MOROCCO.

MOROCCO is a name that suggests nothing to many people beyond the definition of the dictionary, "a fine kind of leather, prepared commonly from goat-skin, and tanned with sumach: first prepared by the Moors"; to most of us it has only the further interest of historical romance, from the glorious days of its sultans and the desperate doings of its pirates, whose ships ran out from Sallee and Tangier and struck terror into the sailors of England and other countries of Europe; but it is probable that within a few years it will be dragged before our eyes in every newspaper, and become the cynosure of English, French, Spanish, Italian and German statesmen, like the other Mussulman countries, Turkey, Egypt, Tunis and Algeria. Already, indeed, its name is floating about in the political atmosphere, and we do not know how soon its fertile but neglected soil may be trampled by the footsteps of European armies. England has a closer interest in this obscure and rich but undeveloped empire than in any other State on the southern shore of the Mediterranean, Egypt perhaps excepted; and our readers will therefore, perhaps, be interested in the "China of the West" and the "Irish of Islam," the country of the tragic Othello; the country of one of Byron's well-known characters, which drew from his too-often unworthy pen the glittering lines

"Her mother was a Moorish maid from Fez, Where all is Eden or a wilderness.

"There the large olive rains its amber store In ample fronts; there grain, and flower, and fruit,

Gush from the earth till the land runs o'er; But there too many a poison-tree has root, And Midnight listens to the lion's roar,

And long, long deserts scorch the camel's foot,

Or whelm a helpless caravan;

And as the soil is, so the heart of man."

CURIOUS RELIGIOUS PAINTING.

Morocco is at least a country of immense possibilities, and by its natural richness it is, we trust, destined some day, under the healthful current of civilization, to rise from the wreck and ruin, amid which it has staggered on for centuries, as an independent State; it may yet again, when freed from the wretched despotism and savage system of plundering misrule that are ever sinking it lower and lower, win back something of its medieval greatness by intelligent and honest labor. The Moroccan Empire is the last and pitiable remnant of the glorious Caliphate which once extended from the vine-clad slopes of Spain to the burning banks of the Niger, the hideous and withered phantom of the gorgeous splendor with which our childhood was entranced-the ghastly and spectral echo of the magic grandeur of the "Arabian Nights"; sunk and sinking still; waiting only to be

buried

enable them to take their place among the famou world.

CURIOUS RELIGIOUS PAINTING.

As A specimen of really curious ecclesiastical give, herewith, a reproduction of a painting in a

at Landsbygden, in Denmark. The upper por presents, on the right hand, the visit of the Th Men of the East to the Infant Christ. They are

T

and appearance of all the characters, the modern instruments employed by the musicians, and especially the knives and forks on the table. The whole forms a very

INFORMATION

ANCIENT CEREMONY.-According to old custom the | religious Court ceremonies at Vienna began on ursday preceding Easter with the washing by the or and Empress of the feet of twelve old men and in the great hall of the Burg. The old men, rangage from eighty-eight to ninety-one, and the women ghty-nine to ninety-six, who had been chosen from the many competitors for the honor, had received and their suits of cloth and the money for the es to take them to the appointed place. Previous ceremony, Mass was read in the chapel, at which ajesties and all the archdukes and archduchesses d. At ten o'clock the Court assembled, including nerals and high dignitaries, a select number of ors being admitted to the galleries. The old men men, attired in ancient German costume, were then nd seated at the table-the men to the right, the to the left. The chamberlains followed, the privy rs and the officiating clergy, and after them the -waiting, the archdukes, archduchesses and the r and Empress, conducted by the Master of the 1 Kitchen. Pages brought in the dishes, which ced by the Emperor before the men, and by the 3 before the women. The food, however, was not . The archdukes and ladies of the place removed les and the table. Then, the men and women eated in two rows, the clergy began to read the tory in commemoration of which the ceremony ce, and the Imperial couple poured water on the the old men and women and dried them again. rformed, each of the people received a bag with eces of silver, and the Court withdrew, while the 1 women were taken in Court carriages to their vhere the above-mentioned dishes were set before

