!ד

an opportunity to strike him mortally; but the beast, seeing his enemy so near, wheeled completely round, put his huge shaggy head close to the ground before his fore feet, as is their custom when they attack each other, and rapidly advanced upon the hunter, who instantly fired, and put his ball through the bull's nose; but seeing the temper the beast was in, and knowing what a serious antagonist he was when on the offensive, he also immediately turned and fled.

In running down a short hill, some briars threw him down, and he dropped his gun. There was a tree not far from him of about eighteen inches diameter, and every thing seemed to depend upon his reaching it; but as he rose to make a push for it, the buffalo struck him on the fleshy part of the hip with his horn, and slightly wounded him. Before, however, the beast could wheel round upon him again, he gained the tree, upon which all the chance he had of preserving his life rested. A very few feet from this tree grew a sapling, about four or five inches in diameter, a most fortunate circumstance for the hunter, as it contributed materially to save his life. The buffalo now doggedly followed up his purpose of destroying his adversary, and a system of attack and defence commenced that, perhaps, is without a parallel. The buffalo went round and round the tree pursuing the man, jumping at him in the peculiar manner of that animal, every time he thought there was a chance of hitting him; whilst Percival, grasping the tree with his arms, flung himself round it with greater rapidity than the animal could follow him. In this manner the buffalo harassed him more than four hours, until his hands became so sore with rubbing against the rough bark of the oak tree, and his limbs so fatigued, that he began to be disheartened.

In going round the tree, the buffalo would sometimes pass between it and the sapling; but the distance between them was so narrow, that it inconvenienced him, especially when he wanted to make his jumps: he therefore frequently went round the sapling instead of going inside of it. The time thus consumed was precious to Percival; it enabled him to breathe, and to consider how he should defend himself.

After so many hours' fruitless labour, the bull seemed to have lost his pristine vigour, and became slower in his motions: he would now make his short start, preparatory to his jump, only at intervals; and even then he jumped doubtingly, as if he saw that Percival would avoid his blow by swinging to the other side. It was evident he was baffled, and was considering what he should do. Still continuing in his course round the tree, but in this slow manner, he at length made an extraordinary feint that does honour to the reasoning powers of the buffalo family. He made his little start as usual, and when Percival swung himself round, the bull, instead of aiming his blow in the direction he had been accustomed to do, suddenly turned to the side of the tree where Percival would be brought when he had swung himself round, and struck with all his might. The feint had almost succeeded: Percival only just saved his head, and received a severe contusion on his arm, which. was paralysed for an instant. He now began to despair of saving his life, his limbs trembled under him, he thought the buffalo would wear him out, and it was so inexpressibly painful to him to carry on this singular defence, that at one time he entertained the idea of leaving the tree, and permitting the animal to destroy him, as a mode of saving himself from pain and anxiety that were intolerable.

But the buffalo, just at that time giving decided symptoms of being as tired as himself, now stopped for a few minutes, and Percival took courage. Remembering that he had his butcher's knife in his breast, he took it out, and began to contrive plans of offence; and when the bull, having rested awhile, recommenced his old rounds, Percival took advantage of the slowness of his motions, and using a great deal of address and management, contrived in the course of half an hour to stab and cut him in a dozen different places. The animal now became weak from loss of blood, and although he continued to walk round the tree, made no more jumps, contenting himself with keeping July.-VOL. LXXI. NO. CCLXXXIII. 2 F

his head and neck close to it. This closed the conflict, for it enabled Percival to extend his right arm, and give him two deadly stabs in the eyes. Nothing could exceed the frantic rage of the unwieldly animal when he had lost his sight; he bellowed, he groaned, he pawed the ground, and gave out every sign of conscious ruin and immitigable fury; he leaned against the sapling for support, and twice knocked himself down by rushing with his head at the large tree. The second fall terminated this strange tragic combat, which had now lasted nearly six hours. The buffalo had not strength to rise, and the conqueror, stepping up to him, and lifting up his nigh shoulder, cut all the flesh and ligaments loose, and turned it over his back. He then, after resting himself a few minutes, skinned the beast, took a part of the meat to his canoe, made a fire, broiled and ate it.

FINE ARTS.

