united indissolubly with the divine | House of Light. But no sooner do we Being, "awake; see what thy son approach the passages and tread the Horus hath done for thee. See what chambers of the mysterious Pyramid thy father Seb hath done for thee. Raised is the Osiris." Again, in the final chapter of the ritual (that of the Orientation) allusion is made both to the portcullises and to the sarcophagus or coffer. "I have opened the doors," says the Osiris-soul, "I have opened the doors. . . . Well is the Great One who is in the Coffer. For all the dead shall have passages made to him through their embalming.” "Now he is a god," the same chapter continues. "His place is protected from the millions of fires. O Ammon-Ammon, the Ammon who art in Heaven. Give thy face to the body of thy son. Make him well in Hades. It is finished." than the teaching of the Sacred Books From Chambers' Journal. THE FLY COUNTRY. IN a private letter from one of the pioneers of the British South Africa Company, the following passage occurs: "We are all to be mounted ; and it is taking the horses to certain death; we shall ride through the Fly Country till they die, and then foot it." Thus ends the strange and solemn dirge of ancient Egypt, preserving to the last its correspondence with that primeval building wherein the granite Trinity concealed within its height keep watch over the "Abode of Flame " far in the subterranean depth below. Once perceived, the intimate connection between the secret doctrine of Egypt's most venerated books and the secret significance of Egypt's most venerable monument seems impossible to dissever. The path of illumination which is conveyed by description in Now, what is meant by this Fly the ritual is described masonically in Country, and why should it be espethe Grand Pyramid; and each form cially fatal to horses? are questions of illustrates and interpenetrates the great interest, for they are intimately asother. As we peruse the dark utter-sociated with the past and future of the ances and recognize the mystic allu- Dark Continent. The fly referred to is sions of the Book, we seem to stand amid the profound darkness enwrapping the whole interior of the building. All around are assembled the spirits and the Powers that make the mystery of the unseen world: the "Secret Faces at the Gate," the "gods of the Horizon and of the Orbit." And dimly before our eyes, age after age, the sacred procession of the Egyptian dead moves silently along, as they pass through the "Gate of the Hill" to the tribunal of Osiris. In vain do we at tempt to trace their footsteps till we enter with them into the Hidden Places, and penetrate the secret of the may infallibly be known by this one that known as the tsetse fly, which is thus described by the traveller Baines : "The tsetse is little more than half an inch long, and rather more slender than a common house-fly. The abdomen is marked with transverse stripes of yellow and dark chestnut, fading towards the centre of the back, so as to give the idea of a yellow stripe along it; the belly, livid white; the eyes are purplish brown; and the wings, of dusky, glassy brown colors, slip one over the other, just as do the blades of a pair of scissors when closed, so that the tsetse at rest on man or animal token. It has six legs, and tufts of | for the carcase when examined is found hair over its body; its proboscis, or to be almost bloodless; the cellular piercing apparatus, is about one-sixth tissue under the skin is distended with of an inch long; its sight and smell seem to be keen; its flight straight and rapid." Here we have the picture of the most formidable opponent to the advance of civilized man in Africa; for wherever the country is unexplored, so that the big game remain undisturbed, there this deadly fly bars the way to those necessary animals the ox, the horse, and the dog, and reduces man to a beast of burden; for although, in the interior, donkeys and mules are supposed to be impervious to tsetse poison, on the coast they also often succumb to the deadly fluid injected by "the fly." air, resembling a number of soap bubbles; the fat is yellowish-green and oily; the heart so soft that the fingers can be made to meet through it; the lungs and liver are diseased; the stomach and bowels are pale and empty; and the gall bladder is distended with bile. Yet, as Livingstone says, wild animals nearly akin to the horse and ox, such as the buffalo and zebra, suffer no harm; neither do pigs, goats, and wild antelopes; but dogs suffer as severely as horses and oxen. The skin of an animal which has died from the tsetse shows all the punctures on the inside, with a ring of yellow mucus on the flesh beneath each puncture as large as the palm of the hand, and re bite. Livingstone describes and figures the tsetse with its lancet-like proboscis much magnified. He says: "The poi-sembling the appearance of a snakeson does not seem to be injected by a sting, or by ova placed beneath the skin; for when the insect is allowed to feed freely on the hand, it inserts the middle prong, of three portions, into which the proboscis divides, somewhat deeply into the true