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In the afternoon I rode thither with my dogs, to sleep at the vaquero's hut, and follow the creature in the morning. All the herd was brought into the corral. Soon after dusk arose a great commotion, the cows running together, the bulls charging and furiously skirmishing round them. We turned out-beyond the corral paling, 'you understand. It is a big inclosure, and the night was very dark. Noise enough there was already to scare all honest lions in the world; but on a sudden rose such tumult as sinful creatures make in Purgatory. Cattle bellowed and roared, women screamed; then a multitude of galloping hoofs shook the ground, and timbers crashed! All my herd streamed through the fence, tearing over the misty plain. Fortunately, none of us stood in their way.

Nothing could be done that night, and I went back mad. That four-legged demon had sprung or climbed the railing, snatched a young calf under 'its mother's belly, and vanished; you must know that she was tied against the 'housewall. Some Indian women saw it fly down among them, as they said, its great eyes burning like lamps, saw it crouch a second growling, staring at them; seize the calf beneath its struggling mother, and fly back. I knew too well that more of my young stock would be missing before dawn.

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"No! The dogs lifted it instantly, and I followed at a canter. At the forest edge I left my horse. The hounds had a long start, all but that old perro yonder, who waited for me." He pointed to an ancient dog, gray and scarred, the only one admitted to the house, of breed more European 'than the curs outside.

"I heard the pack quarrelling and snarling a long way off, and I knew what it meant. They had found the remains of that black devil's supper,

and were dividing the fragments. I was not alarmed, however; he would leave little of a sucking calf. It took me more than half an hour to reach the spot, for there was an ugly bit of swamp to circumvent. When I got there, not a dog remained, and the bones, not of one but of three calves, strewed the earth. It had been his regular diningroom for three nights, ever since he made his appearance on my land. That told that his lair was not far off probably, and I decided to search for it; though my one dog was rather demoralized by a scrap or two of meat, snatched on the sly while I was hunting round.

"I kicked him off, and he began to smell in a larger circle. The trail was struck in a moment, of course, and we

set on. I knew I could depend on that faithful perro not to outrun me, and I was rather warm to face a black lion, when one has need of a steady hand. So I went quietly.

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"It was farther off than I expected. After two hours' tramp through the woods, I saw it was probable the brute had his den by the river. But long before we got there my dog became anxious and uncertain. I could see the track quite plain, but he did not follow readily, looking behind him, pausing and growling. I thought that taste of flesh disturbed his mind, and urged him along, but more and more unwillingly he travelled, with such odd movements as alarmed me, for I thought him going mad. Suddenly he turned, rushed past me barking savagely, his hair on end. Very glad to see him go, I sat down to rest, while he took a long start, and I considered what to do.

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'The perro's cry grew fainter and fainter. Then its note changed to the querulous worrying and snarling, with a loud long bark now and again, which tell the master that his dog wants help with a dangerous quarry. I guessed how it was in that moment. While I followed the lion's old trail, it had been following me! I ran back. The perro was working farther from our path. Luckily I struck at once the spot where he had branched away, but it was slow lifting his track through the forest. I had made up my mind to return when the clamor changed to yelps and howls. The lion had faced about, struck down

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The children loved my dog, and no artery was cut. I shredded some Spanish moss, bound up his wounds, slung him in my scarf, and set out for home; so far had we wandered that it was nearer than the corral. I am strong, señores, but the sun was hot, and a dog is heavy on one's shoulders. No path led through the forest, and I could not feel sure, not being an Indian, that I was following the true course. A hundred times I thought of dropping the poor animal, but I had not the heart when he licked my neck, and I remembered what his fate would be, devoured alive by ants and flies.

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"Presently he became restless, and then he growled. It needs many lessons to teach a fool,' says the proverb. I hit him with my elbow, but he would not be quiet. He began to bark feebly, gathering up his limbs, poor beast! I suddenly caught the hint, and turned. At a few yards' distance the bushes softly swayed beside my track! That lion was following again. I looked to my rifle, and set forward. In ten minutes the growling recommenced, and the excitement of the perro grew stronger and stronger. The brute was creeping up! I cocked my gun, faced round, but that devil was quicker! Nothing could be seen but the waving of the twigs. I fired a chance shot to no effect, and resumed my way, after loading. For a long while all was quiet. I gained the river bank, and was working down, relieved of all anxiety, for the spot was familiar. In an hour I should be at home.