ANCIENT HISTORICAL PICTURES.*

A FEW years since a society was sought to be established for the purpose of engraving and publishing some of the numerous Historical Portrait Pictures that exist in this country. Mr. G. P. Harding, the eminent heraldic artist, has in his possession a large collection of excellent copies, executed by himself, of the best works of this kind, belonging to the most distinguished families in the kingdom, and it was arranged that this "Granger Society," as they styled themselves, should avail themselves of his resources: but some particularly pig-headed individuals contrived, as has been the case more than once, to obtain the management of the society, and one of the first things they did was to pick a quarrel with their founder, and with the customary rudeness of such persons, dismiss him and his collection. The natural consequence of this measure was, that the "Granger Society" struggled on for a short time, with scarcely any facilities for obtaining the best pictures for their purpose, and the subscriptions falling inadequate, the council declared the society at an end in the spring of last year. Mr. Iarding then announced his intention of engraving historical pictures, and having been honoured with the patronage of Prince Albert, the Marquis of Northampton, the Earl of Clarendon, and other enlightened noblemen and gentlemen, who take a lively interest in his undertaking, for the moderate subscription of one pound annually, he is now ready to furnish his subscribers with several excellent engravings from highly interesting portraits-the first of which, the celebrated picture, formerly at Strawberry Hill, of "King Henry VIII. and the Emperor Charles V.," is now ready for delivery. It is a print which every collector should desire to possess. This is to be followed by portraits of "Sir Robert Dudley, son of Robert Earl of Leicester," "Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle," "The Clifford Family,' "Prince Rupert and Colonel Murray, persuading Colonel John Russell to resume his Commission," "The Family of Sir Thomas More," and others of equal in

terest.

* Ancient Historical Pictures. By G. P. Harding.

MICE are a nation of very great antiquity! they crept into the world when it was but five days old, thus having precedence of the human race by full twenty-four hours.

No people ever had a loftier parentage; all their historians, from Esop to La Fontaine, agreeing that they are descended from the Mountains. No mouse could ever see matter for ridicule in this descent, although Horace has been so merry on the subject. In consequence of their connexion with the Mountains, mice are, of course, allied to the illustrious family of the Hills, and consider themselves part of the haute noblesse of the kingdom.

Previously to the era of the Deluge the annals of the race are necessarily brief; but Mice are generally of opinion that Nimrod obtained the title of the "mighty hunter" from the wars which he waged with their gallant nation. Noah paid them distinguished attention, but their antiquaries have not yet succeeded in discovering the card of invitation which Mr. and Mrs. Mouse, the ante-diluvians, must have received from the commander of the ark. However, they survived the Flood by that officer's courtesy, and in gratitude for so valuable a service, have adhered to the houses of his posterity from that day to this. If they were more attached to one of their benefactor's sons than to another, it was unquestionably to Ham. It has been said that a mouse of the patriarchal times was caught nibbling the venison pasty which Esau made for his father Isaac. There may be truth in the report, or there may be none. In all probability it is a sheer calumny.

The affection of mice for Ham has led to the notion that they were the inventors of mustard, which is certainly confirmed by the obvious derivation of that word from mus, a mouse.

Amongst the mice of the old world, those of Babylon enjoyed the first celebrity. The walls of that famous city were, in fact, nothing else than August.VOL. LXXI. NO. CCLXXXIV.

2 G

a vast army of mice with cocked tails, a curious fact which appears plainly from the description given of those walls by the poet Ovid":"

Dicitur altam

Coctilibus muris ciuxisse Semiramis urbem.

That "coctilibus muris" is properly translated "cock-tailed mice," is acknowledged by a learned writer in the "Anti-Jacobin," who, however, absurdly supposes that the mice in this case were dead.

Of all Asiatic cities Angora was probably the most unpopular with the mice of antiquity, on account of the race of cats by which that place was infested; the cat having been at all times the inveterate enemy of our

name.

Like other nations, the Souriquois have had their fabulists as well as their historians, and one of their legends recounts an early and close alliance contracted with a no less illustrious personage than the Lion, to whom a mouse was once upon a time enabled to render a service of the last importance. It is natural to think that the Lion must have been only too happy to cultivate the friendship and conciliate the good-will of auxiliaries like us.