NT TABLETS FROM SEPHARVAIM.-Nine cases, reprea portion of the results of the researches just on of being resumed by M. Hormuzd Rassam, who land for Alexandretta and Babylon a few months lately arrived in London. The tablets which they are for the most part small, and, either whole or mentary condition, are estimated to reach about number. The texts on the tablets are large beyond t, as compared with the size of the vehicle on ey are inscribed. The new importation, so far been investigated, consists chiefly of trade docuid largely of contracts for the supply of corn and icultural products. They are dated in the reigns -sum-ukin and Kandalanu, the Chinladanus of 18, who were contemporary with the latter half of of Assurbanipal, or Sardanapalus, of Assyria, .646. The tablets are from Aboo-habba, the site cient Sippara, the Sepharvaim of the Old Testaich is mentioned by Sennacherib in his letter to

Deluge, and from which his posterity afterward recovered them. The Hebrew term Sepharvaim, which is the verbal equivalent of the "two Sipparas," is applied to twin cities, one of which was situated on each side of the river. The Sippara from which the tablets just arrived in London have been procured is the Sippara of Samas, Tsipar, sha Shamas, or Sippara of the Sun-god, as being the place where pre-eminently the sun was a chief object of worship. The other Sippara, or Sippara of Anunit, which is supposed in ancient times to name the Sepharvaim of Scripture history, is up to the present moment unknown to modern investigation.

LONGEVITY IN EUROPE.-M. De Solaville analyses in the Revue Scientifique the results of recent European censuses by ages, and the register of deaths also by ages. If we strike a mean of the census from 1869 to 1872, we find that Europe (exclusive of Russia, Turkey, and some small Southern States) possessed in 1870 a mean population of 242,940,376, classed as follows from the point of view of advanced ages: 17,313,715 of more than 60 years, 79,859 of more than 90, and 3,108 of more than 100 years; i.e., one inhabitant in 12 of more than 60, one in 2,669 of more than 90, and one in 62,503 of more than 100. Women, M. Solaville finds, are more numerous in extreme old age than men, and the difference increases with the age. Thus at 60 years the advantage is with the women in the proportion of 7 per cent., at 90 and above it rises to 45, and with centenarians to 60 per 100. It is in France that we find the greatest relative number of inhabitants at the age of 60 and upward; but it is not so for centenarians, of which France has less than all the other States of Europe except Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland. From a calculation of deaths by ages the result is reached that, to the total deaths, those at the age of 90 and upward bore the following proportions to the countries named and arranged according to the decreasing order of importance: Great Britain, 9.73; Sweden, 7.39; France, 6.58; Belgium, 6.07; 3.42; Prussia, 3.06; Austria, 2.61. The result is in acSwitzerland, 6.00; Holland, 4.47; Italy, 3.76; Bavaria, cordance with what we know of the mean age of the

deceased in the same countries.

Or the United States gold dollars (25.8 grains) about 271 weigh one pound avoirdupois. Of silver coins, the new silver dollar ("Buzzards ")-412 grains-17 weigh almost exactly one pound. The “halves,” “ 'quarters" and "dimes" are proportionately lighter, and require $18.14} of them to make a pound avoirdupois. Of "nickels,” the five-cent pieces weigh 77.16 grains, or about 90 to the pound. The "nickel" three-cent pieces weigh 30 grains, or 233 to the pound. The small copper cents weigh 48 grains, or about 146 to the pound, or about 9 to the ounce. "It is quite a mistake," says the Churchman, “to suppose that the nickel five-cent coin, because it has on it a pious motte, is intended exclusively for alme and oblations. It

capacity. The five-cent nickel is thus a key to the entire metric system of weights and measures, and becomes more valuable for individual than for Church use. It is also often the measure of character. Contributors should note the fact, and substitute a larger coin.

The Restoration of St. Giles's Church in Edinburgh.

A CORRESPONDENT of the London Times gives an interesting account of the restoration of the Cathedral of St. Giles in Edinburgh, made at the expense of Dr. William Chambers, the well-known publisher. The following will give an idea of the difficulties and the costliness of the undertaking: "The original cruciform plan of the church was long ago obliterated by successive alterations and additions, but the great features of the choir, nave and transepts have always been distinguishable on the ground-plan of the church. After the Reformation the choir was fitted up as a Protestant Church, the Gothic arches being filled up with partition walls. About the same time the south west aisle was cut off in the same way, and formed the Tolbooth Church. The other parts of the building were freely utilized for secular purposes. It contained, at various times, a grammar school, the courts of justice, town clerk's office, a prison, and the storehouse of the machinery of the gallows. As Edinburgh extended, and the population increased, more churches were required. Instead of building new churches in convenient localities, recourse was again had to St. Giles's. The school, the law courts, the town clerk, and the gallows were cleared out, and four separate churches were accommodated under the one roof. This arrangement continued till far on in the present century, when the number of churches was reduced to three. The High Kirk, or St. Giles's proper, occupied the choir; West St. Giles's occupied the nave; and the old church occupied the south transept.

