after her, originally named Schamiramjerd. Here, in the delicious gardens which she had planted in the fertile plain contiguous to the city, and which she had watered with a thousand rills, she often sought refuge from the intolerable sultriness of a Mesopotamian summer, returning again, on the approach of winter, to her palace at Nineveh. Ambitious of rivaling her husband's conquests, as she had been of emulating his architectural achievements, she led a great army into India, after having made vast preparations in the way of soldiers, stores, warlike engines, and bridges, wherewith to cross the rivers; but one thing she had not, which she knew was abundantly possessed in the country whose martial power she was about to encounter, and that was, a supply of elephants. So, in lieu of the real animals, she set to work and had sham ones made. Three hundred thousand great black oxen were killed, and the skins being joined, were put over camels, and so stuffed as to look as big and burly as elephants. All this was cunningly done within an inclosure, so that nobody should see it who would be likely to divulge the imposition to the Indian king. Stabrobates, for such was his name, prepared to receive the terrible was more than mortal, for she was supposed to have sprung from a goddess, and to have been miraculously nourished in her infancy by a flock of doves. She had come to Nineveh, where she had smitten the heart of Menon; and now that his services were required against the Bactrians, he had brought his charming and | heroic wife along with him to the camp. There had been wondrous preparations made for reducing the capital of Bactria. Soldiers and chariots without end had been brought before it, but still the place held out against the invaders. Semiramis watched what was going on in the Assyrian army, and also detected certain points in the Bactrian fortifications which the soldiers had negligently left defenseless; and being a very brave and intrepid woman, she induced certain of the Assyrian troops to follow her up the sides of the rock on which the city stood, by which piece of strategy she managed to take possession of the citadel. When this be- | came known to King Ninus, he, of course, was curious to see so marvelous a woman, and she was accordingly introduced into his presence. As might have been anticipated, the monarch fell in love with this brave beauty; poor Menon hung himself in despair; and the monarch speedily married the widow. It was thus that Semi-heroine; he added to the number of his ramis became queen of Nineveh. Ninus died soon after his marriage with her, and left her the occupant of his throne. Semiramis was as ambitious as her royal husband; and, as he had built a very great city, she determined, in order not to be outdone, to build another; and hence, under her direction, rose the mighty Babylon. Many other magnificent works she likewise accomplished, and among the rest a road called Semiramis's way. She spent much time in visiting her dominions, and even traveled into Egypt, where she was told by the oracle in the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, that she would vanish from among men, and be honored and worshiped by some of the Asiatics, whenever her son Ninyas-whom she had borne to Ninus-should plot against her life. We learn from Armenian history, that the present town of Wan, in Armenia, which is built upon the plateau of a large precipitous rock on the borders of a beautiful lake, occupies the site of an ancient city, embracing a royal palace of great magnificence, founded by Semiramis, and, The elephants, and at the same time sent mes- her exit from the world in the form of a dove, and became afterward an object of worship to her people. This wonderful woman was succeeded by Ninyas, who turned out to be as slothful as his father and mother had been active and enterprising. He locked himself up in his palace, and spent his life in licentious pleasures, only securing his safety by a cunning plan of changing his officers and his army, who, when dismissed, were obliged to take an oath of fidelity. His successors were voluptuaries like him, and were thirty in number, of whose lives and exploits we know nothing, until we come to Sardanapalus, who was more luxurious and idle than any of his royal predecessors. He became so effeminate that, it is related, he dressed like a woman, painting his face and imitating a female voice. Belesis, a priest, and a proficient in the astrological science of the time, assured Arbaces, a brave but disaffected warrior, that he was destined to dethrone the monarch and to take his place. The ambitious satrap listened to the gratifying suggestion, and prepared for the fulfilment of the prophecy. He stirred up the Medes and Persians to revolt, and Belesis favored his designs by pursuing a like course with the Babylonians. So a great rebellion was fomented; when, strange to say, the indolent and sensual prince manifested all at once the most manly courage, and resolutely took the field against his enemies, and beat them in three several engagements. Belesis, however, encouraged them to persevere, and Arbaces prevailed upon the Bactrians to join in the revolt. These people, whom Semiramis had conquered, and whose proud spirits felt that that they had centuries of wrongs to avenge, now attacked her last successor, besieging the gates of the city of Sardanapalus. The situation