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of Arab and Turkoman blood. The blood horse, therefore, being supposed to be superior to the best of his foreign progenitors in size, speed, and bottom, no room was, consequently, left for amelioration. But the experience of the persons who came to this decision was probably too confined to be entitled to much weight. It has been found, by repeated experiment, that animals, transported to distant climates, differing essentially from their own, invariably degenerate, both in vigour and beauty. A distinguished officer, who accompanied our ambassador in one of the late missions to Persia, has observed that several brace of choice English greyhounds, which they had taken with them, were all hanged as useless, in a country where swifter dogs were to be found. On the return of the mission to India, several Persian greyhounds were sent to England, where a similar fate attended them, when slipped on British ground against their northern rivals. But this anecdote, though, perhaps, worth preserving, and related by Mr. Barker in support of his views, would seem to make against the propriety of aiming at improving the animals of one country by introducing the breed of another. It is, nevertheless, certain, that the descendants of Arab horses in Guzerat, Syria, Egypt, Barbary, and Spain, greatly excel the native breed in strength and beauty. From Moreland's History of the Race Horse it would appear, that notwithstanding the success which attended the introduction into England of foreign blood, neither the king, nor any jockey association, ever resorted to the best means for procuring the most perfect specimens of the foreign races; but that the cross which produced the Byerly, Godolphin, and Darley stallions, owed its origin to circumstances the most fortuitous imaginable. The Godolphin,the best of the three,- was purchased at Paris for twenty-six louis; the Northumberland Arabian, "whose gets," says Moreland, p. 2. " were most of them winners," was brought to England in 1760, and ostentatiously said to have been purchased at great cost from the sovereign of Arabia Felix; but this stallion, according to Mr. Barker, was a stout common Turkoman horse, bought for 30l. by John Phillip, an American servant of one of his predecessors, at Durtuzi, a Kurd village, twenty miles west of Aleppo. It may, therefore, without much temerity, be concluded, that neither the Godolphin nor the Darley stallion had any better claim to the name of Arabian than the Byerly, which was modestly denominated a Turk,—because, at the period when these horses were introduced into England, a

Desert, or Nejdi horse, was, even in Syria, as rare and costly an animal as a lion or an elephant in London. It was, in fact, only to be found, as a curiosity, in the stable of a Pasha of Aleppo or Damascus; consequently could not have been purchased by private speculators, who gave the name of Arab to every horse in Syria or Mesopotamia, as appears from their having generally produced in England Hujjis, or written attestations of their blood, a practice unknown to the Bedouin, who can prove the genealogy of his horse only by tradition, and the superior beauty of his form. Mr. Barker, during a long residence at Aleppo, enjoyed ample opportunity of observing the gradual civilization of the Bedouins, and their increasing intercourse with the rest of mankind, which, about thirty years ago, began to be very perceptible. In consequence, the pashas, and other rich individuals in Syria, have been enabled to fill their stables with Nejdis; and the French, Russians, and Prussians, ambitious of possessing specimens of the Barb, have likewise procured several fine strings of stallions for their studs. Hitherto, however, the trade has been attended with much difficulty. Many disadvantages arise from the supposed danger of confiding in the good faith of the desert tribes, apprehensions being entertained, as well for the safety of the individuals engaged in the traffic, as for the money to be conveyed to the spot where the horse is sold; the Bedouin, equally diffident, refusing to rely upon the faith of the inhabitants of the towns. In the year 1817, three very numerous tribes, who had never before beheld a Turkish minaret, pitched their tents within a few miles of Aleppo, bringing along with them at least six thousand horses. From these it was not difficult for Europeans residing in Syria to select a number of splendid stallions; but none of those thus obtained found their way to England. For the information contained in the latter part of this note, I am indebted to the politeness of Mr. Barker. The old Sultans of Egypt usually preferred the Nubian horse. Jemaleddin, Ann. Egypt. p. 130.

(Page 312.)
Dendera.

THERE is not the surface of an inch unoccupied by sculpture in any part of the interior. Here are gods, goddesses, and

