132 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[July -21, 1882. 



In aildition to the larger niDuni), M. dc Snrzec excavated in all 

 the Tells of minor diniensiuns, liiidiiijj bonoiuli tliom in every case 

 in:ts..' rv t.n > I1-, .,f orudo bricks, each doubtless at one time serving 

 !■ - now destroyed. As long back as four years 



n- i.ks jiroduceil two perfectly preserved terra- 



ce-. . 1 with iusL-riptious. Ceucnth two of the mounds 



twii i;i\i..i~. .:k ■ uiriks, woi-e found, lined throughout with dried 

 bricks plastered ou the interior and cemented with bitumen ; near 

 these lay a hemispherical block of white marble, bearing a circular 

 inscription. At one place was exposed two fragments of a bas- 

 relief, engraved with very archaic cuneiform text, and carved with 

 baltJe-soeucs representing warriors prostrate on the ground, and 

 vulttires flying above them with human remains in their talons. 

 One of the most curious discoveries, however, took place on tho 

 plains, close to tho mounds, where, about thirty centimttres beneath 

 the primitive soil, lay four cubes of solid masonry, built up of largo 

 bricks and bitumen. In the centre of each was a c.ivity tilled with 

 fine yellow saud, and in each cavity was a bronze statuette, cither 

 of a man kneeling or a female standing. At tho base of each 

 atatue, embedded in tho bitumen lining of tho recess, were two 

 stone table'.s, one wbito and one black, the latter nearly always 

 bearing an inscription which was duplicated on the statuette itself. 



In one respect, every " Tell " told a similar story, for all boro 

 ample evidence of destruction by tire, and many of the valuable 

 objects forming the collection, such .is fragments of alabaster and 

 marble vases, were found calcined and embedded in ashes. In one, 

 among other di'jris, were fonnd jiortioiis of a marble statuette, 

 numerous clay contract tablets and a lifc-.sizo figure of a bull's 

 horn, made of plates of copjwr, moulded over a wooden model 

 which ma completely cirbonised by the heat. Hero, also, lay tho 

 curious head we.iring a turban which explains the form of head- 

 dress so invariably delineated in such minute size on the oldest 

 liabyloutan sonld. Some of tho structures, as described by JI. do 

 Sarzec, oiliibit most remarkable architectural features, but it is 

 difficult to understand their arrangement without plans ; still, 

 enough may be ascertained to jirovide, together with an account of 

 Dr. Oppert's translation of some of the inscriptions, a further paper 

 which will prove of interest. 



However desirous one may bo to elaborate a description of this 

 ancient civilisation, and correctly classify tho antiquities now col- 

 lected in the Salle devoted to M. do Sarzec's relics from Tello, at 

 tho Louvre, and appoint tliein their position in the history of tho 

 culture of mankind, it must be admitted that the time for doing 

 either has not ytt arriveil. Tho difficulty of deciphering the texts 

 is great, and even when they can be rendered into words, the mean- 

 ing of many of them is uncertain. For icstance, it is not known 

 whether the Gudca, whose name is upon nearly every object dis- 

 interred, was an indci>eodcnt prince or sort of viceroy over this ))art 

 of Mesopotamia. The signilication of the title I'atesi which he gives 

 himself not being exactly known. Dr. Oppert points out that some 

 words in the texts require to be read vertically, and altogether much 

 is at present uncertain. 



A writer in a contemporary recently asserts, to his own satisfac- 

 tion, the decidedly Cgrio Finnic or Turanian type of features indi- 

 cated by the heads of statues, whilst M. lieuzy tolls us how sur- 

 prisingly Semitic he finds them. Fortunately, this uncertainty will 

 soon be dissipated ; the inscriptions are, when correctly understood, 

 ample to render up the wished-for information, and certainly their 

 secrets will slowly but surely be wrested from them. To such veterans 

 as Itawlinson and Oppert, who, unaided by a single analogy, have con- 

 quered tho difficulties of the three languages of tho lichistun and 

 other inscriptions, though the very sounds of tho signs were un- 

 known, these texts will prove biit slight obstacles, and when 

 mastered may afford a stepping-stone to approach the conquest of 

 ■till stranger scripts that nmy yet be disinterred from tho teeming 

 soil of Babylonia. 



Tm Ei.l-viM AND SWA» Lamps.— The solicitors of the Kdison 

 Klcctric Light Company write stating " That tho board of that 

 company are niiviaod that the lamp known as tho Swan incandescent 

 lamp is an infringement of tho Edison patents." Tho solicitors of 

 the Swan Com[>any, rejoining, state that " they are advised that the 

 Swan incandescent lamp is not an infringement of tho Edison or 

 any other |>atcnt. 1'he .Swan lump liiix been before the pulilic un- 

 challenged for a considerable time, \,'^'X)o( tho lamps having been 

 nightly in n"! f'/r h -v.r:!! in.;'!,^ |,;i,i .it tho Savoy Theatre alone." 