of the monarch, thus environed by determined foes, became desperate; but still he hoped, because he trusted to an old prediction which said that Nineveh could not be taken until the river became her enemy. "The siege continued two years," says Diodorus, following Ctesias; "in the third year it happened that the river, overflowing with continual rains, came up to a part of the city and tore down the wall twenty furlongs in length. The king hereupon con ceiving that the oracle was accomplished, in that the river was an apparent enemy to the city, utterly despaired; and, therefore, that he might not fall into the hands of his enemies, he caused a huge pile of wood to be reared in his palace court, upon which he heaped together all his gold, silver, and royal apparel, and inclos ing his eunuchs and his concubines in an apartment within the pile, then ordered it to be set on fire, and so burnt himself and them together; which, when the revolters came to understand, they entered through the breach in the walls and took the city, and clothed Arbaces with a royal robe, and committed to him the sole authority, proclaiming him king." Athenæus, who perhaps still more fully gives Ctesias's tradition of the fall of Nineveh, tells us that he erected a pile within his palace, on which he placed one hundred and fifty golden beds and as many golden tables; that in the midst of it he built a hall of a hundred feet, in which he had couches for himself, his wives, and his concubines; that it was all fenced round with timber, so as to be unapproachable; that within it were collected four thousand myriad talents of gold and ten thousand of silver, besides an immense quantity of furniture and apparel; that the pile, when the king had ordered it to be set on fire, burned for fifteen days, and was supposed to be the offering of a holocaust to the gods, so that the people generally were not aware at the time of the self-immolation of the monarch.' Such, then, is the story of Nineveh, according to those who appear to have de pended on the authority of Ctesias; and we have here, no doubt, the traditions that prevailed among the Persians. IL LEAVING these realms of uncertain story, we proceed to state a few general facts, now tolerably well ascertained, in reference to Assyria and Nineveh. According to the fragments of Ctesias, preserved by Diodorus Siculus, there were thirty-three kings from the accession of Ninus to the fall of the empire, and their reigns occupied 1306 years, terminating in 876 before Christ. The statement of Herodotus is, that after the Assyrians had ruled over Upper Asia 520 years, the Medes first began to revolt from theman event which took place about 710 B.C. The difference between the two spaces of time here mentioned is very great; and if Herodotus be supposed to refer to the first origin of the Assyrian power, and if his testimony is to be deemed conclusive, then the chronology of Ctesias must be utterly set at naught, and the great antiquity so often claimed for Assyria and Nineveh must be entirely given up. But it has been well observed, that the words of Herodotus by no means need to be regarded in reference to the commencement of the Assyrian dominion, but only to its extension over other parts of Asia. If so, the discrepancy between him and Ctesias would be diminished, and his authority would not be opposed to a much earlier date for the founding of the original power than for the sweep of the subsequent empire. At any rate, Herodotus does not disprove the remote antiquity of the Assyrian state; and, on the other hand, we have very strong proofs in favor of that antiquity, so far confirming the account by Ctesias. Intrinsically, there is nothing improbable in the idea. Why might not a martial tribe plant themselves by the waters of the Tigris, in the very infancy of our world, after recovering from the desolation of the flood? It seems a very likely thing-quite in harmony with the little we know of those times-that a brave and enterprising band of people, so situated, should grow into a strong kingdom, and stretch out the line of their conquests far and wide. position at the commencement of a line, where it may be only the termination of some other name, yet the coincidence is remarkable, and, as it stands at present, is not without its historic value. By the best of all authorities, a very high antiquity is assigned to the commencement of the Assyrian nation. “Out of that land (Shinar) went forth Asshur and builded Nineveh." Josephus, also, says of Amraphel, king of Shinar, mentioned in the fourteenth chapter of Genesis, that he was a commander in the Assyrian army, probably a satrap, or viceroy, which, if it were so, would be in harmony with the subsequent boast of Assyria, "Are not my princes altogether kings?" Certainly, as early as the fifteenth century before Christ, we find Balaam referring to the power of the Assyrians. Dr. Layard, after the laborious investigations which led to the production of his first work, expressed himself as decidedly of opinion, from an examination of the ruins of Nimroud, that the oldest of the palaces on that spot was built at least 1200 B. C., and is probably much more ancient. In his second work he refers to inscriptions giving the name of a king who reigned 1121 B. C. At that time, it is pretty clear that Nineveh had attained to great power-that it was not then an infant state just struggling for