Though a peaceful race, when left to themselves, the mice have had their wars; and they are too great a nation to have little wars. History records no such brilliant campaign as that of the Souriquois with the Frogs. Some idea of the magnitude of the quarrel may be collected from the circumstance that the greatest poet of ancient times has immortalized it in that beautiful epic of which he subsequently wrote an amusing parody, which he entitled the "Iliad." The "Batrachyomachia; or, Battle of the Frogs and Mice," is indeed a stupendous poem ; but no a work would have been worthy of the theme.

Oh, fill my rising song with sacred fire,
Ye tuneful nine, ye sweet celestial choir !
The dreadful toils of raging Mars I write,
The springs of contest and the fields of fight;

How threatening MICE advanced with warlike grace,
And waged dire combats with the croaking race.
Not louder tumults shook Olympus' towers
When earth-born giants dared immortal powers.

And again:

Dreadful in arms the marching mice appear.

less

Nay, the gods decline to mix in the fight through fear of our martial prowess. Pallas thus addressed the celestial council:

Let all like me from either host forbear,

Nor tempt the flying furies of the spear.

Some daring mouse may meet the wondrous odds,
Though gods oppose, and brave the wounded gods.

Achilles shines with a faint splendour by the side of our great Psycarpax. The stone which this warrior flung at the frog, Pelobates, the poet describes as follows:

Not twice ten mice th' enormous weight could raise,
Such mice as live in our degenerate days.

Homer, however, probably underrates the mice of his own time, to exalt those of the heroic age. But more illustrious still was Meridarpax. He was indeed

The foremost mouse of all the world! }}

adorned with every mouseful quality, the bravest and most accomplished
noblemouse in the Souriquois aristocracy.

Pride of his sire, and glory of his hole,
A warlike spirit with a heavenly soul,
His actions bold, robust his goodly frame,
And Meridarpax his resounding name.

It has always been a subject of just surprise to our critics, how the bard
who sang the exploits of mice could have stooped his wing to celebrate
the puny deeds of men; but it is still more curious to find that the true
cause of the wars of the Souriquois with the nations of the fens has been
left for a mouse of the present day to discover. The truth is this. The
mice were always a melodious nation, endowed by nature with the
finest ears, and it was not possible that they could always patiently en-
dure the discordant croakings of the population of the marshes and low
countries. At length the nuisance became intolerable. They convened
a parliament, or mouse-mote, as it was termed, and proclaimed war to the
bull-rush with their untuneful neighbours. Fifty thousand mice-at-arms
took the field, and every mouse behaved mousefully. In addition to our
land force, they collected (which Homer has not mentioned), a powerful
navy, consisting of one hundred mice-of-war, all moused with able-bodied
sea-mice. The youngest midshipmouse in the fleet was fit to command
an Armada. Our admiral was one of the most remarkable mice in his-
tory, and could have taught Blake and Nelson their duty. Indeed, it
was from him that the latter borrowed the famous battle-cry of Trafalgar.
The original was this" Mouseland expects that every mouse will do his
duty." An English writer named Southey has written "the Lives of the
Admirals," and has not mentioned the name of Troglodytes! Our gene-
ralissimo by land was Troxartes. He had lived the life of a philosopher
in calm obscurity, until his country required the service of his paws. The
austerity of his nature made him the strictest of martinets. A poet hap-
pily describes him as

A stoic of the hole, a mouse without a tear.

His despatches (strange to relate!) have never been published; but the original papers are in the Mouseum, and it is hoped that Colonel Gurwood, when he has leisure, will undertake to edit them. They will be found as much superior to those of the Duke of Wellington, as a mouse is to a man.

The early history of Rome teems with proofs of our renown in arms. Witness the exploits of Decius Mus. Some have supposed that Decius was a man, not a mouse; but even were this true, it would follow that he was surnamed Mus, in compliment to his warlike prowess. Certain it is that the Romans had a particular kind of crown called mural, with which they were accustomed to honour distinguished soldiers, and that mural is derived from mus, muris, is too obvious to require a word in support of it. How long we flourished in Rome is not very certain, but