HAWKING IN THE EAST.

quar-ter [L. quartus, the fourth], a portion of the earth's surface, any particular region or district of a city or country, the fourth part. re-lates [L. relatus, brought back, from re, back; fero, to bring], tells, narrates. as-sail-ant [L. assilio, from ad, to; salio, to leap], one who makes an attack on another.

To what country or people the world is indebted for the invention of this renowned pastime, it is impossible to tell; but there can be little doubt that, if not the very first, the eastern quarter of the world was about the earliest to cherish the hawk for its special attributes. Marco Polo, who was sent by Pope Gregory X., in 1272, on an embassy to Kublai Khan, the emperor of Chinese Tartary at that time, relates that he found hawking to be a fashionable sport in the eastern monarch's vast empire, and describes with great particularity his celestial majesty's retinue of falconers, and his large establishment of falcons, pigeons, pheasants, and other birds used in the sport.

Bishop Stanley, writing on this subject, says, "About two thousand years ago, ancient writers speak of hawking as a common sport. People used to go out into the marshy grounds, and beat among the reeds and bushes for small birds which harboured there; and, as they flew away, hawks were let loose in pursuit, and when the game fell to the ground, either through fright or struck by the hawks, the men ran up and secured them. In China, it is a favourite sport with some of the mandarins to hawk for butterflies and other large insects, with birds trained for that particular pastime.

The agile, graceful gazelle is found in great numbers in Persia and Central Asia, and, in these countries, it is frequently hunted and caught by the aid of falcons; as, on account of its great speed, it is by no means an easy matter to run it down with dogs.

The falcons are trained for the sport by being accustomed to take their food from the head of a figure of a gazelle prepared for this purpose. When in the field, two birds are thrown up in the air by the falconer, as soon as he catches sight of a gazelle feeding quietly in the distance. The birds instantly make towards the unsuspecting animal, and the one that is the first to reach it, swoops suddenly down on the head of the gazelle, fixing its claws in the startled creature's nose, and beating it about the eyes with its wings. The gazelle struggles to extricate itself from the clutches of its assailant's claws; but as soon as it is shaken off, the attack is renewed by the second bird, which has been circling round the combatants, waiting its opportunity. And thus the contest goes on, each falcon settling on the gazelle's nose in turn, and, beating it about the head with its wings, effectually preventing it from running until the hunters have had time to reach the scene of action, when the quarry is soon pulled down by dogs, and secured.

The Arabians used to employ the falcon to hunt the goats, and a very good description of how this sport was managed is given by a very quaint and interesting writer, Hasselquist. He says, "I had an excellent opportunity of seeing this sport near Nazareth, in Galilee. An Arab mounted a swift courser, and held the falcon in his hand, as huntsmen commonly

do. When he espied the rock-goat on the top of a mountain, he let loose the falcon, which flew in a direct line, like an arrow, and attacked the animal, fixing the talons of one of his feet into the cheek of the creature, and the talons of the other into its throat; extending his wings obliquely over the animal, spreading one towards one of its ears, and the other to the opposite hip. The animal attacked made a leap twice the height of a man, and freed himself from the falcon; but being wounded, and losing its strength and speed, it was again attacked by the falcon, which fixed the talons of both its feet into the throat of the animal, and held it fast, till the huntsman, coming up, took it alive and cut its throat, the falcon drinking up the blood as a reward for its labour."

Among the Persians, the falcon largely figures in their poetry and romances. One of these stories, related in "My Feathered Friends," has such an exquisite moral attached to it that I shall extract it for the delectation of my readers :

"Once upon a time," runs the legend, "a king of Persia went out hawking, carrying his favourite falcon on his wrist. A deer started up, and the king let fly his bird, which pursued the deer, and finally brought it to the ground. The king, being eager in the chase, outstripped his attendants and courtiers, and at the death of the deer found himself alone.