existence, but one that was founding for itself a mighty empire. Consequently, it must have been in existence long before; growing up by degrees into magnitude and palmy splendor. At the time, then, when the Philistines were at war with Israel—when Samson was performing his miraculous exploits, slaying his enemies with the jawbone of an ass, and carrying away on his shoulders the gates of Gaza Of the great antiquity of Egypt there can be no doubt; yet from "the earliest period we find her contending with enemies nearly, if not fully, as powerful as herself; and among the spoils from Asia, and the articles of tribute brought by subdued nations from the north-east, are vases as elegant in shape, stuffs as rich in tex-long ere the kingly line was established ture, and chariots as well adapted to war, as her own." In fact, to reject the notion of the existence of an independent kingdom in Assyria at the very earliest period, would be almost to question whether the country were inhabited; which would be directly in opposition to the united testimony of Scripture and tradition. Moreover, upon the celebrated tablet which stands at Karnak, a name has been deciphered by Champollion as Neu-i-iu, or Nineveh. Though the identification of it with the Assyrian city has not been deemed quite satisfactory, owing to its in Judah, and the royal and sacred city of Jerusalem began to crown the rock of Jebus-long ere the people witnessed the victories of David and the magnificence of Solomon-at that time assigned as the era of the Trojan war-when Athens was scarcely known-when for Rome there remained five hundred years ere its first stone should be laid-a gorgeous city, with marble palaces and monuments, was washed at its foot by the waters of the Tigris, and the inhabitants could talk of their fathers having dwelt there in what were then times of old. [For the National Magazine.] THE OUTCAST. BY ALICE CARY. NATURDAY night has come, and the down the snowy hills of Clovernook, and where they lately shone the darkness is falling and unfolding very fast. The chickens are gone to roost among the cold, comfortless boughs of the trees nearest the barn; the cows are milked, and in most places the work - horses, feeding in the stable, have had an extra currying, preparatory to Sunday morning, when they are Another important point in Assyrian history appears now to be settled, and that is, a double kingdom or dynasty and a two-fold overthrow. The discrepancy between Ctesias, who places the fall of Nineveh in the year 876, and Herodotus, who dates it 606, was felt by Patavius and Usher, who sought its removal by adopting the hypothesis that there were two empires, and two overthrows in succession. This has been pronounced an assumption without evidence, and indeed, so far as written books are concerned, there is no distinct and explicit proof to that effect; but Dr. Layard has discovered it in the character of the ruins he has brought to light. He states, that the re-expected to walk soberly and straightly to mains of buildings are so different in their sculptures and mythological and sacred symbols, as well as in the character and language of the inscriptions, as to lead to the inference of there having been at least two distinct periods of Assyrian history; that the people inhabiting the country at these periods were of distinct races, or belonging to varieties of the same race, and that intercourse with the Egyptians had considerably changed them; that the earlier palaces of Nimroud were in ruins before the foundation of the later ones; that these later edifices were constructed out of the ruins of their predecessors; and that while the more ancient structures discover no signs of any conflagration, the more recent have evidently been destroyed by fire. the village church, drawing after them, in the newly-washed and tar-smelling wagon, father and mother, and all the children, from the eldest son-as proud of his darkening beard, and "boughten" coat and hat, as he will be in years to come of more stylish appareling or senatorial honors; and the little girl on her mother's knee, more pleased with the brass buttons on her father's coat, and her own red shoes, than she will be, perhaps, with her point lace and shining brocade, when a few years hence she shall dance at the president's ball. Another week has gone; great, in its little events, to the unambitious people who are now done with its hopes and fears, its working and planning—with their tending of sick beds, and making of wedding gowns-as great to them as the largest experience to the largest mind; and who knows but that in the final summing up of good and evil, the highest glory will be set down to the account of those who have thought always of the pride and place of this world as the child does of the marvels of the fairy story; for what, after all, can be got out of this life but usefulness? With all our racking of the soul, we cannot solve the problem of foreordination and free will, of good and evil, of life and death. I am not sure that they are not wisest, as well as best, who are It deserves also to be mentioned, that tombs were found over the earlier edifices, showing that soil had accumulated there, so as to become receptacles for the dead; the contents, too, of the sepulchres revealing relics of art quite distinct from those in the Assyrian style. The only evidences of a former overthrow likely to exist, if