 A' li this the beginning of a sham 



h^' the two companies ? " It is 



t" tho public. We believe tho 



E'li^ . ,very of tho process for ox- 



I*llirii.- fr.rr. tl,- tihitr.'iit tin iK-.liidcd gases, but it is our impression 

 that ilr. .Swan can claim priority. 



JiAy::^-;^^ 



lr_t 



IttUva to ti)e eiittor, 



\Tlie KJilor JoftKotiold himtflfmpouMU/orlht opiiiioiii of hit rorretpoadenU. 

 lie cannot undertiike to return mttnutcriptu or to corrf/tponit leith thfir trritfra. Al 

 cnatmHniciitions thould be ae fhort aa pouaihle^ con»i»te»tlj/ vUh/nll and clear elaier 

 tufHtn of the vriter't meaninij.^ 



AUkditorial communicatione should be aitdretned to the Editor <j/' Knowlkdor ; 

 "■ 'eationt to the Puliliahete, at the OJice, 74, Oreat Queen. 



all Bnm 

 elrett, IT.C. 



All Itemittancet, Cheqm 

 3l,>srs. Weman If Son. 



Puhliahere, 

 and Fotl-Office Ordere ihould be made payable to 



_ All letter! to the Editor Kill be ]f umbered. For concenieno^ qf reference, 

 corrrepondente, lehen referrin(i to any letter, Mill oblige by mentioning itt number 

 and the page on which it appeure. 



' In Inowlcdgc, that ] 



-orso to accuTBcjr 

 stakes. Slid I will show tou a man who haa 



TUOUGUT KEADIKG AND TUOUHllT KULING. 



[■17r>] — In tho " Answers to Correspoiuieuts," you state, and 

 rightly, that the truth of tho facts asserted in my account of 

 Caseneuve's feats depends solely on my veracity and tho trust- 

 worthiness of my friend. With regard to the trustworthiness of my 

 friend, lot me say that wo were travelling together, and that it was 

 the day after our arrival at Athens that wo attended Casonouve's 

 ontertainnieut. 1 am not at liberty to publish my friend's name, 

 but I enclose it for tho Editor's information. 



With regard to the question of my veracity, I will content myself 

 with signing my name in full. HENUY MILTON. 



[I am much obliged to our corresijondont for thus adding weight 

 to his evidence, though for my own part I had accepted his account 

 with full conlidence. Like Dickens's, it tends to provo more than 

 thought reading — -it proves thought ruling. There are few more 

 interesting subjects of 6cientific inquiry than this iullueuce of miud 

 over mind.— K. X. riiocTOK.] 



RATIONAL DRESS. 



[476] — Tho kind and oncoiu-aging notice you gave of the 

 Rational Dross Society and of my pamphlet, leads mo to hopo that 

 you would allow me to place before your readers a sketch of the 

 plan of tho " Anti-Fashionablo Magazine " 1 am an.\iou8 to start. 

 In tho first place, a periodical is wanted to act as a corrective 

 against those pernicious fashion i)npers which, month by month, 

 incite our women to self -torture and slow suicide. Secondly, I wish 

 to show that fashion in dress is but part of a larger question, and 

 that is, tho sinister influence which fashion exercises over tho whole 

 of our home and social life. 



Wo women have been so prenched-to about the " wonitin's 

 B|jhere," that verily we liavo become sick of the subject ; but now 

 I am beginning to see what the sphere really is, and that it is a 

 beautiful one and a worthy one. Il means tho world of rest and of 

 jilcasuro, tho blossoming of life, tho outward expression of tlio 

 iiighest cultivation of tho age. Now, this sphere, not having true 

 principles from within to guide it, is ruled by arbitrary dictates 

 from without, called Fashion. To discover these principles, and 

 further to apply them practically to daily life, is a task of the very 

 greatest difficulty. As tho difficulties of sociology aro to those of 

 tho other sciences, so would tho difficulties of this Hclenco of 

 domestic life bo to sociology. If wo try to reform this small 

 portion of it— dress-— wo have to consult tho laws of health and the 

 laws of art — or, as I prefer to say, the laws of beauty— and at the 

 same time tho comfort, convenience, and several wants of the 

 various wearers. 



I havo been accused of being apparently totally wanting in 

 artistic feeling, " a person singularly devoid of art sense," snys 

 tho Queen. On tho contrary, I worshiji beauty ; it is a perpetual 

 grief to mo that all beauty of form is being lost to us. Hut Art has 

 hitherto been antagonistic to Naturo in dress. It has not considered 

 tho needs of the liody to be dressed, that it is a moving, working 

 animal to bo clothed, not a gracefully posed lay figure to be 

 "draped " for exhibition in a picture or a statue. And, as 1 have 

 before said, the taste of the day is too vicious and degraded for any 

 true ideas of beauty or grace to bo evolved from it. We must bo 



