, to which the the rest of their attire is consistent, as was the group adjourned. The officers of the regiment, and case in many at this time, who appeared noble gentlemen attracted to the spot by the novelty of the figures in their light surtouts, trousers, and Welling-scene, performed the honours as well as the services tons. Still, many adhered to the regular chief's of the table. The knife, fork, and spoon, (those costume, the head bare, the hair long and sleek, a unwonted implements,) were used with considerable tunick of blue cloth, with worsted sash about the ease and activity by the guests; and every thing, waist, cloth leggings, edged at the sides with em- with the exception of some unfashionable mixtures, broidery of porcupine-quills, and buckskin moccasins as raisins with cold beef, custard with mince-pie, &c. ornamented in a similar manner, broad silver passed off with as much propriety as could be exarmbands, a medal, bearing the king's head, suspend-pected. The wives (or squaws, as they are called) ed like a gorget at the throat, the tomahawk and knife. of some of the chiefs were present, but merely as lookers-on. During the banquet they kept at a Each chief stood as he spoke; the delivery and respectable distance. Some of the gentlemen prestone of each was very similar; the language highly ent, however, gallantly carried to them some little musical, running along like a low simple Scottish delicacies from the tables, with which they regaled air, regularly dropping at the close of each sentence themselves with no little apparent satisfaction, under with a frequent but not monotonous cadence; the the neighbouring trees. The opportunity was seized interpreter, a young man, stood uncovered at his for sketching several of the characters assembled excellency's left, with two assistants and correctors. on this occasion; they were aware what the artist His attitude was admirable: he stooped slightly was engaged in, and several good-humouredly conforward, his eyes fixed towards the ground, both sented (though only requested by signs) to remain, hands raised; the picture of attention, while another after the close of the feast, for the more complete was speaking-of sincerity and disinterestedness finish of the sketches. In turning over his portwhen he himself spoke. The little action employed folio, they were wonderfully amused at recognising in speaking was graceful, consisting principally in their brother chiefs. On another occasion, while waving the hand; they seldom lifted the eye, and a young friend of the writer was enriching his scarcely appeared to move the lip. None seemed sketch-book with figures from a group of Indians abashed, or at a loss for words. They addressed before him, one of them brought him a humorous his excellency by the title of "brother," (every caricature of himself, in the act of sketching, scratched sentence began with this,) while the king himself on a broad stone. This memorial of "savage" they spoke of as "father." All appeared to acqui- waggery, of course, he treasured up. esce in the proposal which was made to them respecting the land, but were shrewd in hinting that X. The world is but one great family. What then they must have every thing secure upon paper, for is this narrow selfishness in us, but relationship the sake of their children and relatives. Áll ex-remembered against relationship forgot? pressed grateful feelings towards their father, who had sent his excellency to them, and declared that they should maintain their attachment to him as long as the sun shone, the waters ran, till the Son of man came again upon the earth, &c. This last * Brandt, of Brant-ford, was returned a member for one of the western townships. The writer has frequently seen him in the House of Assembly of Upper Canada; a tall full-blooded Indian, swept off by the cholera, in 1832. but most gentlemanly in his manners. The poor fellow was THE CHINCHILLA. Chinchilla lanigera. [The Chinchilla.] THE cool, but fertile slopes of the Cordilleras of Chili and Peru are the native regions of this interesting and useful animal. Here they are entrapped by the needy inhabitants, in great numbers, for the sake of their skins; which, as our fair readers will be aware, form the softest and most beautiful of our winter furs. We shall describe its form and structure, its habits and instincts, its uses, and the relation it bears to other animals. In doing this, we may be allowed to remark, that it is only by such a comprehensive consideration of the objects of natural history, that any real or useful knowledge of them can be attained. Form and structure can only be properly understood by a comparison of similar forms in others; and, as form and structure are subservient to habits, instincts, and uses, being the means by which they are developed, the instruments by which they act; so neither ought they ever to be investigated apart, but always with the closest regard to each other. We have before us an animal living in the countries at the western feet of the Andes of South America, which feeds upon succulent roots, and, without any weapons of defence, exists safely and happily in the face of many enemies. The chinchilla is about eight inches long, from the nose to the commencement of the tail which measures five inches. Its general form is characterized by shortness, thickness, and an aptitude for repose. Its hind limbs are much larger than the fore ones, and, by an ignorant spectator, would be proclaimed disproportionally large, while the latter The would be regarded as much too small. There is, however, no such thing as "disproportion" in nature. The head resembles, in some degree, that of a rabbit, with round, naked, and very capacious ears, large dark-coloured eyes, and a blunt nose. whiskers are long and plentiful. The fore feet possess much of the character of a hand, and have each four short toes, and the rudiment of a thumb; the hinder feet have also four, three of them long, the middle one more produced than the two lateral ones, and the fourth, external to the others, very short, and placed far behind. On all these toes the claws are short, and nearly hidden by tufts of bristly hair. The tail is strong for the size of the animal, of equal thickness throughout, and covered with long bushy hair. The fur is long, thick, close, woolly, somewhat entangled, of a mottled-ash colour, whitish on the belly, but varying in strength and colour in