such an overthrow took place, are thus afforded, for we scarcely expect to find among the inscriptions of a proud people, like the Ninevites, any express record of their own humiliating defeat and desolation. Having thus prepared the way for it,"contented if they may enjoy the things we shall, in our next number, present, from the results of the labors of Layard, Rawlinson, and others, compared with the remains of ancient history, what has been at present pretty satisfactorily ascertained as an authentic summary of Assyrian history. which others understand" in part, and let alone the mysteries which all effort to unfold but folds anew. It was about the middle of February, and along the northern slopes of the hills, at the roots of big trees, and close in the shadow of the fences, lay parts of the much as any one, when that he slouched his hat lower and turned thought intro skeleton of the great white winter snow. For all their searching, the sheep had not found a single patch of green grass as yet,spective, where he was going, and what and the mother cow had brought home to the stable her young calf, without waiting to be invited, so sharply went the winds along woods and meadows. The smoke issued briskly from chimney-tops, and the heaps of dry wood near the doors, and the lights shining pleasantly out along the frozen ground, told of quiet and comfort within. Here and there an ax was busy at the woodpile, or a lantern shone over the dry sunflower stocks by the garden fence, as some less orderly farmer than the rest went from house to barn, for the doing of some little chore forgotten or neglected. Mostly, however, it was quiet, and cold, and dark, except at one or two windows of the house, and the snow and frozen earth ground together powdered the lonesome road before the late travelers. Of these there was, probably, on the night I write of, not more than one to be seen; if there were others, it is with one only my story has to do. If you had seen him you would not have noticed him much, I suppose; they who saw him did not; and yet he seemed very tired, and he bent under the bundle hung across his shoulder, as if he had trudged a long way; for this bundle was not large, and it could not have been the weight of it that so crooked his shoulders. You would have thought him old, doubtless, for his face was browned and careworn, and an old slouched hat and tangly hair and beard gave him the air of years. You would probably have said, if you had chanced to look out of your own room and observed him shuffling his tired way through the gray chilly moonlight, "There goes a man with a sack on his back; I wonder if he knows where he is going and what after?" for so we see our fellows, brothers and friends in the great circle of humanity, going burdened and bent, past our warm hearths every day, and to us they are only as men with sacks on their backs. Once or twice he stopped where the lights shone brightest, as if he would go in; but having cut the air with his disengaged hand, as if he were done with some vagary, he went on, his heavy feet leaving a trail in the snow and dust, crooked as if he were purposeless. And so, alas, he was, and wondered, as for. Ah, that was the worst of it! footsore and burdened as he was, he had no object, not even a shapeless outline for his future. He might be going into the lap of the best fortune in the world: such things have been done, so he has heard, and he smiles at the bright suggestion; but reduce it to a where, and when, and how-the possibility loses all probability; it is not at all likely any good luck will happen to him; everybody says he deserves no better fate than he has, and he supposes he does not. He had an object once, which was to get away from everybody that knew him— from his mother who sometimes cried and sometimes scolded about him, from his father who said he was going down hill as fast as he could, and the sooner he got to the bottom the better for his family and himself too; and from the black eyes that looked proudly and scornfully upon him the last time he dared look up into their sin-searching and sin-hating brightness. This last humiliation, more perhaps than anything else, made him rise in the middle of the night, some weeks ago, bundle together a few necessary effects, and steal like a thief away from the house where he was born-unblest of his mother, and with no God-speed you, from his honest old father. But back of the scorn of the black eyes, the complaining of the mother, and the sentence of the father, there are intemperance, and idleness, and profligacy, that brought all about; why these should have been he don't know, he did not mean to be a bad son nor an untrue lover; he don't say he was; he don't really think he was; but he knows other folks say so, and so, trying to be indifferent to what men and women think of him, to all the past and all the future, he changes the load on his shoulder, and trudges on. About half a mile down a narrow lane, that turns out from the main road, he sees a house, small and apparently rude, but with light shining so brightly and cheerfully through all the windows, he is almost persuaded to turn that way; he don't know why nor what for, only it seems for a moment that he has got home. The watch dog sees him from his post at the gate, and sends him forward with a suspicious and unfriendly growl. He fancies he hears a song in the illuminated cottage, |