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was an ugly bit to traverse with a lion at one's heels, and I congratulated myself he had run away. One could not see a yard on either hand when, halfway through, the perro growled and barked and struggled in greater agitation than before! I cried to the saints, and the sweat poured down. When I turned, the reeds were all bending and quivering but five yards away! I shot, and hurried on, but the ground was difficult. In a few moments the dog again gave warning, and the reeds swayed all about. I shot! But now the dog did not cease to raise such feeble clamor as he could, and I shot as fast as I could load. Madre di Dios, señores, what a run that was!

"The firing saved me! Two vaqueros resting in the shade knew the sound of my piece, and came to meet me halloaing. The perro was almost choaked in convulsions by this time, and I believe that lion had just gathered himself to spring when their shouts alarmed him. "Now señores ! What was the creature that pursued me thus, in broad daylight, though I fired into its very jaws ?"

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Might it not have been a jaguar?" I asked timidly.

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You are ignorant of our woodcraft, señor! Why should a tiger follow a man? The brute was not hungry, for it left my dog. And if a tiger had behaved in that strange way, he would have sprung as soon as he came up. No!

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It was a lion-but a black one!" Did you follow its trail ?"

"I could not find a tigrero till next day. Then the footsteps were tracked for miles after it left me, going straight for the hills. The Indians saw it was travelling, and returned.

We have had

no alarm of black lions since. And from that time, señores, I have understood how a kind action does not go unrewarded. For if I had abandoned my dog, I should never have reached home that day."

When we left in the dawn, that excellent ranchero presented each of us with a puma skin. Mine is still an ornament of the bungalow.-Belgravia Magazine.

LITERARY NOTICES.

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These two volumes bring to completion a truly magnificent work, executed in the spirit and manner of the most thorough scholarship, and with the beauty and gracefulness of a charming literary style. The plan of the author has been to divide the general subject, the "Renaissance in Italy," into four parts or subordinate subjects, developing each separately and, with the exception of the last, in a single volume. The first part, The Age of the Despots," presents a vivid picture of the political and social condition of Italy preceding and during the renaissance period; the second, the "Revival of Learning," describes the manner in which the classic past was explored and its treasures brought forth and remoulded for the creation of a glorious future; and the third volume, the "Fine Arts," explains the bias toward figurative art, which characterized the sudden growth of intellectual activity, containing a brilliant account of its principal manifestations in painting, sculpture, and architecture. These volumes form the proper philosophical introduction to the two concluding volumes upon the literature, exhibiting in elaborate detail the conditions out of which that literature grew and by which its forms and character were determined. It is only by such a method that an interpretation and just estimate of any literary period can be made; it is the method of scientific literary history. The plan of making each part complete in itself, as adhered to by the author, is the plan of the essay rather than of consecutive history, and inevitably involves certain disadvantages. It is unfortunate, for example, that the reader while studying the poetry and literary influence of Petrarch must refer to a preceding volume for an account of his work in the revival of learning, that side of his activity which cannot well be dissociated from his strictly creative work. But the force of these minor difficulties is very much diminished, now that the work can be read in its entirety, the different parts in their logical order, and the proper relation of parts more clearly perceived. A just conception can now be formed of the author's great design in all its comprehensiveness.

It is not a little surprising, when we reflect upon the matter, that with an ever ready acknowledgment from English writers of the great debt of gratitude due to those early Italians, there has been no adequate history of that

period available for English readers. The streams of Italian influence that coursed throughout Europe poured their sweet waters bountifully upon English soil, and yet our best knowledge of their far-off fountain head has come only through the brief messages of a few like Milton who had themselves breathed the soft air of Vallombrosa. Mr. Symonds has revealed the hidden springs of that great influence and in his pages the English reader may become almost as familiar with the renaissance literature of Italy as of his own country. Not an English name appears in the long list of authorities given by the author in his preface to these volumes. His material has been gathered entirely from the original sources and from the works of many Italian scholars, who recently moved by a patriotic impulse have been engaged in the thorough study and exposition of their native literature. The period covered extends from the end of the thirteenth century to the middle of the sixteenth, but the author casts frequent glances back into the obscurer past and now and then looks forward to some of the results of the period in northern Europe. The opening chapter is a summary of the results reached by the troublesome discussions of the origin and formation of the Italian language. This prepares the way for the introduction of Dante, the first great writer in the newly formed language, who is grouped with Petrarch and Boccaccio under the title of The Triumvirate." After an admirable historical and critical account of these first great lights, who shed their brilliancy through the whole period, he carries the history steadily forward, bringing under review novelists, historians, philosophers, critics, dramatists, poets, poetasters, and scribblers-every name that offers an excuse for appearing in literary history and many that do not-until finally the last great lights are reached, Tasso and AriHe sweeps the whole field of intellectual effort, tracing it in all its forms of expression, rising to the celestial heights of the Divine comedy and descending to the depths of moral degradation below which no lower depths can open. We could wish that the author had shortened his history by some two hundred or more pages, and thus relieved the reader of the necessity of considering a number of obscure writers in an age of unspeakable immorality, even the description of whose works must prove offensive and disgusting to modern taste. Such an abridgment would not have affected in the least the truthfulness or the historic completeness of the work, and would have saved many a shock to literary decency.