"He took the falcon again upon his wrist, and, remounting his horse, began to search for water, for the chase had been a very severe one, and he was exceedingly heated and thirsty. At last he discovered, at the foot of a mountain, a stream of water that came trickling down among the rocks. So he took out of his quiver a little cup, and with some trouble filled it at the spring, for the water dropped very slowly. By patiently waiting, however, he filled the cup, and raised it to his lips. Just as his hand was raising the cup, the hawk clapped his wings and upset the contents.

The king was vexed at the interruption, but, thinking it an accident, he again applied the cup to the gently trickling stream, and again raised it to his lips. A second time the falcon shook his pinions, and threw the water out of

the cup. The king was so angry with the bird that he dashed it to the ground in his anger, and killed it on the spot in his rage.

"Just then one of his attendants came up, and the king, giving him the cup, desired him to wipe it clean, and to bring him some of the water. But he was so very thirsty that he had not patience to wait for the filling of the cup, drop by drop, and, consequently, he directed the servant to climb up the rocks, and fill it at the spring itself.

"The servant obeyed his master, and when he had reached the top of the rock he discovered there a crystal spring, at which he filled the cup. But a little lower down he caught sight of a huge serpent, lying dead, with its head resting in the course of the stream, and polluting the water with the poisonous foam that issued from its jaws.

"He presented the cup, and told his master of his discovery. The king was much affected by the thought that he had, in his blind rage, destroyed the faithful bird who had endeavoured to save his master from ill, even at the risk, and finally at the cost of his own life."

EXERCISE.-63. PARSING, ETC.

1. Analyse and parse the last paragraph in the above lesson. 2. Write out all the proper names in the lesson.

3. Enumerate the adverbs in the third paragraph, commencing, "The falcons are trained;" and point out the words that are qualified by them. 4. What is the difference between a proper noun and a common noun ? Give examples of each.

5. Parse the following sentences:-(a). Once upon a time, a king of Persia went out hawking. (b). The king was so angry with the bird that he dashed it to the ground in his anger.

THE EARTH'S CRUST.

sci-ence [L. scio, to know], certain knowledge, the knowledge of many digested and arranged so as to be readily attained by any inquirer. sur-face [L. superficies, from super, above; facio, to make], the exterior or outside of anything. im-mense [L. immensus, from in, negative; metior, to measure], very large, vast in extent.

SCIENCE has taught us that our earth, which appears to be merely a vast flat surface, is in reality an immense

globe. What the centre of this great globe is we do not know, and probably shall never discover. But what the outer surface or crust consists of, and how its varieties have been formed, we learn from geology.

It is not possible to drill a tunnel right through the earth, but we can and do dig a considerable way down into its crust; and by so doing, in a great number of spots distant from each other, we learn the general characteristics of the world's formation.

Suppose, however, it were really practicable to excavate a tunnel right through the globe, and that such a gigantic work were undertaken, the first thing done would be to make borings, in order to discover the kind of materials that would be met with in the course of the work. The borer would put his iron tubes into the earth, and down he would pierce through sand, gravel, clay, stone, coal, for, say, five or six miles; then he would probably come to a soft or molten mass of matter, and through that for upwards of 7000 miles, until crunch, crunch, would the iron go again, as it encountered the hard substances near the surface on the other side; and then after more labour for a few miles, daylight would be let in from the opposite side of the globe, and the tube completed. The result of such an operation would be to show us that we live upon an enormous shell of rock, a few miles in thickness, and that within this shell, or crust, we have good reason to suppose is one mass of soft, seething, bubbling matter, several thousands of miles in diameter.

Whatever substances are found composing the crust of the earth are by geologists called rocks.

It has been found that the variety of appearance which the earth's surface presents is due very much to the character and formation of the rocks which lie beneath.

Various and gigantic changes are also found to be constantly taking place on the earth's surface, by the silent action of the powers of nature. Thus the streams, the rains, and the snows are constantly wearing away the rocks into sand, which being carried along by the rivers and distributed upon their banks and at their mouths, forms, in the course of time, new land. This soil, after the lapse of ages,