priests; there flowers, symbols, and sacred animals: they are grouped and separate, at sacrifice and at prayer. There is Apis, Isis, and Ibis; Osiris, Horus, and Anubis: the crux, the lotus, the passive lion, and the hawk; and these in all forms and shapes, and under the most fanciful varieties. In one place is seen the mitred head of a lion, ending in petticoats below, risum teneatis? and seated with all the dignity of Dido. Here the irresistible power of beauty appears represented upon an inverted principle. Near this latter figure is a graceful-looking youth, who, to personify the impudence of his age, is endued with the head of a dog. Rapacity is exhibited in a small active mortal, with the face of a hawk; meanness and falshood are sheltered under the bare lank neck and crouching head of the Ibis ardea; or, it may be, that the lion-headed lady, who, being seated, is doubtless a goddess, represents the power and beauty of religion; the other figures, the divers depravities of those who professed to be her votaries. At all events, these things always were, and still remain, mysteries; and, until they are satisfactorily explained, every man has a right to make what he pleases of them. We are told this dénouement is about to be made by one who has well qualified himself for the task, by a fourteen years residence in their neighbourhood. He may, perhaps, hit upon a different hypothesis from mine, and possibly a more plausible one; but, as I before said, every man has a right to his own speculations, and no one can say that mine are more fanciful than the combinations which have given rise to them. Diodorus remarks, that every thing relative to this adoration of beasts is wonderful, and, indeed, incredible; that it is exceedingly difficult to discover the true grounds of this superstition; and that the key to the mysteries was in possession of the priests alone. From hence it is to be inferred, that he did not comprehend them, nor believe in the popular interpretations. The right understanding of these monsters, is so essential to the comprehension of the monsters who contrived them, that the world must ever feel indebted to those who have devoted their time and talents to the examination. It is to be lamented, however, that certain doctrines have taken root in Grand Cairo, which do infinite injustice to the characters of departed historians, both sacred and profane. Herodotus is styled a madman, a foolish young man, &c. Awake! arise, Olympian judges! recal your misplaced honours. But the arch fabulist of all, according to eastern views, is Moses. The miraculous events

recorded in the Pentateuch are disbelieved, in order to rescué the Deity from the charge of being whimsical; and those, therefore, who affect to vindicate the consistency of the Almighty, would do it, forsooth, at the expense of his veracity; as if the Creator of the universe were prohibited by his creatures from overstepping the bounds which their finite comprehension would prescribe. But all this is old. Among other useful discoveries, some gentlemen of Cairo have ascertained that Pharaoh was not drowned in the Red Sea; which would also prove David to be unworthy of credit. It is said these antiquarians have discovered his mummy, which is now on its way to England. But even this will not aid their hypothesis; for a reward would naturally be offered for the king's body, and when recovered, we may presume it would be decently interred.Monro's Journal.

(Page 513.)
KALABSHI.

[The following Note, on the various modes of accounting for the holes in the Coliseum walls, is extracted from the MS. Journal of the Rev. Vere Monro.]

THE walls and columns of this temple are pierced with numerous holes like those in the Colosseum at Rome; for which, it seems, antiquarians have not agreed in assigning any certain indisputable cause. At least, I have heard more than one hypothesis started and supported. The resemblance between the appearance of the holes in the Colosseum and those at Kalabshi, is so close, that if any decisive conclusion could be arrived at with regard to the latter, it might do something towards confirming or confuting the theories that are applied to the former.

These holes do not appear to have been the work of religious zeal in order to deface or disfigure the temple, because it may be presumed that the sculptured figures of the Egyptian Deities would have been the principal objects of such vengeance; whereas, in many places, the plain surface of the stone has been cut into, while the figures within a few inches have been left untouched. Sometimes a hand or foot has been cut away, and the important parts of the body have escaped. There

are some incisions in the columns where are no figures; also in the staircase, which has not even been finished, part of the surface having been left in a rough state, like the outsides of the palazzi at Florence. In the S. E. corner of the furthest division of the cella, called by Burckhardt the "chamber beyond the Adytum," is a small aperture never likely to have been entered by any but a persevering man, and almost impracticable for any but a lean one. It is about eighteen inches square. We crawled through it, and, lighting candles, found ourselves in a closet five feet three inches each way. In the wall opposite the entrance was another aperture, smaller than the one by which we had entered; I crawled through this also, and found another chamber longer and narrower than the first. Belzoni says, these were probably intended for the confinement of wild beasts; Burckhardt supposes they were designed for the accommodation of wild priests. In the first of these, I observed one hole only, but exactly corresponding with those without, and apparently made with the same object. Now here there are no figures to deface, and few people were likely to see and attest the proofs of zeal that had been at work, and therefore this was not a place that would have been selected for such a purpose. In the subterranean temple close at hand, the walls of which are covered with sculptures, there are no holes — religious zealots would not have spared these figures. Again, the holes are cut to a great depth, reaching even beyond the thickness of the first stone. If defacement were the only object, this would be a needless waste of time, and the enthusiasts would surely have had recourse to the same means as at Dendera, where many of the figures of the portico and the wall have been effectually chiselled out from head to foot at very little expense of time or labour. Another conjecture at Rome is, that they may have been the places where the scaffolding was fixed for the erection of the building. At Kalabshi, they are found piercing in some instances the best figures of the temple an act of barbarity which it is not to be supposed the builders would have committed upon their own work. Besides which, it is clear the Egyptians did not execute their sculptures until the chamber, or at least each wall, had been in every other respect completed. Some have supposed the appearances in the Colosseum are to be attributed to the means by which the stucco has been fixed in casing it. This could not have been the case at Kalabshi- cement originally has not been used there, and that which has been laid on at a later