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Paganism was indigenous in Italy. grossly human ideal of life supplied the motive of the renaissance, which has left its impress upon every form of Italian art. Its highest and noblest qualities are allied to the sensuous, and from this it exhibits every degree to the sensual. The blending of moral indifference with artistic seriousness characterizes its best productions. In the analysis of the Italian genius Mr. Symonds displays remarkable acumen, and in his criticism and exposition he is always clear and forcible. He presents in a single passage the keynote to this moral qual ity which pervades all Italian art, and illustrates it repeatedly by analyses of the works of the best as well as the worst. "To an unprejudiced student of Italian arts and letters," he says, nothing seems more clearly proved than the fact that a certain powerful objective quality-call it realism, call it sensuousnessdetermines their most genuine productions, sinking to grossness, ascending to sublimity, combining with religious feeling in the fine arts, blending with the definiteness of classic style, but never absent. It is this objectivity, realism, sensuousness, which constitutes the strength of the Italians, and assigns the limitations of their faculty."

romantic, but never romantic enough to be unreal or impossible. In a chatty and charming introduction, all about "spinning a story," the author takes his young readers into his confidence and lets them into some of the secrets of his trade. The methods of planning a story and the motives that govern the writer in the execution, are explained in a very frank and instructive manner. This revelation will be of interest to a much wiser class than that directly addressed by the author. Among many suggestive remarks is the following, in answer to the question often asked whether an author does not take his friends and enemies as mudels for his characters: "All I can say is that I know few people in real life whose character would be worth putting into a story; that is, striking, original, or interesting enough. A character in a book, while it ought to bear some mark of individuality, must be more consistent, more rounded, more typical than is often found in life, and this is especially the case with a short story and minor personages, where there is room for nothing but an outline sketch. It would take half a dozen ordinary characters rolled into one to fill up a portrait of fiction." This opinion will be looked upon as decidedly old-fashioned by those who have become converted to the modern introspective method. "

HOMESPUN STORIES. By Ascott R. Hope,
Author of "Stories of Young Adventurers,
"Stories of Whitminster," etc. With Illus-
trations. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

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The pleasing design in black and gold upon the cover of this volume, suggestive of the character of its contents, will itself prove very appetizing to "the boy of the period," to whom the author dedicates his stories; and when the volume is opened, this same boy, we venture to predict, will not be induced except by the direst necessity to leave the adventures of the several young heroes unfinished. Mr. Hope is a writer who is thoroughly in sympathy with boy nature, who understands its needs, and who evidently believes that the best intellectual energy is none too good to be employed in supplying those needs. He knows the processes by which the boy's nature must be developed, and offers wholesome food for its nourishment. The volume contains twelve stories of the adventures and amusing experiences of as many young men of the age of the supposed reader, including a story of sea-life, a story of the strange adventures of "A Night in the Black Forest, a story of Scotland, and another of Ireland, a Scene from History," being a Story of a French Revolution," two stories of school life, and also a Story of the Latin Grammar." It will be seen that the contents are sufficiently varied to be always interesting and instructive, and the adventures described will be found exciting enough to be

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THE BEGINNINGS OF HISTORY: According to the Bible and the Traditions of Oriental Peoples. From the Creation of Man to the Deluge. By François Lenormant, Professor of Archæology at the National Library of France, etc. New York: Charles Scribner's

Sons.