skin. It then draws the prong out a little way, and it assumes a crimson color as the mandibles come into brisk operation. The previously shrunken belly swells out; and if left undisturbed, the fly quietly departs when it is full. A slight itching irritation follows the bite." Wild animals and the goat feel no more serious effect from the sting than man, and even calves are exempt as long as they continue to suck the cows; but dogs cannot be protected by being fed on milk. The effect of the poison on oxen and horses is most curious; they do not die at once, and indeed the symptoms do not appear for some days; but then the nose and eyes begin to run, the coat gets rough, a swelling appears under the jaw, and emaciation commences, to be inevitably followed by death, although, perhaps, not for months, the effects of the poison being hastened, however, by rain and sudden changes of temperature. Singular, indeed, is the effect of the bite, or, as the Boers call it, the "stick" of this fly; No certain remedy is known for the puncture of this terrible fly; the native doctors smear their oxen with dung mixed with milk; this is supposed to prevent the attack of the fly, which has a strong dislike to the smell of excrement; but this anointing does not always avail. Inoculation has also been tried without effect; but it is said that to administer the fly itself mixed with herbs gives immunity. Baines says the animal thus treated suffers dreadfully, and is brought almost to death's door; but when it recovers, it is believed to be tsetse-proof. The natives also send the young calves into the Fly Country during the day, bringing them back to be suckled at night, and believe that this renders them safe from the fly afterwards. But the best remedy appears to be sponging the animal with ammonia, or perhaps with carbolic acid and water. This has been tried with good effect, as also a decoction of the bark of the roots of the wittegaat boom (white-bark tree); and some Boers profess to cure animals recently "stuck," claiming an ox for each horse thus cured. Baines also speaks of a horse which was cured by "Croft's Tincture," the famous SouthAfrican remedy for snake-bite, and also of two oxen saved by Perry Davis's | horse," which is capable of carrying "Pain-killer." They stood for three heavy burdens without entailing suffer or four days with foam running from their mouths, as if the poisonous matter were being thus ejected. After this they began to eat voraciously, and recovered their condition ing upon man or beast; but although a good beginning has already been made, and the Beira Railway has rendered approach to the interior practicable from that part of the coast, it must be A very curious fact in connection many years before railways can adwith the tsetse is that it affects certain vance into the heart of Africa, and spots, and is wholly absent from others meanwhile some beast of burden imquite adjoining. Livingstone writes: pervious to the tsetse ought to be "We had come through another tsetse found. Many have suggested the Afridistrict by night, and at once passed can elephant or the zebra; but no seriour cattle over to the northern bank, ous attempt seems to have been made which, though only fifty yards distant, to tame either for the purpose. Donwas entirely free from the pest. This keys could hardly be taken in sufficient was the more singular that we often numbers, even if impervious to the fly, saw natives carrying over raw meat which seems doubtful; but the stout with many tsetse upon it." Natives mule so frequently seen in southern can sometimes lead cattle safely through Europe might be employed advantaa fly-infected country by knowing ex-geously. The Indian elephant and the actly the patches to which they are buffalo might also be tried. It would, confined, and thus avoiding them; but, however, be better still could some as these patches vary according to the medicament be found to render the ox distribution of the big game, their and the horse available, for they are knowledge has to be recently acquired, always attainable near the various or it cannot be depended upon. ports, and would be far less costly than native carriers (not slaves), who have now to be hired to convey goods In the mean time the tsetse reigns, and, ludicrous as it sounds, affords protection to the lordly elephant, and opposes its tiny though formidable lancet As the tsetse invariably follows the big game, being known as the elephant fly," it is driven always farther through the Fly Country, and who freand farther into the interior by the ad-quently refuse the task, or forsake the vance of civilized man; but as ivory is traveller just when most needed. one of the chief articles sought for by traders, it is evident that in order to obtain it they must also follow the game, and be subject to the attacks of "the fly," and this, from time immemorial, has been one of the chief causes of the slave-trade; for the ox and the horse being unattainable as beasts of burden, traders have seized upon the negro, and having purchased him as well as the ivory from the chieftain in possession of both, have compelled