calmly upon the best method of becoming disentangled from Machiavel's mesh.

The task was not so simple, nor did he think it was. His suspicions, unsupported by any material facts, were utterly useless. To state them, or urge them, seemed childish in the extreme, and likely to weaken his own case. Virtue and innocence, and other rare inestimable qualities, had triumphed before, perhaps they would triumph again. Parkes resolved to be patient.

monuments, to the right in the photograph. It was the great day of Yekadesha, the 11th day of Kartik Wud (9th December last), when hundreds of men and women, chiefly Brahmins, were performing their ablutions in the sacred stream, with religious rites. Pilgrims to and from Punderpoor, and from all parts of the Deccan, were congregated there: the Konkun, Southern Mahratta Country, and Berar, each contributed its respective quota of devotees and

"Where yon lines of silver show,
In the bosky depths below,
Krishna's sacred waters flow:
With Yenna dear, that hastes to join
Her sister-stream by Moulee's shrine."

The famous temple to Mahadeo, referred to in a foot-note, on the north bank of the Yenna-or, strictly, Vena, from the Sanscrit,-is situated on an elevated mound, and known as Sungum-Eshwur. There is another on the south bank of the Yenna, and western bank of the Krishna, named SungumWishwashur ;-both dedicated, under their distinct appellations, to the terrible Destroyer, Siva, or Mahadeo.

Of the graceful elegance of these temples, raised by superstitious zeal, one can scarcely form an adequate idea. The confluence of the Krishna and Vena, or Yenna, is about three miles from the city of Sattara. Nothing of the temples is to be seen till the western bank of the Krishna is reached. The first that strikes the eye of the spectator is the black temple of Rameshwur, on the opposite or eastern bank of the Krishna. Then, further up the river, to the left, the group of temples, backed by clusters of trees, at the village of Moulee, swept both by the Krishna and Yenna, bursts upon the view. The photograph is illustrative of the temple of Sungum-Eshwur, between umbrageous trees, at the confluence of the two streams. The ghauts or flights of steps, to the edge of the water, lead down to the Yenna just as it turns its course to meet the Krishna, at the two Gosavees'

resting scene. Looking on with astonishment at the concourse in the river between the two banks, on which it has already been mentioned stands the black temple of Rameshwur on the eastern, and Sungum-Wishwashur on the western bank of the Krishna, and directly opposite to each other, the writer almost forgot the purpose for which he had travelled to this famous shrine of Hindoo superstition.

To the right of the road leading to Sungum-Moulee, and on the western bank of the Krishna, the tourist is somewhat startled at the statue of a dog, large as life, hewn out of a single block of black stone, and raised on a square stone pedestal about five feet high. The dog, a grey-hound, belonged to Shahu Maharaj, one of the Rajas of Sattara, who died upwards of a century ago.

The statue was erected by his royal master in commemoration of the animal having saved his life from a tiger, or cheeta, while the Raja was out on a hunting excursion. The dog, which received the name of Khundia, became, in succeeding times, an object of veneration, if not of worship, with the ignorant superstitious villagers, as the statue may be seen besmeared occasionally with oil and red ochre. The sculptor must have belonged to a very rude and degenerate age, as the form of the face bears a greater resemblance to that of a wild hog than to the characteristic features of one of the canine species, which it was intended to represent.

Nearly opposite, to the left of the road, are ten monuments, rude in structure, raised over the ashes of some of the Ranees of Sattara. One of them, the writer learned, is to the memory of the celebrated Tara Baee, the widow

of Shambajee, the successor of the renowned Sivajee, the founder of the Mahratta kingdom in the Deccan. The ashes of Shahu Maharaj repose in the bed of the river, nearly opposite the temple of Sungum-Wishwashur. Over his remains is placed the sacred lingun, the emblem of Mahadeo, under a wooden canopy. In the bed of the river Krishna may likewise be seen several tombs of stone, to perpetuate the memory of devoted Hindoo women who performed suttee, in the olden time, during the administration of the Rajas of Sattara, in preference to living in perpetual degraded widowhood.

The black temple of Rameshwur appears to be the oldest structure; probably built long before the reign of Sivajee. The next in order are the groups of temples at Sungum-Moulee and Sungum-Eshwur. The most recent is that of Sungum-Wishwashur, which has a nagarkhana on the same platform to the right of the temple, opposite to which are the remains of Shahu Maharaj, alluded to above.

H. H.

EASTERN BIOGRAPHY;

OR NOTICES OF THE MOST CELEBRATED KINGS, CONQUERORS, STATESMEN, LITERATI, AND DIVINES, NATIVE AND FOREIGN, WHO HAVE MADE FOR THEMSELVES" A LOCAL HABITATION AND A NAME" IN ASIATIC STORY, FROM THE EARLIEST AGES TO THE PRESENT TIME.