"These churches were separated from one another by solid partition walls, and in each of them cumbrous galleries had been erected, after the fashion of Scottish churches, which galleries rested on beams inserted in the wall at one end, and into the solid stone pillars which support the roof at the other. Not only in this way, and for this purpose had the pillars been chiseled and marred, but they had also been fined down and scooped out, to enable the worshipers to obtain a clear view of the clergyman in the pulpit.

"The work of the restoration began in 1872, with the clearing out and renovation of the choir, occupied by the congregation of St. Giles's proper. A second advance was taken in 1879, when the partition wall between St. Giles's and the Preston aisle on the southeast was taken down, and a wide area was thereby added to the church. When this had been done, however, barely one-half of the building had been subjected to the work of restoration. The whole of the western portion, most of which was occupied by the West St. Giles's congregation, remained intact as a hideous deformity. In order to complete the work it was necessary to get rid of the congregation of West St. Giles's. Dr. Chambers publicly intimated his willingness to bear the cost of completing the work of restoration to which he had set his hand, if a fund were subscribed for providing a new place of worship for that congregation within a specified time.

"After various delays, the requisite fund, amounting to £10,000, was subscribed, and the work of completing the restoration of the entire fabric was entered on. This is the part of the work that is approaching completion.

the work will be one of the finest examples of ju and intelligent restoration of which Scotland or the can boast. Already the famous Albany aisle stand all its chaste beauty, and the vista of the nave, from the transept, presents an architectural effect t there is no equal in Scotland. The central pilla Albany aisle is not only beautiful in itself; it is al worthy as being, it is said, a memorial of one of t terrible crimes in Scottish history.

"The aisle was built jointly by the Duke of Alb the Earl of Douglas, who were believed to be asso the crime of starving to death the young Duke of say, the second son of King Robert III., and ne the former. Conscience-stricken, they built the c an expiation of their guilt, and the armorial bea the two noble murderers are carved on two sh

the capitals of the central pillars. This interesti torical memento was completely smothered by the hands of the post-Reformation Goths. It has been as nearly as possible to its original form, and it is of the most charming features of the building."

THE WHITE YAK.

ANIMALS of the ox family have been of immense to mankind, and some were apparently domestica very early period. Our well-known cattle, varying in size, in the quality of the flesh and abund milk, are found wherever civilization has made a gress. Besides these, there are the buffalo of the Continent and our bison, the musk-ox of the frozen of North America, and the yak of India. The la show more long hair than the others.

The yak which we illustrate, taking as our spe very fine white yak in the Dresden Zoological Ga found on the confines of Asiatic Tartary, the m of Thibet and Central Asia. Like our bison, it ha of crisp hair on the head and a kind of lionlik while the under part of the body and the upper the legs are covered with a thick fringe of lo reaching nearly to the ground. The full long sembles that of a horse, and the general hair on t is long, thick and soft. The head is short, and th round and smooth. The immense mass of hair m yak look very much larger than it is, but, indepe this, it is larger than our domestic cattle. It is irascible and dangerous animal, and, though dom in China and Thibet, submits with an ill grace, an its ill-temper by a grunt like that of a hog, from is sometimes called the grunting-ox. The prevaili is black; when found white, they are highly priz flesh, milk, hide and hair are all used, the ha woven into stuff. The tail has a high commerci and it is this that, attached to a lance, forms in medan countries an emblem of the rank of a pa his degree is shown by the number of tails he is to have borne before him.

For this purpose a white tail will often bring fou even more ducats. But while the followers of Moham for white, the disciples of Confucius prize red, and tail, dyed this favorite color and suspended from is the height of ambition in the Flowery Land. the tail is used as a brush for driving off flies a insects from men, horses and elephants. These often set in costly handles, and are called chowri may thus end our tale by calling attention to the of the specimen we illustrate, which would certain