222 W. Theobald — Notes on some of the symbols found on the [No. 3, 
line 7, refer evidently to one and the same subject, which though not ex- 
plained by the author is sufficiently clear to any one familiar with the 
Ganges, to leave no doubt of the incident it is intended to convoy. The 
rainy season in Bengal we may suppose to be at its height, the midday 
sun pouring down its intense rays, (‘ raining fire ’ as the natives say) 
tempered only by frequent clouds drifting overhead before the set of the 
Monsoon current. Nature is in her lustiest mood. The social Bayas 
( Ploeeus) weaving their pensile nests from some ‘ kujur ’ palm on the edge 
of the cultivated laud afford an illustration of what is everywhere going 
on in every grove, brake, or swamp, where the feathered tribes are busy 
in attending to the wants of their young, or in preparations for their 
anticipated arrival. Standing on the banks of the sacred Ganges now 
iu full flood, the traveller can but dimly discern the opposite shoi-e 
across a broad expanse of turbid and seething waters, swirling onwai'ds 
to the sea. Against this powerful stream, that prince of Indian fish, 
the ‘ hilsa’ {Olupea ilisha, B. H.) is now striving to win its way from the 
sea to the spawning ground in the upper reaches of the river and one of 
the perils that besot its path, is the incident depicted on the coin. Sud- 
denly, at our foot almost, as we gaze down on the river from some lofty 
bank, against which the main stream of the river is setting, a long snout, 
at once seen to be that of a ‘ Oharial ’ or the fish-eating long-nosed 
Crocodile of the Ganges is protruded above the waves, and in the grip 
of its jaws a fine ‘ hilsa ’ is seen held well clear of the water. The 
‘ hilsa ’ is seized and held much as a pike is said to seize its prey, that 
is transversely and after a bite or two is swallowed and the snout of the 
monster disappears as noiselessly as it rose. A living tomb has closed 
on its victim and another scene in the kaleidoscopic tragedy of nature 
has been enacted before our eyes. The salutary thought “ omnes 
eodem cogimur ” was probably not lost on the earlier settlers in the 
Ganges valley and may have led to so pregnant an example of the un- 
certainty of life, a doctriue equally cherished by Christiau and Buddhist 
alike, being perpetuated for its moral on these early coins. 
47. A PYTHON OB KOCK-SNAKB INCUBATING HER EGGS. Fig. 29. 
If I am correct in my interpretation of this symbol, it proves that 
long before our era the observant Hindu or Buddhist, had noticed the 
remarkable peculiarity of the Python incubating her eggs, which till 
recent years naturalists were wont to regard with incredulity, till the 
fact was established beyond cavil by the animal in the Zoological 
Gardens in London. The design on the coin has every appearance of 
being intended for a snake, folded round on itself, and the peculiar shape 
of the head suggests the python being the snake intended. Within 