CYRUS THE GREAT, the founder of the Persian Empire, was the grandson of Astyages, King of the Medes, by his daughter Mandane, whom he bestowed in marriage on a Persian named Cambyses, a man not only of good family but of royal race, the hereditary monarch of his nation, which, even when under subjection to the Medes, still retained its line of native kings, the descendants of Achæmenes (Hakhamanish). Xenophon, alluding to him (Cyrop. I. II. 1), distinctly says: "Harpos λEyeTau o Κυρος γενεςθαι Καμβυσον Περσων βασιλέως.” A stone has also been recently dug up at a place called Seukereh, in Lower Chaldæa, bearing an inscription, in which Cyrus calls himself " the son of Cambyses, the powerful king." This is decisive as to the royalty of the line of that illustrious conqueror. The

ruined buildings at Murghab (the only place in Persia in which inscriptions of the age of Cyrus have been discovered) reveal the following legend, written both in Persian and in the so-called Median: "Adam Kurush Khshayathiya Hakhamanishya”—“I (am) Cyrus the Achæmenian." The Achæmenida were the royal family of Persia, the descendants of Achæmenes, who was, in all likelihood, the chief under whom the Persians first settled in the country. Herodotus asserts that he was the founder of the kingdom. From the Behistun inscription it appears, that the name of Achæmenian attached to the dynasty on account of its descent from Achæmenes : Awahya radya wayam Hakhamanishya thatyamahya" -"for this reason we are called Achæ

66

menians." In the same inscription, Darius glorifies this family, by describing the antiquity of their descent, and the fact of their having, for a long time past, furnished kings to the Persian nation.

Astyages is reported by Herodotus to have been guided in his selectionof Cambyses, a king of a subject race, in preference to any Mede of suitable rank, for his daughter, by a dream, in which he beheld a stream of water flowing from the bowels of Mandane, which not only inundated his capital, but swept over the whole of Asia. The Magi, on being consulted as to the signification of the vision, declared that the offspring of Mandane would not only subvert the throne of Astyages, but rule over the whole of Asia. Hoping to disconcert the decrees of Fate, Astyages refused to unite his daughter to any Mede, deeming it in the highest degree improbable that the children of a dependant and tributary king would ever be able to disturb him in his possession of the throne, or ruffle the tranquillity of the empire. Cambyses conveyed Mandane to his own home in Persia.

In narrating the events in the life of Cyrus, we are met in limini by difficulties arising from the doubts, fables, and contradictions of ancient historians. Ctesias has maintained that there was no consanguineous connexion whatsoever between Cyrus and Astyages; and other writers have copied and coun

tenanced the assertion. Xenophon, again, represents Cyrus as brought up at his grandfather's court; as serving in the army of Cyaxares, the successor of Astyages; as having seized on Babylon in the capacity simply of commander in chief, whilst Cyaxares remained at home in indolent inactivity, permitting his successful general to assume the power and state of an independent sovereign in Assyria; as marrying the daughter of Cyaxares, and then dying peacefully in his bed. In another place, however, we are told that Cyaxares accompanied Cyrus in the expedition against Babylon. Such contradictions it is impossible to reconcile. The question is surrounded with difficulties, and it is one not likely to be soon determined. The very natural partiality, however, which all subjugated nations have betrayed, to recognise, in their conquerors, countrymen of their own, and not foreigners, imparts a colouring of probability to the statement of Ctesias; and the Medians accordingly asserted that, in the supremacy of Cyrus, they simply witnessed the sovereignty of the grandson of their King Astyages. All who are acquainted with the Shah Nameh, of Firdousi, must be familiar with the singular and fantastic assertion put forth by that poet, that Alexander the Great was the son of Darab, King of Persia, by a daughter of Failakus (Philip ?) King of Macedon. Moses of Chorene also states, that the Egyptians pretended to see in the same "Macedonian madman" the son of their King Nectanebus; and in Cambyses, a son of Cyrus by Nitetis, a daughter of Apries!

Mandane had scarcely been a year in the house of Cambyses, when she was taken back to her father, who had been a second time alarmed by a vision of a character precisely similar to that which had first disturbed him. In it he saw a vine grow from the womb of his daughter, and overshadow the whole of Asia; and the Magians having returned the same interpretation, Astyages resolved to retain Mandane in his own palace, for the purpose of destroying her offspring the moment it should see the light. On her arrival, she was found to be pregnant; and