The author of this work is ranked among the greatest living Asyriologists, and this volume upon the ancient traditions bearing upon the Biblical history, now presented for the first time in an English form, represents the fruits of a quarter of a century of the most laborious study and research. The book is commended to the American public in a brief intoduction by Professor Francis Brown, of Union Theological Seminary, who though not committing himself to all of the author's conclusions, praises it in unqualified terms for the sincere and scholarly spirit of its investigations and its vast accumulation of historical and literary facts, suggesting that its value does not depend so much upon the correctness of the opinions maintained as upon the opportunity it affords us for forming rational opinions of our own. It is a mine of information in regard to the early traditions of all the great peoples of the earth, as far as these can be brought into connection with the beginnings of the Hebrew records. The principal subjects around which the legends are grouped for comparative study

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are the creation of man, the first sin, the cherubim and the revolving sword, the fratricide and the foundation of the first city, the Sethites and Cainites, the ten antediluvian patriarchs, and the deluge. Traditions pertaining to these subjects have been traced in almost all the branches of the human race, and the author's purpose is to present in rapid review these traditions, giving frequently extended translations from ancient monuments, so that every intelligent reader may make for himself the comparison with the Biblical record. The idea of Edenic happiness, for example, is shown to be a universal tradition, and myths concerning the first sin are found in Zoroastrianism, in the fragments of Chaldean and Phonecian beliefs, in the Hindu Vedas and the Scandinavian

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Eddas. So also traditions of the deluge appear among all the great races of men, with the single exception of the black race. viewing this group of traditions the author gives a complete translation of the famous Chaldean account of the deluge discovered by the late George Smith in the cuneiform tablets exhumed at Ninevah. A transcription of the text with interlinear translation is given in an appendix.

There is but one conclusion, in the author's

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which his fitness for the production of a more elaborate and thorough work upon the same subject was amply illustrated. The plan of the present work is to trace the history of each separate colony down to the end of the seventeenth century, and from that point to present the history of the whole group down to the period of separation from the mother country. The second volume will deal with the New England Colonies, and the remaining colonies will be included in the third and concluding volume. The major part of the work will be devoted to the period covered by the first volume of the new edition of Bancroft's history. It is to be earnestly hoped that no casualty may overtake author or publishers to prevent or delay the consummation of so important a plan. Such a history, written from an outside point of view, with judicial fairness and scientific accuracy in the use of facts, will form an admirable supplement to the many histories of the period already produced-histories excellent in themselves and indispensable to every student of early American life, but affected frequently by patriotic, or poetic, or other bias of the writer, so as to be deprived of some of the qualities desirable in works of final reference. A peculiar charm always surrounds the cradle of a new nation, and it is not probable, possibly not desirable, that writers who possess a heritage of natal associations should be insensible to its influences. But the logic of history must be added to its sentiment and poetry, in establishing the proper perspective of the past. This logical side of our colonial history, worked out with thoroughness and completeness, will be found in Mr. Doyle's work. He has enjoyed special advantages in the gathering of materials, drawing largely from the ample resources of the English public record office, and in the sifting of his facts has retained all that can be of any possible value to his readers. His main purpose is to describe the political and social development of the colonies in the line of progress toward federal union, to trace the gradual evolution of a constitutional government. But in describing the constitutional development he does not neglect the life and characteristics of the colonists and the external conditions which controlled and modified their action in the formation of their primitive institutions. The first five chapters are taken up with descriptions of the physical features of the country, the natives, the voyages and discoveries during the sixteenth century, and the Spanish and French attempts at colonization. The work will thus be rendered complete in itself, covering all the ground of standard histories. The author's style is remarkably clear and terse, and though dealing with copious details and at times with an appalling array of dusty facts, is never dull.

mind, to be drawn from this comparative study of traditions, many of which were current long ages before the time of Moses. The account contained in the first chapters of Genesis was not dictated by God, to be the exclusive possession of the chosen people, but was a tradition whose origin is lost in the night of the remotest ages, and which all the nations of western Asia possessed in common, with some variations.' But this view does not preclude the idea of inspiration, in which Professor Lenormant emphatically declares his belief. The divine inspiration of the writers who made these archæological records is to be found in "the absolutely new spirit which animates their narration," as compared with those of the surrounding nations. An exuberant polytheism and gross naturalism have given place to a severe monotheism and moral truths of the most spiritual and exalted order. Herein consists the miracle, and "I do not hesitate," he says, "to find in it the effect of a supernatural intervention of divine Providence, and I bow before the God who inspired the Law and the Prophets."

ENGLISH COLONIES IN AMERICA: Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas. By J. A. Doyle, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. New York: Henry Holt & Co.

This is the first volume of what promises to be a very valuable contribution to American history. Mr. Doyle has already written an excellent brief history of the United States, in

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