the slave to convey the ivory to the coast, where the bearer as well as the burden becomes valuable property. But as ivory becomes scarcer and more valuable year by year, it will, in spite of Thus indirectly the tsetse fly may be philanthropists, be more and more regarded as the ruler of the Dark Consought after; and if the slave-trade is tinent, although, happily, his power is to be effectually put a stop to, some waning, for when pioneers have done mode of transport must be found which their work, and received the fiercest of cannot be affected by the tsetse. the onslaught, the elephant and other best of all is, of course, the "iron big game retreat to more secure quar The more deadly and less easily avoided than the poisoned arrow of the Pigmy and the assegai of the Kaffir- to the advance of the white man, who dreads this insect foe as much as the malarial fevers which so often prostrate him in the swamps and marshes; for, besides rendering transport difficult and costly, it places him at the mercy of the sav age negro chieftains of the interior, who, by refusing to provide carriers, can render his journey abortive. ters, whither the fly follows, to be again encountered with certain loss by the progressive white man, but to be eventually exterminated, together with the big game with which it is inseparably associated. From The Spectator. PRESENCE OF MIND FIFTY YEARS AGO. from the sunken part of the floor to that where the front walls strengthened the joists to bear the weight of the people. The reply to this was that his family was in the audience and that he must get them out first. "You shall not," said the leader; "a hint of danger a rush- and we shall all be under the fallen walls and roof. Five minutes' delay may kill us altogether." As a boy in the audience I well remember my surprise at seeing the leader suddenly appear at the far front of the room and tell the people that they would next be addressed from where the organ-loft. As the Not [TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.] SIR, Your paper, in the Spectator of December 16th, on the courage and command over the French Assembly exhibited by M. Dupuy, recalls a scene he stood of over half a century ago, the facts of audience turned and moved to the which have never been known to even front, the flooring rose. six inches. a score of persons. Some survive in The people were entertained, partly by London who can recall the magnificent an impromptu sentimental song in a Chinese museum, collected by Mr. voice without a quaver, in the very Nathan Dunn, a munificent merchant face of death, and as soon as practicaof Philadelphia and Hong Kong, which ble they were quietly dismissed. was first located in Philadelphia, and a single individual in that great assemthen brought to London in the early bly was aware that, by the presence of years of the queen's reign. It was in- mind of one man, an awful catastrophe tended as a donation to the public, but had been averted. Three thousand was unfortunately burned. The build- persons were saved from being buried ing first erected (now the site of the under two sidewalls sixty feet high, Philadelphia Continental Hotel) for pressed down by a heavy roof. The this display of the treasures of the imagination sickens at the thought of then sealed kingdom, had an upper what would have been the consequence room which was about thirty-five feet of a panic and sudden alarm by the high, and very long and narrow. In failure of the courage of this man. the centre part of this immense audito-use of the room was, of course, rium was collected one evening about pended till it was effectually strengththree thousand persons. At near nine ened. So well was the secret kept, o'clock, the manager of the building that I only learned it long afterwards; came to the leader of the meeting, and I am confident that, excepting the white with affright, and told him that speaker referred to and the manager the floor had sunk nearly a foot, and of the building, no one outside the that in a few minutes more the ten- immediate family of the man whose nents of the joists might be out of their courage prevented this catastrophe has sockets. The floor would then fall known the whole story till now. The through on to the Chinese museum, terror of those minutes before the and the walls, sixty feet in height, crowd was moved and the floor rose would collapse and be precipitated, towards its level, was such, that he with the roof, upon the assembly. never, even in his own family, alluded This might have caused the death of to the scene, though he lived for forty those present, · - the foremost people in years afterwards. I know not if the Philadelphia. The leader explained to self-possession of M. Dupuy, when the the person whom the audience ex-bomb exploded in the French Assempected next to hear, that by address- bly, was greater than this hitherto uning the assembly from the end of the known act of heroism. I am, Sir, etc., hall, he could withdraw the company All sus R. P. S. For EIGHT DOLLARS remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. 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