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Astyages set a watch about her, with strict injunctions to seize the new-born infant and bring it to him. Cyrus accordingly, at the moment of his birth (the date of which cannot be ascertained), was made over by his grandfather to an officer named Harpagus, a man attached to the royal household, to whom Astyages was wont to entrust the conduct of affairs of the highest moment, and who is said by Herodotus to have been "the most faithful of the Medes." This man was commanded to convey the boy to his own house, and slay him there; the mandate being accompanied by a significant threat, that a failure in carrying into effect the royal orders would be attended with grievous penalties. Harpagus, professing unbounded obedience, carried the infant home, and there communicated. to his astonished wife the particulars of the child's birth, and the injunctions with which he was charged. It was obvious, however, that if, on the death of Astyages, who (according to Herodotus) had no son, the crown devolved on his daughter Mandane, the latter was not likely to absolve the murderer of her son. If, on the other hand, he omitted to attend to the positive instructions of the king, the peril was grave and immediate. He determined to avoid both dangers by steering a middle course. He therefore sent for one of the hersdmen of Astyages, named Mitradates. To him Harpagus imparted the sanguinary orders of the Median king; and, in obedience thereto, he was instructed to expose the child in the wildest parts of the hills on which the royal cattle grazed, and thus effect his destruction. Mitradates carried the child home, in ignorance at the time of the parties to whom it belonged; but, while on the road, he succeeded in extracting the secret from a menial who had been instructed to show him the way out of the town. On arriving at his house, he revealed these extraordinary circumstances to his wife Spaco, who had just then been confined of a still-born son. Between them, it was determined that the latter should be laid out on the grazing-grounds, and that after the lapse of three days, Harpagus should be invited to depute any one he chose, to witness that his orders had

been faithfully executed. This was accordingly done. The body of the lifeless son of Spaco was shown to certain trustworthy eunuchs whom Harpagus had selected for the purpose; whilst Cyrus was nurtured with great care and attention in the house of the humane herdsman.

Ctesias calls this individual Atradates; and Nicholas of Damascus makes out that he was a Mardian robber, the father of Cyrus, by his wife Argosté, woman who kept goats; that Cyrus having attracted the attention of Astyages whilst engaged in the performance of some menial duty, was inade cup-bearer to the king, and subsequently grew into such favour, that the monarch raised his father to the rank of satrap, and gave him a government in Persia. Colonel Rawlinson remarks, that "Atradates may fairly be considered to be a mere Median synonyme for the Persian Mitradates the name signifying' given to the sun,' and Atra and Adar being equivalent in Median, as a title of that luminary, to the Persian Mitra or Mihr."

When the boy had arrived at his tenth year, an accident revealed to Astyages the existence of his grand

son.

The lads of the village in which the future conqueror of Media dwelt, having elected him king in one of the games then in vogue amongst them, Cyrus proceeded to issue his orders in the lofty character he had assumed. He had his guards, his officers, and his attendants, who implicitly obeyed the commands of the young king; but amongst them was one, the son of Artembares, a Mede of distinction, who refused to comply with the orders he received. Cyrus, thereupon, had him instantly arrested, and severely flogged by his attendant nobles. The juvenile rebel complained bitterly to his father of the chastisement he had received, and the latter, indignant that his boy should have been subjected to such an indignity by the son of a common cowherd, waited on Astyages, and laid his complaint before him. Cyrus was accordingly summoned into the presence of the monarch, where, unaffected by the position in which he stood, and uninfluenced by either the majesty of the king or the splendour with which he

was surrounded, he boldly acknowledged the truth of the accusation. My lord," he said, "I was chosen king in play by the boys of our village, because they thought me best fit for it. He himself was one of the boys that chose me. All the others did according to my orders; but he refused, and made light of them-until at last he got his reward. If for this I deserve to suffer punishment, here am I ready to submit." There was something in the tone and tenor of this reply; in the bearing of the youth when in so august a presence; in the calm self-possession with which his entire demeanour was marked; and in his personal appearance and features-that touched a chord in the breast of Astyages, and awoke therein the gloomiest suspicions. Dismissing the complaint of Artembares for the present, and promising to afford him every satisfaction in a short time, he called Mitradates before him, and, by a threat of subjecting him to the torture, extracted from him all the particulars connected with the nurture of Cyrus. Exasperated at the discovery that the execution of his orders had been evaded, he instantly summoned Harpagus to his presence. The latter, on being interrogated, at once acknowledged the fact of his having made the child over to the herdsman for the purpose of effecting its destruction, but protested his ignorance of the deceit that had been practised on him by Mitradates. Astyages affected to be satisfied with, the explanation thus given; whilst he treasured up within himself a fell design of a terrible retribution. He accordingly requested Harpagus to send his only son to him, to assist in the preparation of a magnificent banquet which he purposed giving to his nobles, and to which he at the same time invited Harpagus.

The latter, on his return home, delighted at having thus easily escaped from a deadly peril, ordered his son to proceed to the palace, and wait upon his sovereign. The unfortunate youth had no sooner arrived there, than he was remorselessly put to death; and whilst a variety of dishes was prepared for consumption by the guests who were expected to be present at the feast, the flesh of his only son was, with a