different parts of the body, and in different individuals. The teeth consist of two short sharp-edged incisors in each jaw, and four grinders on either side, making twenty in all. The grinders are composed of three bony plates, divided by two partitions of enamel, and the whole surrounded by a thick coating of the same. The structure of these being very curious, we have much pleasure in presenting our zoological friends with the accurate figures of them. from original drawings, which may be found on the next page. These structures are so exclusively adapted to peculiar habits of life, and under different modifications are so common in allied families-the rats, squirrels, &c., for example--that without the testi [Jaw, showing the lower teeth.] mony of actual experience, they might with very tolerable accuracy be conjectured. We recommend such a practice as one highly conducive to sound zoological knowledge. Particular forms are so surely indicative of corresponding habits, that out of a series of such predictions very few would be found to disagree with the written history. An attentive consideration of the form and structure of the chinchilla, will, therefore, have prepared the intelligent reader to anticipate the following account of its habits : [Ditto of lower jaw.] earth away, and the latter by their shortness, allow the earth to be cast behind the body, while at the same time they offer no obstruction to the subterranean progress of the animal. In this way it is protected from the raven by day, the jaguar by night, and the cold at all times. Further, it feeds chiefly upon the roots of succulent vegetables. Here again its burrowing feet are necessary; but when the favourite root has been procured, they serve another and very important office. Our readers may have observed that a mouse, a rat, a squirrel, and many It lives in a cold, stony, and uneven country similarly-formed animals, eat their food by a gnawaccordingly its fur protects it against the severity of ing process, during which, they sit upright upon the seasons, and enables it to enjoy a life of compa- their haunches, hold the food in their paws, and in rative quietude; while the length and strength of that position nibble it. Now the structure of the its hind quarters, legs, and tail, give it the power of teeth of the chinchilla is such, that it cannot well leaping easily over the irregularities of the surfaces take its frugal meals in any other manner; accoron which it seeks its food. It rests and sleeps in a dingly when a bulb, or other root, has been dug up, burrow made by itself. The necessity for this is the little fellow comfortably seats himself, and tafound in the number of its natural enemies, in the king it into his "hands," turns it in any suitable slightness of its form, and in its greater susceptibility direction, and gnaws off a bit here, and a bit there, to cold while at rest or asleep, than in its waking to the full satisfaction of his appetite. This adaptahours, which a thick coat of fur enables it to coun- tion of the various members of its body to the purteract. The ability to meet this exigency of burrow- poses required of them, is very pretty, and evidently ing, is seen in the shape of its fore paws, which the contrivance of a most BENEFICENT Being. The have very much the form of hands, and in the short-food in the mouth is subjected to a severe grinding ness of its arms. The former enables it to rake the between its curiously-enamelled teeth, and sent to a stomach fitted to receive it in that state, and in no other. The immense size of its smooth ears allows it to catch the most distant sounds; and the largeness of its eyes gives a corresponding power of vision, which, in ordinary cases, sets the craftiness of its enemies at defiance. The ear gives notice of danger-it may be in the horizon, or on the far-off mountain-top, but no matter, the excited eye perceives it, and a few rapid bounds brings the frightened creature to its burrow. It is a clean, timid, and docile animal, and, in its native wilds, is fond of society. It produces a litter of five or six young ones, twice in the year. Its structural forms and instinctive habits may be seen, greatly exaggerated, in the kangaroos and opossums, and as much diminished in the Guinea pigs and rats. Jerboas, mice, squirrels, beavers, and the like, exhibit intermediate relations. The analogies observable between these animals are tremely interesting, and shed mutual light on each other. They should be studied attentively. [For the Family Magazine.] "Behold the order of this glorious and imperial sign, the conqueror of the world; this noble and sublime mark, which the assistance of God renders efficacious!" Next comes an enumeration of the titles and possessions of the sultan: "I, who, by the assistance and excellence of the infinite powers of the high and glorious God, and by the power of miracles, am the glorious sultan of sultans, the emperour of powerful emperours, the distributor of crowns to the Cosroes seated on their thrones, the shade of God in the two earths, the keeper of the two cities of Mecca and Medina, illuminated with celestial rays, the most noble and the most illustrious of all cities and places," &c. The firman then proceeds to enumerate the different provinces and cities which are under the power of the sultan-and then we find : "I, the emperour, the asylum of justice, and the king of kings, centre of vicex-tory, the sultan, son of a sultan, the emperour N, son of the sultan N: I, who am by my power, the origin of happiness, emperour of two earths, and to fill up the measure of the greatness of my khalifat, am renderedillustrious by the title of emperour of two seas." Alas! for the sultan, his power is declining. TOUGRA, OR SIGNATURE OF THE GRAND SEIGNIOR. 继 THE OLD MAN'S CAROUSAL. BY JAMES K. PAULDING. DRINK, drink, whom shall we drink? A friend or a mistress? Come let me think. To those who are absent, or those who are here? To the dead that we loved, or the living still dear! The present is barren, let's drink to the past. Come! here's to the girl with the voice sweet and low, Who erewhile in the days of my youth that are fled, One slept in my bosom, and pillow'd my head! THE exact derivation of the word firman is not exact-And here's to the friend, the one friend of my youth, With a head full of genius, a heart full of truth, erally contain the following: Southern Lit. Messenger. VOL. IV.-28 |